The Christmas celebrations are over, the big sale shopping day after Christmas is in full swing, and next up is New Year’s celebrations. I could never quite understand the big sale after Christmas thing where people buy gifts for Christmas 2020 because of a great low price. I am one of those individuals where the week before is almost early shopping for gifts. Buying one entire year early and finding someplace to store them — and remembering where you hid them — is a real challenge.
The one thing that always appears the last week of the year is making New Year’s resolutions. There are articles in newspapers, magazines, on television, in the comic strips, and idle conversations where people ask each other what they made for resolutions for this year. Some people take the idea of starting the New Year with a fresh outlook as a reason for making New Year’s resolutions. A large majority of people make resolutions that will be forgotten in two weeks. But, there is always a chance that maybe this year will be different and the changes mentioned in the resolution will make the coming year a better one.
Reports mention that the majority of resolutions are health related. These include things such as stopping smoking, easing up on alcohol consumption, going to the gym for a workout, losing weight, and running a marathon this year. Resolutions like this are very beneficial and go a long way toward a healthy year. The major problem is that many of the “bad habits,” such as smoking, are addictions and very difficult to change. Even changing from a sedentary lifestyle to a more active lifestyle, like going to the gym, or running every day, is a lot harder than it sounds. A good example of changing lifestyle from sedentary to active is when a person buys a piece of exercise equipment for Christmas and thinks that this is the best way to become active. The stationary bike, or weight set, or treadmill, is right there in plain sight every day for you to use. How successful this method is for changing to an active lifestyle is best demonstrated by spring garage sales. You can now buy that piece of exercise equipment at a rock bottom price. I have even been given an abdominal exercise apparatus for free if I will just take it away. I have an Olympic weight set of over 300 pounds, an exercise bench, dumbbells, and racks for weights for around $40. The New Year’s resolutions for many individuals turn into “White Elephants” taking up space and reminding that person that they need to use the equipment. The guilt of seeing, and not using, the equipment is best served as a garage sale item.
