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Realistic Resolutions to Get Fit

Posted on Jan 6th 2010 11:00AM by Karla Carrington

Filed Under: The Good, The Fat and The Hungry, Motivation

New year, new you! Yeah, whatever. Everywhere you turn this month, that slogan will be right there to remind us of all the things we hope to change by resolving to do A, B and C differently in the New Year.

Being at home with pneumonia and my remote on New Year's Eve gave me my fill of slogans, weight loss ads and endless "new year, new you!" discounted gym memberships. I am up to my throat with the newness. I can't deny that, yes, it is in fact a new year. What's old are the resolutions I make every year this time only to fall by the wayside before my W-2 comes in the mail. Not this year.

Last year's resolution was not to make any that I wouldn't keep, so I made one -- improve my credit. It wasn't the most exciting resolution to make, but I kept it. Thanks to an incredible book by Glenda Bridgforth, "Girl Get Your Credit Straight," I improved my credit by almost 100 points in 10 months. Now my credit is the bomb and I can sign and buy. All in all, I'm ecstatic to finally keep a promise I made to myself.

That was the first non-fitness related resolution I've ever made. And although it felt good to focus on something else for a change, the pounds I've picked up require me to direct my attention back to my waistline. As I lay on my sofa in a codeine cough syrup induced haze, I resolved not to obsess over the few pounds, but seriously endeavor to get rid of the excess by the end of the first quarter.

Once again, I've set reasonable expectations to do all I can to right the wrong of about 10 pounds. This is in no way to discourage others' big resolutions -- resolve big! Resolve away! The first of the year is an excellent time for a fresh start. Setting goals that are attainable are my way of avoiding the yo-yo disappointment that failed weight loss attempts seem to breed. However, the goals are no good if I don't stretch myself in some way and aim to do better than I ever have. I can keep it real with others all I want, but it's no good if I can't be real with me first. Ten pounds in three months is reasonable. Toning up and seeking more muscle definition, again, reasonable. I have no doubt that I will make it sooner, but who could be mad at reaching a goal early?

I'll end this post with one of my sister Janice's two jokes (hey, she's a doctor, she couldn't be smart and funny) which pretty much sum up my resolution for 2010: A convicted killer came before the judge to be sentenced for his numerous crimes. The judge looked down from the bench and went on and on about the violent crimes of the killer. At the end of his tirade, he announced a staggering sentence of 200 years. The killer looked up at the judge and pleaded loudly, but your honor, I can't do 200 years! The judge looked down at the man and said, don't worry about that son, just do what you can do.

In 2010, my plan is to do all that I can do.

1 Comment

Tags: motivation, new years, resolution, the-good-the-fat

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

u262f 1-07-2010 @ 2:02AM

Nice words, but fundamentally, you can't change your weight so directly either, and I think people fail because that's what they set out to do. From my experience, saying that you want to lose 10 pounds by next year is as silly as a child setting a goal to be 8 feet tall by the time they reach 21. It's the wrong goal. Maybe they want to be taller so they won't get beaten up, but by itself, tall or short, height is no guarantee of whether people will get beaten up or not.

Likewise, people usually want to lose weight in order to be healthier. However, the correlation between health and weight is like the correlation between height and getting beaten up. Sure, overall, taller people happen to often get beaten up less, but a short person can take martial arts or walk around with more confidence and achieve the same effect. Taking martial arts is something you can do, but growing taller isn't. Drinking milk to try to grow taller is also something you can do, and that might help, but milk or no, I think most people would agree that having a goal to grow an inch that year is just plain silly.

In the end, health is about habits, not about overall size. We tell boys all the time that size doesn't matter; it's how you use it and what you do with it. The same applies to our bodies and our weight. If we exercise and eat right, we'll be healthier, even if our weight doesn't change at all. We can't promise ourselves to grow an inch in height, but we can promise ourselves that we'll drink our milk. Similarly, we can't promise ourselves to lose a pound in weight, but we can promise ourselves that we will make time to exercise X minutes per day or Y hours per week. We can promise ourselves to eat our vegetables first and prepare our food ourselves N times per week instead of always letting restaurants stuff us with salt and fat and unnecessary calories. We can promise to pay better attention to what goes into our mouths, and we can promise ourselves to not eat a full helping of dessert when we know we're full, no matter how good it looks.