NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS? WHY WAIT?

START NOW!

This will be a follow-up to an earlier post. from December 29, 2023, entitled “FORGET ABOUT NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS”.

Maybe I’ve softened my attitude about resolutions based on one time of the year. After all, December 31, 2024 may be an evening of excess and the timing may be appropriate.

But if we are serious about fitness, weight loss, eliminating bad habits, or any other worhwhile pursuit, why not begin now? We can roll into 2025 with momentum.

Ohio State University gives us the facts.

• Only 9% of Americans who make such resolutions actually complete them
• 23% quit their resolutions after the first week
• 43% quit before the end of January

Borrowing from Ohio State University, here are 4 reasons why there is such failure and what we may do about it:

• Goals should start at a time or need for change. Tradition is irrelevant. Our goals should be our visions of our future selves. We are motivated when we see a need, not at an arbitrary date.
• Anticipate obstacles. It will not be smooth sailing. What if we want to stop smoking? Many can’t handle the setbacks.
• Set goals in small chunks. We can continually maintain our momentum if we are able to enjoy small victories.
• Accountability. If we write down our goals and hold ourselves accountable, we are twice as likely to achieve them. Much more about this later.

BUILDING HABITS

In my opinion, building good habits is the secret to success in any worthwhile endeavor. Good habits can even override a lapse of motivation. They become automatic after we ingrain them. They are powerful! Unfortunately, bad habits are just as powerful.

CNN Health gives us 5 steps to use in building good habits:

• Set a specific goal. “I will try to lose weight sometime this year” is not a useful goal. “I will meditate for 15 minutes daily” is specific. Big difference.
• Create a detailed, cue-based plan. “I’ll study Spanish for 30 minutes, 5 days each week” is okay. But “Every workday after my last meeting, I will study Spanish for 30 minutes in my office” is better.
• Make it fun to repeat. We will persist if we choose an exercise or sport that we enjoy. For example, I played tennis for several decades and never thought of it as exercise. It was fun to work on my strokes and win matches (or even lose to a better player).
• Be flexible. It is important to set up some variability into our excercise routines. Monotony may be an issue. So may changing circumstances. I enjoy my treadmill routines, but they can become boring. I like to change the music I play. I also like to place my treadmill in front of a window to be able to enjoy scenery.
• Find the right kind of social support. It’s important to share motivation and inspiration with others in groups or partnerships. But only with those who have positive outlooks.

See my prior post on the psychology of habit formation.

The importance of habit formation is hard to underestimate. It’s much more critical than a year’s resolutions, even if we complete the resolutions.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Completing a resolution or goal depends largely on our tracking of our progress – or lack thereof. We wouldn’t spend money without checking our account balances – or make guesses about our weight or blood pressure. Tracking our progress is important for these reasons:

• We can assess our progress and recognize where we need improvement
• It is motivating to see positive progress

Personally, I like to make daily entries on my computer – my weight to the tenth of a pound, my blood pressure and pulse, my workout sets or cardio minutes and my calories consumed per each meal. This is easy to do since I work out at home.

Here are some other tracking methods:

• Specific journals
• Scales
• Smart watches

SIMPLE WORKOUT ROUTINES

Experienced athletes or fitness advocates will know what works for them and will be able to easily construct or reconstruct a fitness plan, even if they have been dormant.

But those who don’t exercise at all will usually be tentative and in need of instruction. It makes sense to begin with simple routines and then build from there.

Here is a very simple routine that I found on Facebook. It takes about 5 minutes to complete and it addresses our core muscles. We must sit in a straight back chair and think in terms of 21 reps and 21 days. Here it is:

• Raise your hands above your choulders and count to 21 as you sit. I was surprised to find that simply raising my hands while sitting works my core.
• With hands still raised, raise each knee separately to your midsection for 21 total reps.
• With hands raised, bend at the waist and then return to the sitting position for 21 reps
• With hands gripping the side of the chair, raise your feet for 21 reps in a pulsing manner.

That’s it!

Here is a 10 minute workout for beginners. No equipment.

Here is a 20 minute workout. No equipment.

Here is a 10 minute workout with loop resistance bands

AMAZON

I enjoy working with Amazon as a consumer and as an affiliate marketer. Take a look at my upper menu – BECOME AN AFFILIATE MARKETER – for information on this.

I use Amazon links to relevant items in my articles and may benefit from activity on the links. Each link will show descriptions, pictures, prices and suggestions for other similar options.

Fitness journal – for men or women

Fitness and food journal – best seller on Amazon

Medical planner – keep medical records in one place

Body composition scales – track body metrics

FitBit Inspire 3 fitness watch

Military fitness smart watch for men

Loop resistance bands – less than $10

Resistance bands with handles – get a full body workout with a choice of resistances

FINAL THOUGHTS

Today’s post contains goal – reaching advice in simple terms, as well as pertinent equipment at low prices.
Any exercise is better than none.

Also, brief fitness routines usually become longer and more beneficial with time. The important thing is to get started. Be aware – a 30 minute daily fitness routine represents only 2% of a full 24 hour day. We have 98% for everything else.

Above all, please don’t be one of these (below).

Please leave me any comments or questions in the “Comments” section below.

Let’s enter 2025 with momentum!