Please note that I do not call them "resolutions,' even though that is what they are. Perhaps it is because I associate New Year's resolutions" with words like "abandoned" or "failed."
One of my goals for 2014 is simply to exercise more. I'm no one's gym rat, and my exercise regime has, so far, been confined to walks in the park, and extremely sporadic work with free weights. Hardly an Olympic champion's daily routine, and not even a proper maintenance regimen for a normal human being.
So my goal for this year is to, no pun intended, step up my game. I'm eschewing goals like walking every three days, or five times a week. Those are for later. For now, I'm aiming at simply exercising more this month than I did last month. Since last month's total was exactly three, and I'm already at two this month, I have to like my chances.
Helping me will be some nice little high-tech tools, I do not run, but I have a Nike+ app that tracks my indoor and outdoor walks, even though it insists on calling them 'runs.' It's been a vaulable tool to document my exercises, and it's only gotten better since I first downloaded it.
Another new tool is access to a new treadmill. In an invaluable bit of timing, my father's old treadmill broke down just as I was eyeing using it again. It was replaced by a new, whisper-quiet treadmill, that now sits next to the inversion table I use to treat my back. I call it "Dad's Gym," in a nod to the Gold's Gym franchise. All we need now is a weight table, and we can start charging admission.
I've always tended to reconsider my fitness level (or lack thereof) after Olympiads, so I'm pleased that I'm starting this newest push before the Sochi Games. Getting ahead of it for a change, unprompted by (justifiably) moving stories of dedicated athletes, or even by Nike ads.
This is the easy part. I'm enjoying my workouts, and getting famillar with a new treadmill. It's easy to keep coming back to new things. It's when the newness wears off that it fades into the background. In the case of exercise, it's when you find reasons not to work out, and eventually, forget to entirely. It's when resolutions fail.
So here's to the hard part. This year, I am going to try to ignore that voice that says "I don't have time for that," or "I don't feel like it." I'm going to try to put the work in. And I'm saying so publically.
It would be nice if I ended this year with a couple inches off my waist, and 20 pounds off my frame. But I'd be happier if I was able to turn exercise from an occassional thing into a full-blown habit. I'd just like to say I put the work in, and take whatever results came from that. It feels easy enough now, when I'm enthusiastic about it. I promise to check back in three months, and tell you how it's going.
Wish me luck.
