If I see ONE more thing akin to, “X-Day Challenge: Lose Weight This New Year” I’m pretty sure that I will scream so loud the men in white suits will come haul me away. Honestly people, I don’t understand the obsession with January 1st and all of the out of shape, overweight people promising that THIS is going to be the year.
Hey, at least he's out there busting it out!
Okay, you may say I’m being a little bit anti-fatite or cruel here but it’s really not rocket science, input versus output. If a workout for you is digging into the bag of Cheetos, lift to mouth, and repeat than obviously you’re probably headed down a road of a little excess baggage…some wiggle to that jiggle.
If you just got back from a double digit run, you regularly do so, than by all means dive headfirst into that bag and come up an orange mouth if you so please!
New Year’s Resolutions aren’t all bad, I think having concrete goals to work towards is an awesome thing and is proven that if you put a goal out there you’ll be far more likely to continue to strive towards it. BUT the problem is when people are continually setting the SAME goal year after year and are chronic goal-abandoners.
Motivation, and especially motivation to workout, is something you can’t force. I will say that I’ve seen complete 180’s in people who used to be sofa surfers and now run marathons, but the difference is they had that ‘switch’ moment themselves. They pushed themselves to continually bust their bums in sweat sessions even when they didn’t feel like it, and they did that long enough to where they became addicted to those endorphins.
Apparently today's endorphins are pink.
I believe that it’s more a matter of ‘waiting it out’ in terms of running. I’d be hard pressed to find someone who fell in love with it the first time out…running does hurt, you get sore, you pant like a dog. There’s what you could call the hazing period that you have to wait out, force yourself to be consistent even when the LAST thing you want to do is run again. You have to callous the mind and body…BUT once you crest that ‘I hate this period’ somewhere along the way you fall in love with it. Then the really lucky ones become addicted for life. Hey, miles are my drug of choice.
Outside factors can help give you a booster shot of motivation in the inevitable times that it’s lagging, but in the end it comes down to you.
Running and fitness is a way of life, runners are weird. We don’t need January 1st to tell us to get out there and get ‘er done, we’re too busy counting up the number of miles we ran for the last year, out the door and getting a jump start on beating that total.
1) Do you make New Year’s Resolutions?
2) Where do you stand on the people who always say, “This year I’m going to get fit”?
The other thing is that is a very ambiguous goal, what is ‘get fit’ actually mean? If anything make it concrete: ‘I’m going to run 50 miles each week’, ‘I’m going to go to the gym 5 days a week’…something black and white that you can’t argue with, you either did it or you didn’t.
3) Are you a Cheetos person?
I’m more of a sweets kinda gal, I’ll pass the chips and dive headlong into the cookies.
1) I don’t make New Years resolutions. I might try something new, but I just do it instead of planning to do it. Like in 2011, I started logging my runs. Nothing life-changing or spectacular, but it was doable and overall was something positive.
2) I hate other people’s New Years resolutions and even more, I hate New Years marketing. I’ll respect you more if you show me you’re doing something instead of talking about it.
3) I don’t like the texture of Cheetos or the orange residue it leaves. If I’m going for junk food, I prefer potato chips.
okay, ur number 2 paraphrases how i feel exactly. just shut up and do it! 😉
Amen! And thanks for saying it!
I used to make resolutions, but ended up nowhere with them. Now I have goals. This year= run a marathon.
Personally, as a person who always works out and goes to the gym, I CANNOT STAND January. The gym becomes a frenzy of hopeful people– and I say good for them!! If the gym were that busy all the time, it would be excellent….BUT….it isn’t. I get the NY’s thing. People like new starts, they like having a chance to start over. I really, really hope they do!!! BUT…….in reality, a lot of it ends up being hype.
I have not consumed a Cheeto in several years. I will mow through a plate of chips and salsa on any given occasion though. 🙂
And now that I’ve wrote and ENTIRE blog on your blog.. I’ll be on my way 🙂
The funny thing is that the gym is empty this week, but will be packed next week. Why not get a head start? When it comes to exercise, New Years is really arbitrary. Today and every day is the right time to take action.
i always welcome blog length comments on my blog since i notoriously do the same to others!! haha…but yea, january gym crowding bugs me because it makes it that much more difficult to get to the machines i want or people that are new just aren’t aware of some general gym rules…like swiping my bench if i just get up to grab a different weight or sitting on a machine while u’re between sets and not working in. haha.
and stephanie…enjoy these last few days of crickets chirping in the gym, prepare urself for the mayhem of next week, or maybe find a way to call dibs on the good treadmills calibrated right! 🙂
never make resolutions, but i do make yearly goals that i break down into smaller goals with time limits. resolutions are too much for the mind to take in i think.
and the cheetos, never eat them. but today i was shopping at trader joes and was so stinkin hungry that the baked cheese puffs did make it into my cart and were opened before they made it home safely into my cupboard. whoops.
haha…someone’s coming home with orange fingers! well, at least if they’re baked we can tell ourselves they are much better for us and thus worthy of eating twice as much. 😉
and i really like setting the mini-goals on ur way to the big one, great to have benchmarks!
I don’t like to make new year’s resolutions…..perhaps that falls in the same vein as how I don’t ever “diet”. Temporary diets and temporary changes to your life should be long term sustainable things, not just fleeting ideas.
But new year’s is a good time to sit back and reflect on a new direction that you’d like for your life to take. Haven’t taken time to do that for myself yet, I’m going to work on it though!
i agree, reflection is great and finding areas that u can work on…much saner approach. oh and u and i are on the SAME page, i want to slap anyone when they say the word diet…hehe.
I do make a list of a few things that I would like to achieve in the next year, but I have learnt over the years that I don’t need to beat myself up if I don’t hit everything on the list over the year.
I used to be one of those people who said ‘this is the year I am going to lose weight’ one day I finally just turned around and did it. Sure, it took more than a year, but there was just a day when it started coming together. I do tell my patients just to take it one day at a time and to set very specific and measurable goals and make them achievable so that they don’t set themselves up for failure.
Definitely not a cheetos kinda chickpea. I am more of a salted peanuts kinda girl, especially after a sweaty run 🙂
u’re words to ur pateints are right on the money! oh and we have a girl who likes to eat her salty treats while salted up herself! 🙂
I like to make resolutions in the New Year, but they are more like, “run xx miles” or “run a marathon”. I really dislike how people go for the excess eating/drinking in the holidays but then stop cold turkey and start working out like crazy come January. NOT SUSTAINABLE!
sing it sister!! i’m gonna shout that last part right along with u…hehe.
Haha yeah I agree! I set goals and resolutions whenever I feel like it, when they are truly needed and I actually am committed to reaching them! I see the “This is the year to get fit people” atthe Running Store I used to work at, at my yoga class and out of the roads for just about one week and then it’s over. It’s the people who decide to make a lasting change, not because it’s January 1, that stick with it. And yeah I’m a sweets girl all the way!
score one for the sweets posse!! ugh, i always lower my head in shame when i see a store or running magazine that i like/respect with anything along the lines of the sign u mention…i feel like they sold out a bit to the hype…haha.
glad you don’t like cheetos, more for me! Well, I never seek them out, but if there’s a bag…once I start I can’t stop hah. and yes, I hate “resolutionists”, mainly because they clog up the gym on my cross training days and make it impossible for me to get a machine…and its like, “they’re only gonna last a week, I work out every damn day!” arggh. lol. I do make GOALS (not resolutions) for myself every New Year, but I constantly revise them and add to them! that’s how a goal should be, I think! One of my goals this year is to prevent injury as best I possibly can – obviously some things just happen and are unavoidable, but if its a question of nutrition, overtraining, or form, you best believe i’m doing all in my power to counter it lol!
hahaha…check out my earlier reply…u and i are agreeing on the congested gym traffic!! hehe. okay, u can have my cheetos but only if u start sending me some of ur yummy muffins!!! 🙂
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