Black steel, twisted and hard, encasing the bodies of these poor souls. The weight of the device bears down on the chest of one suffering man, sweat dripping from his brow as he endures the pain. Another woman, strapped onto some tool, stretching her body to and fro as she grimaces in agony. Torture devices as far as the eye can see, each imprisoning another wretched body. This may sound like I’m describing some medieval dungeon, but I’m not. I’m describing a horror far worse… the gym.
I seem to have gotten a handle on my eating habits. I’ve cut out the excess junk food, avoided fast food, brought whole grains into my life, consume more fruits and veggies, and watch my total calorie intake. This has allowed me to lose 75 pounds and maintain that lose for over a year. But now my weight won’t seem to budge, and I know just the reason why… exercise. Even the word is like nails on the chalkboard to me. But without it, I just won’t lose more weight (in a healthy, maintain it for life way, of course).
So once again tis the time of year for resolutions, and for probably the tenth straight year, exercise more is my New Year’s resolution. That brings me to my reason… resolutions. Why is it that we save up things we want to do, especially things that are good for us, till the beginning of the new year? Health and fitness are something we should strive for year round, but it always seems to be something we put off. It’s kind of like the idea that you can’t start a diet mid-week (diets only start on Mondays of course). If we have some big looming goal, we put it off til the beginning of the year.
New Years resolutions are also an excuse to turn a blind eye to health during the holidays. The end of the year is laden with goodies, and feasts, and sweets. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years – all within two months time. Those two months can do a lot of damage if you’re watching your weight! So it seems the resolution is a way for us to ditch the calorie counting, grab a fork, and overindulge. I’m not saying that’s entirely a bad thing. Splurging from time to time is needed. But there is a difference between enjoying all the yummies at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner without returning for seconds, or thirds, or fourths?… Honestly, that first plate was indulgence enough. I know in the past, when the holidays came, it was like, woo hoo, time to eat! At Halloween I would down enough fun-sized candy bars to put a diabetic into a coma. At Thanksgiving, I would gorge on turkey, and stuffing, and mashed potatoes, and gravy, and green bean casserole, and stuffing, and stuffing, and stuffing (can you tell I like stuffing?)… And if that wasn’t enough, I would still make room for pie (apparently unzipping your pants helps in this process)… Oh and not just pumpkin, had to have both pumpkin AND pecan pie. And then at Christmas, it was like Thanksgiving take two, only this time add a stocking full of candy and a house full of Christmas cookies. I have this little odd autistic quirt about me… I have to do things in rounded numbers (I know, I’m weird). So take Christmas cookies, if I make 10 batches of Christmas cookies (10 different types), that means each time I want a cookie, I would have to eat 10 cookies… to even out the batches of course. Obesity and OCD… not a good combination in this case!
Anyway, back to my topic. While I hate that we use the ole New Year’s resolution as an excuse for bad behavior throughout the year, I must say I am again making my resolution. I made one small step in the right direction already. My fiance and I joined the gym! (Oh yes, you read right… fiance! My beau of almost two years has asked me to marry him!) But here’s where the resolution comes in… we joined the gym in November… and have yet to go! So this year, we’re hoping to go (no no wrong word, scratch that)… we’re starting to go to the gym regularly. Of course, I know my style. If I don’t ease into it, I’ll be scared away after a week! So we’ll take it slow and start going like twice a week and build from there in frequency and duration to help us make ourselves healthier for the new year. It will be nice to have a gym buddy to help motivate me to go. Once he gets going, my fiance likes exercise (yeah I know, weird), so that will help a lot!
On that note, Happy New Year everyone! May this year bring you a life with happiness and good health! So what’s your New Year’s resolution?
