Making resolutions—and the ramifications of keeping them

Every year like clockwork I sit at my desk during the first week of January and calculate my professional and personal goals for the year. It’s office policy. I add my own rule to the mix: And if it’s on the list, I must complete it within the year.

So today is list day and while the office is quiet, I have a moment to re-enact some of the highlights of 2004 and make sure that I have accomplished everything on my goal list.

In my personal column that last year I note I had an almost obsessive need to re-invent my physical world by completely changing my diet and exercise program. That was driven by a conversation with my doctor about my insufferable migraines.

When I saw him during a particularly horrible week, he told me that I had to either quit my job or change my diet. I hated the migraines and I couldn’t quit the job so I figured I had better add health and fitness to my goal column. I grabbed an old Weight Watcher’s book and started to plan meals. After four months, the headaches cut down to a few and some weight that I have been holding onto since the birth of my first child seemed to go away.

As in any diet there comes a time when the weight loss stops and you hit a plateau. When that happens to me there are only two options. Get fat all over again so that I can lose it one more time (the plus to that choice is that I get to constantly say that I just lost 50 pounds) or change the exercise program and work it off.

Continuing 21 years worth of the get-fat-again method seemed too tiring to me last year so I made a pact with myself to buy some fun workout clothes and join a real gym.

The first day, I was dressed in gray and pink yoga togs and ready to see what the gym had to offer. They gave me my water bottle, showed me the equipment and the rooms for classes. I was hooked when they introduced me to my personal trainer, who was part of the program and a true inspiration. I couldn’t sign on that dotted line fast enough.

The first week into the program my trainer assessed my weak areas and decided to work on my arms first. I was good with that and really enjoyed my first week of the gym so much so that I just couldn’t wait until week two. On Day One of Week Two, I hurried into the gym looking for my trainer and was told me that the next part of the program consisted of classes.

They escorted me into a step class. I hate step classes; I usually fall off the darn things, spin in the wrong directions and hurt anyone close to me with my flapping arms. True to history, I fell off my bench and had a problem hurling a 12-pound body bar up over my head to music.

The instructor of that class was so not the hottie that was helping me last week. She was tough as nails and hard to understand with the microphone jammed in her face. At one point I was sure that she might have called me a middle-aged slacker, but I wasn’t quite sure. But I knew that there was no way I could take her, so I nodded numbly to the music and continued on my course of destruction to my fellow steppers.

When that class was over, I swore I wasn’t ever going in there again. The class that followed was yoga. I joined that class and have been doing it faithfully for the entire year. I’m not really good at it but I can at least hold my own in the class.

The instructor mentioned to a few of us that he was putting together an exercise video and he wanted some members of the class to be in the background. I thought that might be fun, but I did need to discuss it with my daughter. I try to keep her embarrassment to a minimum when I can help it.

“So baby, how do you feel about Mommy being in an exercise video?” I asked.

I could see the horror in her face.

“Mom,” she said calmly, “I’m good with it but just think about poor Uncle Mike. What if they put the video on all of the televisions in Sears [where he works]. It might put him over the edge.”

I had to agree with her. The thought of me being in stereo and on multiple televisions was a tad disturbing, especially since the new televisions are so large and clear.

I guess I will keep the exercise video off the list for this year!