LITTLE ROCK — Hey, everyone, I have good news. You survived the holidays, the world did not end and you don’t have to make a New Year’s resolution!
That’s right. No New Year’s resolution.
Surprised? You thought that because I am a personal trainer I would take this opportunity to make you feel guilty about your gluttonous eating and drinking behavior over the holidays. Then I would use your guilt to my advantage and implore you to redeem yourself by starting the New Year off with a list of resolutions that would get you off the hook.
This list would be made with serious reflection and good intentions, but once made, easily forgotten. It’s like sitting in a confessional booth in church pouring out your sins to the priest: You get to wipe the slate clean and then go out and sin some more!
Back in the days when I was easily fooled, I asked my clients to make a list of their New Year’s fitness resolutions. I asked them to bring this list with them for their first workout in the New Year. Some people arrived for their session with pages of fitness goals, so many that it took us the entire hour to discuss them and prepare a plan to achieve them. Others arrived with only a single goal listed, such as, “I want to lose 50 pounds,” “I want to stop eating desserts for the rest of my life,” or, “I want to finish a marathon in the spring.”
The lists were either too long or too grandiose. Looking back, defeat was ensured before we began. But we persevered, for a while. Together we plotted strategy toward achieving their goals. I asked for progress reports and we charted success, but eventually I realized that no progress was being made and that nearly everyone felt overwhelmed by the expectations they had set for themselves. Months passed.
When I asked for a report on their progress, most had forgotten what they had written down as their goal in the first place.
I felt like a failure as a trainer because I had inadvertently set them up for failure before they began.
From this experience I learned a valuable lesson: Fitness goals need to be simple, small steps that can easily be attained. This ensures confidence and success.
To this end, this column revolves around one such small, achievable step that will help you chart your course toward better health as you begin the new year: Weigh yourself every day at the same time.
Weighing yourself daily gives you nonjudgmental, factual information that will help you make decisions about your eating and exercise routine. With this in mind, be aware that the ritual of weighing yourself can be interesting for others to observe.
On the TV show The Biggest Loser, for example, drama unfolds when the team members take turns weighing themselves. The music reaches a loud crescendo as the contestant stands on the scale. With sweat pouring off his face and hands clutching his heart, he faces the camera as his weight is displayed in bright neon lights for the world to see.
This is not unlike the scene that plays out every morning in my home when my husband weighs himself. He peels off every stitch of clothing and stands before the scale and gathers his courage. With great ceremony he taps the scale with his big toe, takes a deep breath, throws out his chest, and triumphantly stands on the scale. Whereupon he stares at the numbers below for a very long time, dismounts and repeats the entire ceremony two more times (because he must make sure the numbers from his first weigh-in are correct).
Some people have no problem weighing themselves. The fit young women at the club where I work weigh themselves without hesitation in the middle of the locker room. Jealous eyes watch as they brazenly step onto the scale wearing their athletic clothes and shoes, barely stopping to register the number in their brain before they hop off and go to their exercise class.
Weighing yourself can be an unnerving experience. Once you gather the courage to weigh yourself daily, you can use the information you gain to make decisions concerning your exercise and eating habits into the new year. Forget making New Year’s resolutions. Wipe the slate clean and start with one small, achievable step, and then move on from there.
Write to personal trainer Janet Roget in care of ActiveStyle at P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203, or e-mail
ActiveStyle, Pages 23 on 12/31/2012