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Happy New Year everyone! With the holiday season now at a close, many have wolfed down that last slice of pie, drunk the last glasse of champagne and moved on into resolution mode. Yes, January brings the deluge of New Year’s resolutions that people swear they are going to live by for the following year – eating better, exercising more are probably the most common. Inevitably they falter by the end of the week, the month, the season – at which point they throw in the towel to wait for the next turn of the calendar and start the process yet again.
A word of advice.
Give up.
You heard me.
Give.
Up.
This coming Sunday, forget about your New Year’s Resolution to get in shape, and stuff your face at breakfast or dinner with a huge plate of comfort food. Make sure you wash it down with 2 or 3 alcoholic and/or sugary drinks.
Go ahead.
Do it.
There is no reason to wait until the end of the month or the Winter, or for Summer to stumble and fall off the wagon. That’s right, I am telling you to get off that wagon this Sunday and indulge.
***
Wait a minute there, Luau! Aren’t you a proponent of healthy living? Don’t you advocate regular exercise and eating smart? Aren’t you the one who says anyone, ANYONE can get fit if they want to? What the Frak is going on here?
***
Hmm. I guess I should elaborate a little bit, huh? Notice above I said “breakfast OR dinner”? I did not mean to take the whole day, or weekend or week. I did not mean to give up for good. That would be silly.
No, what I propose is resolving to stumble in your New Year’s Resolutions.
Nobody is perfect, and because of that we can’t do things perfectly all of the time. Eventually we are bound to stumble. This is what happens to so many people who make New Year’s Resolutions every January 1st. The problem is that once they stumble they feel like that’s it. The shame of failing kicks in and overwhelms.
“It’s over!”
“I can’t do it!”
I’ve seen it before. Friends will decide that since they fell off the wagon on Saturday, they might as well carry it on through the entire weekend, the following week or even the rest of the year.
“You know, I ate like crap for breakfast and lunch so I’m just gonna complete the trifecta and eat this whole bucket of mashed potatoes and ice cream.”
A lot of people feel like if they fail the first, or second or third time they try to get healthy, they might as well give up because they can’t stick to it.
***
But what if one “stepped” off the wagon as opposed to “falling” off the wagon? A planned fall, if you will. Then maybe it’s not quite as bad. Then maybe, one would have the will power to step back on to the wagon after a single indulgent meal or a single missed workout as opposed to losing a whole weekend or a week or a month or the rest of the year?
Some people call it the 90/10 plan. The concept is to eat healthfully and exercise regularly 90% of the time and allow yourself to indulge in some guilty pleasures 10% of the time. The idea being that if you allow yourself to eat junk food and be a couch potato in small doses, you are more likely to remain disciplined the rest of the time.
A controlled stumble – think about it. If you are walking down the street and you fall, you are a lot less likely to hurt yourself if you fall in a controlled manner. It is the same with New Year’s Resolutions.
New Year’s Resolutions are fine and dandy. They can kick-start an active lifestyle, but don’t panic if you fall. Even if you fall hard. There is no reason why you can’t get right back up and dust yourself off. But if you have found that you have had trouble in years past with sticking with it through the year, try the controlled stumble, maybe once every week or two.
My bet is that you’ll find a lot more success down the road in achieving your resolution goals. It’s not about luck, it’s about determination and planning.
Have fun this Sunday! I don’t know about you, but I’m plopping myself in front the TV for some NFL playoffs, beer and a bucket of wings!
GO PATS!
Run Luau Run 
That’s pretty much how I do it. I pick a meal on Saturday or Sunday to have a party with myself and that’s it for the week.
Great blog post….and very true!!! Nobody is perfect, too
hard to eat 100% good all the time right??
This is definitely how to do it! I usually have one “off”
meal a week where I let myself overindulge a little. The rest of
the week it’s always about eating right or super moderation if I do
reach for something a little less than perfect (some nights call
for a glass of red wine a bite of dark chocolate, ya know?) I’m not
perfect, but I always approach every day the best I can. I also
feel like once healthy eating and regular exercise becomes a habit,
you reach for the overindulgent, icky things a lot less. You don’t
crave it as much AND you know it will only effect your workout
negatively in the morning.
It’s all about the journey not the destination and you make the journey oh so sweet! This is one of my favorite blog posts (although there are so many favs). By the way – where you are getting the wings? Buffs?
In honor of this (and being trapped in my apartment) I just baked a tray of brownies. Unfortunately, since I’m trapped, I am not sure who is going to eat them. I certainly can’t eat them all myself!
Lot of great points Luau! It’s funny, I need to retool my thinking. I tend to indulge and then feel bad and just indulge the day away so I can pretend in the next week I will never eat another bad thing in the world!
The first step Erin is to stop feeling bad about indulging…enjoy your indulgence tonight and then determine to run a little tomorrow….but even if you don’t run tomorrow, DON’T feel bad about the indulgence…just don’t say “frak it, I’m gonna eat brownies for the rest of the week”.
hahaha. sounds like a great way to celebrate your Sunday! (we all need to treat ourselves every now and then, as you say!)
[…] Posted: January 12, 2011 by 51feetunder in Running 0 It’s funny that Luau decided to write a blog post about dropping the ball on New Years Resolutions, just as I was prepping to write my own. The […]