What Are Good Fitness Resolutions For The New Year?
Q: My annual tradition is vowing to make a change about my health and wellbeing on January 1st before giving up a few days later and then waiting for that arbitrary starting date to come around again to do the exact same thing. Ahhhhhhh, fun times! Anyway, as hallowed as that tradition is, I’m thinking of becoming an iconoclast and breaking it. Do you have any suggestions on fitness resolutions that are actually achievable?
A: Every year, millions of people make New Year’s resolutions, the overwhelming majority of which are health and fitness-related. Regardless of what the resolution is, however, research suggests that only 9 percent of Americans who make a resolution actually complete it, with 23 percent quitting by the end of the first week of the year and 43 percent giving up by the end of the month. As such, you’re in good company with your annual tradition of being a failure.
The reason for the poor success rate of New Year’s resolutions can vary from person to person but the most common reasons have to do with people having goals that are either unrealistic or too vague, if not both.
Vague goals are those that lack specifics and guidelines about the action you’re going to take to achieve an objective that is unquantified. Common examples include “I want to exercise more”, “I want to eat healthier”, and “I want to lose weight”. On account of such goals not being clearly defined, you may have trouble achieving success because there isn’t a plan or way of measuring progress. Unrealistic goals are those that don’t fit within your individual limitations, such as your schedule, physical abilities, and personal preference. Along this line, you may take on a goal that you can’t commit to doing because of other commitments, you’re doing too much too soon, or it’s something that you hate doing.
Whether together or separately, broad and impractical goals can result in the loss of motivation and development of frustration. That buildup leads to eventual failure. The way around that is to have realistic and specific goals in which your performance or compliance can be tracked. Provided below are a few health and fitness resolutions that fit that mark.
SUGGESTIONS:
• Perform 3 cardio sessions each week
• Perform 2 strength training sessions each week
• Exercise 30 minutes 5 times per week
• Exercise 45 minutes 3 times per week
• Attend a group fitness class 2 times per week
• Work out 12 times in a month
• Stretch 10 minutes per day
• Average 7,000 steps a day
• Hold a plank for 30 seconds
• Hold a plank for 2 minutes in 4 weeks
• Do 3 sets of 12 air squats every day
• Do 3 sets of 12 push-ups every day
• Do 50 push-ups in a row 3 days per week
• Do 100 push-ups in a row in 6 weeks
• Walk 30 minutes per day
• Run 15 minutes four times per week
• Run 1 mile in 6 weeks
• Run a 5K in 3 months
• Run a 5K in 30 minutes
• Jump rope 5 minutes every day
• Complete 1000 jumps every other day
• Swim 4 miles per week
• Swim 200m non-stop
• Swim 10km per week
• Drink 1 extra glass of water per day
• Drink 2 liters of water a day
• Eat 1-2 serving(s) of fruits a day
• Eat 1-2 serving(s) of vegetables a day
• Eat 1 fruit or vegetable with every meal
• Go meatless 1 day a week
• Meal prep at least 2 days worth of dinner a week
• Take lunch to work at least 2 times per week
• Cook at home at least 1 day every week
• Lower resting heart rate to 55-85 bpm
• Lower LDL cholesterol to 100 mg/dL
• Lower triglycerides to 150 mg/dL
• Lower fasting blood glucose to 70-99 mg/dL
• Lose 5% of body fat in 5 months
The suggestions should be helpful enough to give you an idea of what to set out for yourself in the new year in accordance with your interests and capabilities. With that out of the way now, do you know why you even make New Year’s resolutions in the first place?
As history has it, that distinction goes to the ancient Babylonians.
Over 4000 years ago, the Babylonians were the first to hold recorded celebrations to bring in the new year, or the start of the farming season. As such, their new year celebration was in mid-March, not January. That aside, they celebrated the new year by holding a 12-day religious festival known as “Akitu”. As part of the celebration, they not only planted crops and reaffirmed alliance to their king but also made promises to the gods to pay their debts or return borrowed farm equipment in the year ahead. The Babylonians believed that if they lived up to their end of the pledge, then their gods would bestow good crops and other favor upon them.
The ancient Romans eventually came and adopted the Babylonian practice of celebrating the new year and making pledges in March. The time of year, however, was shifted to January with the advent of the Julian calendar in 46 B.C., with sacrifices and promises of good behavior made to Janus, the Roman god of beginnings.
Over centuries, that pagan custom of making vows and having fear of incurring the wrath of a deity for not living up to one’s word has transformed into the annual tradition of making resolutions that you haven’t given a damn about breaking almost as soon as you made them!
Now, does anyone else have a fitness or nutrition question of their own that they want to ask?
Glossary: cardio, exercise, fitness, January, goal, motivation, nutrition, plank, squats, work out
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