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New Year 's Resolutions

© Mary Ellen Popolo

The ringing in of the New Year marks the end of the holiday season. By now the last of the homemade cookies have been eaten, all of the egg nog is gone and the Chia Pet from Aunt Pat has been returned. The only remains of the holiday season are the credit card bills, which should arrive any day, and the extra pounds put on eating fruitcake, indulging at holiday parties and eating the cookies left for Santa.

Now it's time to move forward and begin a New Year. Just like every other holiday there are certain traditions that are a part of the New Year's celebration. Could you imagine a New Year's celebration that didn't include Dick Clark in Times Square, Baby New Year, Auld Lang Syne and of course New Year's resolutions?

Whether you make one resolution or a dozen, New Year's resolutions are all about change. Promises we make to ourselves to change for the better, to rid ourselves of our bad habits and to make ourselves more likeable even if only to ourselves. New Year's is sort of like wiping the slate clean and starting all over.

If you are reading this article I'm willing to bet that this year's resolution is to lose weight. If you haven't made that resolution this year, I'm sure you've made it in years gone by. Some of us make the resolution to lose weight each and every New Year. But like most resolutions, we don't stick to them.

It's hard not to make a resolution to try to lose weight. The diet industry preys on us at this time of year. Television is full of commercials reminding us that there is no better time than now to lose weight. Magazines seem to double the advertisements for diet foods and diet programs. Diet centers and fitness centers offer discounted or free registration and low monthly fees. It's a campaign that works well.

I think I have started a diet every January of almost every year since I turned 20. If only one year I could have kept my resolution and lost weight I could have had a new resolution for the following years. I could have focused on something different to change about myself, rather than making a useless resolution to diet successfully and set myself up for failure. (We won’t even go into the vicious cycle of diet-failure-binge).

This year, instead of making a resolution to lose weight, I made myself a resolution I knew I could keep. I made a resolution that had absolutely nothing to do with diet, food, exercise or image. I made a resolution that I knew I would be able to keep and so far I have! If I diet during the year and I have success I’ll consider it a bonus. If I don’t, well, I may not have lost any weight, but I didn’t break my resolution either!

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