A letter to the Resolutionists

Dear Resolutionists,

Hey, how's it going?  It's been a while since we've seen you around - like maybe 11 months or so.  Are you really going to do this again this year or do you think you can just skip it?

Don't take that the wrong way.  I'm not trying to be mean.  

Here's the thing: you really just don't care about exercising and health and I don't know why you're pretending to do it because you bought a new calendar.  You're using this momentus occasion to flip the switch in your brain from brownie-eating couch potato to what you hope to be a svelte Ironman.  

You got it twisted, bro (or homegirl).  You're doing it because you ate a gluttonous amount of Halloween candy, turkey at Thanksgiving, and everything in sight at the 4(0) Christmas and holiday parties you attended, and now you're looking at the scale with a horrified grimace, wondering how you got there.  You got there because it's your lifestyle.  It's what you like to do.

If you're not going to adopt exercise as part of your lifestyle instead of a Hail Mary to lose the ten pounds you gained in the last 4 months, what's the point?  

Our society loves quick fixes and pills to cover our real problems.  A healthy lifestyle isn't a pill.  It's your whole way of life.  It's your whole brain and your outlook.  Exercising to lose 10 pounds starting January 1 (cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye) is the equivalent of making your own quick fix.  What about you wanting to live a bit longer than the track you're on?  What about eating for health because it makes you feel awesome, energized, and clearheaded?  What about giving your body real nutrition so you can fight sickness, avoid lifestyle diseases, and live healthy and well (and be able to do what you're supposed to do)?  What about exercising and eating so you can do the things on your bucket list?

Nah, whatever.  What am I saying?  It's just another year, just like the one before it and the one before that.  

One day, however, that January calendar will be the last one you buy.  I hope when you get there, you don't look back with the same horrified grimace.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it.  Life is more than clothes, and the body more than food.  If you don't have that straight, then your whole life is wasted.  But it sure is a lot easier to do what you're called to do when you have energy and endurance.

So, if you don't want to make it a way of life, maybe you should just sleep in.  The regulars like their parking spots, their lockers and their lanes.  

You mad, bro?  You're a Resolutionist.  Man up.  You get one life.  Do it, don't waste it.

Peace, love, and you don't have to wait until Friday,
Ms. Daisy