March 28, 2024

A new spring resolution

It’s almost May – how’s your new year’s resolution going?

Wonderful? Good job. Not so great? Me either.

Every year, after the holidays pass and the chill of winter sets in, I decide that I’m going to change my life and work diligently to lose weight.

When Girl Scout cookies went on sale in February, I wondered how many individuals were burdened by the untimely temptation to ruin their new year diet. I wondered if the Scouts marketing and sales department did research about when people are most likely to buy nonessential goods like cookies. February wasn’t my first guess.

Then I realized I had yet to commit to my new year’s diet myself.

It’s almost the fifth month of the year and I’m just getting into my diet and exercise routine — slowly.

Weight has been the most prominent struggle in my life – both in childhood and as an adult. As a child, I was active, but I still didn’t always make the best food choices. I was an only child who didn’t mind watching television when I got home from school and I enjoyed a late night snack whenever the kitchen wasn’t “closed.”

As an adult, my dieting hasn’t been consistent nor constant that’s for sure. I’d find time to work out for a few months one year and I wouldn’t another year. Then the following year, I’d feel bad about how I “let myself go” and I’d work out for another five months, then, take a year off. It was a cycle, as some of you might be familiar with.

See, the word “diet” is a terrible word. It implies cutting back on your daily food consumption, but it also implies temporary. A diet is a fix. It’s something you try in order to obtain a goal, and then what?

I’m starting a lifestyle change these days, all diets aside. I’m not following any particular equation to losing weight this time. I’m not giving up all carbs, or all sugars. I am, however, cutting back on how much I eat, how much I eat out and how many nonessential foods I consume, like pop and chips.

The most beneficial factor in a routine for me is to exercise, but it’s hard, you have to make time for that. There’s work, there’s sleep, and then there’s that leftover time that doesn’t seem like enough.

I have to make time for my friends, my boyfriend, my family, my work, oh and myself?

Many of us struggle with maintaining a healthy lifestyle that’s ideal but can seem unrealistic at times. Many of us have a hard time compromising our time for exercise or our budgets for nutrition.

The point I want to make is that whatever age you are, whatever month it is, it’s never too late to make little steps to practice a healthier lifestyle. Try to make your own lunch more. Try to take 30 minutes to go for a walk or go to a gym with a friend. The key is consistency.

Losing weight is a goal many of us want to achieve, and it’s one that is possible. It’s not going to be easy, but than again, nothing worth achieving is every easy.