National Quitters Day
mtaratoot
Posts: 14,372 Member
About five years ago, Strava did some research. I think it's OK to mention Strava here because there's a way to link data from Strava to our MFP exercise diary. They looked over all their user data and determined that the second Friday in January is when people start to give up on their New Year's resolutions - 80% of them. Only two in ten keep sticking to it.
Wow.
OK, so if you have been experiencing some crowds at your gym, this can be a little bit of good news. They'll probably keep paying dues for at least a while, and that lets the gym make a little money and even make improvements to the facility. It also means it won't be so crowded.
For this reason, the second Friday in January is sometimes referred to as "Quitters Day."
I urge you NOT to celebrate this observance. If you mad a commitment to your health, whether it was to lose weight, improve your fitness, or just eat more healthy, and if you're growing weary of it already, DON'T QUIT!!!! Well, unless you just started going to my gym.... I digress. No. Instead take this opportunity to reassess your goals. You can alter your goals. Maybe they were too challenging. They SHOULD be challenging, but not too challenging. You must be able to achieve them. If your goals aren't working for you, change them.
STICK TO IT!
BE ABNORMAL!
I read that two thirds of people give up their New Year's resolutions of ANY kind by the end of January. It may be that the fitness and diet goals are just too hard, especially if the goals are unrealistic.
Don't quit - recommit!
There's some great tools on MyFitnessPal. You can do this if you want to, and to do it you have to want to. It's not motivation, it's developing habits. Two weeks or a month isn't long enough to make habits stick. You owe it to yourself to stick to it. It's the only way. Is it easy? Hell no. Nothing worth doing is easy, well except maybe making toast (and I know some people who can screw THAT up).
Know that you WILL stumble. It's OK. We all do that. Just get back up and get back to sticking to it. Don't kick yourself about it. Don't talk smack about being unable. You are able. You just have to be willing.
Can you do it? Actually that's the wrong question because YES YOU CAN. The question is, WILL you do it? I hope the answer is yes.
Join me in celebrating Quitters Day by STICKING TO IT!
Wow.
OK, so if you have been experiencing some crowds at your gym, this can be a little bit of good news. They'll probably keep paying dues for at least a while, and that lets the gym make a little money and even make improvements to the facility. It also means it won't be so crowded.
For this reason, the second Friday in January is sometimes referred to as "Quitters Day."
I urge you NOT to celebrate this observance. If you mad a commitment to your health, whether it was to lose weight, improve your fitness, or just eat more healthy, and if you're growing weary of it already, DON'T QUIT!!!! Well, unless you just started going to my gym.... I digress. No. Instead take this opportunity to reassess your goals. You can alter your goals. Maybe they were too challenging. They SHOULD be challenging, but not too challenging. You must be able to achieve them. If your goals aren't working for you, change them.
STICK TO IT!
BE ABNORMAL!
I read that two thirds of people give up their New Year's resolutions of ANY kind by the end of January. It may be that the fitness and diet goals are just too hard, especially if the goals are unrealistic.
Don't quit - recommit!
There's some great tools on MyFitnessPal. You can do this if you want to, and to do it you have to want to. It's not motivation, it's developing habits. Two weeks or a month isn't long enough to make habits stick. You owe it to yourself to stick to it. It's the only way. Is it easy? Hell no. Nothing worth doing is easy, well except maybe making toast (and I know some people who can screw THAT up).
Know that you WILL stumble. It's OK. We all do that. Just get back up and get back to sticking to it. Don't kick yourself about it. Don't talk smack about being unable. You are able. You just have to be willing.
Can you do it? Actually that's the wrong question because YES YOU CAN. The question is, WILL you do it? I hope the answer is yes.
Join me in celebrating Quitters Day by STICKING TO IT!
14
Replies
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People in Oklahoma certainly won't go to the gym friday. Lol!
It's supposed to be around 60 degrees tomorrow afternoon. The wind chill may be 23 degrees below zero Friday night. I need to move! Probably no one out at all.0 -
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2 weeks with 80% quits is surprisingly high. Did you find the % by 3 weeks?
Anyone pushing beyond deserves kudos!0 -
@EpochAhead
I did not do the research. Strava did. Strava is a fitness app. It can track hundreds of different activities and collect your fitness data as well as use your GPS device to track you. As such, all the data they looked at were for people who started trying to do more exercise. This was in 2019. They found that 80% of people started to give up their goals in by the second week in January. The population they "studied" was pretty specific; people who used Strava for fitness.
I just saw some other research from last year that suggests 23% of people quit their resolutions of any type by the end of the first week and 43% quit by the end of January. It further suggests only 9% of people making resolutions complete them.
I'm sure there's more data out there if you look. The only person you can affect, though is YOURSELF, so STICK TO IT! Again - if you realize your goals were too difficult, revise them. There's no shame. It's a learning process, and as long as you are moving towards your goal, you are making positive progress and improving yourself.
So yes, don't quit tomorrow, don't quit at the end of the month, and don't quit before the end of the quarter. Revise your goals and STICK TO IT.
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Corina1143 wrote: »People in Oklahoma certainly won't go to the gym friday. Lol!
It's supposed to be around 60 degrees tomorrow afternoon. The wind chill may be 23 degrees below zero Friday night. I need to move! Probably no one out at all.
There won't be many people out and about, for example at the gym, around here on Friday either if the forecast is accurate.
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interesting, but not that surprising. although a couple people here on MFP said that this year, the gym's been almost empty since day one. since usually there are a bunch of new years resolution people at the gym for the first week or two of the year, they were puzzled. i'm guessing a lot of people bought home fitness equipment this year rather than joining the gym...
that reminds me - a friend of mine used to start at the gym every year right after new years, and she always overdid, caused a lot of pain and sometimes injury, gave up, started the next year. every year for over 20 years. and a few of my friends seem to start a different regime each year - one year, they join a gym, the next year, they buy a total gym or bowflex, then the next year they get a piece of fad gear, and the year after that, they join a different kind of gym. a doctor i know had a large house filled with fitness gear from doing that - not cheap stuff, either - that he never used after the first month. finally his roommate put her foot down and started selling it all. we got his nordic track ski machine at a very good price almost completely unused LOL3 -
@zebasschick
Sounds like serial starters. Too bad. I think a lot of exercise equipment does in fact become very expensive clothes trees. I'm glad you got a good deal on your Nordic Track. Do you still have it? Do you still use it?
You might be right about people getting home gym equipment during COVID. I haven't been during the crowded hours, but it sure seems less crowded now. It was less crowded in December, but that's often a slow month anyway.
I love it when the pool is nearly empty. Every now and then it's completely empty. A couple weeks ago it was nearly empty when I got to the gym, but by the time I got to the pool there was just one lane left. I grabbed it. Soon I looked around underwater, and there was not a single person there except me. I decided to just keep swimming even though I had initially planned to swim not quite that far. It wasn't out of some need to make sure at least one person was in the pool - it's just so much nicer when there's nobody splashing around.2 -
@zebasschick
Sounds like serial starters. Too bad. I think a lot of exercise equipment does in fact become very expensive clothes trees. I'm glad you got a good deal on your Nordic Track. Do you still have it? Do you still use it?
You might be right about people getting home gym equipment during COVID. I haven't been during the crowded hours, but it sure seems less crowded now. It was less crowded in December, but that's often a slow month anyway.
I love it when the pool is nearly empty. Every now and then it's completely empty. A couple weeks ago it was nearly empty when I got to the gym, but by the time I got to the pool there was just one lane left. I grabbed it. Soon I looked around underwater, and there was not a single person there except me. I decided to just keep swimming even though I had initially planned to swim not quite that far. It wasn't out of some need to make sure at least one person was in the pool - it's just so much nicer when there's nobody splashing around.
i never used the nordic track - it was for my husband, and he used it every day for years before we sold it.
cool for you to get to swim so freely!
i have been working out at home for years, but if the gym had been so empty, i might have kept going. on the other hand, we've got a pretty great home gym at this point. and we don't have to get dressed, drive through the L.A. traffic, find a parking place and so on.
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Corina1143 wrote: »People in Oklahoma certainly won't go to the gym friday. Lol!
It's supposed to be around 60 degrees tomorrow afternoon. The wind chill may be 23 degrees below zero Friday night. I need to move! Probably no one out at all.
There won't be many people out and about, for example at the gym, around here on Friday either if the forecast is accurate.
I'm one of the people who bought new equipment during the pandemic. I'd taken a spin class twice a week at my Y. I was extra hesitant to go back even after they reopened, because I'd picked up a respiratory virus right before the pandemic (February-ish that year). I'm pretty sure I got it from the woman on the next bike, who kept grabbing paper towels from the dispenser between us, blowing her nose, and tossing the towel at the wastebasket on her other side (and had been doing that for a couple of weeks).
That (which was not Covid) lasted many weeks for me, resulted in CT scans for a long-lingering deep cough (in survivors of breast cancer, they worry about lung metastases). That scan diagnosed early COPD, which made me even more eager not to get Covid (before there were vaxes and treatments, especially).
So, I got a stationary bike to add to the rowing machine and various smaller stuff I already had at home. I'm glad I did - very worth the price.
I still belong to the Y, but haven't yet been back in any significant way. Soon, probably. But I don't know how busy it is. Usually, these days resolutioners around here join the cheaper widely-advertised gyms, like Planet Fitness. The Y has more facilities, including pools, but it costs substantially more.
Speaking of weather, if this really happens, I'll be staying home for sure . . . and my workout will involve a shovel.
Shoveling snow is a good workout. My driveway is long/wide enough that shoveling garage to road takes anywhere from 2-4 hours of steady hard work, depending on the amount and type of snow (wet/heavy vs. fluffy). I admit, if the total is more like 5", I'll probably just drive over it until it melts.
2 -
They are still hemming and hawing about our upcoming weather. It's now forecast to be colder each night, more frozen stuff, frozen stuff and cold extending longer into Sunday night, the possibility now not just for snow and sleet but for freezing rain. That's the worst. Super-cooled water falls and lands on freezing surfaces and builds up ice. It brings down branches and trees and power lines. It coats the streets with glare ice. It's not coming until late tomorrow night, so I can go back to the gym one more time tomorrow before hiding at home until Monday.
If the forecast is correct, it will drop below freezing tomorrow night and stay below freezing until some time on Tuesday. The nice thing about that is it will be below freezing long enough that the air will dry out, so it won't FEEL quite as cold. I lived in northern Utah. I believe that 20 degrees sometimes doesn't feel as cold as 38 degrees and raining.0 -
Could be covid/other illness fears derailing Jan gym attendance this year. News reports of covid, flu and RSV illness and hospitalizations are a bit concerning (and seem to be mentioned together with vaccines for all 3.)
I really hadn't heard of RSV in adults until this season when a new vaccine became available.
all the news reports do make me feel wary of crowds and sustained close contact. I would wonder about warm/moist environments at pools, saunas, gyms.0 -
1
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EpochAhead wrote: »Could be covid/other illness fears derailing Jan gym attendance this year. News reports of covid, flu and RSV illness and hospitalizations are a bit concerning (and seem to be mentioned together with vaccines for all 3.)
I really hadn't heard of RSV in adults until this season when a new vaccine became available.
all the news reports do make me feel wary of crowds and sustained close contact. I would wonder about warm/moist environments at pools, saunas, gyms.
I reckon this could be part of it. I haven't been during the "rush" times, so I don't know if it's crowded then or not. I should ask staff about it; they will tell me the truth. I know that am concerned about it even though I'm going back to the gym. We have a historic theater in town that was almost demolished until a non-profit raised a bunch of funds and took it over, restored it, and put it back into service. They do old movies from time to time - I think maybe monthly. This month's move was "The Big Lebowski." While it's no "Casablanca", it's still one of my favorites. Some friends invited me to go. I declined. Sitting that close to that many people for that long... yeah, uh, no. I've had COVID twice, and I am grateful the second time was not nearly as bad as the first. I don't want it again. I haven't had flu since before COVID, and I don't want that either. I get my vaccine every October.
Interestingly, I don't feel that concerned at the gym right now. There's so few people that we all have space. Even the sauna allows physical distancing. Sauna temperature might kill the COVID virus - ten minutes at 133F gives a 5-log reduction. Steam is higher energy, but I don't know about that either. The chlorine in the pool should kill the coronoavirus. My gym has spray bottles of quaternary ammonium sanitizer all over the damn place, and people are pretty good about wiping equipment down.
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About five years ago, Strava did some research. I think it's OK to mention Strava here because there's a way to link data from Strava to our MFP exercise diary. They looked over all their user data and determined that the second Friday in January is when people start to give up on their New Year's resolutions - 80% of them. Only two in ten keep sticking to it.
Wow.
OK, so if you have been experiencing some crowds at your gym, this can be a little bit of good news. They'll probably keep paying dues for at least a while, and that lets the gym make a little money and even make improvements to the facility. It also means it won't be so crowded.
For this reason, the second Friday in January is sometimes referred to as "Quitters Day."
I urge you NOT to celebrate this observance. If you mad a commitment to your health, whether it was to lose weight, improve your fitness, or just eat more healthy, and if you're growing weary of it already, DON'T QUIT!!!! Well, unless you just started going to my gym.... I digress. No. Instead take this opportunity to reassess your goals. You can alter your goals. Maybe they were too challenging. They SHOULD be challenging, but not too challenging. You must be able to achieve them. If your goals aren't working for you, change them.
STICK TO IT!
BE ABNORMAL!
I read that two thirds of people give up their New Year's resolutions of ANY kind by the end of January. It may be that the fitness and diet goals are just too hard, especially if the goals are unrealistic.
Don't quit - recommit!
There's some great tools on MyFitnessPal. You can do this if you want to, and to do it you have to want to. It's not motivation, it's developing habits. Two weeks or a month isn't long enough to make habits stick. You owe it to yourself to stick to it. It's the only way. Is it easy? Hell no. Nothing worth doing is easy, well except maybe making toast (and I know some people who can screw THAT up).
Know that you WILL stumble. It's OK. We all do that. Just get back up and get back to sticking to it. Don't kick yourself about it. Don't talk smack about being unable. You are able. You just have to be willing.
Can you do it? Actually that's the wrong question because YES YOU CAN. The question is, WILL you do it? I hope the answer is yes.
Join me in celebrating Quitters Day by STICKING TO IT!
Just got back from the gym and I’m happy to report it seemed as busy towards 6am as it has ever been. Hope everyone is able to stick with it!1 -
Well, today is the day.
STICK TO IT!
For now just promise yourself to get to the end of the month. Then promise yourself to get to the end of February. You've got this. Little steps. Next thing you know, it will be the end of December and you will feel smug that you beat the odds, you kept after it, and you've seen amazing results.
Then after that, KEEP STICKING TO IT!1 -
Well, today is the day.
STICK TO IT!
For now just promise yourself to get to the end of the month. Then promise yourself to get to the end of February. You've got this. Little steps. Next thing you know, it will be the end of December and you will feel smug that you beat the odds, you kept after it, and you've seen amazing results.
Then after that, KEEP STICKING TO IT!
And hopefully developed a new habit that is now part of your routine and lifestyle and not a burden or obligation. Great thread!1 -
One possible way to celebrate National Quitter's Day: Resolve to quit quitting.
Quitting is the #1 cause of failure to lose weight, improve fitness, perfect making tamales, or learn to play the ukelele. Want to succeed at anything? Quit quitting.
Changing tactics (to make things easier) isn't quitting. Only quitting is quitting.
Stop quitting! :flowerforyou:
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Except cigarette smoking. If you do that, start quitting!3
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LOVE This! Here for quitters day, but not quitting!1
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YOU'RE STILL HERE! Yay! I knew you could do it.
One day at a time until the end of the month, then one day at a time until the end of March, then one day at a time until the end of the year, and then STICK TO IT FOREVER!1 -
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