New Year, New Me... yeah right... Who's Starting Right Now?

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TopazCutie
TopazCutie Posts: 386 Member
edited December 2014 in Health and Weight Loss
Many people promise themselves to start the new year off right and implement new plans the second that January 1st comes. I never really understood this because if you’re in a new year’s party like many people and drinking, Jan 1st came, and your plan is not off to the best start with liquor and party food in your system, lol.

I digress.

I’m planning to start right now! Actually I’ve started “hardcore” since December 8th, and plan to continue this into the new year. I’ve learned weight loss is all about starting when you’re ready, you can’t pick an abstract time in the distant future to all of a sudden be ready. It kinda has to be within yourself, for it to be great and not a miserable experience.

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  • Spanander
    Spanander Posts: 16
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    I've been on it pretty much all of the time since September. :) But yeah, in my experience new years resolutions never really make it.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    It's easy to say, "I'm never drinking again!" when you're hungover. The whole, "My head hurts, my feet stink and I don't love Jesus" thing makes that easy.

    It's a time of resolutions. It's what people do. We reflect, we think about people who have died and new people we've met, what happened this year, how next year might be better, what we'd like to improve...New Year, New Me - that kind of thing.

    Who doesn't think they could improve some aspect of themselves?

    I think my plan this year is yard work. I always let the bushes go until it's too big a project and then I pay the lawn guys to fix them. They keep them trimmed back, but there's no art to it. This year, I think, I'm going to work on them. Maybe get new ones, have a pretty, colorful yard that i keep up with. I think.

    Planning improvement, even if it doesn't stick, isn't a bad thing. At it's core, it is the essence of hope. Hope that things can get better...that we can be better. Hope that we will be around for a while and that we'll be happier. Even if they don't stick, we learn from the attempt. New plans are a great thing! (Unless your plan is to rob more liquor stores.)
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
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    There is no start.

    There is no end.

    There is only life and how you are living it.
  • TopazCutie
    TopazCutie Posts: 386 Member
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    Love it!!
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    Didn't we just have like 5 pages of this on the post-New Year's Gym Rush thread?

    Anyway, I've been guilty of the perpetual new year's resolution to lose weight that I never, ever stuck to. This time I decided on a Tuesday afternoon in October to start... and I did. On that same day. So I agree, when you want to do something, it's not "I'll start tomorrow", it's "I'm starting now".

    Having said that, I think a lot of people decide to start "now" on New Year's, simply because they travel and eat a lot and indulge over the holidays and they wake up energized and motivated to make a change. Even if 80-90% of them don't stick with it, a good 10-20% do. So yeah, hey, why not?

    (I'm sort of guilty of this in a small way... I plan to sign up for some exercise classes at the gym starting in January. Why not now? 'Cause I'm going on vacation in three days and will be out of town until then, and besides, they're all closed and off for the holidays, too. It's just practicality.)
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    I started with MFP in October. If you know today that you want to change then I say start making changes right away- but it doesn't matter when you start as long as you do it. Every day is a fresh start anyway.
  • abatonfan
    abatonfan Posts: 1,120 Member
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    I ended up getting really serious about my weight loss during New Year's last year, and, looking back on my resolutions, I ended up meeting both of them. I got myself back into a healthy BMI range, and I kept my A1C below 6%.

    This coming year, I plan on losing no more than 10-25 pounds, transition myself to maintenance, actually find an exercise program that I enjoy and adjust my insulin dosages effectively for it, and try to get myself back to a 5.5% A1C.

    Personally, I find it easier to motivate myself with New Year's... though it still means that I avoid my university gym like the plague around that time. ;)
  • lthames0810
    lthames0810 Posts: 722 Member
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    You're right and I already lauched my campaign weeks ago. (Right after Thanksgiving while cringing at the number on the scale.) Waiting until the new year to start a fitness program is silly, in my opinion. If you feel you need to do something different for the sake of your health, why wouldn't you get started right away? Especially since your enthusiasm for the change and therefore your initial momentum will be greatest right when you decide to do something, not a month down the road.

    Here are other reasons:

    Starting in January, you are among the throngs of people who jam the gym. That's the very worst time to begin a program because right at the start, you'll be frustrated by the whole experience due to no parking spaces or access to any of the equipment. Start planning now how you will avoid those places and still get your calorie burns.

    If you set a point in the future when you'll begin to eat according to whatever your plan is, then what are you doing between now and then? Very likely, you'll be stuffing your face while you can because in a few weeks that will have to stop.

    If you haven't gotten a good start on your program before the first of the year, you will be more vulnerable to the advertisers of expensive and worthless quick loss diet plans and pills and cleanses and whatnot.
  • Azexas
    Azexas Posts: 4,334 Member
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    lthames0810 wrote: »
    You're right and I already lauched my campaign weeks ago. (Right after Thanksgiving while cringing at the number on the scale.) Waiting until the new year to start a fitness program is silly, in my opinion. If you feel you need to do something different for the sake of your health, why wouldn't you get started right away? Especially since your enthusiasm for the change and therefore your initial momentum will be greatest right when you decide to do something, not a month down the road.

    Here are other reasons:

    Starting in January, you are among the throngs of people who jam the gym. That's the very worst time to begin a program because right at the start, you'll be frustrated by the whole experience due to no parking spaces or access to any of the equipment. Start planning now how you will avoid those places and still get your calorie burns.

    If you set a point in the future when you'll begin to eat according to whatever your plan is, then what are you doing between now and then? Very likely, you'll be stuffing your face while you can because in a few weeks that will have to stop.

    If you haven't gotten a good start on your program before the first of the year, you will be more vulnerable to the advertisers of expensive and worthless quick loss diet plans and pills and cleanses and whatnot.

    thank you for summing up what I was going to say. I agree with you 100%!
  • court_alacarte
    court_alacarte Posts: 219 Member
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    i officially started december 1st. i have made new years resolutions for the past several years to lose weight and all i've done is steadily gain. and of course i'd fall off the wagon and go "next week, next week" and end up pigging out every weekend to make sure i got a good meal in before i started dieting on the proverbial monday. cue the cycle starting all over again. the years go by so fast to me that i think, if i had only stuck with it, i'd be there.

    the future is NOW.

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