Irresolutions about new years

Welcome to the beginning of 2023, where the Minnesota Vikings downright depress us, inflation threatens to get higher, and people are already starting with the “New Year, New Me” thing.

I usually don’t like making new year’s resolutions. To me, they don’t make much sense. I know the purpose is to set goals for the year. But the typical goals are “lose weight,” “get into a relationship,” and all the other usual suspects.

From what I’ve witnessed (also using myself as a reference), people tend to give up on their goals because they think that they’re not making enough progress. Part of the problem might be the goal is vague. Losing weight, for example, is vague. How much weight are we talking–10, 20, 30 pounds? When do you want to lose the weight, six months? Is the goal realistic to the lifestyle you are living? If not, can you make the lifestyle change?

Another problem is that the goal isn’t feasible. For example, losing 50 pounds in three months might require three hours of cardio every day and a significant cut in calories. Losing 100 pounds in a year might be tougher (that was my non-new-year’s-resolution goal) because your metabolism will change halfway through the process, meaning the pounds won’t come off as quickly later on as they did when you started.

Also, in my opinion, a lot of the typical new year’s resolutions should be life goals. Losing weight is great, but what about keeping it off? If you lose fifty pounds, that doesn’t exactly mean you can go from eating salads and chicken to eating a quarter pounder meal at McDonalds two days a week.

Despite my reservations about new year’s resolutions, I have a few in mind. The first thing I want to do is…lose weight. Yes, I ragged on that one, but I don’t want to just lose weight. I want to change my eating habits, reduce my caloric intake to at most 2,000 calories a day, cut out greasy foods, and work out three times a week.

My two main issues are my belly and my stamina. I can still run decently, especially if I’m into a football game or taking soccer pictures and I don’t have anything weighing me down. But the problem is that I get super tired after doing that. I can’t run for even a minute straight.

While a lot of the weight has gone to my thighs, most of it has gone to my belly. I can still squeeze into pants I was wearing two or three years ago, but I can barely fit into the shirts I bought only six months ago. That’s not good.

That is why I am making cardio and core strength two key parts of my workout. I think focusing on those things will help me lose weight a lot faster than just going on the exercise bike and doing weight training.

Another “resolution” I made is to work on getting better at guitar so that someday I can be in a band and be good at my instrument. I want to try and practice at least five hours a week and work my way to ten hours if possible. I know some weeks I work so much that the ten-hour mark won’t be possible, thus the lowered five-hour-a-week goal for myself.

My final resolution is to try and make mass every Sunday. I have been horrible with that the past two years. I started going around Christmas time again. But I need to be more consistent. I tried being an atheist, and it turns out that I need something to believe in. After all, focusing on humanity alone, especially with the way things are going, has led to nothing but disappointment. Being at church comforts me.

So, with all that out of the way, here’s to 2023. May it be light years better than 2022.