Based on the January displays in Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores, the majority of New Year’s Resolutions are related to diet and exercise.
That is probably why January Gym-Guy suddenly appears at the gym I have been frequenting for the last five years or so. It happens every year. He used to frustrate me, but now I am merely amused by him. January Gym-Guy comes because either he or his Significant Other has decided it is time to do something about his form or health and he made a New Year’s Resolution.
January Gym Guy has a very distinctive look. He is the guy in all new and color-coordinated gym togs. He tucks in the clean, unstained shirt. His athletic shorts often still have the creases from the package. The shoes are brightly colored. The socks: new and white rather than gray and slumping on the ankle.
You can spot January Gym Guy among the Regular Gym Rats because our worn shorts long ago stopped being the color we bought, and our shirts lurch about - untucked - as we run, but the sweat-stained neck has been stretched beyond the point of return. Color combinations? Forget it! Favorite workout shirts and shorts are chosen for their comfort during a work-out. Logos are mere shades of their former self. Shoes have been used and abused.
January Gym-Guy hasn’t been to a gym for awhile (often since Gym Class!) He either makes the mistake of going out too fast or lifting too much on the first day, or being so cautious that his work out is more a Fam-Trip* than exercise.
Day one for January Gym Guy can be entertaining to watch as he gets on a tread-mill or stationary-bike, starting too fast, slowing way down, pushing the speed back up – all with no rhyme or reason. Some just hop around with little effort for a few minutes on a machine, then cleans it up and heads off to another machine to repeat the process.
And if day one is humorous, day two is downright comical. Pain evident in each movement, he “warms up” for most of the workout, and then begins warming down after a couple of minutes of “top” speed or “full” weight.
For several weeks, January Gym Guy and his meticulously styled Significant Other (the only women in make-up, their hair made-up rather than pulled back into a tidy and efficient pony-tail) make it difficult to find a parking place and get your favorite machine.
But, judging by what I have now seen for four-years in my usual gym, the good news for Regular Gym Rats is that a New Year’s Resolution begins on January 2 and ends on or about January 21, though we do rarely see one of the January Gym Guys becoming a Regular Gym Rat.
So, based upon my limited observations, if the assumption that many New Year’s Resolutions are related to diet and exercise is correct, and the appearance and disappearance of January Gym Guy in my favorite gym is fairly universal, then most New Years Resolutions last until roughly January 21 each year.
It’s not much a stretch to say that January Resolutions are not too effective as a method of behavioral change. Now, if I can just figure out if the problem here is the month of January or the nature of Resolutions, I’ll have a better idea how to modify my behavior!
* A “Fam-Trip” or “Familiarization Trip” is slang in the Travel Industry for those ultra-cheap trips Travel Providers give to Travel Agents so they will steer their clients to them.
