Being resolute in my resolve to stick to my resolutions

It’s a brand new year. Every year I start with an invigorated sense of purpose as one year decays and dies, and a new year starts with all of the gleaming promise of something untainted by anything truly shit happening to me. Not yet, anyway. I had a conversation with someone earlier this week who wryly observed that this is perhaps the worst time of the year to begin with resolutions of any kind, since they usually involve breaking some bad habits and starting some good ones. After all, why on earth would you decide to begin this endeavour in January, the darkest, bleakest and coldest of months? But actually, I don’t see it that way at all. It’s a bare kind of a month, with nothing of the glittering distractions and temptations to excess of the previous one, and a bit of a blank canvas on which to paint new shapes and colours. I sense the days lengthening and this gives me hope and renewed purpose.

This year has started well. I gave myself a week to fully adjust to the fact that it really is 2017 (2017!) and this week I have begun, properly, as I mean to go on. It started on Saturday when I was sitting on my sofa and I genuinely felt like my legs were full of energy, and the urge to DO SOMETHING became overwhelming. One of my resolutions is to get fit again. Not stupidly gym bunny fit. Just fit enough to run about a bit and not need an inhaler and a lie down afterwards. And so, I have started the NHS Couchto 5k podcast series which previously helped me to complete two 10k races in 2013 and 2014. So far I have completed two ‘runs’ or rather, brisk walks interspersed with short bursts of jogging that have fully underlined for me just how much fitness I have lost over the months of relatively little movement. I was a little pink and puffing after that but, oh boy! I had forgotten just how much I love the endorphins that any form of exercise in the open airs gives you. If you haven’t tried it, I can seriously recommend it. If, like me, you are worried about running or consider yourself to be anything but a runner, I cannot reassure you enough that this is by far the gentlest and nicest way to ease yourself into running that I've come across. Okay, so the music they play on the podcast is that generic stuff exercise videos employ when they don’t want to pay a lot of money for licensing, but Laura’s warm encouragements to ‘go for it’ coming in at opportune moments are just what you need, like a little friend sitting on your shoulder telling you how great you’re doing. If only I could employ Laura for all things in my life. I think I’d get that tax return done a lot quicker.

I’ve also done my first yoga class of the year and I wasn’t quite the petrified husk I expected to be following a couple of weeks off the mat. And I’ve had a couple of nice, brisk walks around the city and in the countryside. I started on New Year’s Day where, minus a hangover (makes a nice change) I went for a walk in the rain up Brandon Hill and around and about, with nary a soul in sight. Today I went for a lovely wintry walk first thing around Kings Weston House and Blaise Castle grounds, fortified by a pleasingly sweet hot chocolate, and fine conversation from my walking partner. Two hours flew by and I felt pretty amazing at the end. We are spoiled in Bristol for wonderful places to stretch our pins and take in the sights and sounds of the city. The Harbourside is a perennial favourite, but so is the railway path that stretches between Bristol and Bath, and the Frome Valley walk through Snuff Mills, to name a few. If you have any other suggestions, and if you feel like joining me for any of the above, just let me know. It's far easier and arguably more enjoyable to stick to a new exercise plan if you involve other people. After all, friends can usually hold you to account more effectively than your own inner voice. 

Apparently it takes about three months for a habit to form. It will take more than one week of activity, but I'm confident that I'll be able to keep it  up. I wish everyone reading this good luck with all of your good intentions this year and may they manifest into something real and tangible in the very near future, if they haven't already done so.