I had a wonderful evening out to dinner with my college teammates and assistant coach.. We had a mini reunion.. I had too much fun reminiscing about our playing days. As we were reminiscing, guess who walks through the door. UCONN women’s basketball team.. The number 1 team in the country. They were in town to play Memphis. Our school we played for over 15 years ago. Everyone in the restaurant became mesmerized. They were humongous.  I remember when people would stare at us as we walk through airports and restaurants with our Memphis gear on. Those were the days..

Now, instead of 3 hour basketball practices and game days, I’m peeling myself out the bed to beat the crowd to the gym so I can get my treadmill. The one that’s right in front of the TV..The one I didn’t like at first because it doesn’t automatically increase in pace like the other one.

Shocked that I was the only person in the gym. It’s January 4. 7:45am Saturday morning. Last year, the first 2 weeks of January, it was waiting room only to get on the treadmill or any machine. Surely someone set a resolution to lose weight for the New Year.

I had decided a few weeks earlier to ramp up my work out. Before I would come to the gym 2 to 3 times a week to walk on the treadmill for 30-45 minutes. After re-reading the story on how Memphis’ basketball player Shaq Goodwin lost 30-40 pounds over the summer. I decided to walk for 1 hour 3-4 times a week while watching TV at the gym.

Shaq said he started out running everyday until he got tired. Then he started running 2 miles a day.  I read another story on a blog about how a lady lost 100 pounds. She had lost the first 50 by cutting calories and moving side to side while watching TV.

This was my last day of week 3 of walking for 1 hour a day 4 days a week and I did not want to break my habit now. As tired as I was, I jumped out the bed to get to my treadmill.  Amazingly no one else came in the gym during my entire workout. I keep wondering. “Where is everyone?” “Where is all the people that said they would lose weight for the New Year?”

The next thing to pop in my head was habits vs resolutions. I did not set a resolution. I just decided a little over a month ago to up my workout to 1 hour 3-4 times a week. However, when most people make a new years resolution. They say “I plan to lose weight.”

I recently read someone’s Facebook post that they had set a resolution to read the entire Bible 2 years in a row and had failed to do it. A lot of people set New Year’s resolutions and a lot of them do not accomplish them.

A resolution is a promise to ourselves to do something different. I don’t know about you but sometimes when I make a promise to myself it’s hard to keep that promise. Sometimes we are more motivated to keep a promise to others than we are to ourselves.

Instead of making promises to yourself to do something new this year. Follow it up with a plan of action.

I made a plan to work out 3-4 times a week by walking 1 hour. Of course, my goal is to lose weight. I’m at the point that I’m not focusing on my goal.. I’m focusing on putting myself in position to get to the gym 3-4 times a week. The goal will take care of itself.