Advertisement
Occasionally, she’d glance up from her magazine and stare out the window of the Winona Family YMCA and pedal a little faster.
 |
Dave Miller, left, and Ruth Schwinghammer, right, both of Winona, workout on cardio equipment Tuesday at Anytime Fitness in Winona. Pam Flanagan, center, also of Winona, doesnt have a New Year’s resolution, but wants to make 2007 another healthy year. (Photo by Andrew Link of the Winona Daily News) |
Laurie Webber would like to lose 70 pounds, but this was just the first day into her New Year’s resolution.
Webber, 36, said her doctor diagnosed her as pre-diabetic and recommend more exercise. Once she discovered that her health insurance will pay $20 a month if she works out at least three times a week, she joined the YMCA last week.
“My plan is not to go overboard, and try and take it one step at a time,” she said. “I haven’t been exercising, and it’s showing up in my health.”
Webber isn’t alone in her resolution. According to a 2005 study by self-help author Stephen Shapiro and Opinion Research Corp., 38 percent of Americans resolve to lose weight or get in better physical shape.
The YMCA sees an extra 200 to 300 new members in the first months of the year, although not all stick around.
“You lose some, you gain some,” said YMCA Executive Director Andy Blomsness. While people used to be more sedentary, the news media and more health information available to the public “has helped get people to stay with it,” he said.
Lisa Rudrud, YMCA fitness director, said she expects it to be “crazy” all week and during the facility’s open house Jan. 8-13.
Will Kitchen made a similar resolution. Although he said he already exercises five days a week at the Y, Kitchen, 53, said he hoped to trim 20 pounds after some holiday indulgence.
“I told my wife (I wanted to lose weight) or she told me, I’m not sure which one it was,” he said laughing as he worked out Tuesday on an elliptical cross trainer. “I want to continue to be active so I can keep up with my granddaughter.”
‘A dirty word’
Rudrud knows that not all the new faces she sees in January will stick with their new routines. According to Shapiro’s study, only 8 percent of those surveyed say they achieve their goals.
“After mid-February, March, it’s not as busy. I’d like to see it not happen, but I’ve been in this business for 17 years,” Rudrud said. “The word resolution is a dirty word, because resolutions set you up to fail.”
When Rudrud meets with new members in January, she tells them to make a realistic plan with specific time and day commitments. She also tells them to flip their calendar forward to March and write “Are you still exercising?”
“That can either be an eye-opener or celebration,” she said. “I’ve yet to meet anyone who set a resolution or stuck to it, so that’s why I’d rather use a positive spin and keep the word resolution out.”
The biggest mistakes people make, Rudrud said, are not planning their resolutions out in the long run and fitting exercise into their life. Those people end up coming in sporadically and don’t make exercise a high priority.
Gail Grimm, health education director at Winona State University, said breaking old habits is hard and it’s easy for people to drop into their comfort zone.
“You have to be committed, you have to be ready — mentally ready — to make a change,” Grimm said. “People should start out slow with positive reinforcement, but most people go fast and have negative reinforcement.”
She said the problem is that by the third or fourth day people become sore and exercising becomes agony. She recommends that people do something they like to do, such as hiking or swimming, rather than make working out be a chore.
“It’s gorgeous right now, so just get out and walk,” Grimm said. “Walking is the best exercise. Really, it’s the simple things you can do that are the best.”
A Reader wrote on Jan 3, 2007 1:40 AM: