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OPINION: New Year’s resolutions? I’d much rather eat chocolate

Nadine Wark Is it just me, or has the practice of New Year’s resolutions fallen by the wayside? This year I haven’t heard a single person in my circle of friends and family say: “My New Year’s resolution was to … “Sign up at a health club and stick t
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Nadine Wark

Is it just me, or has the practice of New Year’s resolutions fallen by the wayside?

This year I haven’t heard a single person in my circle of friends and family say: “My New Year’s resolution was to …

  • “Sign up at a health club and stick to it.”
  • “Start doing volunteer work in town.”
  • “Cut back on carbs, sweets, wine, smoking.”

Some people vow to spend less time on social media, look up from their phones, say hello to strangers. The list of resolutions can be as long and varied as those who make them.

Many want a ‘brand new me’ and get busy trying to figure out how to do it.

For some unknown reason, I received a lot of chocolate as gifts this Christmas past. And then, after the holidays, even more boxes and bags of chocolate were passed on to me. You might call it re-gifting.

So recently I sat back, popped a chocolate, and contemplated the situation. The givers of all this bounty obviously think it’s bad for them, but OK for me. Go figure!

I do intend to ‘cut back’ after my current stash is gone. My husband is no help and neither is the dog, Bela. So I try to eat when she isn’t looking to experience it as a guilt-free indulging.

A few decades ago, celebrities like Jane Fonda and Suzanne Somers promoted exercise programs on home videos. Participants would dress up in fancy exercise outfits only they and their dogs would see. And if any flab was hanging, the dog didn’t mind.

They came with popular slogans like “no pain, no gain” and “feel the burn.”

I did try to enjoy embracing the pain and feeling the burn but couldn’t quite do it, and quit.

Exercising friends would say, “My gosh, I can hardly walk and I had to roll out of bed in the morning!” Some would last longer than me and moan and groan through months of twisting their bodies into all sorts of contorted positions.

My mother, in her wisdom, would say, “Those women are going to pay dearly some day for all that jumping around!” Thankfully, we have chiropractors and massage therapists to provide relief.

So, if New Year’s resolutions aren’t relevant anymore, that might just be a good thing. Too many of us set unattainable goals, which is an exercise in futility.

Nadine Wark is a retired office administrator and freelance writer who lives in Sarnia


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