This New Year Are You Shooting for the Stars or Something Closer?

By Artina Dozier-Gage

Here we are again, in the first few days of a new year, facing the idealized (and often romanticized) tradition of the promise many of us make to ourselves to do something different over the course of the next 365 days. You know, the much-anticipated self-imposed New Year’s resolution where we set a goal(s) often centered on self-improvement, and then promptly forget about it, getting back to our lives as we lived them in the years prior. Well, not this year. Right? …and the crowd grows quiet…

I’m not here to bash the tradition; in fact, I’m a proud participant. Many of us can agree that real benefits can be found in making a New Year’s resolution because the promises we make often focus on improving our health and well-being. The problem is not the tradition itself, nor is it the falling short aspect of the promise, but rather it’s the type of promises that we make that are often too broad or require massive effort, allowing nothing short of excellence for us to claim any real success. It’s no surprise that many of us fall short. It’s a running inside joke among the regular gym members and fitness center club goers about looking forward to February or March when they can have their gym back to themselves after most of the New Year members have comfortably gone back to their regular routine, which didn’t include the gym. But, what if we didn’t need a gym at all to maintain good physical health?

Doctors have always said that going for regular walks can be just as beneficial. Dr. Danielle Rayel, a medical resident in Authority Health’s GME Family Medicine program, reminded us that “Getting started with exercise can be intimidating,” adding, “I like to tell my patients that as long as you are moving, that is a good place to start. You can go for a walk outside, around the house, or up and down the steps. It makes exercise digestible and lays the foundation for developing it into a habit.”

Additionally, in the American Medical Association’s article, “What doctors wish patients knew about healthy aging” News Editor, Sara Berg, MS, spoke with several physicians, including Louis Weinstein, MD and Jenny L. Boyer, MD, PhD, JD, who shared some seemingly simple yet very valuable insights in the following excerpt:

“I can’t tell you how many senior patients—and even women in their fifties—are having mobility problems. It’s just extraordinary,” said Dr. Weinstein, adding that “mobility is one of the keys to physical well-being.”

“A simple check is to see if you can get out of a chair without using your arms,” said Dr. Boyer. “If you struggle with this, you might talk to your doctor about physical therapy or an exercise program to improve core strength and prevent loss of mobility.”

“People talk about how you need to run, jump, weight lift or swim, but I don’t care what type of mobility it is,” Dr. Weinstein said. “If you’re getting up and down from a chair, that’s mobility.”

So, for this New Year, while it’s still a good idea to make a resolution that’s focused on increasing good health and physical activity, it doesn’t have to be by way of purchasing the premium package at the local gym; instead, we can take the advice of a trusted doctor to take more regular walks. In our everyday lives, this could look like parking further away from entrance doors at the office or at our favorite shops and restaurants, taking the long way to the restroom while at the office, and walking the building during coffee/tea breaks, or meeting a friend for a stroll down the block or at the park on the weekends.

We can definitely still join a gym if that brings us joy and/or wellness; we can even still shoot for the stars, but it’s nice to know that at least some of them are close enough that they can be reached by getting up (without using our arms) from a chair.

Artina is the Communications and Content Design Manager for Authority Health