Resolve to make significant change

It’s New Year’s Day and the holiday season has proven abundant for your waistline.

The fruitcake, the clam dip, the cookies and cakes, the figgy pudding, the Christmas feast with all the trimmings and all that holiday cheer have all added up to more than a few extra pounds.

Maybe more than a few pounds.

In a reflective mood, you resolve to get yourself into better shape – or at least a smaller shape – in the new year.

Join the club.

In fact, that’s just what you do.

“This is our busiest time of the year,” explained Lynne Vassar at Stroh’s Fitness, which has welcomed recovering New Year’s revelers since 1986. “We see maybe a 40 percent increase in the number of people joining the club in January, February and March. It’s their New Year’s resolution.

“They all come in and say they want to lose weight because they’ve been bad.”

Of course, Vassar said, it tends to be temporary.

“We lose about half of them,” she said. “They tend to come in because of the membership specials that we run, but of course we try to get them in here on the full memberships because they have to be committed to make a positive change.

“If you really want to get into better shape, if you really want to lose weight, you have to make a permanent change.”

That’s the difference between a New Year’s resolution and making a significant change.

Change takes long-standing effort and commitment. New Year’s resolutions generally last until the end of the second week of January.

So, what do the experts recommend?

For starters, stop with the resolution nonsense. Calling it that all but preordains failure. Besides, there’s enough societal pressure on fitness and body image without adding unnecessary pressure.

Instead, approach it as the life-changing move that it is. Start gradually and work your way up by making a series of short-term goals that are easily attainable.

In other words, give yourself a chance to succeed.

“That’s what we want to see,” Vassar said. “It has to be a lasting commitment.”