by Lan Daval
Come January, there’s plenty of room for improvement. Oh, sure you will notice people are making litanies of New Year’s resolutions. Of course, what we will always hear remain the same worn-out, old standard resolutions – quit smoking, stop or probably limit drinking, resolve to start hanging out in bars and girlie joints so much, and most importantly, start being more financially responsible.
If you’ll notice, most resolution lists rarely include a promise to get fit, healthy and happy. Well, I am actually for the “healthy lifesytle” crowd. OK, in theory I am a kind and supportive health buff calling out things like “let’s do it, keep it up.” Sadly, in reality health concerns doesn’t mean a thing or two to many people.
You see, after those continuous parties – enjoying arrays of fat-loaded food and drinking too many holiday spirits, many people gained extra weight and unbearable amount of fat. So, if you spent 2010 getting seriously involved in a “happy-go-lucky” lifestyle, only to be disappointed when finding out that you are now a “bloated stuff,” resolve to start going out more frequently with the sole intention of doing physical exercises.
After all, at the start of every new year there are a number of fitness gyms and jogging areas to choose from where one can literally squeeze out his/her sweaty domain for an entire year. Stick therefore to a regular physical conditioning program. Odd, no? Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for healthier lifestyles. But if you want your life to remain toxic, then major components of your overall well-being still are in dire need of attention.
That’s why if your dieting process and fitness activities in 2010 were nothing than a series of disappointments, I propose to consider the month of January as the post-party season after the storm of parties during Christmas and the New Year. I would like to call this the re-exercising period – which, of course, follows the partying season, again. Well, a long standing tradition, of course, to the health buffs during this period is “back to basics.” This leads to returning to the fitness facilities, gyms and regimens of re-activating your diet program, after gorging ourselves at Christmas dinners and New Year parties for the past weeks.
And not only that, another post-holiday activity is the task of recovery, which come in many forms. There’s the recovery from your expenses and other bills perhaps due to excessive and lavish spending being part of the Christmas tradition among us Filipinos. Also, it is a time to remember and reminisce, as in: “Oh snap, I just remembered that we forgot to give some of our friends gifts or just even simple holiday greetings.”
So, after busy preparing for the pre-Christmas season – entertaining and partying it up during the actual holidays, it seems like it will be another few months until we have to “ re-enact or re-do” this all over again. Until then, I wish you all back home, most importantly our media colleagues in Davao City, the best in 2011. I also hope that everybody actually finds some time to do one more during the post-holiday season – relax and resolve to make 2011 a happier, merrier and healthier year. [From Ontario, Canada, with love]
