There’s no time like the advent of the New Year to start thinking about ways to improve your life. Whether it’s losing twenty pounds, quitting smoking, or aiming to read War and Peace, everyone has a New Year’s resolution. I came up with mine almost two months ago: I’m going to run the New York City Marathon in 2009.

The Itch To Compete

As an athlete, I haven’t accomplished much. I was always a petite girl who preferred staying indoors with a good book to getting exercise. In high school, I became more social and joined the track team with the rest of my friends. But my middle-distance running career was almost over before it started, with a string of stress fractures and a teenage diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. I abandoned my cleats for a spell, until I started hitting the gym in college to combat stress. The treadmill was easy on my achy feet, and I loved the refreshing feeling I got from a good, long run. But somewhere along the way, I decided to make running more than just a stress-relieving activity and turn it into a hobby. This winter, I ran my first race in over six years—a 4-miler—and it reaffirmed my love of the sport. Finishing the race gave me a lot of personal fulfillment, and I felt confident I could begin to tackle longer distances, larger events, and bigger dreams.

I’ve lived in New York City for several years now, and I’ve grown accustomed to everything “big” in the city—skyscrapers, crowds, lights, prices—except the New York City Marathon. The marathon remains the one event that still manages to captivate me by its sheer size. There’s something about running for several hours across five boroughs with tens of thousands of others over the span of 26.2 miles that astounds me. I can’t think of another event in New York that commands the kind of attention from the public that the marathon does, with its thousands of spectators lining the streets from Brooklyn to the Bronx. And so this past November, I took my place among those spectators (as I have for three years straight) near the finish in Central Park, and decided that I wanted a piece of the marathon glory for myself.

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Damn! Is it that time of year again? Ugh! Great! I’ve gotta make yet another resolution I probably won’t keep.

Some people have super-elaborate resolutions that dig deep into their soul. They meditate on these things and sing kumbyya everyday in hopes of maintaining the gusto to push forward with it. Not me. My resolution is simple and popular: lose weight. Not a ton, just 20 lbs. Shouldn’t be too hard. But I’ve had the same 20 lb resolution for two years running. Wait…make that three years running. Insert heavy sigh.

But at least I’m not all by my lonesome. According to David Junno, Psy.D.:
• 25% of New Year’s resolutions will be abandoned in the first 15 weeks
• The average number of times a New Year’s resolution is made is 10
• Those who manage to make a resolution that lasts for 6 months or more have often tried 5 or 6 times before finally succeeding

That’s slightly comforting, but not enough, since I’m still not happy with these 20 lbs. I’m not trying to turn three years into four years, much less the reported ten years. So I came up with a plan of action. This plan might help you out too, espescially if you’re part of the Broken Resolution Club like me.

Look Cute When You’re Working Out

No sense in lecturing you about how you’ve got to work out. You already know that much. The issue is staying motivated to keep it going. I find I am much more inspired to work out when I replace the big frumpy tshirts and sweatpants with some sleek workout gear. Nothing fancy, perhaps some track-style pants and jacket to match. You know, warm up gear. It’s a lot easier to keep it going when you like what’s you looking back at your during your 6:15 step aerobics class. You don’t have spend a fortune — WalMart and Target both have cute, inexpensive attire.

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I smoked cigarettes for twelve years: eight social and intermittent, three heavy and committed, and one particularly pretentious year during which I insisted on rolling my own. This November, I quit. It says something about me, or maybe about smoking, that I expect this statement to be met with celebration - flowers, candy, maybe some kind of parade. The actual reaction (”Great! Now, as I was saying…”) is always disappointing. No one knows how hard it is until they do it; until I did it, I had no idea how hard it was going to be. Here, for the future former smokers of the world, is how it went.

No More Cigarettes: Survival Tactics

The physical aspect of quitting was simple: I purchased a box of nicotine patches and planted myself in front of the TV with my knitting projects. (This Christmas will be forever known as The Year Everyone Got a Hat.) It takes the body only seventy-two hours to break a nicotine habit; I planned to wait mine out in comfort. “Comfort,” it turns out, was the wrong word: I was twitchy, headachy, and experienced an all-over physical discomfort that was just short of pain. Yet I did not smoke.

Then the trouble started.

Love In The Time of Withdrawal

It happened gradually: on Tuesday, I snapped at a waiter. On Wednesday, a friend wrote me an angry e-mail, and I replied with an angrier one. By Thursday, I’d picked fights with my boyfriend (”People don’t read literature in translation? How can you say that? God, it’s like Gabriel Garcia Marquez doesn’t even matter to you!”) and my boss. Then, on Friday, on my way to a party in Brooklyn, I turned the wrong corner and realized I was lost. I started crying. I didn’t stop until Sunday afternoon.

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There are psychological theories on the importance of sleep, what happens when we sleep, why some of us can’t sleep, sleep disorders, dreaming and the different stages of sleep. By why is sleep so important?

Cracking the Sleep Code

The best way to decipher the sleep code is to study what happens to us when we’re sleep deprived. The amount of sleep a person can deal with before it effects overall functioning is based on individual needs. Some people can function having only two or three hours of sleep while another person wouldn’t be able to stay awake with less than eight.

Either way, some researchers believe that (a) long periods of wakefulness will produce physiological and behavioral disturbances; (b) these disturbances will grow worse as the period of deprivation continues; and (c) that after the period of deprivation ends, a lot of missed sleep will be regained. Other researchers feel we’ve been evolved to respond to the dark-light cycles of days where we get sleepy when it’s dark outside and wake-up when it’s light. That’s why some of us can’t have a nap during the day to save our lives!

What about the kind of sleep we’re getting? Two different people may both be getting the required eight hours of sleep but one person will get a solid, deep uninterrupted sleep while the other wakes up several times and never reaches that deep REM level of sleep. Who do you think feels more rested in the morning?

Simple Solutions for Restful Nights

Now that we know what not sleeping can do to us, how do we help ourselves get more of those all-important ZZZ’s? Here are a few suggestions:

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Last week, there was a little sparkle in the paper. Nestled between dour pieces about the weak economy and more lay-offs was an article exploring the positive effects of happy people. A study following over 4700 people over a period of twenty years concluded: “happy people tend to have happy friends, and it’s contagious.”

When I read this little snippet, I felt a surge of victory and was almost inspired to drop to one knee and draw a clenched fist towards my heart: “Yes!” (That is the football gesture; fans of Celine Dion could substitute a chest-thumping.) Happy people win! We are the champions, my friends!

The Company We Keep, Keeps Us Smiling

The aforementioned article confirmed what I’ve believed for many years: our lives are affected by the company we keep. Although we might like to think of ourselves as islands - in control of our emotions and decisions in life - we can’t deny the powerful influence of good friends. Everyone can recall a time when a funny email or text message from a buddy alleviated a sluggish or pessimistic mood. I have a few friends with seemingly magic energy; simply spending time with them brightens my day. It makes sense - surrounding oneself with people who see the sunnier side of life can inspire feelings of hope and contentment.

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