Like many others, I have made this New Year’s resolution to lose weight. Unlike many others, I plan to make good on that resolution.

Weight loss, healthy eating and exercise makes up some of the most popular categories for promises for the new year. According to Scripps National, losing weight or exercising more was the resolution of choice for about 38 percent of Americans in 2019.

This idea’s popularity is tempered with people’s propensity to not follow through with it. A 2016 The Atlantic article said, though gyms see a 30 to 50 percent membership rise in the first month of the year, that growth is not sustained by April. Due to the ambitious nature of their resolutions, many new members end up paying more by looking for long-term payment options they do not end up using, the article noted.

I made my mind up about my resolution about six months ago when my physician told me I was overweight — obese, actually — by about 20 pounds. I had been hovering at about the maximum “correct” weight for some years, so this came as a bit of a wakeup call. We both knew the reason for weight gain was unhealthy eating (think Marco’s pizza and cheesy bread) and not regularly exercising, so I knew the solution was to simply reverse those bad habits. Easy.

December rolled around, and I had gained ten pounds, largely because of lack of exercise from not working in marching band. I then decided to get serious about weight loss in a few ways.

Here’s how those attempts turned out:

·   Cutting out snacks, pop and candy: I got three full-size bags of Doritos from three different family members for Christmas, two of them wrapped.

·   Exercising at home with the family exercise bike: I tripped getting off the stationary on my way to answer the landline and nearly broke a pile of my recently-deceased grandmother’s Christmas ornaments.

·   Buying pants that fit snugly to give myself specific motivation to slim down: The pants ripped during my winter job as a stock boy with an hour left in my shift.

·   Doing intensive work in the backyard (i.e. hauling and cutting logs for firewood): My friends invited me to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.

I then went to check on the state of a Planet Fitness to see whether rumors of chaotic weight rooms in gyms around Jan. 1 were true. I was surprised to find the place busy, but accessible, with many people coming in to shed their own pounds on ellipticals and treadmills but with multiple machines still available for use. Only a few people seemed to be doing their reps incorrectly, and it did not smell of sweat.

I went during the first weekend of the year to further investigate its enticing offer of a $1 down payment, $10-per-month membership. Perhaps I would be more responsible with my health if I were spending money on it.

It was then I realized I had locked my keys in my car, my spare key was at home and no one who could get it for me had their phone powered on.

So, maybe the world wants me to have an eternal dad body. I don’t, though, so I am trying one more thing: a full-on diet.

No bread for at least three days, no more than 20 to 30 grams of carbohydrates a day and as few snacks as possible. A relative has said this will be the diet that will make pounds wash away like “that.” It even lets me eat meat! Maybe it will work.

The world offers many challenges to people willing to change their lives, and when it is not the world, it is people’s excuses or limitations. However, that should not stop me or other people from trying, especially when health and well-being is on the line. Being better is something that should not be ruined by a fear of setbacks.