With the really, really big holidays just around the corner, is it time to review those  New Year’s resolutions made in haste last January and restart your resolve to “get in shape” and “lose that flab?” Getting fit is the #1 New Year’s resolution. It’s also the one first abandoned early in February when sweating through spin classes and rowing competitions suddenly lose their appeal.

But there’s so much else to do. How about the instant gratification of finishing off the leftover peanut butter cups before they get stale? After all – they are the “fun size.” Maybe, working on your holiday wish list by adding the latest exercise monstrosity with its rubber-handled, spring-loaded exercise gizmos could count as “restarting” your exercise? And don’t forget to add the latest in athleisure fashion – you can’t show up at the gym in last year’s sweatpants.

So why is it so difficult to stay fitness-enthused?

• Life is much easier for us than it was for Cro-Magnon Man. Fitness was not a luxury – it was a necessity – if you wanted to stay NOT DEAD. The flinging about of rocks, spears, and clubs not only improved early man’s cardio and sprinting; it also acquired one’s dinner – rather than becoming someone’s else’s.
• The original Olympics weren’t intended as a show of one’s amazing pecs for adoring females. They were intended to tune up a soldier’s javelin-throwing, chariot-racing, and hand-to-hand wrestling skills to go to war.
• Modern technological advances in home appliances moved mankind away from hunting and gathering, farming, and black-smithing into carpooling and smoothie blending.
• The phenomenon of “the gym” arrived in the 20^th Century when the popularity of jogging moved indoors to treadmills, Nautilus machines, and exercise videos. And the tedium could be avoided with new-fangled distractions like TV.

So here we are, trying to decide if it’s chic to wear the latest hoodie or yoga pants to the Board Meeting. We have the union of luxury with comfort and the dilemma of choosing just the right sweats to go with a professional black cardigan, over a designer white tee, topped off with a fitted baseball cap, and white high-top tennis shoes. So maybe all that walking the mall and shopping can count as exercise? I know we can do it – with just a little more effort and a lot more walking.

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