2024’s New year resolution was to complete 1,000 miles, and that resolution has changed my entire life.

It is that time of year when I start reflecting on the past year, and all that I have accomplished, all that I want to accomplish. The new year, new me kind of stuff, except I don’t like the whole “new me” Part of it. More like a new year, better me, improved me, focused me. To be honest at one point I didn’t understand the hype of new year resolutions, and blah blah blah. Then came a phase of I hated new years resolutions, because like so many others I would come in hot, and then fizzle out 3-6 months in. usually about three months rarely six, haha… being honest here. 

I would spend hours writing down my resolutions things like : Lose weight, be organized, go outside more, have more money. I would write how optimistic I was “this year” and how things would be “different”. Not once did I sit down and write out my goals, and how I planned to achieve them. Never coming up with a game plan of how to be accountable for my goals. I never told anyone about them, unless it was in a facebook or instagram post and then it was just a little vague post about how great the year was going to be. 

So what made it stick in 2024? Why was it so different? Well let’s start with Thanksgiving 2023… Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I love it…not really I hate Thanksgiving, I hate it so much that I love it more than any other holiday, but that is a post for another day. So I got up like I always do, pulled my turkey socks from my drawer( I own 3 pairs of thanksgiving socks), pulled out my brown leggings, and the newest Thanksgiving shirt given to me by my best friend. It was an extra large, and it was tight. Framed my belly tight…I ate so much food I literally couldn’t move because my stomach hurt so bad from being too full. I waited a little bit and ate some more, because I was already miserable why not keep going. 

Then the following day we went to my fiance’s family’s house for thanksgiving dinner with them. They took a group photo, when I got home they had sent the group photo to our family chat group. I was mortified, my thigh looked like it swallowed the Thanksgiving turkey, and I was so large that you could not tell where I ended and the refrigerator behind me ended. My best friend tried to make me feel better, she cropped the photo and said that the problem was the refrigerator made me look bigger than I was, since my hoodie matched the color of the refrigerator. She told me it was bad angles, she tried so hard to make me feel better….but the image of my thigh literally looking like it was packaged and ready to roast for dinner stuck in my head. 

That night…November 27th, I decided that I do not want to be a victim of my own choices and lack of actions. My mother suffers from arthritis, as well as poor cardiovascular health, stroke and cancer runs in my family, obesity runs in my family. I do not want those results for me. That night I realized it was not about weight loss, it was never about weight loss, I wanted to live my life to the fullest. 

And that…is the night my life changed for the better. Yes I was disgusted with my size, so you wonder how I can say that weight loss wasn’t what it was about. In the previous years my goals were “Lose weight” “get skinny”, blah blah blah. There was never a why? My why…was because I wanted to look like someone else. That night though, I was ok with being me, but becoming a healthy me. 

I didn’t want to get skinny, or just lose weight. I wanted to be 60 and able to walk the beach on family vacation. I wanted to be able to rent the cheapest condo available without having to worry about the amount of steps it had, and my inability to walk up and down them. I want to be able to go do things with my children when they become young adults. I want to be able to live a fulfilling lifestyle when my children leave the nest. I wanted to be able to brag to all my friends that I ran five miles this morning. I wanted a hobby that brought me joy, happiness and health. I wanted something that was mine, and only mine that no one could take away from me. 

So that night, I decided I would run…and thats what I did. I started out small and I built up, I worked on consistency, I showed up every day for myself. I reminded myself daily that this wasn’t weight loss related, this was my health, my future. I printed out a tracker that you color in each day of the month to show you completed an exercise that day. I used a calendar to write down my daily mileage totals. I saved up and purchased a fitness watch, its a cheapo, but it has served its purpose. A year in and I still get excited to run. I love that I went from walking 22 minute miles, down to walking 17 minute miles, and running 13:30 minute miles. I love knowing that I used to get out of breath 30 seconds into my running interval and now I can run 2-3 minutes. 

The hills that I once had to stop a quarter of the way up and catch my breath and then half way up stop again, now I can power walk them. When my nephew visited this summer, my daughter got hurt and we were about half a mile from the car. I was able to run all the way back to my car and drive back to get them. At the park recently with my niece and nephews, my nephew took off running towards the road and I effortlessly ran to catch up to him before he was in real potential danger. 

These are the reasons it stuck this time. I wasn’t focused on getting skinny, I don’t give a crap about getting skinny anymore, or losing weight. I am over the moon about the way my body has changed. The way my abilities to complete tasks have changed. I have energy, I feel good, my blood tests at the doctors all came back outstanding, my cholesterols are amazing, my blood pressure is amazing. I recently had a procedure done, and the nurse had my pulse reader on and she became very concerned very quickly and asked if I always had a dangerously low pulse rate. I was confused and told her no. However I threw it out there that I run regularly and she sighed with relief and said “ that is all I needed to know, that explains it.” 

My 2024 resolution was to complete 1,000 miles. That is it. That was my only resolution for 2024. I achieved my goal on October 11th, 2024. Ending the day at 1,003 miles. It was invigorating. I had stuck to a resolution, I had achieved the goal, but I had achieved so much more while working towards that goal. This has made me excited to make next year’s resolution/goal. I have considered a new mileage goal, but I think I am going to take a different direction this year. I am going to continue running, but My 2025 resolution is not going to be a mileage goal. It is going to be bigger to me, more personal, more focused. I have an idea of what it will be, but I am still working out the details. So until I am ready to reveal it, until I have worked out the details, Just know that 2025 will be big for me. It is going to conquer a fear, and it is going to really remind me of who I am, and what I am capable of. 

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new” -Socrates

Until next time, Happy running!