(Chelsea Update would like to thank Amy Heydlauff for the information in this column.)
It’s February. All of us who decided to start taking better care of ourselves or our families in the New Year are succumbing to the realities of schedules, competing interests and the belief taking daily care is too hard. Some of us may have given up already.
The desire to use the New Year as a new beginning for some sort of health improvement effort is rooted in our inherent belief in fresh starts. The New Year is so obvious a fresh start it’s hard to resist. But the New Year is only new for so long. And our fresh start intentions age with it.
In reality, fresh starts happen all the time. We have the option to begin something new on Mondays.
Some people start something new on a birthday, especially a ‘big’ birthday like the start of a new decade.
Families have fresh starts when school lets out and again in the fall when it begins.
Sometimes a fresh start happens because of a crisis. In the case of taking better care of ourselves, it may be a new diagnosis or even the threat of a potential disease.
New parents sometimes change old habits so their children will grow up in a house without cigarette smoke or off-color language. How many new grandparents decided to start exercising so they can enjoy their grandchildren for a long, long time?
These new starts don’t always work. That’s why I like starting anew on Mondays. Monday rolls around 52 times a year giving me plenty of opportunity to practice changing my behavior. For most of us, it takes practice and a lot of it.
There are success stories. I can’t say for sure how many, but let’s say 20 percent of the people in our service area of 48,000 people picked one unhealthy behavior to change on Jan. 1, 2016. That’s 9,600 people. If 10 percent of them are successful in improving their health this year, that’s 960 people. If we had the same level of success in 2014 and 2015 and we have the same level of success in 2017 and 2018 that’s approximately 5,000 people over 5 years whose lives are changed for the better. And maybe you have been or will be one of the success stories.
Add to that people who picked Monday, their birthday or fall as their new beginning, some of whom tried over and over and finally conquered some bad habit or another. I think it’s entirely possible we have a quiet ground swell of people who are living a better life because they recognized the power of a new beginning.
One day, you could be that 83-year-old man who recognized and took advantage of a new beginning when his doctor said ‘You can feel better and here’s how.’
Or that young woman who changed her life by losing 50 pounds.
Imagine the pride of finally giving up tobacco if you’ve tried to quit every Monday for 15 years and the third Monday of June, 2016 you finally make it stick?
Small changes count, too. Maybe you simply gave up your daily soft drink at lunch. We can’t control everything, but we can control how we recognize and take advantage of fresh starts.
For me, Monday keeps rolling around and as long as it does there is hope.
