As 2025 begins, Walnut Creek gym members share New Year's resolutions
Many people use the New Year as a time to set self-improvement goals. Whether it be to get in better shape, pay off bills, or find a new relationship...experts say a resolution is more likely to be kept by keeping it real.
On the first day of a new year, Life Time gym in Walnut Creek was full of people imagining new possibilities for themselves.
"New Year's is a wonderful time for people," said personal trainer Jonathan Mahar. "It's a bit of an arbitrary date, but it helps us organize ourselves and it helps us throw ourselves into new passions."
Mahar said it's important to make realistic resolutions. It's probably not a good plan to lose 20 pounds in one month or run a marathon as your first-ever race.
A study revealed that only 8% of people achieve their New Year's goals. Nearly half of resolutions are abandoned by the end of January, and 23% are ditched after the first week.
"I think it's really important that we move in baby steps," Mahar told CBS News Bay Area. "We have small, measureable, attainable goals that we can check off. And then each check gives us confidence and helps us grow in our discipline and our motivation to continue to check more boxes."
Working on the assisted pull-up machine, Jessica Bernard admitted she is a procrastinator when it comes to resolutions. But at least she was starting off the New Year being honest.
"I'm motivated by guilt," she said with a laugh, "feeling guilty, and that's always after the fact. So, now I'm trying to be motivated by the process and how good I'll feel after, as opposed to how guilty I'll feel if I don't go. So, I'm trying to get in front of that."
Most gyms are full on New Year's Day with newcomers who have no real idea what to do. Pedaling hard on what was described as an "assault bike," Dave Smith had only recently returned to his workouts after several months following surgery.
"Here was daunting the first time, because there's just so much, so much is new. And that's a good reason to get in with a trainer," he said.
"I think most people come in and do whatever they see everyone else doing. Or they go on Instagram and they do whatever their Instagram or their TikTok is saying to do," said Sabrina Brown, a fitness instructor.
Brown said she maintains her motivation by setting a plan, and then sticking to it.
"Being consistent. Consistency works for me," she said. "I try to schedule my workouts every single day and then try to stick to that schedule as much as possible."
If there was one guy to envy in the motivation department, it's Karim Nassab. He showed up at the gym about eight months ago with the idea that he just wanted to change his life.
"And every day I felt better. And I've been coming over here five to six times a week," he said. "If you give it up--if you don't come three or four days--then you become lazy. This morning I made a resolution that I'm going to say I'm going to make it here 300 days out of the 365."
Most people probably aren't resolving to hit the gym 300 days a year, and that's ok.
Psychologists say the secret to keeping resolutions is to set realistic, measurable goals, preferably with an end date to accomplish it.
They say it also helps if you tell someone else or post your resolution online as a way of fully committing to it. Whatever your goal, they say a journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step...and sometimes it's just a baby step.
