Giving up resolutions for Lent?

Man, February is hard. It's the easiest month to kiss your goals and resolutions good bye. First you're faced with the rule of six weeks. Most people can stick with a new diet or exercise regimen for 6 weeks before they hit a snag.

Guess what is 6 weeks from January 1st? Valentines day. F bomb. How can you stay on track when your honey lamb is coming home with candies every day? Or worse, you have no honey lamb; all you have are so many feelings to feed.

Then you've got Fat Tuesday. Are you kidding me?!?! The last thing we need is another reason to binge drink.

Finally, it's black history month. Mmm. I like to celebrate with hot wings and waffles.

The only redeeming thing about this freezing god forsaken disaster of a month is Lent. You get to have ashes painted on your forehead and make a promise to God you'll give up one of your vices until Easter. What could be more motivating than the guilt of breaking lent and the possibility of fire and brimstone?

Of course Methodists get a "cheat day" on Sunday. And maybe you're an atheist without proper fear of a Heavenly judgement (bless your apostate heart). So, Lent won't help everyone pull out of their February funk.

Let me share what happened to me in February of 2009. This was my Junior year of college and I was at peak weight. I was eating an entire bag of chalky sweet heart "hug me" candies every day. Lord, I love those sugary little antacid treats. It was seriously about 2,000 calories a bag. I was single and partying a lot and eating the hell out of st. Valentine's cheapest and least favored candies. On Valentine's day I was miserable. I was single and hung over and belly sick on sweets. My roommates all had some form of significant other, and here I was, alone at the house and awfully pathetic. I just made the decision on a whim that I would go to the campus gym. I would stop being pathetic for one hour. Although I was obese, and hadn't seriously exercised in over a year, I got on the elliptical and stayed on it for an hour.

That was it. That Valentine's day was the catalyst. By October I had lost my first 60 pounds.

Well, the moral is February sucks. You'll probably have set backs, plateaus, candy, and alcohol. You'll likely be freezing as second winter strikes and depressed by your lackluster love life. You'll break resolutions (like blogging 3 x a week).

But this February, challenge yourself to commit. Say I will start over. I will keep going. I will not go to the back of the bus! Yeah! That's a Rosa Parks weight loss metaphor. Puzzle it out.