ANDY COMER: Don't be another resolution statistic

 One good thing about going to the gym in the early afternoon is that hardly anyone is ever there.

I can hop on the stair machine for an hour and not have to worry about someone else waiting for me to finish. I can take my sweet time lifting weights because the gym's population consists of sweaty me, the employee at the front desk who's bored to tears and some guy grunting like a constipated chupacabra over on the squat machine.

Lately I have noticed that the place has been busier. The manager seems to be nearly out of breath from talking to so many new clients. (You'd think he'd be in better shape than that.) All of the cardio machines are full, and the token grunting guy is joined by a couple more sweaty, albeit chubby grunters. As I wade trough the crowd, I know most, if not all of these newfound fitness nuts will give up once the going gets tough.

We're getting close to the time of year when people either stick to their New Year's resolution(s), whatever it may be, or revert back to their old habits. I've seen it happen every January. People will make resolutions to get in shape, so they join a gym. For a month or two, they stick with it. But once the initial fervor of working out wears off, they get bored or lazy and decide to quit. Not only do they break their resolution, but they also waste the money they just spent on a gym membership, too.

I overheard someone on the evening news — most likely my favorite anchor, Channel 5's Becky Medellin — say that four out of five people who make resolutions end up breaking them. In other words, if I'm lucky enough to have five people even bother to read this column, only one of them will stick to their plan of getting in better shape, quitting smoking, cussing less or reading The Monitor more. (We newspaper folks will take what we can get.)

The whole idea of a resolution is to make yourself better off than you were the year before. No one wants to be fatter in 2009 than they were in 2008 or be worse off in some way than they were the year before. If you're thinking about giving up on your resolution already — it's not even February yet — I urge you to reconsider. It's your choice: Do you want to be part of the 80 percent of those who quit and never accomplishes a goal, or do you want to be in the 20 percent of those who are lean, mean no- cussing/smoking/drinking machines?

If you're actually still reading this column, you're probably wondering what resolution(s) I made for 2009. I hate to burst your bubble, dear reader, but I do not make New Year's resolutions. That way, I can never fail to meet them. Resolutions are a great motivational tool for some people, but I personally believe goals should be set and met year-round, not just on Jan. 1.

Oh, and if you happen to be the aforementioned grunting guy at my gym, please don't beat me up.

Andy Comer is a copy editor and columnist for The Monitor. You can contact him at acomer@themonitor.com.