It’s resolution, baby!
New year brings promise, and promises
Pam Duffy of Lincoln has two children with a third on the way. With a young, growing family, she says, it can sometimes be hard – almost impossible – to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
“The temptation is there,” she says. “They (her children) come first and sometimes I’ll leave myself out. It’s hard when they’re eating pizza and pasta and macaroni and cheese.”
Balancing a healthy lifestyle while seemingly always being on the go can be an arduous task, she says, but her New Year’s resolution – to stay in tiptop shape – is one of her focuses as the calendar turns from 2017 to 2018.
According to a poll of more than a million people via market research and data analytics firm YouGov, 37 percent of people polled said that eating healthier and getting more exercise were among their New Year’s resolutions, far and away the highest vote-getter among the 16 options. Poll answers also included save money, make new friends, read more, and take up a new hobby.
Duffy said she’s made it a yearly habit to include getting healthy among her goals for the New
Year. In years past, she says, she’s given up about six weeks in, saying it can be “a lot of work, time, money, and effort.”
But, as she’s five months pregnant with her third child, Duffy says she’s now laser-focused on trying to maintain her goals and staying committed to the objective for when the ball drops at midnight.
“We try every year, I definitely try to stay as healthy as I can…” she said. “The goal is to keep working out … The challenge is ahead.”
Duffy, on Saturday, was getting some early exercise at Industrial Revolution Cross-Fit on Smithfield Avenue in Pawtucket. Crossfit is a type of exercise that focuses on “functional movement,” encouraging a high-intensity workout, with activities ranging from barbells and power lifting to cardiovascular work and metabolic conditioning.
David Cardenas, a general manager and coach at Industrial Revolution Cross-Fit, said that he’s been with the gym for almost two years and knows that when the calendar turns and a new year begins, he can rely on a “big boom” in customers seeking to get healthy.
“Our goal is for them to not fail their resolution. People realize that’s an investment in longevity and health. They look better, feel better, they’re more confident,” Cardenas said, emphasizing Industrial Revolution’s retention rate, saying that 90 percent of people who try out the Pawtucket-based crossfit center will stick it out.
But it’s not just what happens inside the walls of Indus- trial Revolution that Cardenas and his fellow coaches focus on. He says they also teach gym-goers the basics of how to eat properly and live a sustainable lifestyle.
“People are usually with us one hour, it’s the other 23 hours that are up to you,” he said. “We provide them with a diet and nutrition plan. The hard part’s outside the gym.”
Inside the gym is a whiteboard with a variety of helpful eating habits. Cardenas says the focus is “keeping it simple,” suggesting to stay away from processed foods and sugars and to eat more greens and vegetables.
For New Year’s resolution thrill-seekers, Industrial Revolution offers a 25 percent discount for the first month, and also a special six-week challenge. Cardenas said that he’s found that six weeks is just enough time to retain people who are committed to getting and staying healthy, adding that six weeks is usually enough for a person to see physical results and instill those healthy habits.
The six-week challenge is discounted to $300 for six weeks, which can also be paid in two monthly installments of $150. With that comes physical training, semi-personal training, nutrition counseling, meal prep, and a free bag of protein. At Planet Fitness on Diamond Hill Road in Woonsocket’s Walnut Hill Shopping Center, people were running on treadmills, lifting weights, and getting in a little workout before the big celebration. General Manager Daniel Cote said “everyone wants to start the new year fresh.”
“It’s hard, everyone has a different answer,” he said when asked why it was that so many people turned to gyms when December turns to January.
But for Cote, the gym changed his life. After suffering an infection in his left knee when he was 15, Cote’s weight ballooned to 398 pounds. But after turning to the Woonsocket gym in 2011, his life transformation began and he’s lost more than 200 pounds. Now 27, he weighs 186 pounds.
Cote said that he understands how people can get caught up in the end-of-year holidays and forget to keep track of what they’re eating. With Halloween in October, Thanksgiving in November, and Christmas in December, there are plenty of reasons to kick back and gobble up some unhealthy foods.
“But now the focus is to get fit and eat healthy,” Cote said, with the holiday mayhem and craziness subsiding.
“I hope everybody meets their goals to do what they want to do,” he said. “I hope to see new, healthy faces.”
New customers were already signing up on Saturday, as Cote said he’d seen 80 people become members over the week with another 60 expected to sign up on New Year’s Eve.
Planet Fitness is offering special membership deals until Jan. 10. For $1 down and $10 a month, customers can sign up for the white card with free unlimited fitness training. Or for $0 down and $21.99 per month, they can sign up for the black card, with benefits including use of hydromassage, tanning, massage chairs, half-price cooler drinks, and unlimited guest privileges to any Planet Fitness location.
“I hope everybody meets their goals to do what they want to do. I hope to see new, healthy faces.” —Daniel Cote, general manager of Planet Fitness in Woonsocket