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Your New Year’s Resolution is Destined to Fail
New Year’s Resolutions are self-defeating, guilt-inducing, and often rooted in rampant fatphobia and consumerism
In September, I started lifting weights for the first time in my life. Learning to operate various weight machines and perform a variety of squats and swings with barbells and kettle bells has been both challenging and immensely gratifying. It stimulates a part of my brain that’s long been left dormant, the one that thinks about how my squirrely, Autistic body occupies physical space.
I’m naturally very bad at this stuff, and will always be on the left-hand side of the bell curve in terms of strength and coordination. Despite that, I have learned to love lifting. Weight lifting has taught me to persevere even when my arms are shaking and my face is red and I have no idea where my feet are supposed to be. It’s gotten me more comfortable with trying things that don’t come naturally to me. And I’ve really relished getting gradually better at this hard, uncomfortable thing, in measurable ways every single week.
I didn’t start lifting for any particular reason. No holiday marked it. Nothing about who I am as a person fundamentally changed. I didn’t have any specific, big-picture outcome in mind. I wasn’t trying to lose weight. One day…
