Year after year, people make New Year’s resolutions. Almost nobody keeps them past January or even thinks of them after the first month. Most of these resolutions are made in good faith that we are going to stick to them but usually they are too ambitious and we end up giving up before February.

I am no different in this. My resolutions are usually made on the spur of the moment and not planned out entirely. I end up forgetting about them pretty quickly with the hustle and bustle of every day life.

This excuse only takes me so far. As 2010 starts off, I plan on changing this. Most of my goals for 2010 aren’t all that complicated and pretty generalized. Really that is the way it should be. If I go for something outrageous, then I may not complete it. I do have one goal that might be a little lofty but what fun would it be if I just played it safe.

My main goal for the year altered since when I first thought of it. At first it was to complete a triathlon. It isn’t that I don’t want to anymore but I am adding on to it. Not only do I want to do the triathlon, I want to really motivate myself and drive myself for something better.

When it comes to setting fitness goals, I am hands down terrible at it. I don’t know why but the usually fitness goals of losing weight, getting stronger, etc doesn’t motivate me. I see them more as side effects for what happens when you workout.

Most likely, you will lose weight if you consistently run or get stronger if you continue to lift weights. While you can hit peaks with this but that isn’t the reason why I do all the things I do.

I don’t run because I want to lose weight. I don’t lift weights to be able to lift 10 more pounds. I do it because I am living and I want to be healthy. I think about what my life would be if I couldn’t walk or run. How would that feel if I had to sit there in a wheelchair and watch everyone else run by? It isn’t like life would stop if this happened to me but while I can, I will do everything I can do. Plus I enjoy it.

I think about how different this is compared to the rest of my life. In most things, I am a goal-oriented person and strive to complete them. This is one part of my life where this doesn’t hold true. I don’t have any true fitness goals that truly motivate me.

I think most of the people who know me would agree that I usually put others in front of myself. This is probably why it is hard for me to make goals like getting stronger because they only serve myself. This made me think about how I could change this. How could I do this so it just doesn’t serve myself. This is what I came up with.

My goal this year is to walk/run at least 2000 miles. For every one of those miles I walk or run, I will donate $1 to charity. So by the end of the year, I should have at least $2000 to donate not counting the monthly donations I already do.

This means I have to walk/run at least 38.4 miles a week. Some weeks I will probably go further and then there will be the weeks where I don’t go too far so I am not going to try to worry about getting to 38.4 miles every week. Most likely I am going to be able to run at least half of these miles per week. The other part I will need to walk.

So far this week, I have walked/run 25 miles. I have a long ways to go. So much for having an easy goal.

After looking at this table, it seems like Hawthorn Farms is the better deal. What do you think?

The first gym I tried, I will never go to again. Well I take that back, I am sure there are nicer ones out there but the Bally Total Fitness on Cornell is a dump. They have an confusing layout plus many of the machines I wanted to use were out of order. Unfortunately this is the closest gym to my house.

The second gym, LA Fitness is a very nice gym. It was extremely clean and the people there were friendly. I did feel that the sales person was friendly but pushing a sale right then and didn’t want to let it go without one. I have worked out there twice now and it definitely is on the radar.

The third gym I am now trying is Hawthorn Farm Athletic Club. It is the nicest of the bunch with the most amenities but also the most expensive. It is the only gym that I can just jump onto the max but the hours are the most limited there.

Which gym do I chose? I know already it will not be Ballys. It is a close race between Hawthorn Farm Athletic Club and LA Fitness. Decisions, decisions.