JANUARY 2010: ’Tis the season. The holidays are over, you ate and drank too much, you added a couple extra pounds, and just like last year (and the year before), you think, “This is it. This is the year. This time I am going to do it. I am actually going to lose this weight.” Good for you!

Except that just like last year and the year before, you’re going to fail. You’re going to fail because you will set the same goals and take the same steps, all the while expecting a different result. Might as well grab a burger and a beer and wait for the Super Bowl, right?
Maybe not. We have all been taught fitness is a numbers game. Weight, sets, reps, calories. You count your way through your resolution in the hopes of reaching the ultimate number, the one on the scale. All the while, you are counting down the days until you can get back to your normal, complacent routine.

Call it what you want: a fighting weight, a playing weight, a college body, but what it really amounts to is a memory of a happy time, a time when you looked good and felt good. Those were the days when you had no stress, no real responsibility; no demanding boss, sales quotas or impending layoff; no mortgage, no wife, no kids. No excuses not to get out and play. You didn’t think twice then about the scale. You just lived your life, and all was well.

So what if you forget the scale, your BMI, and your pant size, and work for the things that really matter? And what if I tell you that by setting an entirely different set of goals, you will see success more quickly, you will stick with it longer, and that elusive, magic number will either disappear from your mind or suddenly appear on the scale all on its own?

What if by forgetting the math, you suddenly created the important numbers you never think about, like lower cholesterol, triglycerides and blood sugar, less sick days or aches and pains, lower medical bills…

This is the approach we take with our clients. We don’t focus on the aesthetic. We focus of health. I didn’t open my health club with hopes of one day starring in a Bow-Flex commercial. Here are my goals: I want to live a long, healthy life.

I want to be able to jump on the trampoline with my boys, last nine innings or peddle rather than walk my bike up that last hill to our house. I want to sleep well. I want to avoid the diabetes that killed my father and the osteoporosis that made my grandma stooped and fragile. I want to feel good about myself, inside and out.

What do you really want? To make it up a flight of stairs without gasping for breath? To have the energy for more than just your nightly 12-ounce curls and remote lifts? To ward off the heart attack or stroke your father had? Maybe you’d just like to be comfortable again with the lights on…

When you really think about it, aren’t these things more valuable than a 32-inch waist or size 4 dress? I’ll tell you a secret. When your goals are the right ones, you’re on your way after the first workout. When there is no unattainable number with a prescribed time for completion, healthy changes become a lifestyle, rather than a short-term prison sentence.

Each day you come to the gym, turn down dessert, take a walk or take a nap (because sometimes you need one), is a day that is better for you than any day you lived last year. It sounds trite, but it’s true: Without an end-goal or a timeframe, suddenly it’s about the journey rather than the destination. And that’s a resolution you can live with, for a long, healthy time.

Kim Peterson is the owner of Anytime Fitness in Overland Park. She and her trainers have developed a philosophy geared toward regular, everyday people to improve their health, fitness and quality of life.