Dropping the ball on 'resolutions'

Trey Campbell, a junior from Gastonia, ended 2005 by enjoying a few glasses of bubbly with friends. But after the ball dropped, Campbell vowed that in 2006 he would trade in his champagne glass for a new pair of gym shorts.

He resolved not to spend this semester in the same way as the last - jumping over the fence at Lucy's Restaurant, 114 Henderson St., to bypass the bouncers. Instead, he plans to cut back on drinking and go to the gym three days a week.

Hundreds of University students will join Campbell this month in a crusade to fulfill New Year's resolutions.

Campbell says he thinks he will be successful. Other students, however, view New Year's resolutions less optimistically.

"No one takes them seriously," says Ashley Coates, a sophomore from Smithfield.

Coates' skepticism is not unfounded. New Year's resolutions have built a reputation: They are bound to fail.

Across campus, students began January by committing themselves to healthier lifestyles.

Between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Monday, 265 students passed through the turnstiles at the Student Recreation Center, says junior Cassidy Johnson, who works at the SRC. Comparatively, in the first week of December, numbers for the same hour hovered between 75 and 140 students.

Each January, she sees new faces standing in a line that often streams out the SRC door. The floor of the weight room, she says, resembles a sea of spandex-clad students.

A few weeks later, however, "it goes back to the regulars."

Erika King, a senior from Rocky Mount, promised herself in early January that she would get in shape before her wedding later this year.

But munching on a bagel in Alpine Bagel Cafe on a recent evening, she had yet to make it to the gym.

"I'll start next week," she says. She admits that while she usually makes resolutions, "I always break them."

Because so many people believe New Year's resolutions are bound to fail, sophomore Allison Rose says she set enjoyable goals for herself, ones she felt she could accomplish.

"People's resolutions are usually so pessimistic," she says.

She vowed to try one new activity a week, and so far, she's been successful. On her to do list: eating Ethiopian food and trying salsa dancing.

Jen Ketterly, a nutrition and fitness coordinator at Student Health Service, preaches this more pragmatic approach.

Three characteristics make a New Year's resolution attainable, she says: specific, realistic and measurable goals.

Ketterly provides free nutrition and fitness counseling to full-time UNC students. Like the SRC, Student Health sees an influx of students after the New Year.

Some students, however, have wishy-washy or unrealistic goals, Ketterly says.

"I want to lose 30 pounds within a month," is not a practical goal, she says.

Ketterly says goals don't have to be made in January. Many students swear off New Year's resolutions, instead vowing to make periodic improvements throughout the year.

"You have to constantly try and better yourself," Daniel Driskill, a junior from Mount Airy, says.

At noon on the first day of class, Driskill already is sitting in the Undergraduate Library amid highlighters and textbooks, working away at his goal, getting his second A in organic chemistry. But his study plans weren't made at the New Year; he set them last semester.

Like Driskill, junior Kelley Haven of Greenville says she attempts to set and accomplish goals year-round.

"You need to have a more holistic picture of how to change your life," she says. "I don't like the idea of making a list. It's too compartmentalized."

 

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