Choose Your Resolution: 10 Ways To Help Your Bones

January 1, 2009.

How lame is it to make New Year’s resolutions today?

I mean, you’re a pretty special person if you can actually remember one single New Year’s Day when you resolved to do something, and then actually did it. Be it lose weight (probably America’s most-often proposed, and least-often kept resolution); quitting (smoking, drinking), or being nice to that pain-in-the-neck co-worker, resolutions are made to be broken.

Then again, if you go in with that negative attitude, of COURSE you won’t follow through. What you resolve to do is inevitably something you dislike; otherwise, you wouldn’t have to remind yourself to do it. I mean, you don’t resolve to sit down and have a beer every Friday after work, or to shop at your favorite mall store at least once a month. It’s more like “I resolve to mow the lawn before I go play golf,” or “I WILL not eat more than one piece of chocolate a day.”

Resolutions are all about deprivation and misery. Or so it seems.

But what if resolutions weren’t quite so miserable? What if you craft a resolution that’s actually attainable?

Here are 10 positive resolutions for 2009. All involve bone health. Choose just one, something you think you can stick with. And come Dec. 31, 2009, I want you to pat yourself on the back and say, “Yeah! I did it.”

1) Stop smoking: OK, you tried. And tried. And REALLY tried to quit smoking. But you’re not ready yet; you haven’t found the impetus, the program, or the strength to back up your desire.

But how about this? Persuade someone else—particularly a young person—to at least attempt to quit. Smoking is disastrous for your bones, particularly up to age 30; if you can’t yet save yourself, resolve to save someone else.

2) Exercise: You’re not going to the gym every day. So what? You don’t have time for a brisk 3-mile walk. That’s fine. How about this: every day, do just one thing that burns extra calories, be it taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking at the end of the parking lot, or snow-shoveling a path to the birdfeeder. Start small; ANY exercise is better than none.

3) Investigate more serious exercise: Once you get in the habit of making time for small exercises, it’s time to ramp it up and make exercise a regular part of each day. Next year at this time, I want you to have chosen what your daily exercise will be. Map out a safe 45-minute walk. Find out how much gym membership costs. See if your local rec. center offers a weekly yoga class. And be ready, on Jan. 1, 2010, to jump in.

4) Take your medicine: It’s amazing how many of us are prescribed a bisphosphonate, and then “forget” to take it. If you’re going to spend money on drugs, make it cash well spent: there’s no sense letting those pills just sit there. If you can’t figure out a way to take your osteoporosis drugs on a regular schedule, don’t bother to buy them.