As 2016 begins, more than half of the U.S. population starts to ponder what New Year’s resolutions they will try.
According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62 percent of Americans usually or infrequently make a resolution with which to start the new year. Half of those resolutions are about self-improvement, and 38 percent are to lose weight, making it the top New Year’s resolution annually.
While hopes are high on the first day of January, by the last day in June more than half have failed to stick with it, the study from 2014 found.
Murfreesboro gym owner Kelman Edwards Jr. said resolvers can do a few simple things to make sure they make the lifestyle changes needed to get fit: think positively, identify reachable goals, get professional advice and get started.
For Edwards the key to success in anything is positive thinking.
“I find the positive in the negative,” said Edwards, who is holding a grand opening for his gym ChampionTone Fitness at 11 a.m. Dec. 10 at 1180 Park Ave. in Murfreesboro.
Edwards was at a loss after he graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 2011 with a degree in biology and chemistry, he said.
Because his career plans were derailed by his grandmother’s death in Barbados, he said he found it hard to find a job and ended up working construction around Nashville.
Edwards said all the interviews he went on told him he needed more experience in the field, and MTSU’s career center told him to get a masters.
“I think it’s ironic that I had graduated from MTSU and a few months later I was demolishing the dorm I had lived in,” Edwards said about stepping back into Wood-Felder Hall to raze the dorm and make room for the new science building.
Shortly after, he knew he needed to make a change.
