It's mid-way through January and time to take stock of New Year's resolutions passed in seriousness and in jest.
While one wag (the editor at our sister paper, the New Westminster NewsLeader) vowed on Twitter that instead of starting at the gym and quitting a few weeks later, he decided to simplify his resolutions and skipped straight to the second part. Others will be mid-stride in fulfilling their Jan. 1 intentions.
While it's human nature to lose focus and fall into old habits, experts say it takes at least three weeks to change behaviour and new patterns must replace the old. Some tricks to re-charge the brain include finding others with similar goals and working with them, removing temptation, replacing old behaviours with new ones or using aversion techniques, such as associating negative feelings with those old habits.
Still, it's understandable that, if after a few weeks of trying, you simply give up. No worries, there's always next year.
If you made a New Year's resolution for 2013, are you still sticking to it? Vote in our online poll.
