Real David H.

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For the past couple of Octobers, I have spent the last week of the month making pledges to myself to better my health, my running and my outlook on life.

Year 1 was a decent success and actually led to a lot of changes that lasted into the next year. And one of those pledges — no soft drinks — is still going strong. The others gradually faded away.

Last year’s “Make a Pledge to Myself Week,” though, was a disaster. Aside from continuing to run a trail regularly because I live right next to one, nothing else really worked. I made goals to do more planks, to do speed work and to write more … none of those things happened. 

The only thing that has truly stuck is no soft drinks, which I recommitted to a year ago. Aside from ginger ale when I’ve been sick, I’ve remained soft-drink free for 2 years. Since that has stuck, making that pledge will not be a part of my posts for the next five days. 

Right now I’m taking a look back at what worked well two years ago and what’s failed since then to come up with better and realistic pledges. I need these pledges to make sense to me and to mean something. 

These pledges also have to tie into my 26 goals to my next marathon as well — they have to help me cross those goals off my list between now and mid-April. 

For example, when I look back on my pledges from two years ago, doing things like eliminating wrapped candy and potato chips helped me lose weight then — that’s one of my major goals in the next few months, so maybe that pledge will be back (or at least something very similar)

So for the next 5 days, Make a Pledge to Myself Week is back for another attempt so that I’m in a better place on Dec. 31 than I am on Nov. 1 … and in the best shape possible for the Blue Ridge Marathon in April.