On Tuesday I wrote about how difficult it is to get back into the swing of things when your routine is disrupted. A great majority of people that work those boring office jobs had this past Monday off to celebrate Martin Luther King Day. The three-day weekend so close to the holidays and New Year is a nice little surprise, guaranteed to brighten your winter spirits. However, as I wrote earlier this week, it is sometimes hard to get back to your healthy routine after the long weekend. Case in point: I didn't go to the gym Tuesday night.

Last night, I did go to the gym to spend some quality time with the treadmill, as the winter continues to do it's fun Michigan thing and snow every day. Jeff and I have been frequenting the YMCA since the beginning of the New Year, we signed him up with a membership just as everyone else was deciding this was the year they were going to be active. So we have been hitting the gym at the busiest gym-time-of-day, between 6 and 7pm. It has been packed. It has been very hard to get a treadmill at all, let alone two next to each other. So we've been enduring the crowds, knowing that in a few short weeks the mob will thin out, and people will go back home, where they will give up on themselves and start eating steak again. But that time seems to have come early. Last night, the gym was not nearly as crowded as it has been, and by the time we were leaving, most of the machines were open.

According to a website that probably has no credibility, but provides statistics that support my point, says that 75% of New Years Resolutions last through the first week of the New Year. By the end of the first month, only 64% of people are still working on their resolutions. Well, we are at week three here, and I'm pretty sure the gym is at least 30% less crowded. So that got me thinking. Do you think the 3-day weekend gifted to us by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has anything to do with the dramatic amount of drop outs I witnessed this week? Is our success that dependent on routine? Personally, I know that any time I have been successful at weight loss or healthy-living, a strict routine has played a huge role. I routinely log my calorie intake, and I schedule out gym visits. I meal plan obsessively, and I'm all the happier for it.

What do you think? Do disruptions in our routine test us? Does MLK Day mark the end for the majority of New Years Resolutions? Are you still working on yours?