Now that's sticking to a fitness program!

Every year at this time there's a slew of articles about how to keep your New Year's Resolution to lose weight, get fit, get healthy, and so on. That focus lasts for a few weeks at best, for most people. But what if you could make it last all year – year after year – for over a decade?!

Amazingly, there are people who have been doing that. How do I know? Because every year since 2004 we have had the honor of shipping them a new Streaming Colors Fitness Journal. 

Outside of family, there are few things in life as emotionally rewarding to me as seeing their names year after year and knowing our journal helps them maintain healthy habits. I wish I could get to know each of our dedicated journal users personally. I'm sure they all have a story to tell about how they've come to grips with their health and fitness challenges. 

Some may be awesome athletes, and others may be quietly (yet colorfully) waging the war against weight gain or type 2 diabetes. All are impressive to me for their consistency in holding themselves accountable for their health and fitness actions.

One regular calendar user I don't have to wonder about (but would like to meet someday) is the amazing and I'm pretty sure extroverted Pam LeBlanc, who shares her actual colored-in calendar pages with her readers at her Fit City blog. Pam acknowledges that she would probably be an active runner/swimmer/bicyclist anyway, but that our calendar seems to motivate her to do even more. You can't argue with that. 

Some of our calendar users have asked about an app, so I asked Pam what she thought. I'm with her on this. When you're at the computer for most of the day, the last thing you want to do is log back in to track your fitness. 

That's not to say I wouldn't like to try out some of the wearable fitness devices. They might give me some interesting biometric info – but I'm not sure they'd help me stick to my program. Rumor has it the handy little wearable trackers can be less than effective due to a certain shortcoming. 

So for now, we'll be low-tech and high-touch. When trying to be more mindful about my fitness actions, I kind of relish the process of coloring in my daily module with my positive fitness actions for the day. 

Like Pam, I also love looking back over my calendars from previous years. It definitely reminds me that I am capable of working toward a fitness goal and achieving it. This is what is known in health behavior change circles as "perceived self-efficacy" and it's an important factor in successful health behavior change.

As always, we thank Pam for helping to spread the word about our journals. She has a few calendars to give away to readers so be sure to respond to her blog post and tell her why you think you might best deserve one.

We don't learn the names of our Streaming Colors Weekly Planner users when they order the non-spiral-bound version sold at amazon.com. If you're a "regular" who buys through amazon.com, please know that we value your loyalty, and would love to hear your story, too.

We wish all of our journal users a happy and very colorful 2015.

 Jen & Alexis