By Corey McMickle

Happy New Year Port City!

Figured out that Fitbit yet? Taken those new running shoes for a test drive? It’s said a lot of gifts over the holidays are in attempts to support the receiver’s New Year’s resolutions. Well this is my attempt to turn your resolutions into a reality. Fitness may not be on everyone list of things to include this year and I’m also out here to convince you otherwise. But who’s doing this convincing anyway? Why should you listen to this random guy? I suppose proper introductions are in order.

Corey McMickle is the name, and fitness is my game. For a year and a half now I’ve been honored to be a certified personal trainer with the American Council on Exercise. Before that I was also a former amateur Mixed Martial Artist.

Being born and raised in Bainbridge; I’m hoping to finally take advantage of my life in fitness and start giving back to this awesome community. So personally, to have our local newspaper allow me to write on trending new workouts, or highlight the winner of our half marathon coming up later in March, or even simply putting a face on fitness for our region; is truly a blessing. Now that my pedigree shouldn’t be in question any longer, let’s introduce you to fitness.

People skipping on eating out on their lunch breaks and taking laps around the workplace, the sudden lack of parking at your local gym, even the cleaner food in the grocery carts at our local produce stores; the resolutions are in full affect. For everyone who is plugged in, I applaud you. I’d like to call out those who aren’t though. Maybe that failure from last year is making you hesitate or making it seem more daunting for you than it needs to be. A lot of people do the same thing they did last year when they started off getting into a more active lifestyle, only to fail once again. Let’s change it up this year.

What sense does it make for someone who hates running, to immediately jump on a treadmill or elliptical their first day at their gym because they have this false information that’s the only way to lose weight or become healthy? The outcome is inevitable at that rate. Jump on a bike and follow your kids on the family golf cart.

Perhaps you enjoy basketball? Give those nets at the new softball fields a run for their money. Maybe someone’s doing the same and a small pick-up game gets started and you look down at your new heart rate monitor and realized you burn of a cheeseburger’s worth of calories. What I’m hinting at is let’s not go into 2015 so one dimensional. Fitness doesn’t end at the gym. Enjoy dancing?

Don’t judge me, but an issue Cosmopolitan stated, “Aerobic dance can burn upwards to 443 calories per hour.” So if basically if you already know you enjoy dancing, then you can actually already do that in the comfort of your own home. Or even if you’re not and just curious about it, we have Lucretia’s and Murkerson’s dance studios that will be more than willing to help you hit that weekly calorie burn marker. Basically, what I want you to do is try and find a facet that fits you and your fitness goals that you seem to enjoy.

To sum up, this one was for the new kids on the block. After my own personal introduction for my first column, I felt like it was only right to highlight this specific group of people. To get them at that state where they are plugged into fitness and willing to maybe absorb in a more in-depth sense of what I’ll have in our next addition. Find that afternoon joy that consumes you, not the other way around.

Let’s get fit Port City.

This column was provided by Corey McMickle, who will be providing regular fitness columns throughout the year in Wednesday editions of The Post-Searchlight.