By Jonathan Miller, on Wed Jan 2, 2013 at 8:35 AM ET Sign up for the fitness challenge right here:
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 If you are like us, each new year begins with a resolution to live a healthier lifestyle. And if you are like us, that resolution is long forgotten soon after Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow.
As Yogi Berra might have said, “It’s Groundhog Day all over again.”
Join us in proclaiming that 2013 will be different. And we at The Recovering Politician are here to help.
For the past few weeks, we’ve been recovering from years of political stress by engaging in a fierce (OK, mostly hilarious) fitness challenge, supervised by one of the region’s finest personal trainers, Josh Bowen.
  Follow these links to read how our competition was launched, how John Y. resisted temptation on a Mediterranean cruise and then tried to tempt Jonathan with a candy gift basket, and how Jonathan learned that emulating a movie character played by the Sexist Man Alive (see pics at right) wasn’t necessarily the optimal fitness plan.
But this isn’t about us. A key objective of our Web site has always been to identify ways to serve the public from our private posts. And our philosophy remains the same: The optimal kind of help anyone can provide others — whether government or individual — is neither a handout nor a cold shoulder, but rather empowerment with tools they can use to improve their own lives
So as the New Year begins, we open up the challenge to you. Whether you are interested in losing weight, firming up, or simply living a healthier lifestyle, joining our New Year’s Fitness Challenge will provide you the following assistance:
- A FREE email assessment and fitness plan design by our personal training expert, Josh Bowen.
- FREE weekly emails with tips from Josh, and “insights” (read: struggles and jokes) from John Y. and me.
- The option to help you find a certified personal trainer in any city in the U.S.
- The option to PUBLISH your progress reports on the pages of The Recovering Politician.
- The FUN of participating in a fitness challenge with millions (OK, maybe dozens) of other people like you, going through the same challenges.
Best of all, there’s no catch, no hidden print, and no cost.
Simply sign up in the form at top or below:
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You will hear from Josh soon after, and the challenge begins.
So please join us, and ensure that we aren’t the only losers in the new year.
By Lisa Miller, on Wed Jan 2, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET Happy happy happy new year! What a great time to think about what we want for ourselves.
Catching up on a few seasons of recorded television programs this winter break, I watched another Oprah’s Next Chapter and found some intriguing inspiration from her interviews with former Olympians: Carl Lewis, Bruce Jenner, Mary Lou Retton, (and my childhood gymnastics idol) Nadia Comaneci.
Despite having quit a promising career in ballet myself by age 6, despite having only ever hit foul balls in all my 4 years of girls’ softball, and having always been too afraid to kick my legs straight up from a bridge into an actual back-walk-over, I still recognize in myself some Olympic-status qualities.
Yes! I rock, it is true!
But really, we all have it. It’s woven into our DNA, and we see it even in new babies born too early, fighting to survive. Simply, it is one of the most basic of human qualities: Perseverance, and with a capital P.
While I have not persevered toward excellence in athletics, these Oprah interviews triggered my realization that I absolutely deserve some serious gold, or at least a bronze here and there, in a few significant areas of my life.
 None of these athletes medaled before YEARS of training. Bruce talked about his 6 years of daily dedication, Mary Lou described her single-pointed focus, Carl said that he was never competing against people as much as he was competing against perfection itself.
Well I computed my own personal stats and it seems that I too have quite a record here. I’ve been a dedicated, focused, striving toward excellence mother for nearly 19 years. 19! My kids are in pretty good shape, so this is some measure of success.
Read the rest of…
Lisa Miller: The New Year, Olympians & Perseverance
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Jan 1, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
My New Year’s Resolution for 2013?
To overcome my Triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13).
I think it’s important that New Year’s resolutions be practical, sensible and attainable.
This one just seems timed so perfectly on every level.
And if I wait until next year to tackle it, I would be almost cheating myself from an opportunity to daily get over this phobia.
 You know what would be an absolute disaster though?
If I overcame my phobia of 13 in the year 2013 —only to substitute a new phobia for it.
The number 14.
By Artur Davis, on Tue Jan 1, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET  Why, despite its periodic low points, does conservatism always rebound? The reason is that much more than their liberal rivals, conservatives understand the weaknesses of our modern bureaucratic, too balkanized society. The strings of bureaucracy do tie the hands of genuine innovators in the public space, and the costs include a substandard education system and income support structures that actually perpetuate poverty. The growth of government has taken on a relentless pace that has weakened constitutional values from the separation of powers to the Commerce Clause. Entrepreneurship is vulnerable to regulatory overreach. And the subdivision of Americans into factions and grievances based on identity has diminished the concept of a national interest.
But while conservatism has endured, it’s worth pointing out that in my lifetime, voters have tended to turn right primarily as a correction to liberal failure or disarray—the freefall of the sixties, the ineptness of Jimmy Carter, the excesses of Democratic Congresses in 1994 and 2010.
 The challenge the political right faces today, and that it failed in 2012, is the one of earning American confidence during a crossroads period, when the country is middling along and neither left nor right seem to bear exclusive responsibility for the train wrecks around us. Of late, conservatism has failed to offer its own account of how the middle class became poorer and less upwardly mobile, much less how to turn their fortunes around. It has seemed incapable of defending its cultural values without resorting to derision or wishful thinking. It has seemed tongue-tied about the immorality of financial markets that squander investors’ capital with not an inch of respect for the restraint that orders the lives of smaller, less entitled businesses, much less the standards around kitchen tables.
Read the rest of…
Artur Davis: A New Year’s Resolution for Conservatives
By Nancy Slotnick, on Tue Jan 1, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET “If we are going to survive this, you need to remember, fear is not real. It is a product of the thoughts you create. Now do not misunderstand me; danger is very real. But fear is a choice.”
–Will Smith, as a Dad to son in an upcoming survival sci-fi movie
I liken dating in the modern world to sci-fi survival in this sense. There is a lot of fear but not nearly as much danger as it would seem. People talk about the fear of meeting an axe murderer, but statistically speaking that is not likely. Getting rejected, on the other hand, is par for the course. So is succumbing to fear of rejection based on real danger or just a choice? And how do we determine where the line is?
Heartbreak is real. For some, it can be debilitating. But in dating, if you’re the one doing the rejecting and you’re never the “rejectee,” then you’re probably not aiming high enough. In true love situations, I believe that both people feel lucky. Both feel that their date is a little out of their league. And so it’s so exciting when it really happens. And so gut-wrenching when it crashes and burns.
My New Year’s resolution is to know the difference between danger and fear and to choose against fear. This is not easy; I may need some help. My stomach is no help- it would steer me away from everything. My mind is no help. I would obsess until the window of time had passed. My shame is no help. I’m letting go of shame. But acting shamelessly can sometimes leave me to embarrass myself or piss people off. Just ask the Gallaghers on Showtime.
My grammar auto-correct is green-lining “I may need some help.” Is that because I should be more sure about my needs? If I need help, it should be a definite. Maybe I don’t need help. Maybe I just need grit and determination. I also need a healthy dollop of faith, which is hard to come by these days. Luckily I have a reserve of faith that I saved for a rainy new year’s day, like a special bottle of wine in my cellar. Do have a faith cellar?
 Try to find yours. Actually do not try. As Yoda says: “Try there is not. Do or do not.” Every time the universe throws you a bone- like a great date with someone who lives in another country- hold onto the good faith. Let go of the guy. Keep the faith perfectly chilled in your faith cellar until you find yourself in need of reserve. Thank the universe for giving you a taste of what is to come, rather than cursing the universe for taking it away. There’s more goodness where that came from, if you can choose against fear.
This year, make it your resolution to get rejected as much as you can. The more times you are rejected the closer you are getting what you seek. In sales, they say: “Every no leads you closer to a yes.” That is, if you can learn from your failures and improve. Do not seek perfection (that is foolish), but aim high. Disappointment comes when it comes, and it sucks as it always does. The fact that you didn’t get your hopes up doesn’t really make it better. You have to get your hopes up if you want anything good to happen. It’s your dream- make it big.
When I had my dating-café Drip and it reached its height of popularity circa 1997, customers said to me: “I’ll bet you never imagined your place would be like this!” And I was thinking: “Of course I imagined it- or it would never have happened!” I didn’t say that- I was trying to be polite. And I think that I had suppressed the fact that I had been terrified that it wouldn’t turn out how I imagined. I guess it’s like the pain of childbirth—we are programmed to forget that fear or we would never endure it again.
Read the rest of…
Nancy Slotnick: New Year’s Resolution — Be Fearless
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