This year's top resolution: keeping it

NORFOLK

Get closer to God. Get farther from fast food. Tell her "I love you" more. Work less.

Yup, it's resolution time - a New Year's tradition that dates back to the Babylonians.

You can figure what the top one was for the folks who made it to Gold's Gym by midmorning Tuesday.

"I'm going to get in shape," said Martha Versprille, 43, a physician assistant from Norfolk, while taking a 30-minute whirl on the treadmill. "I'm watching what I eat and getting consistent about getting to the gym."

Versprille admitted that past resolutions have gone unfulfilled. But this time, "I'm really setting it as a priority."

For Andrea Fisher, 46, a chef from Norfolk, a successful resolution from 2007 has created a new one for 2008: "I'm going to lose the weight I put on from quitting smoking last year."

Like Fisher, some exercisers linked fitness to other goals.

"I'm going to work less and work out more," said Yvette Baker, 41, of Norfolk, the supervisor of a counseling program.

Stacy Edwards, a technician with LifeNet Health, wants to cool her lifelong "love affair with food." She even speaks of the allure of a doughnut in almost romantic terms: her mind telling her not to eat it, the doughnut beckoning, "Make love to me."

Part of her solution: attending church and Bible classes more often.

"A closer relationship to the Lord will help me with everything," said Edwards, 38, of Norfolk.

Keith Powell hopes to improve other relationships.

"I think I'm already a good father and husband, but I want to be better:

bringing some more roses home, saying 'I love you' a little more, trying to do the right thing," said Powell, 41, of Norfolk, a plant manager for a seafood company.

Studies show most people don't keep their resolutions. A British psychologist last week pegged the success rate at 12 percent. Yet Gold's Gym boasted winners such as Fisher, the reformed smoker, and Dominique Wright, 32, a Lowe's employee who lives in Norfolk.

Wright vowed two years ago to save more money. He ended up stashing away $2,000 - which is why he's optimistic he can lose 50 pounds this year.

Outside Gold's, getting in shape also topped the list for Virginia's Teacher of the Year.

"I want to exercise regularly, eat healthier and reduce unnecessary stress in my life," said Tommy Smigiel, a leadership teacher at Norview High School in Norfolk.

Denise Dillard, a playwright and managing director of the Generic Theater in Norfolk, will strive for balance, both professionally and personally.

She's going to step down from her job at the Generic so she can "put my own projects and my own self on my calendar." And Dillard, who lives in Virginia Beach, won't let "expectations beat me down. If you don't hit something the first time, just keep going. Don't get frustrated."

Bobby Wilder, the football coach at Old Dominion University, figures he's been working 12- to 16-hour days preparing to field a team in the fall of 2009.

"I feel like it's go-go-go all the time with this job," Wilder said Tuesday. "One thing I'm going to make a priority in 2008 is better time-management skills, so I can spend more time with my wife, Pam, and my sons, Derek and Drew."

Ken Young, president of the Norfolk Admirals and Norfolk Tides, aims for another year in which "people who work with me have fun doing what we're doing." Championships for both of his teams would be nice, too.

Among those bypassing resolutions were two local money handlers: Chesapeake's city treasurer, Barbara Carraway, and Norfolk's commissioner of the revenue, Sharon McDonald.

"It's never been something that's important to me," Carraway said.

McDonald said, "I try to be focused on my long-term goals every day."

Kenna, the new wave and rock musician from Norfolk, thinks "resolutions are dangerous for your psyche."

Nevertheless, he pledged "to focus and develop a discipline for my lifestyle. I've always been a hustler. I'm just gonna make a run to do the hustle right."

This reporter has made 14 resolutions for 2008, including drinking more water, painting the garage, taking golf lessons and reading "War and Peace."

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com