(Re)New Year

Photo: John Colburn and Sam Norval

Perhaps you already lead a perfectly balanced life. If so, go ahead and flip to the middle of the magazine to begin planning out your week because frankly, you don’t need any tips from us—we’re flawed. We stay out too late, drink too much, buy stuff we don’t need, laze around in our pajamas and rely on takeout. More often than not, our attitudes suck. But if we could just change this or that—if we could stop doing that one thing we can’t stop doing—we suspect our lives would improve.

This year we wanted to see what would happen if we quit yammering about our bad habits and actually changed them. In “Habit reforming,” we had six New Yorkers give up their very real New York behaviors for 30 days each. The results will surprise you. (Hint: Don’t swear off your cell phone just yet.) Then, in “Get stronger, weekly,” we turned to some experts for tips on four-week fitness fixes. Finally, we put together the “Ultimate detox chart,” because we could all stand to strip something away, right? (And don’t forget to turn to Chill Out for info on great new fitness classes.)

Happy New Year, New Yorkers. May this one be lighter, cleaner, healthier and free of the kind of stuff that drags us down. At least for a few months, until we revert to our old behavior. (Crap, did that sound cynical? Old habits die hard! Now give us back our pajamas.…)—Alison Rosen

Plus:

• Habit reforming: City dwellers share a penchant for certain conveniences and behaviors, like cell phones and rudeness—but would we be better off without them? Six intrepid volunteers find out.
• Get stronger, weekly: A quartet of fitness experts give specific (but simple!) recommendations for what you can do, one week at a time, for results you’ll see within a month.
• The ultimate detox chart: How to rid your system of just about anything.