A walk in Manhattan on Trash Day will reveal a sad image. On nearly every corner, a sad treadmill awaits pickup, bringing to mind the image of yet another broken promise for self-improvement.

But what can someone do, when the prospect of running in one place just doesn't seem like fun anymore? Hundreds of deserted treadmills, just like the hundreds of unused gym subscriptions make us feel bad about ourselves, and doesn't that defeat the initial purpose?

So what's the solution? How can we avoid ever getting to the point we look at our treadmills or our gym subscriptions as our enemies?

And if we end up feeling like that anyway, how can we avoid being too hard on ourselves?