Resolutions fading? This Minnesotan has kept his running streak for 53 years, and he has tips.

If you’re one of the millions of Americans who made a resolution to get more exercise in 2025, this is about the time when your resolution is likely to flag.

In fact, it might be a bit past time. Quitter’s Day, the second Friday in January, when a lot of people supposedly give up on their better selves, was Jan. 10.

If you’re struggling to retain your resolve, here’s a pep talk from someone who knows how to keep going.

Rochester resident Steve DeBoer recently moved into second place in an international list of the longest active running streak, according to Streak Runners International and the United States Running Streak Association.

DeBoer, a 70-year-old retired Mayo Clinic dietitian, has run at least a mile every day for more than 53½ years. His streak, started when he was a teenager, was 19,580 days long when we interviewed him. He calculated his total miles at 184,271.5 so far and he thinks he’s the first person in the world to run at least 3,000 miles a year for 50 years.

We talked to DeBoer on Jan. 13, about a week after he ran a marathon in Florida. He had just finished his latest run — 9 miles outdoors in single-digit temperatures plus a mile indoors on the treadmill. He also does 100 pushups a day, figuring he’s done more than 2 million pushups over his lifetime.

Here’s his advice on how and why to keep going.

Q: What’s your advice for people whose exercise resolution is starting to wane?

A: Number one is that small things add up if you’re consistent. Keep in mind that positive habits can spill into other areas of your life. It helps to build discipline. I think it helps with mental health and just general, improved quality of life. Life is not always fun or easy, but it seems easier after a run and gives me a greater sense of well-being. And, yeah, during the run, sometimes it’s not that fun, especially when it’s really cold and windy and rainy. But once I’m done, you know, I’m more up for the day. For me, it’s my substitute for caffeine.

Q: Do you have to do it every day, like you?

A: No, it’s not necessary to do it every day. It’s just, if you’re consistent, then you start remembering without thinking about it.

Q: In terms of exercise: strength, aerobic or both?

A: Aerobic, strength and stretching. Flexibility. When I was younger, I didn’t do the flexibility stuff, but now that I’m older, I do that before I run, after I run, and before I go to bed, because joints just don’t have the same range of motion as you get older unless you do something with it.

Q: Have you ever been tempted to stop?

A: Not really. Once you start doing it, you’re always trying to figure out a way of how can I keep going? I’m not tempted to stop. I’m always tempted to try, and I know if I don’t succeed, well, I tried. But if I did succeed, maybe that running streak goes from 20 years to 30 years to 40 years to 50 years. And then, of course, now the pressure is on, but it’s not really pressure. It’s part of my routine. It’s part of my lifestyle.

Q: What if you feel like giving up, because you’ve already missed a day or a week?

A: As with anything one values, don’t give up. Find ways to more easily fit it into your schedule or switch the type of exercise you do, or try alternating different exercise routines. Look at a missed day as an opportunity to problem solve how to avoid missed days in the future. And remember all the benefits of fitness and that fitness can be maintained with three to four workouts per week.

Q: Does it get easier the longer you do it?

A: In terms of getting more fit, it gets easier, but in terms of mentally, it all depends on what your mindset is. Some people do find after a while, it’s almost a burden mentally. They feel it’s stressful for them in that situation. Then maybe you need to find something else. Maybe you need to skip a day once in a while. That’s fine, but you still know that long term, overall, you know general fitness is going to be good for your body.

Q: What’s the payoff? Why keep going?

A: I feel better after I’ve run. Pretty much all the time it’s in the morning, and so the rest of the day, I have a more positive outlook with things you know are coming up, and how to handle them and get them done and then go to bed. I like to sleep, too. I think running helps me sleep better, too. I like to eat, and if you have a regular exercise routine, you can eat a little more and not worry about it. I always joke to people when I go somewhere and have a little more food and say, “OK, I’ll eat a little more, but I promise I’ll run tomorrow.”