I’ve fallen off the (yoga) wagon.

The culprits? Too many late nights drinking and too many evenings watching back-to-back-to-back episodes of Law and Order on TV.

Sigh.

I can feel it: My bum knee’s stiff, my back feels stressed and I’ve had a shorter fuse lately.

With all the ads for special gym memberships, discount Jenny Craig sign ups and a litany of other deals to jump-start New Year’s resolutions, I’ve felt even more sheepish about getting off track.

I am still taking my vow of yoga. I got derailed, have been making excuses, feeling a little sorry for myself and trying to avoid the first week back in it when I’ll be really sore.

I have a tendency to get overwhelmed, freeze and hibernate inside my head - especially when I feel like I’m flopping. It’s always been difficult for me to take one step at a time. To succeed you have to fail - it sounds like an oxymoron at first, right? But those who get farther can get up, shake themselves off and continue on.

That process feels harder when you’re in the middle of it, of course.

It turns out that my going on power walks while being a yoga truant might put me back on the right track, according to a Yoga + Magazine article about countering resolution burnout:

“Investigators have found that the constant vigilance or attention to our goals, and the need to repeatedly inhibit ingrained responses to the cues around us, can be exhausting. In fact, Roy Baumeister at Florida State University in Tallahassee, found that self-control gets depleted just like our cells’ energy stores do when we go for a long run or do a vigorous workout. And when self-control is depleted, we’re less likely to follow our intentions and more likely to fall back into our habitual patterns…

Luckily, just like food can restore the energy supplies in a cell, researchers have found that mild exercise, rest, and meditation can all be used to restore self-control.”

While the research gives me some hope in getting back on the wagon, I doubt that Law and Order reruns will ever count as meditation.