We spoke to experts with advice on how to keep New Year’s Resolutions
It’s that time of year where people start to think about New Year’s Resolutions — but how do you make sure you stick to them?
According to YouGov, 31% of people who made resolutions in 2023 kept all of them, 50% kept some, and 16% failed at all of them.
So we’ve looked at some popular New Year’s Resolutions and spoken to experts from around the Newark area to find out the best ways to successfully keep their pledge for 2025:
— Getting fit
Many people decide that their New Year’s Resolution is to get fit and healthy, whether its to take up a new sport or just to improve your fitness.
Here are five top tips for beginners from fitness instructor Chris from Active4Today, which operates Newark and Sherwood District Council’s fitness centres in Newark, Southwell, Blidworth and Ollerton:
- Start slow and build up: Don’t dive into intense workouts right away. Start with low-impact exercises and gradually increase the intensity. This helps prevent injuries and allows your body to adapt.
- Consistency is key: Aim for regular, consistent workouts rather than sporadic, intense sessions. Building a routine is more sustainable in the long run. Short on time? Why not try Synrgy, our half hour HIIT sessions which you could easily fit into your day.
- Set realistic goals: Whether it’s losing weight, building muscle, or improving endurance, set achievable goals. This helps keep you motivated and allows you to track your progress.
- Mix it up: Incorporate a variety of exercises into your routine. This not only keeps things interesting but also ensures you’re working different muscle groups and improving overall fitness. Our newly refurbished fitness suites offer a fantastic range of cardio, functional, resistance and plate-loaded equipment to suit all levels. We also run a full programme of exercise classes for you to try.
- Listen to your body: Pay attention to how your body feels during and after workouts. If something hurts, it’s important to rest and recover as pushing through pain can lead to injury.
Remember, the journey is just as important as the destination. Enjoy the process and celebrate your progress along the way.
— Volunteer
We’re all busy people, and giving your time for free may seem a daunting prospect, but volunteering for a charity or not-for-profit organisation can be incredibly rewarding and many local groups or charities are in desperate need of help.
The Furniture Project, based at Boughton, is a reuse charity that collects donated furniture and household items all over Nottinghamshire, Bassetlaw, and Nottingham City to help provide people in need with subsidised furniture and other essential household items.
The charity is always looking for volunteers to join the team. Administrator Carol White said: “Whether you have one day or five days to spare we are happy to work with you to explore options and find the right volunteering position for you and us.
“We have volunteering opportunities for the right people in our shop, office, warehouse, on our management committee and out on our vans.”
Volunteer drivers must be over 25 years old with clean driving licence, and will collect and deliver furniture with the help of a Drivers Mate across Nottinghamshire and parts of Lincolnshire.
Warehouse assistants will be based in the charity’s warehouse on Boughton Industrial Estate and support the warehouse supervisor to keep the warehouse clean and tidy, help with sales, and move stock.
Those who have more time on their hands, or are retired, are also asked to consider joining management committee and help steer the direction of the Furniture Project.
The committee meets every six to eight weeks at Ollerton Town Hall, and meetings usually last no more than two hours.
If you would like to see how you could get involved and make a difference and find out more, email recycle@thefurnitureproject.net, call 01623 836410 or message via their Facebook page www.facebook.com/thefurnitureprojectnottinghamshire.
— Learning a musical instrument
Let’s face it, I bet many of us have an old violin from our school days or a guitar from our teenage years gathering dust under the bed or in a cupboard somewhere. But if this is the year you decide to start afresh and learn a new instrument, it’s hard to know where to start.
We’ve spoken to piano teacher Bekka McAndrew, and asked her for her top five tips for learning the piano:
1. Be happy being ‘bad’ at something new - Playing the piano does not come to you straight away. A lot of people get frustrated that they struggle with certain pieces or techniques in the start of their journey - be comfortable being bad at it! If it was easy from the start then you wouldn’t need to learn anything. Give yourself patience and trust the process.
2. Consistency is key - Playing any instrument takes a lot of practice. Ensure you’re setting aside a bit of time regularly to get familiar with what you’re playing. Not being consistent with your practice means your progress will be slower!
3. Technique is important from the start - Ensure you’re considering hand position, posture and finger movement from the start. Slipping into bad habits makes things a lot harder once you’re playing more difficult pieces!
4. Set a goal that’s right for you - Not everyone is playing an instrument in order to take exams and earn certificates. But, If you’re playing for your own enjoyment it is still a good idea to set a goal! Think of a piece/song that you love and start there. Work towards playing this and once that is achieved, reach for something harder!
5. Have fun with it - There’s no point learning an instrument if you’re putting yourself through gruelling pieces that you hate. Music is supposed to be fun so keep it that way. Make sure you’re playing music you love, regularly!
Find out more about learning to play the piano with Bekka by visiting her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/share/1LYCgLZBiT/?mibextid=LQQJ4d) and @bekkamcandrewpianolessons on Instagram
— Stop smoking
Stopping smoking is one of the best things you can do for your health and there is plenty of support to quit. It’s never too late to give up, for your health, your family’s and friends’ health, and your bank balance.
According to research by Nottinghamshire County Council, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and ill-health in Nottinghamshire and about 10% of adults smoke in Nottinghamshire — meaning there are at least 67,000 smokers in the county, and about 8,000 local smoking-related hospital admissions per year.
Research suggests that people who quit with the support of local stop smoking services are three times more likely to succeed, and you can get free, friendly support from the fully trained stop smoking advisors at Your Health Notts — a service commissioned by the county council to support residents in the county to get active, lose weight, and reduce alcohol intake as well as quit smoking.
Vivienne Robbins, Interim Director of Public Health at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “Smoking causes or contributes to serious illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and respiratory conditions. Two in three smokers will die from smoking-related causes. For these reasons, we want to prevent people from starting to smoke and encourage those who do to try and give up.
“Most smokers, when you ask them, say they want to give up. There are lots of different ways to stop smoking, but evidence shows that you’re more than three times more likely to quit with support from a stop smoking service.
“Our community stop smoking service delivered through Your Health Notts offers friendly advice, FREE stop smoking aids (such as nicotine patches, gum or vapes under the swap-to-stop scheme) and ongoing support to help people quit.
“It’s never too late to stop smoking, and the benefits to your health (and your finances) will be huge. So, I encourage you to get in touch with your local service. In Notts, you can phone 0115 772 2515 or visit www.yourhealthnotts.co.uk.”
— Learn a new language
I think we’ve all tried to learn a few sentences in the native language when we’ve been abroad on holiday. But this year, why not try and learn a new language?
According to research by Cambridge University, learning a new language in later life can protects older learners against dementia and other degenerative neurological conditions as language learning is such an effective brain workout, and just one week of learning a new language has a positive impact on students’ levels of alertness and focus.
Studying a language engages memorization skills and recall, and research shows that people who speak a second language regularly perform better on memory tests than monolingual people.
We teamed up with Italian teacher Kate Wright, who has just started new classes in Newark. She said that the key is to be ‘SMART’:
1. Specific — Decide what it is you want to do in your target language, for example ordering a drink in a bar, food in a restaurant, ask for suggestions for places to eat, read recipes, introduce yourself and your family etc
2. Measurable — decide how you will know that you can do the above. Do you have a holiday booked to the country of your target language? Do you know someone who speaks your target language with whom you could practice? Could you do a language course that would cover these skills?
3. Attainable — if you have answered yes to a/b/c then pass to 4. If not, consider how you can make your objective attainable. Could you book a holiday/find a language buddy/book a course?
4. Realistic (the most important for adult learners). I met someone recently who said they were trying to read Classic Literature in another language but struggled to put a sentence together. Many adults think that quickly they will be able to converse in their target language, forgetting that it takes the average baby 2-3 years (immersed in the language) to string words together and 4-5 years (again immersed in the language) to speak fluently. It is important not to waste energy in grammar concepts that you may not need , or passive skills (like reading) that will not help you speak.
5. Time bound: give yourself a deadline (holidays are great for this!) or a chance to try out your objectives. “In bocca al lupo!”(in the mouth of the Wolf! An Italian idiom which means Good Luck!)
