New Year's resolutions 2022: Team Weekend offer up their pledges

Well 2022, it’s very, very nice to finally meet you...

It can be universally agreed that the last couple of years have, to say the least, been less than something to sing about.

So, while we have no full idea what to expect from the next 12 months, we can at the very least keep our fingers crossed and our hopes high for something a little better than 2021 and, indeed, its much-lamented predecessor.

If all goes as planned, 2022 is set to be a big year, playing host to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the Winter Olympics and, of course, the first FIFA World Cup ever to be held in the winter.

However, though the calendar may be stacked with big events, for most us this new year will be a chance to gleefully try and move on from the last one, and many of us may have kicking that off with one of January’s most time honoured traditions – New Year’s resolutions.

Whether you’re pledging to ditch the chocolate, hit the gym, get stuck into a new hobby, buffer that bank balance or make more time for your nearest and dearest, this month is the month you may well be kicking those new habits into practice.

With this folks, Team Weekend are here to offer you their support, and for those looking for ideas, a bit of inspiration.

For the past two years the guys and gals of Weekend Towers have made their pledges of good behaviour known to the world by printing them in our papers for all to see.

Resolutions have been kept, resolutions have been broken, and many good and bad habits have both started and stopped as the last 24 months have rolled on.

Now, with a good sprinkle of much-needed starry-eyed optimism as the starting pistol has fired on 2022, our crack(pot) team of writers are ready to share with you what they will be doing to leap into the next 12 months with gusto, and the challenges they are (or not) setting for their so-called will power and steely determination!

Give them a helping hand folks, they’re bound to need it. Happy New Year – let’s do this...

Dan Morris

It may be boring, it may be obvious, and it may be in line with what countless millions have pledged to do before and given up the ghost with.

But I don’t care, and I’m standing by it. This year, my resolution is all about that bod...

‘Tis true that year in year out since the dawn of time (or at least exercise bikes and SlimFast) people all around the world have made New Year promises to ditch the donuts, give up the grog, and begin torrid affairs with trainers and treadmills.

Naturally motivated by weight gain as a result of joyful festive indulgence, for a large chunk of the planet’s populace January is synonymous every year with a brand-new fitness regimen, a brand-new daily intake, and a brand-new outlook on health and wellbeing.

And then we remember the leftovers from the cheese board are still in the fridge. Shops are still selling pigs in blankets (available all year round, you know). And though our January may be ‘dry’, ‘Febrewery’ is only a stone’s throw away. Would a little warm-up tipple really hurt?..

Pretty soon the first month of the year is in fact more synonymous with broken promises, shattered strength of will and a wasted new gym membership that it appears Rumpelstiltskin has binded us to for all eternity.

I’ve been there. I’ve tried, I’ve failed, I’ve tried once more and I’ve valiantly failed again. But this year folks, I mean business. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Arnold Danzenegger will be joining the parade, Mr Morris-tivator is in the house, and Dan ‘The Rock’ Johnson is about to come to stay.

For many years I’ve taken reasonable care of myself, but as I get deeper in to my dirty thirties, the time is now to dial it up a notch – particularly as an actual woman has recently agreed to make an honest man out of me, and she ‘aint gonna’ be walking down the aisle to meet a sack o’ spuds. Not on my watch.

So, as I write, while one hand taps diligently at the keyboard, a dumbbell is clutched in the other. The fridge has been purged of beige, filled with green and mercilessly culled of lager, lard and leftover Lamb Madras. And, in the biggest commitment of the lot, my faithful beast of a motor has been traded in for an exclusively Dan-powered velocipede.

This time folks, it’s all guns blazing – the whole nine yards, and the full shebang. If I’m getting hitched, I’m not gonna’ let the mighty Morris gene pool down. Danny Balboa will be running up those church steps and punching the air as his beautiful betrothed arrives to meet him. Unless she wises up by then of course, which is more than a distinct possibility.

Either way, time to get the chisel out and see if we can sculpt this boy into tip-top shape. At the very least, I suppose I should try to look my best for Febrewery. Wish me luck!

Heather Large

I’ve had the same resolution for the past two years but I’ve failed miserably each time – but I blame Covid and lockdowns.

I wanted to finally catch up face-to-face with those friends I hadn’t seen for a long time, rather than continuing to swap emails and Christmas cards. Unfortunately, it has been somewhat scuppered by the pandemic, which has limited our options. As we welcome a new year, I know I will see some of them at last at my wedding in July, but I hope we can make it happen sooner than the summer.

One of my other aims for last year was to appreciate the small things in life; those little things that we might take for granted but can bring a smile to our faces. And I’m pleased to say I have achieved this, although it has been difficult at times especially in recent weeks as life becomes a bit more uncertain. But the little things still make me happy. Ten months after my fiancé and I moved, I’m still finding delight in our new house and surroundings. I love looking out of our kitchen window and seeing the cows in the field opposite us. And I enjoy our weekend treat of proper coffee, brewed in a cafetière rather than the usually weekday ritual of two spoonfuls of instant in a mug.

For 2022, I have the common resolutions of saving money -– we have a wedding and honeymoon to pay for – and being more active, ie. finally use the exercise bike we purchased with good intentions back in the summer that has been gathering dust in the conservatory ever since.

Before the pandemic we used to go to the gym a couple of times a week so it would be good to get back into a similar routine.

Saving money is a plan always needed after Christmas but this year it’s more important because of our busy summer.

Finally, I would like to do more to play my part in helping the environment by really cutting back on our waste and single-use plastic. Although we recycle everything we can, I’m getting increasingly frustrated by certain everyday items with either excess packaging or packaging that can’t be or only partly recycled. I get annoyed when I pick up an empty container, I’ve assumed can be reprocessed, only to see the words ‘not yet recyclable’. It leaves me feeling guilty for buying it.

So, I’m determined to check labels more thoroughly before I bring our shopping home so I know I’m not going to end up throwing wrappings in the bin. And if I can cut out the packaging altogether by being choosier about where I buy groceries then that’s even better. I also plan to take more advantage of the increasingly wide range of refillable goods and toiletries.

Andy Richardson

I Did it. I made a resolution, I kept a resolution – now do I get a prize? And not only did I keep the resolution for 12 good-boy months, I kept it for 12 flipping years.

Woohoo. Crack open the Prosecco and let’s party like a Tory. Actually, let’s not. I stopped drinking 20 years ago and I’m done with cheese. All those after-work ‘meetings’ – I wish we could take laptops and notepads like we used to, rather than brie and camembert. But I digress. Resolutions. Yes, resolutions. I’ve got them licked.

Conformity bores me like a 0-0 score draw. Birthdays, anniversaries, traditions… you name it, I don’t comply. And so it is with New Year Resolutions. Some time ago, I can’t remember when, though for the purposes of a neat intro, we’ve decided it was 12 years hence, I decided never to make another New Year’s Resolution. And, guess what, I’ve stuck to it.

While never much enjoying Christmas, I’m a huge fan of New Year. All those opportunities sparkling like beacons on the horizon line, all those chances to make a fresh start, all the time to ditch what’s gone before and start anew. Bliss. But declaring I’ll stick to some non-random task is becoming a hostage to fortune. Yes, we might want to lose weight, but what if an eat-at-home rib of beef arrives the next day?

I once decided to give up smoking just before a trip to Amsterdam – a marvellous example of doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. Though, remarkably, and despite the temptation of more coffee shops than Costa, I stuck to it. I didn’t inhale, nor, indeed, did I smoke.

And so as the clock struck midnight, I was probably fast asleep, cat curled somewhere near my feet, avoiding the nonsense that is setting a resolution I’ll break in three days when I get hungry or bored or tired or need some kind of comfort.

The thing is, if we set ourselves a target it’s not that difficult to stick to it. Make it a habit, whether that’s losing weight, not going to cheese and wine parties when Boris keeps calling or saving a little more. Ignore the impulse that comes and gradually form habits. Simples. We don’t need to do that on a particular day of the year, just when it feels like the right time. And it’s always the right time to say no to Boris’s invite to pass the port and stilton.

So while I’ll wish those who commit to new resolutions the best of fortune, I’ll be happy in my own determination not to do so. There are plenty of things to change, to improve and to remediate. I don’t need New Year to tell me to get started – I’m big enough and stupid enough to do it by myself.

Matt Panter

If anyone can bottle up some willpower, would you mind sending it my way?

I’m a man of good intentions at this time of year.

January 1, dawn of a new era, a fresh start, out with the old and in with the new, etcetera, etcetera.

And, yes, for me, the usual list of aspirations swirl around in my head, as if on a helter skelter.

I feel reinvigorated, revived, refreshed, regenerated, like a new Doctor Who, as I write down my list of aims for the year.

Eat more healthily, check, exercise more, check, lose a bit of weight, check, reduce work-related stress, check, and stop drinking, check. The list goes on.

It’s hardly an imaginative list of New Year’s resolutions. And, I’ll be honest, neither is it one I am seemingly capable of fulfilling.

The problem is the time of year. Can’t we have resolutions in March? A time when we are full of hope and optimism as the weather starts to pick up and the first signs of spring and new life appear.

Right now, the dark nights and mornings are still with us, and the house is full of sweet treats, left-over mince pies and alcohol.

I don’t want to sound defeatist but you know how it is. You get through a few days of January and then have a bad day at work or you get told you are heading back into the world of home schooling again.

Evening comes and you find comfort in a small glass of red wine and some chocolate. All good intention goes out of the window.

Yes, I’m weak and it needs to change this year. We’ll see how that goes.

But, away from health and fitness, I do have other resolutions which I hope to make progress with.

The first is a long-term ambition to write a book. We all have a book in us, or a story to tell, so they say. You don’t have to be old Bill Shakespeare, nowadays. Even reality stars of shows like TOWIE have jumped into the book production process.

And so, as someone who loves writing, I’d really like to work on something as a labour of love.

I have a few ideas floating around in my head and although I wouldn’t anticipate completing any particular work in 2022, it would be nice to get the wheels in motion and lay the foundations for something.

My second hope for the year is to bring a pet into the family home.

I’m not going to commit to what kind right now. Perhaps being more decisive should be another resolution?

I love cats, having been brought up with them, and dogs are wonderful companions but choosing a pet is a big decision and not one to be rushed into. It could be that I plump for a pair of goldfish or a stick insect. Who knows?

But the aim is definitely to bring a new addition into the household.

At least then, as my other resolutions fall by the wayside, one by one, I can turn around to those eyes, peering at me from the sofa, or the fish bowl, and admit: ‘I told you so’.