It’s that time of year again – the end. Or, the beginning of the new one, depending on your disposition. Either way, it’s that time when we’re all stuffed full of cheese, chocolate Santas and regret, and we decide to declare publicly (thanks to social media) that we have set ourselves unrealistic goals for the new year. I’m hoping mine are less unrealistic and more suitably challenging.

Katie (fellow blogger, muse and all-round good egg) had one hell of a 2017 in her sporting career and managed to knock her resolutions out of the park, I, on the other hand have devoted this year to changing careers and the time and monetary stress associated with that. I have to admit that my motivation in terms of health and fitness has diminished, to the point where Katie has had to give me a good, proverbial kick up the arse and signed us both up to run the Reading Half Marathon in March.

So, there we go, resolution number 1 right there: Run my first half marathon

Resolution number 2 is something of a cliché: Be less fat.

No, I’m not body shaming (it’s my body and I’m not ashamed of it) but I do know that I’m not healthy at my current weight – I’m almost as heavy as I have ever been. I feel sluggish and my fitness is suffering because I’m less inclined to exercise – it’s a vicious circle! And without a good regular workout my skin is horrendous with breakouts galore and my immune system is definitely not what it should be.

Being less fat does not necessarily just mean losing weight of course, we all know BMI isn’t a perfect measure of health, however my BMI is currently at the upper end of overweight and I’m not doing lots weight training or contact sport, so I’ve broken “Be less fat” into two parts:

• 2a – Lose 17kgs (that’s just over 2 and a half stone in old money)
• 2b – Lose 5 inches from my waistline

This might sound like a lot (or it might not, I’ve no idea) but to be clear, these goals are for a year’s time – no crash diets here, y’all. I just really want to be able to wear my beloved Canterbury joggers again, currently my thighs look like they’ll burst through the seams and they cut off my circulation at the waist…

Resolution 3 is probably going to be the most difficult to keep. I’m time poor and a habitual scroller, so whenever I do find myself with time to kill, out comes my phone. And I hate myself for it. So, 2018 is the year that I learn to love reading again. As a child and young teenager I was a total bookworm but I’ve gotten out of the habit over the years, which is a travesty. If you’re wondering why this is a resolution going on a blog which is primarily about sport and fitness, this one fits into the wellbeing category, reducing screen time and replacing passive activity with an active one – not least because reading has been shown to improve long term brain health.

And resolution 4 is pretty simple and fun: Try out at least two new sports. More or less all the sport I play at the moment is one variety of rugby or another. Cycling doesn’t count because I don’t do it competitively (except for in my own head against fellow commuters…). I’m already lining up my other half to go play squash. Watch this space.

To keep myself accountable I’ll write to K-Ferg via the blog on the reg to track my progress. She’s my chief cheerleader in my campaign to “MAKE KATE O’C KATE AGAIN”. Maybe I’ll get some caps printed up.

Happy New Year, gang!

Kate O’C out x