New Year Resolutions

Hello folks!

A few days after the start of the New Year and I am sure many of you are already trying new activities or new attitudes for 2016. These are popularly known as: "New Year Resolutions". Let´s have a look at some of the most popular New Year resolutions and learn some useful vocabulary or expressions along the way... :-)
According to the TIME magazine, the top New Year broken Resolutions are:

• Eat healthier and diet, lose weight and get fit. 

This is one of the most common New Year's resolutions. It's time to eat healthy. After the Christmas holidays when we have eaten way too much calorie loaded food, it's only natural that we want to lose weight and get fit. We promise to swap eggs and bagels for granola and oatmeal breakfasts; eat lean, protein-rich salads (nonfat dressing on the side, please) and fruit for lunch; cook fish and brown rice for dinner and serve it up with a side of spinach. It all sounds so good and possible on Jan. 2. The problem is that most people take this resolution too far by forcing themselves onto restricting diets they can't possibly keep. As the saying goes, try everything in moderation, including moderation. Eat healthy, but allow yourself a treat now and then. Otherwise, it won't be long before this resolution falls by the weight-side. Each January, fitness clubs offer different deals and promotions to those who want to make good on their resolutions. To those who are regulars at the health clubs, the crowded classes and treadmill lines make the new year a horrible time. Luckily for gym rats, research says that 60% of gym memberships go unused and attendance is usually back to normal by mid-February.

• Quit smoking and drinking.  

Smoking yellows your teeth, infiltrates all your clothing, irritates the people around you and charms only those in an ever dwindling crowd of fellow smokers. So what better time than the New Year? Only an estimated 15% of people who try to quit manage to stay cigarette-free six months later. Think it over during your next cigarette break.
Regarding drinking, after the morning of Jan. 1, it's not surprising you probably wish you drank less. The question is whether that resolve will last for the other 364 days of the year. Drinking less is undoubtedly good for you: it's better for your health, your wallet and probably your reputation. Then why do we keep on boozing? Folk more learned than we may point to modern science for definitive answers, but we prefer those Greco-Roman ancients who proclaimed "In vino veritas" — "In wine [and whiskey, vodka, gin and beer], there is truth." They said it, not us. 

• Learn something new, like a language. 

You've been meaning to learn Chinese. You'd love to play the piano. How great would it be to really know how to cook? Deciding to learn something new is exciting: the world is full of fascinating facts, skills and talents. And the process of discovering them, not just the end result, is enjoyable and rewarding. At least, for a while. Soon you remember there's a reason you haven't learned all this yet. Chinese is too difficult. Piano takes too much practice. Ordering out is just so much easier than cooking. You'll do it ... when you have more time.

• Get out of debt and save money 

After a particularly trying financial year (and the always budget-unfriendly month of December), consumers might call for a halt to spending and vow to manage their debt more effectively. The sad fact about this resolution is that many people will have difficulty accomplishing it, and not through any fault of their own. Financial planners advise making specific budget-friendly rules, rather than pronouncing overarching and often unattainable goals. Only allow yourself to eat one dinner out a week. Take a sack lunch to work most days. Vow to shop around for a new auto, home insurance and credit cards with lower interest rates and free balance transfers. Can you spare an extra $50 or even $20 a month to put toward paying off your student loans?
 If you're lucky enough to make it out of debt, the goal then becomes tucking some money away for retirement or a rainy day. And, while flipping through your favorite magazine, repeat the mantra, "I will save money this year, I will save money this year." But, ooh, look at that new Marc Jacobs bag, and I really could use a Kindle for all those subway commutes. Oh, and what about a new wardrobe for spring? Hmm. Maybe I'll save money next year.

• Spend more time with family 

Everyone's busy these days, it's true. But blood is thicker than water, and the beginning of the year is an ideal time to reconnect with family that you haven't seen in a while. Great idea, right? Then February arrives, reality sets in, and you realize that the reason you didn't see cousin Jim more often is because he really isn't that interesting at all. Or that plan to spend more time with the kids? Well, it turns out that work doesn't magically disappear with the dawning of a new year, and you're at the office more than ever. It's a hard promise to keep — no matter how sincere the desire is.

• Travel to new places 

A new year and a new world of opportunities to explore — and places, too. Travel of some sort is on almost everyone's agenda, and some of the first things we tend to think of in a new year are those exotic destinations we'd hope to seek out.  In the aftermath of the Great Recession, budgets are tight and staycations are in. Besides, not traveling spares all the headache of planning, applying perhaps for a visa, fretting over, getting scammed in some foreign locale and getting someone to tend to your plants and puppy. There's a reason why travel and travail sound so similar.

• Volunteer 

It may be a new year, but there are still old problems in the world. To start out on the right foot, you may resolve to lend a helping hand. You can help build a house, care for an animal, distribute food to the hungry, tutor a student. Volunteering could be the resolution that keeps on giving — to yourself and to others.
But even the most compassionate among us can fall back on our commitments. Finding time all too often proves harder than finding money, and many would-be volunteers will probably end up writing checks instead. You might want to rephrase this resolution to include the broader "help others."

1. To allow yourself a treat: to allow yourself to do something enjoyable that it may not be too good for you.  
2. Dwindling (adj): becoming smaller and smaller. 
3. Boozing (v): drinking alcoholic drinks.  
4. Overarching (adj): Something that overshadows the rest  
5. To tuck away (ph.v): to store in a place sifficult to find.
6.  Aftermath (n): situation that results from or follows an event. 
7. Staycations (n): A vacation or holiday that is spent at one´s home enjoying all that home and one´s home environment have to offer. 
8. To fret over (ph.v): to feel worried or anxious about something 
9. To get scammed (v): to be cheated by means of an illegal way to get money. 
10. To start out on the right foot (id): to start by doing things in a way likely to suceed. 
11. To fall back on (ph.v): to retreat, withdraw, draw back from an earlier position.

* adapted from TIME magazine, Sunday January 1st, 2012. 

So, what do you think of these resolutions? Any of them sounds familiar to you? I really hope so... they do to me!

Happy New Year!