The New Year’s Revolution by Clare Potts of Tweet

For the next month or so you’ll be bombarded by everyone and everything telling you to stop drinking alcohol, go cold turkey from turkey and to get fit.

It’s always the way; as soon as 1st January rolls around, television, magazines, newpapers, social media and blogs switch drastically from indulgence, spending and treating yourself to fitness, healthy eating and saving money. It is quite amazing what a few weeks of overeating and drinking almost every day can do to us all. As a nation, we see January as a chance to change, a fresh start where anything is possible and we can transform into a better, healthier, fitter version of ourselves.

But your New Year’s resolutions need to come from you to give you the best chance of sticking to them, it’s tempting to go hard and give yourself a long list of strict rules influenced by peer pressure. But if you tailor your resolutions carefully, ensuring that they’re achievable, something you truly want to change about yourself and not something you’re only doing because someone else is.

Personally, I’ve kept my resolutions quite simple but they are all things I would love to change in 2014.

To shape up and lose weight.,. Over the course of last year I lost and gained a stone putting me back to exactly where I was at the end of 2012… So this year I’m aiming to be different, I know I can lose a stone so the challenge is to lose it, but keep it off.

To blog more... and get more involved with the online community. I suppose you could see this guest post as my first step to getting more involved online, I’m looking forward to building up my little corner of the internet in 2014.

To eat more healthily... and to not drink alcohol for January (at least!). October to December was pretty much a binge of indulgence for me, packed with birthdays, meals out, parties and other excuses to drink, eat and be merry. I’m pretty sure the stone I lost was all put back on during this time… My body is in need of a detox!

To save money... When I put my mind to it, I’m really quite good at saving money. The only problem is, I rarely put my mind to it. This year is going to be different though, no more buying sequin covered dresses ‘just in case’ and spending as much as normal people spend on a week’s worth of food for Friday night. Even if I just use it for a holiday, it will have earned it.

Here are some tips to help you stick to your New Year’s resolutions and for making them that little bit easier to follow…

Fitness

If your aim for 2014 is to get fit, don’t start hard and then let it tail off, choose a fitness regime that is manageable for you. You might go to the gym every day for the first week but that’s hard to keep up for an entire year… Set yourself a challenge of doing some kind of exercise a day, whether it’s getting up half an hour earlier to do some exercise or taking a walk during your lunch break. Then add on 2 or 3 trips to the gym or running outside a week, and you have a routine you should be able to keep to.

Set yourself a goal; whether it’s weight loss, fitness levels or taking part in a race; it’s so much easier to get motivated when your progress is measurable or time sensitive.

Find something that you love doing, exercise will be so much easier if you enjoy it!

Healthy eating

If you buy lunch every day, switch to preparing something healthy at the weekend to last you for the week. Not only can you control what ingredients are included, you’ll also save money.

Team up with a friend or partner, the more support you have, the more likely you will be to stick to your resolutions.

Drink more water. It will do wonders for you, honestly!

For some inspiration to help you stay motivated... take a look at some of my go-to blogs for when you need a little push in the right direction.

- For healthy food inspiration, visit Ambitious Kitchen. Everything is delicious, nutritious and easy to follow. Try the peanut butter cookie recipes, they're amazing and low calorie!

- If you're pushed for time but want to add more exercise to your life, try the 7 minute workout. 12 exercises packed into 7 minutes using only body weight, it's the equivalent of a long run and some weight work, sorted. Visit www.7-min.com.

- Stock up on vitamins, minerals and even carb blockers all in cute packaging on myvitamins. Visit www.myvitamins.com/

- For workout advice, recipe inspiration, fashion, tips and more with Women's Health.

- For daily yoga inspiration follow amazing yoga genius Laura Sykora on Instagram.

To find out more about Clare Potts and her health and fitness journey through 2014 (and a little rambling along the way), visit her blog Tweet. You can also follow Clare on Twitter and Facebook.

Staying Healthy During The Party Season by James Haskell, Professional Rugby Player

Wearing my professional rugby player’s hat, I would suggest it’s actually not that hard to stay healthy during the up-coming party season. However, I am acutely aware that being and indeed staying healthy and fit is part of my job; the fact we have to continue to play over Christmas is also a big contributing factor!

So while I appreciate most of you will be reaching out for a sugary treat or flagon of ale, I’ll be trying my best stay on water and a high protein diet. No doubt for most of you that sounds hideously boring and extremely dull. So instead of standing in my ivory tower preaching, I am going to give you some top tips to try and help you stay in the best possible shape whilst enjoying yourself.

The key foundation is to get your base day-to-day diet right. Achieve this and there is no problem in indulging and eating the foods you want providing the meals you have the rest of the time are good and healthy. Try as a firm rule to stay away from processed foods; high sugar and salt content meals as well as white carbs. For example white bread and white pasta.

Sadly most of the Christmas and New Year treats you want will contain sugar and other rubbish, so you’ll get your fix from these. Try to have a lot of vegetables with every meal. The more colours you can have on your plate the better it is. You can’t overdose on vegetables, so please don’t panic! This should give you a good hit of vitamins and nutrients, as late nights and big drinking sessions can run you down and lead to illness. Every meal should have a good source of protein as well. Please don’t fill-up on potatoes and starches, as that will only have you head-in-hands when you look in the mirror in the New Year.

Good hydration is absolutely key. All those office parties, Christmas drinks and drunken sessions are going to mean you consume a lot of alcohol. So before you stumble into bed, try and take on some water, which should reduce your hangover to some degree.

The morning after the night before is going to be pivotal in getting you back into some reasonable shape. So drinking lots of water and electrolytes will help you along the way. It can be as simple as putting a little bit of salt in some water, or my favourite trick is to take a sachet of Dioralyte, if I ever find myself hung-over. A good sign of whether you are hydrated again is if your urine runs clear. Bright yellow and you are most probably dehydrated.

What you drink has a great effect on the number of calories you consume; how you will feel the next day; the state of your body weight and so forth.  If you normally put on a bit of festive padding over Xmas then it might be a good thing to watch. I would say try to avoid drinking loads of carb-heavy drinks, although I appreciate we all need to let our hair down.

Try and think about avoiding really sugary mixers or the dreaded Alchopops. If you want to have a drink have a trusty Vodka, fresh lime and soda - it's the drink of champions. It won’t make you want to die the next day. If you like drinking, then try to enjoy more high-end alcohol like pure agave tequila, as following this, the less likely you are to have impurities or rubbish. Cranberry juice is another good mixer to have if you don’t fancy the lime and soda approach.

Try to make sure you set some realistic training targets during this period. It’s often a really busy time for everyone and feeling bloated and hangover, you are less likely to want to train. So instead of saying you are going to do a one hour training session, why not set yourself, some basic and readily achievable fifteen minutes sessions of some circuit training with some cardio work thrown in. Making sure you get a sweat on and some calories burnt!

Try to maintain your current level of fitness, or use this party period as a time to actually get off the sofa and do some exercise. Walking the dog, or going for jog with some mates. By doing this I find a blow out and party feels way better and guilt-free once you have done the work. If you do the crime, you need to do the time.

You can always look to boost your health by taking on some supplements. I would recommend taking Vitamin D, as this can help with recovery! We would normally get this from the sun, but seeing it during the party period sadly a few rays are few and far between. I would also suggest taking some Omega 3 (EPA) fish oils which most people are deficient in. Omega 3 helps in growth and repair, as studies have shown it can be a factor in helping prevent disease.

You should add Virgin Coconut oil to your diet to help with immune boosting. It’s a great saturated fat that your body needs, and is full of MCTs to provide energy. It is very high in Lauric Acid and Monolaurin, which help support the immune system, killing bacteria and pathogens, which makes it ideal for people suffering from any digestive complaint. I suggest using to cook with, or have with a cup of coffee to boost your day.

Finally, sleep and good quality is also key to trying to remain healthy during this period. It sounds simple but if you know you have a big night planned or a party, then try and make sure you get a good night's sleep pre the event and then post, try and get your recovery in. Having an afternoon nap, if you can do it, will help you stay fresh. Try and do no longer than an hour.

Remember, if you push your body you need to make sure you equally push the recovery. 

If you want to try coconut oil, please visit James's website, www.jhbodyfire.com and look out for Tagaloa extra virgin organic coconut oil.

James Haskell is a professional rugby player, who plays for London Wasps. To find out more, visit www.jameshaskell.com and follow him on Twitter @jameshaskell and Facebook.