The clinic: 7 health resolutions a doctor wants you to make

Ensure 2023 is your healthiest and happiest year yet with these simple but effective lifestyle tweaks

It’s the first week of January – the time when everyone is talking about New Year’s resolutions. The promises that you make yourself each year that, in reality, most people only manage to keep for a few weeks or so before breaking!

There are lots of reasons why it can be so hard to keep them, one of which is that we make them too complex. So break down your aims into smaller goals. After all, it’s better to make small changes which you can stick to over time and then slowly progress, than to aim for big changes which are unachievable. Small, imperfect steps, over unachievable perfection, is how you will make effective progress. Here’s what I recommend:

1 ATTEND SCREENINGS

If you have been invited for breast, cervical or bowel cancer screening, don’t put it off. Make your appointments, or complete your sample (for bowel cancer screening), and get it done. This is my top tip because, quite simply, screening saves lives.

2 GET A SEXUAL HEALTH CHECK

Are you sexually active? Some tests are available for free online. Go to nhs.uk to find out more. Start the year knowing whether or not you have a sexually transmitted infection and get treated, if that is needed.

3 DON’T WORRY ABOUT ‘BOTHERING’ YOUR GP