Make or break: from cutting down on alcohol and chocolate to new exercise regimes, new year's resolutions can be hard work

Celebrities talk about their New Year's resolutions

Matt Cooper, journalist, author and broadcaster

I publicly swore off drinking alcohol for the first six months of 2010. I did even better than that. I got as far as the last week of July. I developed a taste for non-alcoholic beer in the time and my drinking of alcohol, which was never excessive, now rarely moves beyond moderate and is occasional. I need to give up chocolate because I know it contributes to excessive weight. I have a very sweet tooth, so giving it up may be harder than ditching the drink. But I’ve decided to try anyway. I’ve returned to regular exercise since the end of September, going to the gym twice a week to do “core” work using weights. It has gone really well. It is hard and painful, but I have felt enormous benefit from an increased fitness, both physically and mentally. Now I need to add some cardio work and, to give myself a goal, I’m going to aim to run two 10km events this summer – probably a couple of the charity ones. I last did one in 2006, to mark turning 40, and struggled very badly around the Phoenix Park, walking as much as running, taking more than an hour to complete the course.

This time I plan to get properly fit. With no chocolate, moderate social drinking, a better diet, and running twice a week, I’m going to force myself to do it.

Joseph O’Leary, lead singer with the band Fred

This year, my first resolution is to make some goddamn great resolutions next year! I’ve a tendency to forget to make any until the last moment and by then they’re usually lame. There was the time I was going to train to be able to do a modest 100 press-ups. I think I remember peaking at seven. I’ve really learned to accept my limitations though. I guess if I have one fitness resolution for this coming year it’s that I get back in the ring or, considering I’ve never ever been in one, just get in the ring at all and get boxing!

I’ve always admired the discipline that is required in boxing and how one can spend 15 years training and not even get a shot at a title. It’s a lot like music! Boxing requires a serious level of fitness and is great for co-ordination and self-defence. It’s an amazing sport . . . one in which you have to keep moving and thinking the whole time or else you hit the canvas.

The only problem, a coach told me, is that I’m the wrong age to start amateur boxing so I guess I’m going to have to go straight to professional level. Rocky watch out.

Bishop Paul Colton, Bishop of Cork Cloyne and Ross

I resolved, many years ago, not to make New Year’s resolutions. Of course, there were teenage efforts, but invariably those were over-ambitious, naive, self-centred and short-lived. That’s an admission of my own shortcomings as much as anything else. I was teeing myself up for let down and failure. So I decided not to do it. I much prefer to see all the expectations that many of us put on ourselves and try to cram into one day and the start of one year in more manageable steps – one day at a time. For me, in adulthood, wrestling constantly with weight and fitness and having tried (and both succeeded and failed at) every diet under the sun, many of which started on New Year’s Day, I’m told to ban the “diet” word from my vocabulary. In spite of all the wonderful human rituals and customs built up at the start of a new year (and it’s a religious festival also – the Naming of Jesus), to me New Year’s Day is simply one component in the calendar. It’s a convenient and necessary system of organising time. Each today offers a new birth and a fresh beginning with opportunities. It offers chances to do things, not just for myself, but also for the people around me. So every blessing to everyone for the start of every new day in 2011!”

Claire Byrne, broadcaster

I don’t normally make New Year’s resolutions because when you feel like a stuffed turkey and it’s cold and miserable, making huge promises to change your life is not a good idea. I like to let the dust settle on Christmas and then think about making changes when the weather improves and I stop feeling grumpy about going back to work after the break. Over the last few years, I have found that I tend to get sick around this time of year and I get some sort of heavy cold or chest infection in January. This year I have managed to get the illness out of the way before Christmas, so I’ll be in tip-top form for the new year! Last year in May, I stepped up my loose running regime and managed to complete three half-marathons in 2010. I’m hoping to get back to training in January and sign up for a few more runs in 2011. Nothing beats the feeling of accomplishment when you cross the finish line. I’ll think about all of that closer to the end of January though – we all need some time to recover from the excesses of the festive season before the hard work begins!”