Your Lancaster-related New Year’s resolutions are here!

Almost everybody starts off the new year with some very admirable resolutions, but most people don’t reach February with them still intact.

It’s all well and good telling yourself that you’ll eat healthily, until you come back to uni and don’t feel like cutting up a vegetable for the first few weeks.

Some might argue that it is more difficult for uni students to keep their resolutions while also balancing lectures, seminars, coursework, societies, and part-time jobs. However, fear not, we googled the most common New Year’s resolutions just to prove that you can achieve all of your goals right here in Lancaster. We believe in you.

Exercise more

Of course, what else could be the most popular New Year’s resolution? Once we have consumed quintuple of our body weight in sweet treats over the festive season, it feels absolutely necessary for this to be our New Year’s resolution. Well, Lancaster can certainly help you out there.

Here on campus, “Sport Lancaster” offers one month memberships, in case you want to try out the gym before making a big commitment. If the gym isn’t for you, that’s completely understandable. You can even fulfil this resolution in your day-to-day life. We don’t want to hear any more complaining that carrying your bags from Aldi to the bus stop is exhausting; that’s your new bicep workout. Well done you.

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If you want a bit more of an intense workout for free, Lancaster is filled with some gorgeous outdoor scenery that is ideal for you to customise your own running route. Not many universities have a route as perfect as the Lancaster canal. Spoiler alert: if you run far enough, just past the aqueduct, you may find some very cute alpacas on the opposite side of the canal. Don’t say we’re not the best news source in Lancs.

Save more money

Let’s be honest, it’s hard to survive on a student loan. When it comes to being a student, the small things truly make all the difference. The best way to save money while at Lancaster University is to utilise all of the free activities it offers.

Thinking about an expensive day trip involving trains and restaurants? Scrap it and take a walk up to Williamson Park instead. With the weather getting progressively nicer, you might even be able to take a picnic up to the Ashton Memorial by the end of Lent term.

If your loan is still tight, as it is for most of us, the uni’s employment and recruitment service always has vacancies tailored for student schedules. The ERS is a great way to earn a little more money whilst still tackling your degree.

A huge expenditure for students, especially those who live off campus, is food. While buying food on campus every day may seem like a good idea when you avoid getting up half an hour earlier to make a sandwich, those prices can really build up. Instead of heading to Greggs or Subway for lunch (as tempting as it may be), you can definitely save some money by meal prepping at home and bringing in a packed lunch. Which, conveniently, leads us smoothly on to…

Eat healthier

Do you see what we did there? What a transition.

The number of eateries on Lancs’ campus is both a blessing and a burden. The walk from Cartmel to County South passes over ten places to grab something delicious but, to achieve our resolution of healthier eating, we need an unrivalled level of willpower to avoid these. 

Something that many Lancs students don’t really notice until they move into the city is how convenient the campus college kitchens are. Say that three times fast. Each college has a kitchen available to students and they are the perfect place to warm up last night’s leftovers or to make yourself a hot drink in the middle of the day.

Spend more time with friends

This resolution is perfect for uni students; thanks Google. First of all, we all have that one pub, cafe, or restaurant that we have wanted to try out since Freshers’ in first year.

Gather your friends, set a date and time, and hit up that one rogue place you’ve always wanted to go to.

Another activity you can do to achieve this resolution is to host an activity evening with your flatmates. Who needs to spend money and leave the flat in the freezing cold when you can just head down the corridor to your kitchen? And don’t worry, we already have an article full of some amazing ideas for your flat socials, even if we do say so ourselves.

Finally, you should definitely sit on the steps in Alex Square with your friends at some point. For some reason, we have all collectively decided that this seems like a good idea, and now it’s firmly cemented as a Lancs student right of passage. Actually, maybe wait for the warmer weather first.

Learn a new skill or hobby

We’re not really surprised that this was high on the list for New Year’s resolutions, but where better to achieve this goal than at university? These few years are the perfect time to put yourself out there and give things a go that you probably won’t have another chance to try. You’ll all be very happy to hear that Refreshers’ fair is heading to LICA on Wednesday 14th January, so this is your time to hit up a new society.

Don’t forget, The Lancaster Tab is always looking for new writers if we can tempt you to a meeting…

Be more organised

Thank you, Google, for this excellent final entry.

If you, like us, were given a scheduling tool of some description for Christmas (we’re talking journal, wall planner, calendar, etc), actually make some use of it this year.

Set yourself deadlines, organise times to spend with your friends and coursemates in the library, and schedule time to have fun!

It’s significantly easier to power through your deadlines when you know that you have a meet-up with friends waiting on the other side.

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