News
Resolutions see drive for healthier lifestyles
Despite centuries of practice, our track record is poor when it comes to making New Year’s resolutions.
It is a tradition which persists in both the Western and Eastern worlds, with nearly half of us committing to a goal when the chimes toll to herald the coming of the next twelve months.
The origin of promising to take up something new or changing a bad habit originated with the Babylonians. Legend has it they made promises to the gods in the hope of currying good favour in the year ahead. They often resolved to pay off their debts.
The Romans continued the practice by making promises to the god Janus, after whom the month of January is named.
In the Medieval era, the knights took what was known as the peacock vow at the end of the Christmas season each year to re-affirm their commitment to chivalry.
One of the more famous people to make ambitious resolutions is the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. He has learned to speak Mandarin, met a new person that does not work at Facebook every day, wrote a thank you note every day and became vegetarian.
This year after asking for suggestions on social media, he decided to read a new book every second week with an emphasis on learning about different cultures, beliefs and histories.
He created a Facebook Page called A Year Of Books so the public can follow his progress and join in on discussions.. So far 190,000 have “liked” the page, making it the world’s biggest book club.
A study last year in Australia involving more than 2,000 people found that 42% of participants set themselves a new year’s resolution. Almost two thirds did not succeed.
One interesting fact which emerged from the survey was that of the one third of people which managed to reach their goals, three quarters of them believed that sharing their resolutions with friends or publicly on a website helped them.
The most common reason given for failing to keep their resolutions was setting unrealistic goals. One in ten respondents claimed they made too many resolutions.
Leslie Connors, a homeopath who works in Walsh’s Pharmacy in Oranmore, knows all too well how difficult it can be to achieve resolutions. This is the busiest time of the year for pharmacies as people seek remedies to quit smoking, lose weight and improve their health.
She believes the trend of broken promises will inevitably continue unless people break the cycle.
One way of doing that is adopting the ancient practice called recapitulation. This is described as a formal looking back at the highs and lows of the last year in a sort of Karma-cleansing ceremony beloved of yoga masters.
“Recent research indicates that hidden reservations or unconscious agendas can totally sabotage our good intentions when it comes to New Year’s resolutions,” she remarked on the pharmacy blog.
“Recapitulation is about bringing to mind any old baggage that is hanging around just waiting for a chance to lure you back to your old bad habits.”
She advises people to gather a few good friends or family members and ask each one to write down all their achievements and positive events over the past year. Include a list of things regretted; moments of conflict, anger or hurt, memories of times when you did not act your best.
“Take a moment to think about and feel good about the positive things. Also take time to feel regretful about the mistakes,” she says.
“Some people then choose to burn the list to symbolize letting go of the baggage or they just imagine tying it to a balloon and letting it float away. Your thoughts are so powerful, getting rid of the negative and letting the positive in can really help you achieve what you want.”
Last year she met with a group of friends and they wrote down what they wanted to accomplish for the year. It was sealed in a box and has yet to be opened. She did the same with her daughter a few years back and they found they each met their goals.
“If you make a mistake, it’s almost easier to walk down the same path and make the same mistakes. It’s better not to brood on things that happened and instead embrace the new.”
The heart and stroke charity Croí will hold an eight-week weight management programme by specialist dieticians based on scientifically proven methods to achieve sustainable weight loss at the end of the month.
With follow-up and motivational support at three, six and twelve months, participants are given expert advice on all aspects of healthy eating, with a special focus on lifestyle changes in the areas of diet, exercise, sleep and stress management and how to manage cholesterol, blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes.
The HSE has also launched a new free personal support service to help smokers give up, with a host of interactive digital tools and trained advisors on hand to provide empathy and support over the phone, face-to-face or online.
Smokers who use the HSE’s QUIT service have been found to be twice as likely to succeed as those who try to do it alone.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
