Exercise, eating and economics

Being a strong-willed sort of person, as all information providers are, you will, of course, be in the 12% New Year Resolution Makers who actually stick to it [1]. And like 99% of people they probably involve Taking More Exercise, Dieting and Sorting Out Your Finances. So how to work on these without actually leaving the comfort of your armchair?

First exercise – well, obviously you’ve got to put the research in. Fancy taking up a new challenge? The favoured form of exercise at Treasure Hunt Towers is outdoor swimming and by searching at Active Places (go to the Sports section of the gateway), a dull looking but jolly useful site, I was able to find two lidos near my home and of course the Serpentine near my work. And there’s proper link

Having taken some healthy exercise, obviously I’m up for some healthy food. Quite a choice here at the Home and Garden section of the Gateway. There’s not much in my fridge but opening the BBC Food pages and using the Recipe Search, I discover that I can turn my sad-looking courgette, onion and lump of stale cheese into a rather delicious-sounding Mediterranean pasta. There’s some useful videos demonstrating recipes, guides to cooking on a budget and for special dietary requirements and you can specify recipes by your favourite TV chef.

Lastly, having taken out an expensive gym membership, you are probably now vowing to finally get round to sorting out your personally finances. Probably your eyes glaze over at the words ‘insurance’ and ‘endowment’ but ‘received wisdom’ suggests we should all audit our finances occasionally and there’s plenty of help out there. You’ve probably come across Martin Lewis on tv or the radio, bouncing around giving advice and his website MoneySavingExpert (go to the Family and Personal section of the Gateway and scroll down to Personal Finance) is really jolly good. Lots of helpful stuff about finding cheap flights or changing your insurance or getting a new mortgage – frankly it’s worth checking it out every time you want to spend money. And there’s very useful advice there about what to do if financial problems are starting to get on top of you. Plus, the weekly email has all sorts of vouchers and tips about current bargains.