We know, we know: we say it every year too. New Year, new me.
It’s the same story every January 1. We embark on keeping well-meaning resolutions, all guns blazing. Motivation is high, not least because your friends and family are likely in the same boat, or an adjacent vessel at least. But as the weeks wear on, willpower wears down.
Before you know it, the month is over and those resolutions have crumbled.
While it’s a common annual scene, it doesn’t have to be an inevitable one.
If you want to succeed, it’s no good relying on your resolve on its own. Back-up is needed to ensure you have the best possible chance of hitting your goals. You wouldn’t trek to the North Pole without any kit, would you?
Some of the most common New Year’s resolutions include increasing fitness levels or losing weight, eating healthier, saving money and paying off debts, a career reboot and kicking harmful habits like smoking and excessive drinking.
While some want to cut things out, others are seeking to bring new, life-enhancing habits in: think a new hobby, volunteering or travel. In a bid to enhance mental health, some folks might try a digital detox or journaling to help clear their mind, reduce stress and give their eyes a much-needed break from wall-to-wall screentime.
The good news is that there are tools, books and products to help with the most popular resolutions. If you’re pegging New Year as your start line, now is the time to get them delivered so you’re ready for the firing gun.
We’ve rounded up the best aids to help you keep your New Year’s resolutions this year, all through January and beyond into 2025. Together with willpower, you’ve got this.
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Increasing fitness
Whether you’re training for a marathon, trying Couch to 5K or just want to improve your strength, the right kit can make all the difference.
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Decathlon Weight Training Bar
Best: barbell
If you intend on chest pressing, squatting, deadlifting, curling, thrusting and/or all the above-mentioned, that’s where a barbell, like this 5ft Weight Training Bar, comes into its own. We say this because we’re yet to find a long list of exercises you can’t do with a barbell. Whether you want to train your upper body, core or legs, once armed with this lightweight and easy-to-store steel bar, you can take at-home workout sessions up a notch.
Like most barbells found in a workout class or gym, this priced-at-under-£30 option comes with little ridges on the bar to help you increase your friction on the grip. While it might not be classed as an ‘Olympic bar’ (you know, those that come with 2-inch rotating sleeves), it can hold up to 160 kg in weight. Just remember to pick up compatible 28 mm weight plates like this 10 kg Rubber Weight Disc with Handles and some 28mm Weight Training Disc Collars to ensure they don't slip or fall off while you’re lifting.
Buy now £29.99, Decathlon
Reebok Softgrip Dumbbells
While these may resemble something out of the Call On Me music video, these helpful weights put the fun into your functional training. Ideal for aerobics, pilates, and walking with weighs they are covered in a comfortable EVA foam and have an adjustable hand strap to personalise them to the correct fit. Available in three weights, 0.5 kg, 1 kg and 2 kg. The brand also offer cast iron varieties.
Buy now £17.99, Amazon
Opti Multi Pull Up Bar
A great option for the temporary pull-up bar, this mounts onto a door frame. The handlegrips are covered in a soft-grip foam adding some comfort. You will note this particular option has the actual pull-up bar handles positioned a good number of inches lower than the top of the door, so consider this when choosing the model, such as the ceiling height above the top of the door (to allow room for your head at the top of the pull up) and your height.
Buy now £25.00, Argos
Bala Bangles 0.45kg/1lb Wrist and Ankle Weights
Whether you are taking part in a virtual Pilates class, yoga or simply want to add more weight to your training, ankle and wrist bands will encourage you to push yourself. You could even just wear them on a walk to get your heart rate going, especially when they’re as chic as these blush, charcoal or sea blue options from Bala.
Buy now £49.95, John Lewis
Better eating
With concern over Ultra Processed Foods at an all-time high, there’s never been a better time to reassess what’s on your plate. Whether you’re looking for time-saving kitchen appliances or a nutrient-packed food delivery to help you cook from scratch, find the best healthy eating kickstarters below.
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NINJA Double Stack XL SL400UKWH Air Fryer - White
Best for: double dinner magic
We love our air fryers, but often it's a case of the beauty lying within. Typically offered in black or grey, air fryers aren't usually going to win any beauty contests.
It seems like one of the UK's biggest brands has been paying attention to this, because Ninja Kitchen has released an all-white collection that will fit in more seamlessly with kitchen palettes. What’s more, it’s been given the Marco Pierre White seal of approval, and if it’s good enough for the celebrated chef, who are we to argue?
This double-stack Ninja air fryer comes with two cooking baskets with a combined capacity of 9.5L. There are six preset functions and you can set both zones to finish cooking at the same time, even if they're at different modes or temperatures. It means dinner will be ready at the same time - no letting the chips go cold while waiting for the nuggets to cook.
Sold with a two-year guarantee.
Was: £269.99
Buy now £215.99, Currys
Le Creuset Non-stick stainless steel frying pan
Whether you are whipping up pancakes or sizzling steaks, Le Creuset’s frying pan has you covered. The homeware brand beloved for its aesthetically pleasing, tough and durable cookware has done it again with this technologically advanced pan. Crafted from a three-layer stainless steel for uniform heat distribution, it will stand the test of time, while also remaining non-stick and safe with a PFOA-free coating. For healthier cooking, this is your best bet as you need less in the way of oil or added fat. It can be used on all heat sources - including induction and oven as well as pop in the dishwasher after the food is ready. There’s also a lifetime guarantee.
Buy now £88.35, Amazon
Gousto
More than one million people have signed up to recipe box company Gousto. Perhaps one of the secrets of its success is the sheer range of recipes it offers, with healthy choices in the mix too. If you want to up the number of veg on your plate, this is where you should focus your efforts, along with veggie and vegan meal ideas.
Gousto has long been a favourite on the ES Best desk thanks to its simple instructions and premeasured ingredients that take the pain out of cooking, leaving nothing but joy.
Buy now, Gousto
Daylesford
You'll feel healthier simply by browsing the fruit and veg on offer at Daylesford, a premium organic delivery service. Whether you're fully embracing veganism or just trying to get more plant-based ingredients on your plate, this company can help. Choose seasonal organic produce to add to your box, or opt for the Market Garden Veg Box which has a medley of items to boost mealtimes.
Buy now £15.00, Daylesford
Improving finances
Fed up of living on beans on toast at the end of every month to avoid going into your overdraft? Make 2025 the year you finally become money literate, whether that means paying off existing debts or saving for something special - think a house, holiday or car.
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Money: A User’s Guide
With an attention-grabbing cover and spot on the Sunday Times bestseller list, few of us can afford to omit Laura Whateley's guide from our reading list. The book has been updated to tackle the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, dishing out advice on how to pour sensible, logical milk over the binfire of personal finances.
Whateley offers advice on improving your credit score, saving money on household bills and how to approach challenging subjects like money and love, money and mental health, how to invest ethically and more. Explained clearly and leaving the reader feel informed, if you don't know where to start, stop floundering and buy this book now.
Buy now £5.50, Amazon
The Money Diet, Martin Lewis
While this isn't a guide to investing, TV finance expert Martin Lewis offers ways to cut bills and save money on everyday expenses, leaving more disposable income in your pocket to do with as you will.
This practical guide shows you how to organise credit card bills, how to shop around for household utilities and how to save cash in generally every aspect of modern life.
Written in the Moneysaving Expert's trademark straight-talking style, the book offers helpful tips to help you save and get your finances back in control.
Buy now £12.49, Amazon
Girls Just Wanna Have Funds, Female Invest
Penned by the trio behind the financial education platform Female Invest, Girls Just Wanna Have Funds addresses the investment gap between genders and shows women how to take charge of their financial freedom.
The authors explain you don't have to be an expert or millions in the bank to create personal wealth: anyone can do it. The book explains, minus confusing jargon and stats, the golden rules to personal wealth and how to start investing, no matter how small your pot.
Consider it a feminist guide to investing.
Buy now £10.89, Amazon
Smoking cessation
It’s one of the hardest habits to kick, but for the sake of your finances and your lungs, it’s worth persisting with.
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NiQuitin Clear Patches - 10 Week Bundle - Steps 1, 2 & 3 (21mg, 14mg & 7mg)
NiQuitin is a market leader and this 10-week plan is designed to wean heavy smokers (who are on 10+ a day) off cigarettes and nicotine in three steps.
All three boxes are clearly marked for ease of use, and each contains transdermal patches with lower and lower levels of nicotine so your body gradually gets used to needing less. The manufacturers say these products are suitable for adults and children aged 12 years and over, but you must be at least 16 to buy them.
Buy now £110.20, Boots
Nicorette Starter Bundle: Nicorette Invisi 25mg Patch 7 & QuickMist 1mg/spray Mouthspray Freshmint 150 sprays
An alternative bundle for those who don't want to chew all day, this option swaps gum for a fresh mint flavour mouth spray. It contains 1mg and is suitable for both light and heavy smokers with 150 sprays per QuickMist cartridge.
Buy now £24.75, Boots
Curbing alcohol
Dry Jan is a staple start to the year for millions, but the movement has continued beyond the month as adopters wake up to the benefits of moderate drinking or skipping the sauce entirely. If you’ve been meaning to give low and no-alcohol a try or you’re curious about alternatives, our drinks roundups will help guide the way.
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Sentia Spirits Gaba Red
From Professor David Nutt comes Sentia, a new alcohol-free 'spirit' that stimulates the brain's GABA neurotransmitter to mimic the effects of booze - that is, calming, lightness and relaxation - minus the head-splitting consequences afterwards. The drink is made with natural botanicals including ashwagandha to help you unwind, relax and socialise with your mates just as genuine alcohol does.
The red option is slightly spiced and can be enjoyed neat or paired with mixers to create a mocktail. Alternate between full-strength drinks or spend all evening drinking it - the choice is yours. Perfectly calibrated for flavour and effect.
Buy now £30.40, Amazon
Everleaf Forest
There’s no need to long for the refreshing taste of a spritz with Everleaf’s Forest in your drinks cupboard.
The bittersweet tonic is made from 14 botanical ingredients with a complexity that is comparable to a Campari. Try it with three-parts light tonic and a freshly sliced wedge of orange for a serve that’s like a late summer’s night in a cup.
Or, let Lockdown Liquor do the work for you and pick up a bottle of its Forest Picante pre-mixed zero per cent cocktail which adds a hit of chilli to keep you on your toes, £25.
Buy now £22.00, Amazon
Punchy Everyday Hydration Mango - 12 x 330ml
This wellness blend from Punchy is packed with essential minerals, electrolytes and vitamins C and D to boost your immunity and keep your muscles in perfect working order. The Mango flavour is juicy, fruity and mouthwatering.
Buy now £19.95, Amazon
Liquid Death Sparkling Water, Mango Chainsaw
If the packaging doesn't tickle you from the off, the names of its flavours will. Liquid Death, designed to look like beer but containing angelic sparkling or plain water, has been a hit this summer - we've seen it clutched in the hands of more festivalgoers than we can count. Alongside its still mountain water range, it offers a flavour-infused line-up too.
Mango Chainsaw is our pick, and with around four calories per 500ml can, there's no guilt about 'murdering your thirst'.
Buy now £15.95, Amazon
Lowering stress
It’s a demanding world but that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything to quell the noise. From supplements to gadgets, here are the best ways to help soothe those frayed nerves.
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The Samsung Galaxy Ring
Not since Frodo’s Middle Earth quest has one ring been so hotly coveted. This too has special powers, forged in the metaphorical fires of Samsung’s innovation lab.
Say hello to the Galaxy Ring, the first of its kind from the South Korean tech giant. Wearables are getting in their stride, and designers have gone from strapping fitness monitoring devices on wrists in smartwatches to scaling them down even further in sensor-packed rings with designs virtually indistinguishable from traditional jewellery.
While it looks good with a gently curved concave look offered in gold, silver and onyx hues, it’s the internal wizardry that counts here. Samsung’s ring beams sleep quality, step count, mood and menstruation data to the Samsung Health app before serving AI-powered advice and insights to help you take targeted action or tweak poor behaviour.
It can even detect snoring, recording bursts of it overnight and allowing you to check if your nocturnal orchestral symphony is tipping over into something more serious, like sleep apnoea. In short, it’s a minuscule health, fitness and wellness coach at your fingertips.
The ring is far less cumbersome to wear than a smartwatch, has great battery life (expect up to seven days straight, with just 80 minutes to recharge fully) and looks cute in a ring stack.
The biggest coup of all? It does this all without a monthly subscription, unlike its competitors. My precious indeed.
Buy now £319.00, John Lewis
Whoop 4.0
The Whoop 4.0 is a powerful tool designed for athletes or those who simply want to optimise their performance while managing stress. This subscription-based wearable tracks essential metrics such as heart rate, sleep quality, and recovery levels, providing tailored recommendations to help you achieve your fitness goals.
Meanwhile, the Whoop app delivers in-depth analysis, allowing you to understand how your body responds to training and rest, ensuring you maximise your potential without risking burnout. Its lightweight strap makes it comfortable to wear during workouts and daily activities, helping you to take control of your health journey.
Buy now £206.10, Amazon
Bed of Nails Original Acupressure Mat
Far from the medieval bed of nails of ‘ole, this modern acupressure mat has been reinvented to alleviate aches as well as reduce stress and prevent sleeplessness. The 8,800 non-toxic plastic spikes increase blood flow and release endorphins in a similar way to acupuncture needles.
Shop more acupressure mats here
Buy now £70.00, Amazon
Nourished Inner Peace Stack
Nourished make it easier than ever to get all those necessary anxiety nootropics into your system by stacking them in a delicious gummy. The ‘Inner Peace’ stack contains probiotics, vegan vita-algae D3, zinc, vitamin C, ginger extract, K2 vital delta and beta-glucan so that you can invite calm into your life as a permanent resident.
Buy now £15.00, Nourished
Wild Food-Grown Magnesium Supplements
Magnesium has some key benefits for the body, including promoting healthy bones and teeth, aiding muscle recovery, reducing tiredness and relaxing the body. Coined ‘nature’s tranquiliser’, magnesium is said to help calm frazzled minds in order to promote better mental health.
You will need to take 4 capsules a day, so this supplement is a little more of a commitment, but one that plays dividends. Take four capsules a day; two in the morning after breakfast and two in the evening 1-2 hours for a better night’s sleep and calmer days.
Buy now £9.67, Wild Food
Life-enhancing hobbies
Painting or knitting, brewing beer and learning linguistics; a new hobby can jolt you out of your hamster wheel.
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Complete Spanish Step-by-Step, Premium Second Edition
Beloved by beginners across the globe, Barbara Bregstein’s Step-by-Step Spanish has been crafted to imbue the basics with oodles of logic, making the progression to an intermediate language level feel seamless. The 30 chapters gradually increase in difficulty and are supported by over 300 exercises to ensure that practice truly makes perfect. We’re big fans of the fact that this textbook additionally includes vocabulary flashcards to make speedy vocab learning a breeze.
What’s more, you’ll have further access to audio recordings of answers to 150 exercises, allowing you to improve your comprehension skills with ease. Chapter topics include the use of preterit and imperfect tenses, commands, the present and past subjunctive, idiom and countless others. Impatience to learn a language shows brilliant eagerness, but Bregstein’s fantastic guide tempers the desire to race through difficult language barriers to ensure near-perfection.
Buy now £15.39, Amazon
Genki I and II, Textbooks and Workbooks
If you’re serious about committing to learning Japanese, the best possible investment in your studies is Genki I and II, the beloved and highly regarded integrated course in elementary Japanese that utilises a brilliant textbook and workbook combination. Both Genki I and II are divided into 12 themed chapters which cover speaking, listening, reading, and writing to cultivate overall language ability.
The latest revised edition of Genki I also includes a new “Culture Notes” section, which is designed to enhance student's knowledge of Japan through information on Japanese culture and daily life. Grammatical rules are explained as plainly and simply as possible, and workbook exercises help students practice until such rules become second nature.
Buy now £88.00, Amazon
The Greater Good Fresh Brewing Co The Pinter - brewing machine and beer dispenser
Tech and beer collide in this machine, which not only allows you to dispense 10 pints of fresh beer, but to brew it yourself too.
The sustainable service from The Greater Good Fresh Brewing Co. involves ordering a 10-pint Eco-Crate via the Pinter app, before purifying, adding fresh press (a concentrated medley of ingredients) and brewing yeast to the mix, before leaving it to ferment and then conditioning in the fridge (you’ll need to clear a shelf in a normal-sized fridge). Clear step-by-step instructions with videos can be found on Pinter’s website.
When the beer is ready, tap it straight from the barrel-shaped machine into your glass. If you’ve always fancied trying your hand at making small-batch beer, Pinter puts you in the driving seat.
Design-wise, there’s a departure from black (if you want it), with red and blue options available. Beer is available on a one-off or a rolling subscription basis, so you’ll never go without, with a menu of IPA, stout, pilsner, lager, ciders and ales to choose from. Using ingredients from elsewhere will cancel the one-year warranty, so that’s something to bear in mind, but Pinter adds new options to its collection routinely which should be enough to satisfy any thirst.
Brewing at home means, short of suckling straight from the brewery, you’ll enjoy the freshest pints you’ll ever taste, made yourself.
Buy now £99.00, John Lewis
Make Your Own Chilli Sauce Kit
Regular readers know that here at ES Best, we’ve got a sweet spot for hot sauce. If you’re like us, now is the ideal time to get cracking on making your own. From The Sandy Leaf Farm Store comes this all-in-one kit that will see you cooking, cooling and decanting your very own spicy sauce from scratch.
The kit includes the base ingredients and kit to make seven types of hot sauce with varying levels of heat, including six exotic chillis.
Buy now £6.99, Amazon
Bespoke Jewellery Making Kit
Jewellery is a personal thing for many, and it can get a whole lot more special by designing your own pieces. Cast is on a mission to help with this outrageously popular jewellery making kit. It’s got everything you need to cast your dream jewellery pieces in wax before having them made in solid sterling silver for £60 more. A great kit to help you unleash an underlying passion.
Buy now £99.00, CAST
Kintsugi Repair Kit
The Japanese art of kintsugi – where broken objects are fixed with golden glue – is based on the philosophy that things can become more beautiful through their imperfections. We think that’s rather lovely. This set comes with enough glue ingredients to fix several objects, plus two bowls to practice on.
Buy now £6.99, Amazon
Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour Tin - 24 Half Pans
A beautiful, lightweight tin of 24 half pans complete with a 12” manikin for sketching the human form, we’ve been coveting this professional set of watercolours from Winsor & Newton since our school days.
Though a paintbrush isn’t included in this set, there’s ample room in the central tray for one or two of your favourite brushes when you’re painting on the go. You can also purchase individual half pans if you’re in the mood to swap out certain colours for new ones. Art Discount recommends pairing this set with a sable or imitation sable-style brush for the best results.
With a recommended retail price of £165.85, this is by far the best value for money Winsor & Newton professional-grade watercolour set that we’ve ever come across.
Buy now £68.95, Art Discount
Rembrandt Oil Colour Box Excellent Assorted Colours Set of 41
The oil paint set to rule them all, it simply doesn’t get better than this assortment from Rembrandt (inspired by the Dutch painter).
Any professional artist is bound to feel like a child in a candy store upon opening this stacked set of oil painting goods, which includes 41 different tubes of paints in varying sizes, six different oil colour mediums and varnishes, three palette knives, a variety of brushes, a box of 25 charcoal sticks, a hand-painted colour chart, colour mixing brochure, and a partridge in a pear tree.
Buy now £785.00, Cass Art
