My seven old-school resolutions for the new term

Forget New Year, back-to-school is the perfect time to begin fostering new habits for a long life

There are – now that summer vacations have ended and the rain has begun again in earnest – holiday habits we should carry into autumn. And there are some we also should attempt to shake off. Like drinking at lunch on a Monday, like not realising, and neither caring, that it’s Monday, like not bothering what time, or whether, you wake up on a (Monday), or thinking it’s appropriate to pull out the dance moves you haven’t got (especially on a Monday).
But this new season provides an opportunity to grab good habits and integrate them into your life and I’ve long thought that September provides a more feasible environment for resolutions than clichéd New Year.
After all, it’s warmer and nature’s harvest is not just more fruitful than in January, she’s at her best.
This is, of course, if your job requires you to actually get somewhere. For me, it’s normally a trip down the stairs, left down the hall, left again through the dining room and into my study (where, by the way, there’s a Peloton, to which I am a willing slave). But otherwise walk if you can, even if it takes an hour longer. And then that’s just you with your thoughts, buildings and landscape and fresh air. Unless you live in a polluted hellhole, in which case get out quick and WFH (eg. become a civil servant in the Home Office or a restaurant critic).
A French bistro, Petits Plats de Mamama, in the Alsatian village of Rothau banned phones last year and now say they are making more money as people chat more and then get carried away chatting and order pudding. This aside from the monstrous things smartphones do to your manners. Switch ‘em off. Nothing is so urgent that it can’t wait until after dinner.
By which I mean if you fall asleep after lunch don’t make it an hour. In fact, while 20 minutes is the maximum, 10 is fine and even five is good if you simply touch a few seconds of sub-consciousness. Drink a short black coffee before you close your eyes and the caffeine will kick in as you come round and you’ll feel less gaga. Then, after a breath of fresh air you’ll feel like you’ve got a whole other day in you, so that’s two days for the price of one and, at the end, it’ll feel like you lived longer even if you didn’t.
Don’t just add more garlic and spice, but pile on the chilli, and bring a sweat to your brow from breakfast to dinner. Put green chilli in an omelette at breakfast and crushed red chillies in your broth at night. Such is the flavour and adrenalin high you’ll feel a lesser need for carbohydrates of which most of us need far fewer than we actually consume.
That’s bread such as sourdough made by your own fair hands or a baker. More expensive but then it’s actually bread, not a sickness and obesity-inducing, e-number, additive and preservative-filled, ultra-processed, edible substance masquerading as “bread”.
And thus only take a book or magazine to bed. And if your excuse is, “but my phone’s my alarm clock”, then get an alarm clock. Doom scrolling kills good sleep and all messages can wait until the morning. This will also stop you checking WhatsApp when you wake in the middle of the night and prevent people from seeing “last seen today…” and wondering what kind of fun you were having at 3.06am.
Sip with less choice, as if you might on an unassuming holiday. That means, if you must, have just one spirit in your life, like a good gin, and then decent red and white wine, coffee, tea and water. That’s all you need. No juices, no smoothies, no fizzy drinks, no cocktails and no fancy new-fangled alc or non-alc drinks. It will cost you less and your tummy, head and heart will thank you for it. 
Recommended