Here’s to a healthy and happy 2019

AS the New Year chimes in at midnight, many of us will be thinking about how to improve our lives in 2019.

It is a good time of year to take stock, to remove the negative influences over the past 12 months and focus on the positive.

Most of us have a good idea of how to look after our health – or at least we should.

The obvious warnings have been around for years: quit smoking, go easy on the booze and try to eat more fruit and vegetables.

But we also need to take stock of our mental health, which has been brought into sharp focus in recent years – yet is still looked upon as somewhat of a taboo issue.

As the New Year dawns, we are also mindful of the families devastated by the loss of loved ones on the roads.

Two more men were added to that grim toll yesterday, leaving behind 151 families for whom life will never be the same again.

At the same time, we are told by motoring experts many of us are getting behind the wheel the morning after a night’s drinking.

There are so many small changes we can make to both improve our health – mentally and physically – in 2019.

And dozens of ways to change our behaviour to protect our own lives and the lives of others.

Let’s grasp the nettle in the New Year and make sure it’s out with the old habits and in with the new.