The Lazy Journalist - January is grim enough without making it worse for yourself

During one of the coldest, darkest, and generally bleakest months of the year, it remains a bewildering act of reckless near-insanity to launch into a campaign of self-denial and grim abstinence.

Dry January, Veganuary or subjecting yourself to a drastic series of denial through New Year’s Resolutions is a sudden lurch in lifestyle which seems utterly baffling, at a time (at least in the UK) when you need all the comfort and routine you can get.

It’s even more bizarre when you consider it’s happening so soon after the festive hols - effectively swapping the cheesy Christmas jumper for a hair-shirt.

As Mark Twain, not altogether unreasonably, pointed out way back in 1863 – presumably after hearing too many people droning on about their imminent new year rejection of bourbon, molasses and roasted mutton – “Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”

We can only guess what Mark Twain would have made of Dry January (Photo by Ernest H. Mills/Getty Images)

Or more recently (this week in fact) journalist India Knight criticised giving up things in January as ‘joyless and self-flagellating’ and quite sensibly suggested a summer or spring alternative: ‘when there’s masses of delicious fruit and veg and it’s too hot for alcohol’.

Obviously, it’s important to encourage someone who is attempting to make positive changes to their diet and/or intake of the demon grog, and perhaps people who have a slightly healthier relationship with food and drink are more likely to stick to new year resolutions, but surely there’s a more sensible time in the year to do it?

Are the cold, largely gloomy days of January the best of times to launch into a regime change? Is it really the optimum moment to synchronously reject sugar, booze, cigarettes, red meat, and lardy tucker?

Why not also throw in some absurdly onerous physical exercise targets at the same time? After all those mornings are particularly irresistible at the moment, especially when you have to haul your wobbly derrière out of bed even earlier to trundle around the streets or frosty parks.

So...I think I’ll ease myself into the new decade and hopefully make a few positive changes along the way.

Admittedly, my Christmas excesses have been on the excessive side of excess, and I’ve consumed roughly double the daily calorific intake of your average Polynesian tree feller, but I’m not breaking any new ground there and I’d be much more shocked if it hadn’t been the case.

I’m also looking forward to stepping up my gym activity and will be right on it, as soon as I’ve got rid of this ghastly cold, and have finished off the creamy booze-flavoured pot of extra-thick cream in the fridge.

To find out more about Freedom Leisure’s gyms visit www.freedom-leisure.co.uk