When January comes around it’s a renewing feeling that everything starts afresh with the new year.  With its bracing mid Winter winds blowing the cobwebs and glitter away from the end of year festivities, it couldn’t come sooner.

As satisfying as it is – snuggling down in blankets armed with chocolate, with the dark nights and bitter weather being the only excuse for our hibernating – the thought of fighting the fatigue and adopting a more positive lifestyle is very much appealing.

When all you see around you are tins of Roses and half eaten Lindt bunnies, and the last proper meat and two veg meal you remember eating was actually Christmas Day, the reality is, not surprisingly, your digestive system is in the rotter.  The first job for new year: get fit.

The problem arises when resolutions are born out of guilt, which in essence, are exactly that.  We feel guilty for all the indulgence, and how sluggish and fat we feel after two weeks of continuous calorific luxuries.  When we should be starting afresh at the dawn of the new calendar, with positive vibes toward a year yet unwritten, we begin our new 365 day journey trying to rid ourselves of last year’s resolution remnants.  We remember those tasks uncrossed on the list that we ‘should really address this year’, and tackle the fat we promised to slim last Summer.

New year’s resolutions can be encouraging, exciting and rewarding when they are positive desires that will develop who we are.  But when they are just prescriptions to right our wrongs that are beyond what we can achieve, we set ourselves up for disappointment before the year’s begun.

Whether your new goal is losing weight or toning up, quaffing less prosecco or quitting smoking, make sure you go about it in an achievable way.  Dreaming big takes time to make reality, so it’s important to not beat ourselves up in the meantime.

While you self hate your bulgy hips and squishy back fat, remember that this is you, in the here and now, in a place and time that’s all yours.  As you own your destiny and make true the resolutions that make you a happier and healthier person, enjoy what you have and embrace the real you.  YOU: not defined by your failures or disappointments, but by how you take hold of life and live that fresh new year to the fullest.