Are you, like me, wondering who the sadist was who thought this was a good time of year to drop a dress size or take up exercise? I expect they are cackling in malicious glee as we sup our vile herb teas and twirl their fiendish moustaches as they watch us shoe-horn our flab into Lycra gym gear.

But if the duvet is looking more alluring than Colin Firth in britches or you feel like Superman confronted with Kryptonite, losing the will to live, when faced with a crispbread,  then join the club. You are in very good company.

Weak and unreliable at the best of times, our willpower cannot cope with bank statements, Arctic conditions and slaying our waist-band muffin monsters in January. We just want to hide and hibernate in carb heaven and sofa- Nirvana.

A study by neuro-scientists at Stanford University revealed that willpower is governed by the pre-frontal cortex and that this is a very frail and unreliable muscle of the brain which can't take overload.

When we set ourselves unrealistic goals in the most unforgiving month of the year we could find ourselves signing up to a programme of failure.

 

We are more likely to reach our goals if we really want to achieve them; not because we "ought" or "should" be doing them, but we adore the idea of reaching that state or having them in our lives.

Imagine then if this year your goals were all already within your reach, but a breath away and that it demanded no pain, deprivation or despairing huffing and puffing to get there. Bliss?