Ah, the New Year. It’s great isn’t it? It offers a fresh start, a new beginning – can you smell that? It’s optimism wafting through the air. You may have started 2012 off with a host of good intentions and if you’ve still managed to stick to your New Year’s resolutions thus far congratulations! You’re better than over half of the population!
It is widely reported in today’s papers that today, the 9th of January, is the day when three quarters of people will break their New Year’s resolutions. So as well as it being Monday and the start of another long week, you’re also more likely to stuff your face with chocolate, have that sneaky cigarette or skip the gym.
A new study undertaken by allabouthealth.org.uk has found that all our previous plans to shed a few extra pounds, take better care of ourselves and live better will be destroyed today – a mere nine days after the resolutions were originally made.
In fact, only one in four adults said they were confident that their willpower and determination could see them through for the entire month of January. Clearly the rest of us are weak-willed individuals who crumble at the first sight of temptation.
The study showed that getting fit was the main priority for most of us with seven out of ten people upping their physical activity levels, while six out of ten people said they were trying to eat healthily in order to lose weight. Three out of ten people are cutting back on the pints and a quarter are giving up smoking.
If you’ve managed to keep your resolutions so far, great job. You’re either a robot or genuinely do possess a massive amount of steely determination. If, however, you’ve fallen off the bandwagon already and crumbled under the pressure cheer up – there’s always next year.
