Why I won't be giving anything up in January.

Now before I start, I am not knocking those of you who are using the New Year as a prompt to make a fresh start towards a goal or to raise money for some very worthy charities. Clear? Good. Then I'll carry on.

madmumof7 with glass of wine

I bogging hate January. Generally in my neck of the woods it is a bit grim - damp, foggy, dark and frankly just miserable weather wise. I quite enjoyed the snow we had - all four hours of it.

The budget has been squeezed by Christmas and the inevitable bulk-buying of mince pies and German gingerbread for unexpected visitors. We didn't have any unexpected visitors though so I pretty much ate all of them myself.

What's to look forward to? Christmas is more than 300 days away and my wedding anniversary holiday is still depressingly far away according to my count down the days app. The BBQ is flooded and the sun is weak when it does bother to show its face.

My comfy flip-flops are in the bottom of the cupboard and my skin is pale and blotchy with attractive dry patches thanks to winter wind and central heating.

The last thing I feel like doing right now is giving anything up including meat or alcohol

I've seen lots of social media posts quoting reasons why you should or shouldn't give stuff up and they all have value.

But. I know this about myself. I have the willpower of a thing with no willpower and there's nothing like meals and the odd glass of wine shared with fab friends (or is that a fab glass of wine shared with odd friends?) to make the month fly by.

prosecco

In fact winter food is the main thing I look forward to at this time of year - warming roast dinners with root vegetables and sprouts, stodgy puddings, a splash of cream liqueur in my coffee as the afternoons darken into early nights.

Valentine's Day dinner

Now it sounds like I feel like I can't survive without meat or alcohol. Of course I can.

I just don't want to.