Why I won't be dieting this January

Everywhere we look right now there are people tucking into their salads, skipping to the gym and feeling guilty about eating the remainder of their Christmas chocolates. The magazines are telling us their secrets to 'get slim quick' and Instagram is a plethora of 'clean eaters'. While I encourage healthy eating and exercise and I will be doing my best to not pile on the pounds during this long, gloomy month, I will not be joining the January diets this year and here's why.

January is the hardest month to get through

Six weeks until payday, no social life and going back to work after blissfully eating chocolates and dancing around a Christmas tree for two weeks,  January is the hardest month of the year. It's the time of year that a lot of people suffer the blues and it is incredibly hard to get the motivation to do the things many of us love. Although January represents a 'new year, new start',  I would much rather tuck into my favourite treats when it is still cold and windy outside and not feel guilty about the odd glass of wine after a hard day of work - you can keep your carrot sticks.

There's still a lot of temptation around

I don't know whether it is just me, but I have a lot of Christmas chocolates left over and I have no intention of throwing them out. I'm not going to be bingeing quite like I did over the Xmas period, but I'm not going to deny myself of my Christmas presents either. When there's a lot of temptation lying around, you're more likely to cave in from your diets so you're best waiting until they are out of the house.

Cheap January restaurant deals

With everyone cutting down their spending after splashing the cash throughout December, a lot of restaurants naturally see a dip in their customers during the beginning of the year. This has led to top quality restaurants offering lucrative deals to entice new customers, sometimes with up to 60% off or 2-4-1. If saving money is one of your New Year resolutions, it makes sense to get your money's worth of going out in January and consider becoming a hermit in February instead.

There's too much pressure

As soon as you confess that you're dieting to others who are looking to trim the pounds, it is like you suddenly enter a competition without realising. There's a lot of questions that arise from talking about your diet such as 'what did you eat last night' and then comments like 'I went to the gym last night, did you?' If you're someone that thrives off competition, this can be a good thing, but dieting can be a rather sensitive subject for others and at this time of year, there can be quite a lot of peer pressure.

Healthy eating should be all year round, not just thirty-one days

Healthy eating should be all year long and not just thirty-one days. In January we put too much pressure on ourselves to lose weight in such a quick timeframe and when some of us don't achieve our goals, it can be disheartening and leaves us feeling defeated. This can put us off dieting in the long run and lead to a 'what is the point' attitude. I would much rather adopt a 'balanced' approach all year round than having one month of crash dieting - you're more likely to keep the weight off in the long run and have a healthier outlook moving forward.

Are you dieting this January?