Kate Livingstone: My resolve is not to make resolutions!

What’s the point. We get to January 10 and I’ve usually broken them all.

You last that long, I hear you say.

Well I do try but how are you supposed to go on a diet with all those boxes of chocolates still to eat. They were presents after all and it would be such a waste and very rude not to consume them.

And of course, there is a fridge and freezer still brim full of the “just in case” food that I buy every festive season.

You can hardly say “you’ll have had your tea” if someone turns up unexpectedly.

But as usual I overdo it and I’m left shoving it into the freezer or, as is more likely the case, sitting at night watching TV and working my way through Stilton and crackers/pate on toast/sausage rolls, and occasionally all three!

Then there is the cutting down on alcohol.

Don’t get me wrong, I like a wee glass of wine – as friends and regular readers will testify to – and sometimes I like more then one, but cut it out altogether? That is one step too far.

Next on the list is exercise. Well, as you know, I try ... and I try. But if truth be told, it’s a losing battle.

I go to the gym. I take part in all sorts of different classes that are on offer in the hope of finding one that firstly, I enjoy and secondly, don’t end up tripping over my feet.

I’m still looking.

Once I spotted my mother’s generation going to a tea dance in the sports centre and thought that maybe that would be my level, but I’m sure that I’d get myself in a spin – at all the wrong moments.

After that the list of resolutions I have tried and very quickly fallen off the wagon with just keeps on growing.

Getting out in the fresh air more – fine till it rains ... and I really can’t be bothered with being cold and wet.

Learning a new craft – tried a crochet class once and after the second week, it was gently suggested that perhaps it wasn’t for me as I tried to unravel the wool for what seemed like the hundredth time.

Learn a new skill – decided that I would go to the class on car mechanic basics and save myself a fortune. Didn’t quite work out like that but the instructor did offer to service my car for me if I promised not to come back! Think it was something to do with me dropping the oil all over the work station.

Need I go on? The list is endless.

And that’s why for 2017 I’m going to go with the flow and meet every challenge head on – but certainly not give myself additional ones!