i Editor's Letter: 'Resolutioners' will be gone tomorrow

It’s the closing day of January. This means the last sightings of several phenomena.

Before we get into that, here’s a little test for i student writers who appeared in the paper last year: if you want another opportunity (as we did promise) to appear again in i, then email: i@independent.co.uk asap. Be prepared.

For thousands, February means it’s time to hit the bottle. Every year more of us do a “dry” month, despite doctors saying it would be better for our livers to abstain a couple of nights each week. But, it isn’t the liver that abstainers are focused on. Most people who do it, do so in an amateur, and oddly satisfying, attempt to prove they can. There are many of us (yes, “us”) who stand on scales on 31/1 happy and somewhat bemused to see how much weight we lose just by not drinking.

Do we drink that much? Is booze that fattening? The unpalatable answer is “yes”. We haven’t lost weight in other ways because January is also a no-go zone for gyms, pools and yoga studios. For a month, these fitness emporia are full of “NYR”s – New Year’s Resolutioners – who soon realise that 10 star jumps, a few lengths and a sun salutation do not get them close to a Novak Djokovic-like body.For how the great man does it.

It is not for faint hearts. “NYR”s will be gone tomorrow. The rest of us can return, spoiling our efforts with that extra glass of wine at night. Never mind, as long as it’s red, you have less chance of a heart attack – so doctors tell me. Mind, we need a glass to help us through that other 31 January institution: the transfer window deadline. Some (sad) men take a day off to follow it. But that’s for tomorrow’s column. Cheers