Tackle the winter blues by getting active

January is everyone’s least favourite month.

The weather is bleak, the bills for the Christmas overspend are pouring in and we all feel rather liverish and podgy after over indulging in food and booze.

Apparently women are more likely to suffer from the January blues than men, and for some people it can be a very real problem.

I actually completely understand that feeling of wanting to throw the duvet over your head and just hibernate like a baby bear until the sun shows it’s face again.

There are, however, things you can do to make January more bearable.

Obviously if you have landed yourself in debt by going completely bonkers in the run up to Christmas you need to get help as soon as possible and also have a good long hard talk to yourself.

It’s just crazy to spend so much money on presents and grub in order to try and create the “perfect” Christmas.

The most important thing is to be with friends and family and although we all want to give our children in particular fantastic gifts, that fleeting look of joy on their face just isn’t worth all the misery of trying to pay the money back.

Like everyone else I completely fell off the wagon and ate and drank far too much and sat in front of the TV like a couch potato for hours on end. I went back to work this week feeling decidedly liverish and bloated.

It was a supreme effort of will to drag myself to my regular Monday night Zumba class with the ball of energy that is instructor Maxine Jones.

After the first high tempo song I thought I was going to pass out. Every part of my body felt creaky, underused and achy.

Then something rather wonderful happened around the half way mark of the fast and furious hour long session and I started to enjoy myself again. It’s always seemed odd to me that you have to expend energy to feel more energetic, but it really does work.

The other good outcome is that doing a bit of exercise actually makes you feel better mentally as well as physically.

I’m sure there’s a scientific explanation, but for me it I’d enough that I feel sunnier and more cheerful when I have jumped around to a track by Beyonc.

I also think lack of sunlight in Janiary makes us all a bit gloomy. It can be serious enough to be diagnosed as the very aptly named SAD – seasonal affective disorder – a recognised condition that can make sufferers feel, amongst other things, tired, depressed and lethargic.

An artificial lightbox can help, but it’s also vital to get outside during the day and go for a walk to soak up what little daylight there is around this time of year.

A brisk walk is also a brilliant, cheap and easy way to keep fit for the rest of us.

I’m lucky enough to live near the beach at Broughty Ferry and although we sadly no longer have our beloved dog Rocky to talk out for a walk (he adored romping about in the sand, sniffing at the seaweed and having a paddle) we still wrap up well and go for a yomp at the weekends.

If you need cheered up then stick on the comedy channel and wallow in some Friends, Frasier, Big Bang Theory or those channels that show re runs of Vicar of Dibley, Only Fools and Horses and To The Manor Born.

In order to feel happier, I also fully intend to stick to my new year resolutions which were to have more fun and spend more time with people I really like and love. That’s a fail safe way of beating the January blues.