For those who need to tone up a bit, it is difficult to get motivated enough to join the gym or take up running. You want to make the effort and you get as far as buying the shorts and the new Puma trainers but then that final push is just too much and you end up putting it off until tomorrow – which often never comes.

The opposite is when you start out exercising and set yourself a tough regime which consists of exercise most days. It goes great for a couple of weeks but it does not take long to burn yourself out and you are back to square one.

Falling off the exercise wagon is pretty demotivating, and it often leads to other bad habits such as overeating or drinking as you feel that you have let yourself down anyway. The spiral starts from there and it is hard to get back into exercise mode.

If you, however, start off gently and build your exercise up, you are more likely to stick at it and persevere. Just gentle exercise a couple of days a week, until you start to feel fitter and more confident and slowly it becomes a way of life.

Too much too soon and the new way of life will not have a chance to take hold and stabilise, so you should be steady and consistent in your exercise.