Statistically this is the week when people are most likely to fall off the post Argostide diet band wagon.
During the next five days around a third of those with healthy January intentions will look down at their tuna fin salad and reach for the phone to request a high-carb visit from Cosa Nostra Pizzas - No Contract Too Small.

Is it any wonder? Mammals as a species, even the baldy ones like humans, have an amazing ability to go quiet in a dark corner while they deal with stressful events. Like self-starvation.
What we don’t need is a constant stream of TV adverts for patent diets promising the body of Kip Kenyo inside 45 minutes or programmes on how to eat yourself slim while noshing like a cod.
So please, just leave me alone while I curl up here and lick the paint off the skirting boards.
Vanity, rather than health is the main driver in our determination to lose weight. We diet so as not to look like someone who lives in a swamp with a donkey rather than the fear of developing an interesting range of diseases and running pustules.
So a word of warning. Apart from the exciting super fast norovirus diet, most reducing regimes call for a long period of self denial. This can be dangerous for drivers.
Fatigue and stress are side effects of diets and factors in 20 per cent of motorway accidents. The RAC recommends a proper start to the driving day. High on the list of health dietary suggestions is sardines on toast for breakfast. You may smell like a cat but will be alert and have a glossy coat all morning.
Bringing us to the increased girth of the Seat Altea.
As the Freetrack version the Altea MPV is Seat’s first foray into the 4x4 market. Others have tried the same exercise of collagen injected body trim and raised suspension. Renault, for instance, with the 4x4 Megane Scenic and Rover’s ludicrous two-wheel drive Streetwise, a sort of potbellied 200.
Neither, however, had the benefit of VW’s four-wheel drive system or could claim to compete with cars such as the Honda CRV and Land Rover Freelander.
At which point it may be as well to put the Freetrack’s off- road abilities into perspective. Crazy horse that I am I put it onto a couple of spud fields and can tell you that despite girly tyres it coped.
However, the reality is that even with beefed up suspension and undercarriage this is not the car to deliver a base camp floral tribute to Sir Edmund Hillary.
Back on the road the automatic four wheel drive uncouples itself and reveals a car that’s as much fun as watching Mrs Clinton fall off a stage.
Powered by a two-litre turbocharged engine, the petrol version is quick, 0-60 is reached in 7.5 seconds and there is a maximum speed of 133mph. Not bad for a car that essentially lives for carting kids and shopping about. Obviously living in a field is also a benefit.
To that end the Freetrack has a long list of creature comforts including a home entertainment system with a drop down screen and auxiliary inputs for shut-up-in-the-back headphones.
All this will cost £20,495 which is £3,000 more than its sibling Skoda Octavia Scout and £500 less than the Freelander. However, add the Seat spec to the Land Rover and it will cost you another £2,000. Trouble is in the carisma-rich world of off-roaders many will see the extra cash is worth the badge.
The best way to view the Freetrack is as a family car with added versatility and an striking body style. It is well balanced, relaxed and fun on the B-roads. And sorry, but yes your bum will look big in this.

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