Everyone is doing Dry January, Veganuary, Gymanuary — monitoring their every dead lift, bench press, kilometre jogged and kale smoothie blitzed, into some whizzy little app designed to beep digital encouragement.

An international campaign is encouraging people to go vegan in January. But is it healthy to cut out all animal-based foods, asks Sharon Ní Chonchúir.  

Whenever we do stuff like Stoptober or Movember, it’s always to benefit ourselves. Movember is all about showing your awareness of prostate cancer by sporting a great big freshly-grown moustache which gets you extra likes on Facebook, while only the most uni-cellular amongst us need the benefits of stopping smoking in Stoptober spelled out.