If you’re committing to a month free from any alcohol, fair play. Dry January needn’t be a long and arduous slog, especially when you’ve got this list of things to keep you occupied…

And so the excesses of the festive season are a thing of the past. If, like the author of this article, you have come out the other side sporting a healthy Christmas podge and a frightening bank balance, attempting Dry January could be the perfect way to start 2019 on the front foot. Here’s a round up of places to visit and things to try throughout the month.

At Your Beat

Combine your no-booze policy with a couple of At Your Beat fitness sessions and you’ll surely feel the benefit come February 1. Purveyors of a variety of different dance fitness classes, these guys champion individual growth, which means you don’t need to shake it like Beyonce or burnout chasing a bikini body; just dance around the room and achieve your own goals. Sample classes include StrutBEAT, VideoBEAT and FitBEAT, and the group has just begun hosting sessions at Hackney’s PopFit.

At Your Beat at PopFit, 16 Sidworth Street, E8 3SD. For more details and to book, click here.

Crystal Maze LIVE

Now is the time to experience this ridiculously fun team-building game before it moves out of Islington and onto the West End in March. Based on the ever-popular gameshow, rally up a few mates and take on four different adventure zones: Aztec, Industrial, Futuristic and Medieval, collecting crystals along the way before a final showdown inside the Crystal Dome. Crystal Maze LIVE is consistently rated as one of the most fun attractions in London and offers an active antidote to the January gloom.

Crystal Maze LIVE, 10-14 White Lion Street, N1 9PD. The Angel Maze closes on January 27. More details here.

Angel Comedy Club

Laugh in the face of those January blues with a night out at the Angel Comedy Club. Operating at The Bill Murray and The Camden Head (where every show is free entry), this much-loved club puts on laugh-out-loud events every night of the week. It’s a brilliant platform for emerging talent but also a popular choice for established comics like Romesh Ranganathan and Eddie Izzard, who are both appearing this month to trial new jokes. Don’t miss James Veitch’s succinctly named James Veitch is testing out new stuff may or may not be funny show on Monday January 14.

The Bill Murray, 39 Queen’s Head Street and The Camden Head, 2 Camden Walk; full listings here.

Draughts

You’ve spent the holiday season schooling your family at Monopoly, and now is the time to build on that success at London’s first board game café. Nestled in a railway arch close to Haggerston station, Draughts is home to 850 board games, where groups of friends gather to play Cards Against Humanity, Jenga and Catan in a friendly setting. There are sandwiches, cheese boards, soft drinks and coffees; now all you need is to bring your Boggle a-game. You got this.

Draughts, Arch 337, Acton Mews, E8 4EA; entry is £5 including unlimited games across a four-hour session. More details here.

Tuneless Choir

If you love singing but have rejected the idea of joining a choir through fear of not measuring up to the others, this one is absolutely for you. The Tuneless Choir is open to everybody and anybody who fancies a singalong. It’s not about fine-tuning and improving vocal skills, rather the focus is on enjoying the act of singing and meeting lots of lovely people along the way. Talibah Rivers brings the Tuneless Choir to Hackney on Thursday January 31, and the group will meet every other Thursday from there to sing greatest hits from the likes of Frank Sinatra, Doris Day and Amy Winehouse.

Tuneless Choir starts on January 31 at Chats Palace, 42-44 Brooksby’s Walk, E9 6DF; call Talibah on 07752 522636 for more information.