Parody On Self Help Manuals Shows How Ridiculous January 'New Year, New You' Resolutions Are

Self Help Manuals As You've Never Seen Them Before
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Tried to quit drinking? Joined the gym? And all because it's January, that miserable magical time of year when anything is possible?

If you're reading this with a chocolate bar in hand, a glass of red wine in the other, and your gym membership card propping up a wonky table, then don't feel like all is lost - self help comes from within and in your own time, not down to the time of year.

To perfectly capture this conundrum of wanting to change, photographer Oli Kellett and art director Stine Hole Mankovksy came up with these genius parodies of self help manuals.

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Talking about the project, they said: "It’s the time of year when everyone attempts to give up their vices. People splash out on expensive gym memberships, and everywhere we are sold miracle cures and quick fixes. But we thought, only you can help yourself and the real fight when trying to give up bad habits is the mental one.

"We got the idea while looking at old self-defence manuals, with their aggressive language and staged poses. They are really funny… We thought “what if we did one where people were fighting themselves?” Which we thought were perfect for the new year, to tell people that they really just need to protect themselves from themselves and battle their own thoughts."

To make the images look natural, they used two sets of twins - a guy and girl set - and used wigs and moustaches to make them look completely different. Oli shot and retouched the images and Stine then art directed the layouts.

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If you'd like to get behind HuffPost UK Lifestyle's campaign to redefine January as a time for wellbeing, growth and happiness - rather than detox, restriction and subtraction - please tweet this using the hashtag #SayNoToJan

The makeup and hair was by Sam Norman and her assistant Zoe Cornwell. See the full series here.