Want to make some changes this year? Who doesn’t.  Here are 3 tips that could help you reach your goals - before next January.

OK, so it’s the start of a new year and this year you’re really, really, really determined to finally make those healthy lifestyle changes you were equally determined to make last year and the year before that and the year before that.  But, well, you didn’t.

So let me say right at the start, "Bully for you". Hey, just because in the past, you didn’t (take your pick) - lose weight, stop smoking, start exercising, take up better grooming, learn tai chi, win the Nobel Prize (well, if Al Gore can win one, anyone can), or whatever  - doesn’t for a second mean that you won’t finally succeed at that particular change you want to make this year.  So, by all means, make that resolution to change what you think needs changing.

Before you rush off to do that, though, a few words of advice from someone who, as they say, has been there, done that. You see, I am what the researchers (and my wife), like to call "a successful loser" (when she describes me that way, however, my wife means it entirely differently than the way researchers mean it, but then she’s got a terrible sense of humour, which is why she married me, I guess), which means that I’ve lost over 10% of my body weight and I’ve kept it off for more than 7 years now. 

Specifically, the day I panicked, I tipped the scales at 169 pounds (I’m 5′6", or at least I used to be before I started shrinking with age) , but I now weigh around 140 depending on what time of day I take my weight (as a neurotic successful loser, I weigh myself very frequently because whenever I edge up a pound or two, I work very hard at making sure it comes back off very quickly because I know how quickly that you can slide on that slippery slope).

Anyway, the point of all that is not to brag about my sleek physique (to be honest, it’s not really sleek, more like geek), but rather to say that I’m a pretty disciplined person, which is why I have stuck with my weight loss. Yet, just like everyone else, I have failed at many other resolutions in the past.

So here are 3 pieces of advice from someone who knows about resolution-making, and especially about failing.

Rule number one in resolution making should always be: pick something achievable to get resolute about. If, for example, I had set off to lose 30 pounds when I first decided to lose weight, I’m sure I would never have got to my goal. It’s just too damn difficult to lose that amount of weight. Instead, I set out to lose only 10 pounds, which in fact took far longer than I thought it would and was harder than I thought it would be. But once I got there, I decided I could try to lose 5 more, which I did, and so on.

So always pick small steps to start with.

Rule no 2: pick only one, or at most 2 things, to change. Change is very hard, so why add to the challenge by trying to make several alterations at a time? Pick what you think is the most important (or maybe the easiest), change to make, and go with that one. The others can wait, believe me.

Finally, rule no 3: be very, very patient. It takes time to change, and there is often some back-sliding, which might discourage you (hey, all of us want everything in life to proceed on a straight line, which never happens, of course), but should not deter you from trying to get back on track.

Remember, Pamela Anderson wasn’t built in one day.