I’ve never really been one for making new year’s resolutions. An unrealistic list and an arbitrary date seem to me the ingredients for almost instant failure. Lose weight. Stop smoking, drinking,  procrastinating—whatever. Get a degree. Fly to the moon.

Rather, the idea of life resolutions is appealing to me. Deciding who you are and tailoring your day-to-day decisions to your higher values.

But last year I was in the mood to be a lemming and jump off the same cliff as everyone else. The only thing is, January is already a busy month for me. Why add to my stress levels starting something that I’d probably drop within the first fortnight? So I decided to make my resolution actionable in March. When thoughts of my resolution crossed my mind in January and February, I could simply think about what it was I wanted to accomplish.

I like the idea of March. My schedule is a lot freer and even the month’s name makes you think of energy and resolve. March. Quick March!

Last year my resolution (I decided to have only one even though of course I had other accomplishments planned for other avenues of my life) was to start going to a gym regularly. I would give it a year and see how I went, with a view to keeping the activity as part of my life for the foreseeable future—until I was an old, old lady at least! In January and February, I was happy simply to think about it. Was I serious? When would be the best time of day to go? How much would it cost? Could I afford it for the whole year? Did I need some kind of schedule or plan so I would I stick to it? What was the first thing I needed to do that would start the process of making this happen? (It was simple—make a phone call and book an appointment.) Thinking and questioning consolidated in my mind that I did want to do it and highlighted some of the possible problems I might have sticking to my resolution.

I’m coming up to 12 months and can see how wise it was, for me at least, to limit my resolve to just one commitment. It doesn’t mean I haven’t done myriad other things in the year, just that this one was a promise to myself that I wanted to keep for the sake of my health. It wasn’t to pump so much iron by such-and-such a date or lose x amount of weight or any other competition with myself—or anyone else, for that matter. The goal wasn’t to get a specific result. It was simply to go to gym regularly. I immediately succeeded in my goal (nice feeling!) and after that the process pretty much took over. The goal had done its job and could sink slowly in the west. I am now the kind of person who does a little gym circuit three times a week. And I feel good about that.

Now again in January, I’ve made my one resolve for the coming year. I can plan, dream, take tiny steps toward and psychologically prepare myself from now to March. My resolution is to start having considerably more raw, natural foods. I want to take my health to a new level. A nice broad resolution, but how do I make it specific? What are the ‘doing’ steps? I’m going to buy a high-powered blender, a fairly costly exercise which I’m looking at as an investment in my health. Whenever I think about it, I can gather another healthy recipe that I can use when March 1 comes around (or try it out with my existing blender). I can find out where to buy certain foods that I want to add to my intake—seeds, fruit and vegetables that I may not eat raw much now. I’ll plan where I’m going to put the machine, as it will be staying out on the kitchen bench. I’ll work out where in the fridge and pantry I’m going to store the different foods I’ll be buying. When am I going to use it? Breakfast smoothies? For making vegan sauces to go with dinner? Either? Both? Daily?

This is the dreaming stage. Why hurry it? It’s very pleasurable. But I believe it also trains my mind along a certain trail so that when I do undertake the change it will seem totally natural. I will have prepared my mind and my home space for something that will be a permanent part of life from now on. It’s a seamless approach where the doing just grows out of the thinking. And a beautiful thing has happened without any effort from me. The magic date is still in the future but I am already doing extra small, daily actions that are created almost automatically because my subconscious has started working for me and my chosen starting point. I am becoming the person I want to be, even before I really start.

I admit there is a danger in this plan. Dreaming without ever doing is delusion. Sometimes when you’ve stumbled across an idea, the time needs to be now—while the idea has power—not a couple of months down the road. Ideas have energy but the longer you wait the less energy they have. They seem to develop from full blown enthusiasm … to half life to … nah, not that interested after all. So we all need to recognise which path is right for our particular situation at that particular time. The delayed start programme will definitely not seem sexy enough for some or satisfy those who want to make sweeping changes now. Still, with this in my mind it’s amazing the resources I’m finding and the enthusiasm I’m feeling. It’s a kind of building up. Excitement’s too rich a word but I’m sure you get my drift. A rocket can’t take off until the motor has been on for a while and it’s absolutely ready to roar.

For me, this time, it’s not about having a specific goal past the very broad one of getting healthier. It’s about creating an achievable process. Success is in the doing, every day—not some far-fetched result in the future.

So my original January thought might be that I want to lose weight. I might start out number crunching how much weight I need to lose or how many calories I should eat and put a date on when I want to to have successfully accomplished my goal. But by the time I’ve spent a little time and allowed more clarity into my thinking, that original idea has been turned virtually inside out. I choose a date to start, not finish. And weight loss is the byproduct, not the goal. What I’m actually striving for is healthier eating on a daily basis. It’s a process of being, now—not achieving some time in the future. And once I’ve done my bit of dreaming and I start actualising my resolution, I have already succeeded—today, not a date somewhere in the future.

It is so obvious to me that many of our health problems are from processed,unnatural foods. What’s not so obvious is when, when we discover this for ourselves, we don’t immediately put into practice more healthy eating habits.

Many so-called primitive communities, with their natural diets sourced locally and no doubt lacking some of the vitamins that we pop pills to get, still seem to be hugely more healthy than those of us on the Standard American Diet. Or Standard Australian Diet. SAD indeed.

So why don’t we go back to basics? Or in our case, forward to the basics! What exactly is stopping us? One thing is that we don’t take the time to educate ourselves. We’re too busy with our lives to worry about our health. (Now, how is that smart? If we don’t have good health we don’t have a life anyway.) Another is that junk food just tastes so good to our poor, mutilated tastebuds which have been bombarded with such an indulgence of salt and fat and sugar that they no longer recognise the deliciousness of clean, real foods. Yet another is that there is so much conflicting information out there and we’re not sure we’ll choose the right information.

The answer is, we need to just start somewhere. Eat a little fruit. Add vegetables to every single meal. Learn how to cook simple food superbly. Make a solemn promise to ourselves that from this day on we will put health first—our health and that of our families.

As for the conflicting information, perhaps there’s an easy way around that too. If you’re going to be vegan, be the best little vegan you can be. Buy GMO-free grains and top quality organic fruit and vegetables. Go heirloom rather than hybrid. Don’t buy processed almond milk and soy milk or other kinds of processed food. Eat as naturally as possible.

If you want to be paleo, source the very best grassfed beef and organic eggs in your district. Don’t fall into the trap of buying highly processed food just to have low-carb treats. If it’s not something you can do in your own kitchen without too much hassle, it’s probably not worth eating anyway.

The vegetarian scenario would be similar, with eggs from free-range chickens that are also free from hormones, unhomogenised whole milk, simple white cheeses, real butter and scads of vegetables and fruit.

If you favour a standard diet, find ways that you can incorporate natural foods into it. Just a few little changes here and there, when taken on permanently, can together add up to a big health benefit. And if it costs a little more for food, remember that down the track it will cost a lot less in misery, medications, doctor’s bills and hospital stays.

Our lives are our most precious resource. We are nothing without life. And good health is surely one of the essential keys to a good life.

I used to think that you had to totally give something up to be free of its clutches. But I am leaning towards a different, more gentle approach. A kind of drifting away, without the urgent call to arms and the purposeful girding of loins required for that ‘giving up’ mindset. To be free of an addiction is to not need that thing. It doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t have it ever again. (I know the jury’s still out on that one, but these are interesting thoughts to explore anyway.)

The whole feeling that you are missing out by not having something sets up a conflict inside your mind. Conflict is, in my opinion, never good. So I am making choices to eat more nutritious food. I am educating my tastebuds to love these foods alongside the crisps, crackers, chocolate and chardonnay that I haven’t been able to get enough of in recent years. My body might be getting more calories than it needs, but at least it’s getting good nutrients along with the empty calories of the ‘bad’ choices.

It’s a kind of crowding-out mentality. There’s a minimum of wholesome, healthy food that I will eat every day. Salads. Steamed vegetables. Good proteins. Good carbohydrates. Good fats. The naughty foods? I can have them too. Any of them. As long as I’ve already had the good stuff. But here’s a little piece of magic that works for me. Rather than a picking my naughties from a whole supermarket of crap foods, I choose to think carefully about the foods I love. I evaluate them and rank them to the 10 I like best. Then I pick from that reduced pile. I’m not missing out. I’m still having the things I like best. And truly, the rest can be ignored for the most part.

Feeling like something sweet? If it’s not going to be fresh or dried fruit I will choose from my list of chocolate, a peppermint sweet/lollipop, one kind of sweet biscuit (always the same kind) or a piece of homemade cake. Savoury? Pizza, crackers on their own or with cheese, cornchips or potato crisps. Alcohol? One type of wine. This also stops me from putting loads of junk into my shopping trolley. I have thought about it and have made my choice while I’m at home and while I’m actually thinking about my health. At the supermarket, my eyes can then be trained to look only for what’s on my list.

Today, that’s good enough for me.

Improving is an interesting word. On a personal level, I like to think of it as I’m proving. I’m proving I can do better. I’m proving that I can. Improving every day. A very positive way of thinking, don’t you think?