It’s less than three weeks until Christmas and the annual day where most of us eat as if we’ll never eat again and then lay on the sofa watching Toy Story for the umpteenth time whilst the kids run the batteries down in their new toys! Then as the kids slope off to bed we dig into the leftovers and start discussing next Christmas!

Well before that next Christmas we have the New Year and the dreaded resolutions we make, then break, then start again and then just forget about. So here’s a suggestion for those of you planning on making resolutions around your health and fitness. Don’t wait till January 1 – start now.

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t enjoy Christmas or the festive season. But why not make a start now?

Don’t wait until January to go to that Zumba class – go now and get into the habit. Don’t talk about joining the gym in January – you won’t. Get along this week and get going. Here’s a newsflash – gyms don’t have January sales because they know you’re all be there to start the new year’s resolutions.

Start cutting back on the cigarettes now, then in January you’re already on your way.

Start that weekly long walk or short run with your better half this weekend. Cut out some of the things from your diet you keep talking about; the crisps, the chocolate, the takeaways. New Year’s resolutions are really hard to keep. Giving yourself a hard start point doesn’t work very well for most people, so why make it hard for yourself?

Start making the little changes now that will eventually lead to the big changes you want to see.

Speaking with a client earlier this week, who has followed much of the advice I’ve given her and made changes to her diet and lifestyle, she was saying how glad she was she’d started now and not in the new year when she’d intended. She feels full of energy and feels like she can do lots of the things with her children that were too difficult previously. If you need any further encouragement to start now use that. A recent report in the British Journal of Sports Medicine highlighted a study showing the biggest killer in America is lack of physical fitness. Britain tends to mirror America in these matters, so let’s all get started now and make 2014 the year that we really make that difference.