In his latest blog for STV Hamilton fitness expert Graham Porterfield, highlights how to keep those New Year's resolutions.

Planning is an essential part of any long-term strategy and this is the time of year where we can go off the rails.

Would you build an extension, or go on holiday without adequate planning? No! Those who will be the most successful will be those who are organised and have planned their strategy to succeed.

Ask the question - do you really think you can be slim for the rest of your life unless you take control and start planning? As with anything, if you allow something to run its course and see how things turn out, you are not in control and will not achieve anything like the results that you might have done, had you developed a plan or a live working schedule.

Your daily truth diary should be used not only for recording food and activity, but also for forward planning.

Make a weekly plan – sit down on a Sunday evening and plan your week. Look at foods you will eat, and what you will need to get in the way of groceries. Plan your shopping and make a list. Stick to the list and don’t be tempted to buy items because they look nice of the shelf.

Plan your activities and workouts for the week and pen them into your diary, make sure you see them through. Get a friend involved as planned activities with someone else are far more likely to be undertaken than solitary ones.

Get into the habit of planning for work the night before - the morning is too late

Here are some challenges we all face from day to day, take a look at the solution and adapt it to your life style to help get round these problems.

The challenge: You will have set backs and you will underachieve some weeks.

The solution: Don’t be too hard on yourself - see this as a natural progression to accustoming yourself to your new lifestyle. Revisit your reasons for becoming slimmer, and make a plan for the following week that you will maintain. Include extra activities to make up for your lapse.

The challenge: I don’t always get time for breakfast.

The solution: Plan to get to bed early and set the alarm for 15 minutes earlier or prepare the necessary foods for breakfast the night before.

The challenge: Lunch is always so rushed, I don’t get the chance to eat anything healthy.

The solution: Plan food the night before when preparing breakfast. Make sure the weekly shop has sufficient items for work lunches. Organise work so that you are free to eat properly at lunchtime.

The challenge: I always have to have lots of biscuits or sweet snacks around the house for the kids/husband etc.

The solution: Make sure you also have healthy snacks for yourself, and only buy enough for them, so that by eating theirs, you leave them short. Put theirs in a tub or container, or better still in his or her own cupboard, one that you don’t go to.

Those people who make full use of their diaries to be organised, and adopt a planned approach to the project are the ones who are more successful every time.

The daily truth diary is an essential part of the process of planning and change, five to ten minutes every day will help you to identry areas that need attention. Your diary is also a vital reference point for you to examine and make improvements.

Check back next Sunday to find out more ways to achieve your weight objective goals.

For more information on healthy living in the New Year, visit STV Health Centre, brought to you by NHS inform.

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