Resolutions, I feel, are pointless. They’re like diets. The calendar flips back into January and you get all gung-ho about some resolution you’ve made - like going to the gym or walking more often - but a month later it’s been ditched and you’re back into your old, crappy habits.

You don’t make resolutions when you’re serious about self improvement. Resolutions are elementary school writing assignments: “Write 500 words on your New Year’s Resolutions and how plan to accomplish it.” They’re topics of discussion designed to allow ”doctors” to come on Good Morning America and The Today Show to talk about losing weight, as if they don’t already freature enough gimmicky weight loss segments.

No, resolutions don’t work any more than diets. The change you want to see may come about quickly, but it won’t last.

When you’re serious about making a change, you don’t serach for the get-rich-quick-scheme of self improvement. You make a commitment to something; you make it a lifestyle choice.

Like 99 percent of the world, I’ve made attempted lifestyle changes in the past, and like 99 percent of that percent, I’ve struggled and failed. And again, like 99 percent of that 99 percent I’ve gotten back on the horse because I know that a lifestyle change isn’t something that works overnight, nor is it something that gets derailed overnight. I’ve fallen off the bandwagon on some these attempted changes for long periods of time, and it’s never really concerned me: “I’ll jump back on next week” I’d say… no big deal. Part of this non-chalance has come from the fact that I’ve always remained active as an athlete and runner, and because of that when I did fall off the bandwagon on living healthier, the physical effects of that were not always quick to come about. My activity level allowed me to fool myself that what I was doing was okay, I was a believer that “if the furnace is hot enough it will burn anything as fuel.”

True… maybe, but that doesn’t mean it’s not gunking up the engine.

Over the last three weeks I’ve had a terrifying, and terrifyingly close, view of just what happens when the engine gets gunked up.

While the timing of this eye-opening happened to be right at the turn of the New Year, I assure you that what I’m making here is not a resolution, but a commitment. It’s a commitment to putting the right things in my body far more often - whole, unprocessed foods and H2O - while leaving the wrong things on the shelves in the grocery store more - Oreos and anything containing primarily ingredients that I can’t pronounce. I’m not going to eliminate a hearty plate of nachos or a pitcher of beer, or even diet soda completely, but I am going to consider everything I put in more closely than I ever have before. And this doesn’t mean starving myself either, it means putting as much of the good stuff in as I crave, with the caveat being that the stuff I do keep putting in is in fact the good stuff.

Will this all lead to weight loss? I’ve no doubt that it will. But, that’s not the goal. For that to be the goal would be too short-sighted, and would leave in a few short months right alongside all those resolution-makers, wondering what went wrong and why I’m already back to my old ways.