We’re well into the new year and I’ve finally stopped laughing at all those “New Year, New You” headlines. As I’ve learnt, you can’t transform into a brilliant new you overnight. It takes time.

Back in 2006, I stood on the scales and got the shock of my life: 116 kilograms, or 18 stone. I was officially, technically, overweight. It took two years to turn that big, fat ship of blubber around, but I went forward, tummy first, into the future and managed to rid myself of 36 kilos.

How? By eating more of the good stuff and less of the bad.

Less bread, pasta, pizza, sandwiches, cake, red meat and beer. Especially bread.

More fruit, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds and fish.

And by doing more of the good stuff – moving, exercising – and less of the bad – sitting, lying down.

But how do you change your thinking from a lifetime of “I need a peanut butter sandwich right now” to “Maybe I’ll just have an apple”? And do so without making food the enemy, or going on a see-saw of losing weight and gaining it all back again? My ongoing strategy, which so far lacks a patent, is called Sometimes, Always and Never.

Sometimes, I can have things like bread, butter, ham and cheese. I can always eat fruit, vegies, beans, pulses, grains and fish. Never should I have processed foods, deep-fried foods and sweet, gooey, fudgy, creamy things.

There’s bracket-creep, of course, especially on restaurant reviews and special occasions such as holidays when bread moves from Sometimes to Always, and Never things, such as deep-fried calamari or pizza, miraculously shift to Sometimes. But only for a short period, then it’s back to the Never Never.

These measures are in place not just to keep the weight from returning (a strange concept: is it stored in a vault somewhere? Do I have the passcode?) but to set myself up for the future.

My son went through a period of change as a late teenager, gaining height and losing weight. As he said at the time about his changed eating habits, “I realised that not every meal is going to be my last.”

I’m at the age and stage where the concept of the next meal being my last is actually perfectly rational, so strategy is required. Not just Sometimes, but Always.