Books, magazines, and, yes, even your trusted nutritional therapist always have some handy, easy-to-follow advice to keep you healthy. “Just 5 minutes face yoga per day prevents wrinkles”, “get a flat tummy in just 10 minutes a day” or “a simple 30-minute walk at dawn ensures better sleep at night” … That’s 45 minutes before you have even started looking after the rest of your life or even cooked a meal. If you’re not a celebrity and cannot afford a chef, a personal trainer, and a housekeeper, it can be difficult to find the time.

Add to that the restrictiveness of advice – like “avoid all carbs”, “don’t eat sugar”, “don’t snack”, “avoid alcohol”, “count calories”-, which can seem impossible to stick to at all times, and you may feel inclined to not even start. Being healthy can seem like an impossible task.

Does it always have to be all or nothing? Can you, perhaps, be “healthy in the middle”?

First of all, the more effort you invest in your health, the better the result. Of course, some people who live to 100 although they drink, smoke, live on crisps and chips, and the only body part they move is their finger on the remote.

Others seem to be doing everything right – perfect diet, exercise, fresh air, flossing, no stress – and still they are struck down by a heart attack at 54. We are not talking about those people. Some people are just lucky or unlucky.

But we know what is and isn’t good for us, and having a healthy, real food diet, cooking from scratch, putting in some regular exercise, getting out into fresh air, taking time for meditation or other relaxation, scheduling me-time does increase your chances of living a long and healthy life.

Having said that, you can also benefit from – even small – diet and lifestyle changes if you are not able to stick to all of the above at all times. And here’s why:

The Pareto principle states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes. It was named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who observed in 1896 that 80% of Italy’s wealth belonged to only 20% of the population. Surprisingly, it turned out that this principle can be applied in many other areas, too. Most things in life are not distributed evenly. For example:

• 20% of the workers produce 80% of the goods
• 20% of the customers create 80% of the revenue
• 20% of computer bugs cause 80% of the crashes
• 20% of the clothes in people’s wardrobes are worn 80% of the time

Applied to health, this could mean: 20% of your lifestyle choices are responsible for 80% of your health outcomes. That would mean that small changes, or even a single one, could have a significant impact. If you are a smoker, just giving up smoking would greatly impact your health, your sense of smell, and your physical stamina, not to mention your finances.

If you drink alcohol most days and too much of it on many of those days, cutting back or – ideally – going sober would make a difference in how well you sleep, how much you weigh, how likely you are to suffer from heart disease, cancer, dementia or liver disease later in life.

If your life revolves around sugar, removing just that one substance from your diet could reduce pain and inflammation, put an end to cravings and binges, improve your mood and protect you from type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, dementia and depression.

I’m not saying that either of those changes would be easy, but you don’t have to turn your whole life around to be healthier in the future than you are now. If you decided today to become a health saint from tomorrow and were actually able to do that, then, yes, you may become 100% healthy. But how realistic is that? According to the Pareto principle, however, chances are (and it is not a law) that you may become a lot healthier with a lot less effort.

So, pick the one thing that bothers you the most, the one thing that you suspect has the strongest impact on your wellbeing and focus on that for now. It’s a place to start. Once you have truly conquered that, you can, if you want, move on and tackle the next thing – one step at a time.

How many times has a friend, or your partner shared a health tip with you that worked for them? Maybe your husband feels like a new man since he took up running. Maybe your friend swears by her early morning swim because it helped her start her days more energised, lose weight and be happier. But is this for you? If you don’t like running or the thought of jumping into cold water first thing in the morning fills you with dread, it probably isn’t, never mind how much good these things do for other people. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, you are unlikely to stick to it. Simple as that.

If exercise is lacking from your life and you would like to change that, find a type of exercise that YOU will enjoy and do that instead. If you are not sure, try out different things. Think back to when you were a child: What did you love then? Could you revive that love you had for cycling? Would it be worth dusting off your rollerblades? Can you find an adult ballet class near you?

If you don’t like running, how about walking? A 2013 study concluded that “moderate (walking) and vigorous (running) exercise produced similar risk reductions for hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, and possibly coronary heart disease.”[1] The NHS recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise per week. That’s just over 20 minutes every day or 30 minutes, five days a week. And it doesn’t have to be walking; pushing a lawnmower, dancing, or riding a bike all count. Anything that will increase your heart rate will do. If you find walking on your own boring, buddy up with a friend, listen to an audiobook while you do it, or use your time outdoors to look out for great motifs, if you enjoy photography.

Some people decide to cut out sugar and stop eating it there and then, either because they are the kind of person that will stick to resolutions or … because they know that having ONE biscuit will open the floodgates and they are not going to stop until they have demolished the entire packet. Others can’t face the thought of never having another biscuit – but they CAN stop after having just one every now and then. Which kind of person are you? Once you have established that, you can plan your strategy.

Research has found that people who have goals – particularly high or hard goals – are considerably more likely to succeed than people who do not.[2] Ideally, those goals should be SMART:

Specific – be clear about EXACTLY what you want to achieve. “I will cook from scratch 5 times per week” is specific. “I will eat more home-cooked food” is not.