RESOLUTIONS have become an integral part of the New Year for many people looking to make a fresh start in January.

A few short days after spending the festive season indulging, many see the beginning of the year as a time to transform their lifestyles and take a healthier approach to eating.

Neil Owens, a former teacher turned personal trainer set up his Podfit business in Market Street, York, in April 2014, to help people do just that.

In 2017 he gave teenager Sophie Mainprize £2,000 of training sessions to help bring her weight under control after struggling with her health throughout her life.

The 17-year-old, from Boroughbridge Road, had struggled to such an extent her mum, Lucy, had been forced to padlock cupboards in their kitchen.

However, after meeting Neil and proving she is motivated to lose weight, he has supported the York College student on her journey.

Neil swears by the Podfit Success Formula - a list of 10 steps, which he believes will gradually become habits if they are followed consistently.

1. Get up 30 minutes earlier than you did today. Yes, every day from now on I suggest that you get up at least 30 minutes earlier than you are doing currently.

2. Don’t hit the snooze button EVER AGAIN. This might sound daft, but what you are doing to the brain by hitting snooze is telling yourself that’s its okay not to follow through with the things you intended to do today.

3. Earn your shower. The first thing you do when you get up should be to do some form of exercise, the higher the intensity, the better. The idea is to get your heart rate up high at the start of the day.

4. Track your food. I recommend using MyFitnessPal. Lots of studies have shown that people who actually keep track of what they eat on paper, in an app, or in some other record, have better success at losing weight.

5. Drink lots of water. Water lowers the amount of fat stored in your body. Your kidneys get very lazy on the job when you don't drink enough water and as a result of you not drinking water, your kidneys give most of its unfinished work to your liver. One of your liver's functions is to help your body burn stored fat for energy and it can't perform that job fully if it also has to do the kidney's job.

7. Eat breakfast. A breakfast with protein is best if you want to lose weight.

8. Take habits one at a time. The list might contain 10 to 20 habits that you want to change. One of the reasons why New Year’s resolutions often fail is that people take on too much.

9. Add accountability where ever you can. Track your food, track your exercise, track your habit changes and use positive reinforcements, not negative ones.

10. Don’t give up if you slip up. It’s really important to recognise that failure is part of a learning curve. If your weekly habit change is to not drink alcohol in the week, and you have a drink on a week day, instead of giving up, try to recognise what triggered the drinking.