In less than one month, I will officially be the author of a published novel. <Obligatory promo: MISTRESS OF FORTUNE out on February 3! Pre-order your copy now>

One of the first rules of writing I learned was “avoid cliches.” And so I bow my head in shame as I’m about to commit to New Year’s Cliche #1: LOSE WEIGHT.

I’d tell you my goal isn’t actually to lose weight but to get healthy, but I’d be lying. And I won’t bore you with a long lament about how I found myself at my heaviest weight of all time. The only reason that counts is that I stopped exercising regularly and started eating ALL THE THINGS. Food is really good, ya know? And while exercise is good too, it takes a lot more effort than slathering a piece of bread with Nutella and shoving it into my mouth.

So there you have it.

What I will bore enthrall you with is a quick run down of my plan:

1) Adhere to the 80/20 principle (which basically means that 20% of the time I can throw most of the following out the window)

2) Eat a fruit and/or vegetable with every meal.

3) Avoid processed foods like cliches

4) Strength-training 30 minutes 3x a week

5) Walking/Running/Elliptical 30 minutes 5x a week

6) Whole grains only (or mostly)

7) Cut down on vino (this, alas, is the hardest one for me, as I LOVE my vino way too much)

Care to share your New Year’s goals? C’mon, you know you want to.