As 2016 bangs to a close, many of us will open up to making some positive changes in the new year. Most of them involve living a zippier, healthier lifestyle. If Oprah can drop 40 pounds, you can, too, right? Keeping the weight off is a whole different thing, but let's not veer off into the negative, as our minds tend to do. This is the year to stay positive. Well, every year is, but 2017 — and this is not fake news — is going to be a huge wake-up call to our sense of well being.

"I'm going to start exercising every day!"

"I'm going to lose 20 pounds by Valentine's Day!"

"I want to stop hating my job, eat real food, up my yoga practice to three stress-busting sessions a week."

It all starts with your intention. It's your call, your choice, your personal vision of what your best self looks like a year or even five years from now.

So I ask you: If you dream it, can you do it?

Just say yes. It is 100 percent possible that 2017 is your turnaround year, one that brings a gentle end to old habits that don't serve you anymore, and creates new ones that do: such as spending a few minutes on meditation every day, or reading labels to make sure you avoid excess sugar and other toxic ingredients.

As your most personal trainer, I must tell you that experts report that most people will fail to keep their New Year's resolutions. The good news is that you're not most people. You are uniquely you, hardwired to change your life in profound ways if and when you are ready.

Genuine and long-lasting lifestyle change isn't easy, but it is possible. The more you believe you can do something, the more likely you will do it. That relationship between belief and action is called "self-efficacy," a key concept that enables you to defy the odds and make New Year's resolutions that last a lifetime.

Here are a few more winning strategies for you to consider:

START WHERE YOU ARE. This may see counterintuitive, but hang in there, because this is a secret teaching when it comes to making lasting change. Begin your journey by accepting yourself just the way you are. If you're fat, you're fat. If you're addicted to sugar, you're addicted to sugar. Shame and blame, continuous trash-talking focused on your imperfect body, your past failures, will not get you the results you want. Research shows that when you acknowledge and love yourself as you are, it's from that place of kindness and trust that change is more likely to happen.

LEARN ABOUT CHANGE. You're not born knowing how to make change happen. It's something you have to learn, like empathy, or the rules of golf. Making change has rules, too. One is that change is not linear. It's most likely two steps forward, one step back. (Think country line dancing.) Knowing that will help you begin again, and again, until you succeed.

Another rule of change, based on more than 30 years of research by Dr. James Prochaska and colleagues, in their classic "Changing for Good": If you are not ready for change, personally and deep down, it won't happen, no matter how much your spouse, doctor or employer wants it. Knowing this will save you a lot of time and money and stressful drama wasted on behavioral change you're not ready for.

SET REALISTIC GOALS. Don't set unrealistic goals for yourself, like losing 20 pounds in a few weeks or exercising an hour every day. These big dreams create nightmares of failure, and failure is the opposite of how you want to feel when you're making change. You want to be successful. Set goals you can easily do. Be happy for small victories. An orange instead of a candy bar; a night of home cooking instead of bucket of fast food.

GIVE IT TIME. Some days, the best part of your workout is simply showing up. Accept that. New habits take time. Be patient. When you feel yourself slipping and falling — and you will — don't beat yourself up. Every day is a fresh start. You can always begin. Again and again.

ENERGY EXPRESS-O! THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES!

"And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been." — Rainer Maria Rilke

Marilynn Preston — healthy lifestyle expert, well being coach and Emmy-winning producer — is the creator of Energy Express, the longest-running syndicated fitness column in the country. She has a website, marilynnpreston.com, and welcomes reader questions, which can be sent to [email protected]. She also produces EnExTV, a digital reincarnation of her award-winning TV series about sports, fitness and adventure, for kids of all ages, at youtube.com/EnExTV and facebook.com/EnExTV. To find out more about Preston and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.