What is the quickest way to get in shape? Is there anything I can do in a few weeks?

This is an annual ritual: the mad December rush to the gym, seeking penance for a year of excess and laziness, followed by "one last splurge", before a devout commitment to changing your ways because all good resolutions need to happen the day after January 1, because, well, New Year's day is a party.

The G20 Summit provided for some interesting commentary about the value of keeping your house clean when you are expecting visitors. As long-suffering citizens of Johannesburg, we witnessed a giant clean-up of hypocritical proportions, sticking Band-Aids onto broken limbs while sweeping the front porch, all so it will look good on TV screens worldwide.

The potholes on the main artery road in my suburb have grown so big during the same period that I have literally had to change my route home and add a few minutes to my day. It's that or I break a wheel. There's no point in slowing down, as racing over a canyon or simply falling into it are equally fatal for well-engineered road tyres.

The point is that the longer you neglect something, the longer you ignore it, the more futile little last-minute interventions become. The little two-week December rush to the treadmill is not unlike those contractors the city brings in to fill potholes a few weeks after a rainstorm. It is a quick, artificial remedy because as soon as one household backwashes its pool or the heavens open once more, every one of those patched holes reopens with increased vigour.

I hate to break it to you: yes, you may lose a kilogram or two, maybe even more if you starve yourself and take unnecessary metabolism boosters, but beyond some artificial touch-ups there is little you can actually do.

You'll never read any advice in this column promoting short-term, silly or dangerous fads to rapidly lose weight. The truth, which is written over and over again, is that everyone you see who is "in shape", whatever you define that to be, has done so by sticking to a process over a long time.

My wife, a personal trainer, has to answer the same question every week. You see, she is spoken of -- either directly or behind her back -- as someone who is "lucky". Someone who was born with the gift of not having to worry about her weight despite the disruption of bearing a child and dealing with the hormonal turmoil that women endure around the same time that their "silver fox" husbands buy sports cars.

Her answer is always the same: "I have not always had a healthy relationship with my weight and food. A dance teacher planted some dangerous ideas in my young mind. However, over decades, I have consciously approached every cake the same way: How does this slice fit in with my lifestyle? I love cheesecake, but that doesn't mean I have to eat them all. I have exercised, at least four days a week, for three decades."

I have lived this reality with her. When others sleep in, she goes for a run. When work and family are tiresome, she finds time to lift weights or do bodyweight exercises. She's not perfect but don't tell her I said that. But she is a symbol of the power of process.

Of course there will be holidays or times when something else must take priority, but she has a time to wake up, a time to move and exercise, and an approach to eating well 90% of the time, turning the odd slice of cheesecake into a treat, not a moment of guilt.

To answer your question: do an upper-lower strength training split. Train intensely, but not for hours. Add some high-intensity interval training and be sure to put in the kilometres, either dodging potholes or on the treadmill. Cut out all sugar and if it is not found on the perimeter aisles of your favourite grocery store, don't eat it. You may shape up a little over the next few weeks. You certainly will feel better.