A Freerangers New Year: Health, Freedom, Gratitude, and the Long View

Gary Moller
13 hours ago
5 min read

Busy Reader Summary

The Freerangers Movement is about making New Zealand the best place in the world to live and raise a family. By improving population health by 10% by 2030, we can reduce hospital waiting lists, cut the national medicines bill, strengthen families, and rebuild resilience. This starts with everyday choices, gratitude, and personal responsibility.

I want to begin this New Year's message on a positive note.

Do we need a new National Anthem?

Introduction

This is not an article about fear, decline, or what is going wrong. It is about perspective, personal responsibility, and what becomes possible when a society chooses to invest forward rather than constantly firefight the consequences of neglect.

The human body is not fragile by design. It is adaptive, resilient, and capable of remarkable longevity when it is used, nourished, and respected. The same is true of families, communities, and nations.

Ageing is real. Hardship is real. But how we respond to them is far more negotiable than we are often led to believe. That belief sits at the heart of the Freerangers Movement.

The Freerangers Vision for New Zealand

The overriding goal of the Freerangers Movement is clear:

To make New Zealand the best place in the world to live and to raise a family.

Everything else flows from that. As part of this vision, we have set a deliberately modest, realistic, and measurable target:

To improve the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders by just 10 percent by the year 2030.

Ten percent may not sound dramatic. However, it would be transformative. A population improvement of this modest scale would reduce hospital waiting lists by at least half. This is not done by rationing care or changing priorities, but by reducing demand. Fewer people would present with preventable chronic disease, frailty, metabolic dysfunction, and medication-related illness.

At the same time, it would slash the national medicines bill. Most of our medical spending is spent on treating long-term conditions that are strongly linked to lifestyle, food, exercise, and health. Reducing the need for medication would also reduce side effects, drug reactions, and hospital visits caused by the treatments themselves.

This would free up medical resources, funding, and clinical time for the people who genuinely need medical care and will benefit most from it: trauma, cancer treatment, serious infections, congenital conditions, and unavoidable diseases.

This is not anti-medicine. It is pro-medicine used wisely.

By 2030, this approach would produce a health system that works for everyone. It would also help make New Zealand a country where families can thrive, children can grow strong, and older people can age with dignity and independence.

A New Year Is a Chance to Invest Forward

The Freerangers mindset is not about perfection or extremes. It is about steady, practical improvement. This New Year, imagine committing to improving just three things by 10 percent:

• Strength

• Cardiovascular fitness

• Body composition

These are highly achievable goals. And their benefits compound not just for you, but for your family, community, and your country.

That might mean:

Moving your body a little more each day
Getting outdoors more often
Choosing real meals over ultra-processed food
Preparing food at home more often than relying on takeaways
Growing even a small amount of food yourself
Being active in your community
Smiling and greeting strangers
Choosing connection over isolation

Small actions, done consistently, reshape lives.

That is how strong families are built.
That is how communities recover resilience.
That is how nations change course without coercion.

Gratitude as a Strength Practice

There is another pillar of the Freerangers way that matters deeply, especially at the turn of the year: gratitude. Let's make gratitude the Word for 2026.

This was driven home to me very powerfully a couple of months ago while we were in the Philippines. We were surrounded by people living with what, by New Zealand standards, would be called abject poverty. Very little money. Few possessions. A tin shack in the jungle for a family of six children. Hard physical lives. And yet, again and again, we were struck by their health, warmth, and genuine happiness.

People were grateful for what little they had. There was laughter and kindness everywhere we went. Never a harsh word. Strong family bonds. Shared meals. Life lived socially, and with a sense of acceptance rather than complaint. A sense of higher purpose. Giving - not taking. It was humbling. It made me reflect on how often, in wealthy Western societies, we focus on what we lack rather than what we have. We medicalise discomfort. We confuse convenience with wellbeing. We forget that resilience grows from engagement with life, not insulation from it.

Those people reminded me that gratitude is not a soft or passive idea. It is a powerful resilience strategy. It lowers stress, improves mental flexibility, strengthens social bonds, and supports physical health in ways no pill ever will. We could learn a great deal from that mindset. Fred Dagg summed it up nicely for us Kiwis:

We don't know how lucky we are!

New Zealand is truly the Lucky Land. Is there another place on Earth that is better to live and to raise a family than New Zealand?

As Freerangers, we move into the New Year grateful for the life we have — while still committed to improving it. Gratitude does not mean settling for less. It means recognising that health, freedom, family, and community are precious, and therefore worth protecting and strengthening.

Looking Ahead

I had hoped to formally launch the Freerangers Movement by now. Instead, we have made a conscious decision to slow down slightly and get it right.

Over the coming months, we will be making significant changes to better integrate Freerangers, Precision Health Testing, and GaryMoller.com into a more coherent, accessible, and purpose-driven whole.

We appreciate your patience. The wait will be well worth it. What is coming is not another brand, another programme, or another set of rules. It is a movement grounded in common sense, lived experience, and respect for the body, the land, and personal responsibility.

A New Year, the Freerangers Way

So as this New Year begins, my invitation is simple:

Be grateful for the life you have.
Care for your body as something remarkable, not fragile. Not something to fear or despise.
Take responsibility where you can.
Support your family and community.
Invest in your health rather than outsourcing it.

If we all do this — just a little, just consistently — we can make New Zealand the best place to live and raise a family. That is not wishful thinking. That is a practical, achievable goal. And it starts with you, today.

Better health, stronger families, and a freer New Zealand — built one practical choice at a time.

Disclaimer:

You should not use the information on this site for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise, or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem. You are solely responsible for doing your own research on any information provided. This information should not substitute professional advice. Individual results may vary. Database references herein are not all-inclusive. Getting well from reading or using the information contained herein is purely coincidental.