Losing weight is one of the most common New Year's resolutions to make and the one that is most often broken. Do you make the same promise to yourself year and year, and end up right back where you started or (worse) with a few more pounds to lose? What will make this year different?

1. Focus

Trying to make too many changes at once is going to mean you succeed at nothing. If you want to lose weight, make sure you haven't got too many other goals and ambitions vying for your attention. You don't have to focus on losing weight and nothing else (sometimes that is counter-productive) but I recommend that you should make no more than 3 resolutions or take on no more than 3 projects at any time to have the most chance of success. If weight loss is not important enough to be in your top 3 then forget it until it is - it's just not important enough to you to make the effort.

2. Be Specific

Many people make a vague resolution to "lose weight" or "get fitter" never really defining what that means. What exactly do you want to achieve? How will you know when you have succeeded?  Sometimes we are afraid to set a specific target because it is then very easy to see whether we have succeeded or failed. But you need to put the possibility of failure out of your mind and just keep your eye firmly on your target to increase your chances of success. If you spend your time worrying about failure that's exactly what you will do. Commit to a target and go all out for it.

3. Have a Plan

Having a target but no idea how you will get there makes success difficult from the start. Deciding to lose 20lbs and just thinking you will "be more careful with what you eat" or "do a bit more exercise" is unlikely to help you. But it doesn't mean that you have to know exactly what you will do for the next 6 months either. Sometimes it's off-putting if you imagine how much effort you may have to put in to achieve you goal over months and months. But you CAN plan one day or one week at a time as long as you do plan ahead.  Plan what you will eat. Plan how you will get more movement into your life and then carry out your plan one step, one day, one week at a time.

4. Take a Gradual Approach

How many of us decide that from January 1st things will be different - and I mean completely different? Suddenly we imagine we'll be paragons of virtue as far as eating is concerned. No junk food will pass our lips. And from being couch potatoes we decide we are going to join a gym (or finally dust off that membership we've been paying for and not using) and get down there for a full-workout three times a week. How long do you keep this up? A week, a month, three-months at most? Most people have given up on such far-reaching changes by February. But if you decide to make your planning focus on a few small achievable changes instead of all that you are much more likely to keep up the momentum and finally succeed.

So replace a couple of sodas a day with water and then go on from there (don't decide to let nothing but water pass your lips from January 1st (or whatever your start date is). Reduce your portion sizes gradually (instaed of forcinging yourself to feel hungry all the time). Introduce slightly healthier foods one by one into your eating habits. Start taking a short walk each day (or whatever seems a reasonable and achievable amount of activity from your current fitness level) and commit to that. This is how real sustainable changes are made.

5. Keep Motivated

Nothing motivates like success. Just don't see success as only a figure on the scale. Though it's nice to see the pounds drop off, it's not much use if they are not going to stay off. Success is a permamnent lifestyle change which has become a habit and which you are happy to live with. Remind yourself of the good changes you are making and be proud of that no matter what the scales say (and remember they DO fluctuate for all sorts of reasons such as hormones and salt intake).

Know why you want to lose weight. What will you really get out of it? And remind yourself daily (and if you need to before each meal or decision to exercise/not exercise) of the reasons why you are doing this.

Know in your heart of hearts that you CAN succeed in changing your lifestyle one habit at a time - anyone can - and if you want this for you this year you just have to do what it takes and success is yours.

Copyright 2006, Janice Elizabeth Small