3 tips for making New Year's resolutions you can keep

The start of a new year always leads us to make resolutions with the best of intentions. But how many of us give up a week or so later? Rather than setting yourself up for failure, here are three tips to help you start this year off on the right foot with resolutions that you can actually keep.

If your goal is to get in shape and you haven't exercised in months or years, the best path to success is going to be a gradual one. Going from being physically inactive to living the life of a gym rat will simply wear your body out and force you to quit exercising.

• Muscle tissue has to slowly become acclimated to being pushed and stretched. More importantly, it needs time to recover from a workout.

Make a realistic goal to partake in a moderate, full-body workout twice a week for the first month just to get started.

• Once your body adjusts, you can add a third weekly workout and then start getting extreme if your regimen endures past six weeks.

It's easy to jump on the bandwagon with everyone else. However, if your goal is to, e.g., quit smoking because it's frowned upon by others – not because you actually want to quit – chances are good that you will be puffing away in secret after a week or two.

• When the desire to change manifests internally from a sincere wish to take better care of your body, then you're more likely to be successful.
• Using smoking as an example, nicotine addiction is a serious chemical dependency that takes your body time to purge from your system.
• With all the stress that occurs during the holidays, waiting until things settle down in March might be a better strategy.

Making a clear and illustrated plan of action, whether it's to get strong and lean, give up cigarettes or do both, is a great tool for New Year's resolution success. Most important of all is to write down what you expect to achieve.

• Map out the path of your progress ahead of time in a journal or on a spreadsheet, remembering to set out on a reasonable grade of progress and not create unrealistic, stressful expectations.
• A measured plan to introduce yourself to exercise or to remove the triggers that make you want to smoke provides a tool that helps you visualize success.
• Imagine a methodical, long-term personal makeover rather than a magical overnight transformation.

Your family doctor, a professional nutritionist, or registered dietician has numerous tools and advice to help you start creating a tangible plan.

New Year's resolutions are particularly flawed because they involve unrealistic expectations, insufficient motivations and poor planning. As the first of the year approaches, many individuals make New Year's resolutions only to break them a few weeks later. By keeping your reality in check, you're much more likely to succeed with your resolution this year.