Make your healthy resolutions stick

For many of us, January is all about giving things up: Maybe we're going to stop eating meat and embrace a plant-based diet. Or we're ready to kick excess sugar to the curb after a holiday season awash in sweets. Or we're committed to avoiding fast food.

Starting the year with noble goals for eating well is a modern rite of passage. But it's just as common to ditch those grand plans within a few weeks.

This year, how can we do it right? If we're pledging to make better food choices, which strategies can help us stick with them?

Start small

The consensus among experts is clear: It's tempting to begin with dramatic gestures, but the key to lasting change is setting goals that are small enough we won't scrap them by Valentine's Day.

This Jan. 17 image shows a display of guacamole and chips and blueberries in Allison Park, Pennsylvania. (Ted Anthony via AP)

Manageable, measurable goals can create long-term change, said Leila Azarbad, associate professor of psychology at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. When people set lofty goals, they can get discouraged after a couple of weeks.

"Our self-efficacy, that belief in our own ability, tanks," she said. "And that's a huge predictor: If you don't feel confident in your ability to make the change, you're going to discontinue trying."

Picture this, said Dana White, a sports dietitian and clinical associate professor at Quinnipiac University: You want to lose 20 pounds and you know that every afternoon you visit the office vending machine for a snack to boost your energy. So, begin packing a healthy afternoon snack -- not something punitive, but something healthier that you'll enjoy -- and have that instead of a vending machine candy bar.

It's a measurable, specific change that won't be unpleasant. And if it eliminates 200 calories, that shift will make a difference over the coming weeks and months. Once that new behavior is in place, you can add another small but meaningful change.

The same thinking works if you're eliminating animal products: Rather than going cold turkey (cold tofu?), begin by replacing one dinner per week with a vegetarian meal. Plan it for a night when you won't be rushed and can make an appealing recipe, or budget for going out once a week to a vegetarian restaurant.

Then track that change for three weeks, said Anna Baker, assistant professor of psychology at Bucknell University, who researches the connection between behavioral factors such as self-management and health outcomes.

"You hear that it takes 21 days to create a habit. There's debate about whether it's 21 exactly, but you need a certain amount of time of continuing to do something before it becomes a habit," Baker said. "Once you do kind of get used to that change and you're doing it regularly, then you can add in another thing."

If you make that one good shift for three weeks, congratulate yourself. Then maintain that behavior and add another small change, like drinking more water.

Be patient

If your goal is to lose 20 pounds, for example, it really will take four or five months -- and it should, said Alex Montoye, assistant professor of clinical exercise physiology at Alma College in Alma, Michigan.

Cut yourself some slack

Accept that mistakes are a normal part of building a new habit. If you know an event is coming up where you'll want to divert from your eating goals, accept that you may slip a bit then.

Aim for "consistency, not perfection," said Baker. "You have to plan in advance that you're going to screw up. We're not perfect."

Enlist friends

Lastly, "tell everybody you know that you're doing this because social support is huge," Azerbad said.