New Year's resolution

Do your New Year's resolutions include losing weight? If so, consider adding these proven strategies to your weight-loss toolkit in 2011:

Get sleep
Studies have shown sleep deprivation can cause you to eat more.

Be picky about whom you eat with
Women who dine with men consume fewer calories than those who eat with other women, one study found.

Count calories
If you're trying to lose weight, counting calories is more important than adding up fat and carbs.

Eat salads, broth soups and fruits and vegetables
These foods are relatively high in water and fiber, and low in calories.

Get 60 minutes to 90 minutes of exercise a day
For most people, an hour of activity daily is necessary to maintain weight. You may need
more exercise to lose weight.

Happy New Year from Everwell.com!

Having trouble with that New Year's resolution to go on a diet? If so, don't beat yourself up. The problem may not be your willpower, but how you're thinking about weight and health.

Francie Berg, a nutritionist who runs an organization called the Healthy Weight Network, gives these 10 reasons not to go on a diet:

1. Diets don't work.

2. Dieting can cause lasting injury and death.

3. Dieting disrupts normal body processes.

4. Dieting causes weight cycling (yo-yoing up and down).

5. Dieters often feel tired, lightheaded, and have difficulty concentrating.

6. Dieting leads to binge eating, disordered and chaotic eating.

7. Dieting is the primary precursor to eating disorders.

8. Dieting causes food preoccupation.

9. Dieting diminishes women, and increasingly men and children.

10. Dieters put their lives on hold, "waiting to be thin."

Instead of fixating on weight, Berg advises focusing on healthful living. That includes:

• Be active every day, your way. (Check these tips and guidelines.)

• Take time to care for yourself.

• Tailor your taste to foods that are moderate in fat, sugars, and salt.

• Listen to your body; tune in to inner signals of hunger and fullness.

• Make peace with your genetic blueprint.

Though this method won't melt away pounds immediately, it can reduce the harms associated with obesity. And you'll increase your sense of well-being.

So get off the couch and stay off the scale. And have a healthy, happy year.