Sticking to your new year’s resolution may be easier than you think. The starting point is to set a realistic goal.

GE HealthAhead has come up with 7 resolutions that could significantly improve your health—and we’ll give you tips to stick with them.

Lose 5 pounds and keep them off. At the top of many people’s list of New Year’s resolutions is weight loss. Yet while most start toward their goal with enthusiasm, many give up a month later. To help increase your chance of shedding extra weight and keeping it off, consider this advice from Donald Hensrud, MD, of the Mayo Clinic:

“Focus on short-term goals while keeping long term goals in mind,” says Hensrud. “Losing 40 pounds is done one pound at a time. And the way to lose one pound at a time is to have a good plan in place.” Hensrud also suggests paying attention to “short term process goals”—the small daily or weekly goals you need to achieve to reach your ultimate goal. For example, a process goal for weight loss could be biking to work three times a week.

Limit yourself to one glass of soda per week. If you have a habit of drinking soft drinks daily, you might want to reconsider your routines. The American Heart Association (AHA) lists regular soda as one of the major sources of added sugars in many people’s diets.

The problem with added sugars is that they give you extra calories with no nutritional value. A 12-ounce can of soda contains about 130 of these empty calories. If you can limit your soft drink consumption to once a week, you’ll be doing yourself a favor. If you find yourself successful after a few months, consider cutting out soda altogether.

Eat a piece of fruit every morning. How do you start your morning? If your breakfast includes sugary doughnuts or fattening hash browns, think about substituting a piece of fresh fruit for your breakfast treat.

The AHA notes that eating a variety of fruits regularly can help with weight loss. You should aim for 4.5 servings of fruits and veggies each day. Make it easier to reach your daily goal by eating fruit each morning.

Switch to whole grains. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) advises eating whole grains—like brown rice or whole wheat spaghetti—over processed grains. Whole grain foods give you the benefit of eating the entire grain, as opposed to white-flour-based products.

To make the switch easier, know what to look for on food labels. If you can find these ingredients listed first on the label, you’ll be choosing the best whole-grain choices:

• Whole wheat flour
• Cracked wheat/bulgur
• Whole grain corn/corn meal
• Whole oats/oatmeal

Add 30 minutes of walking to your work day. One of the simplest resolutions you can make and keep is starting a daily walking habit. According to the AHA, walking is the easiest way to start a fitness journey—and stick to it. Just walking a half-hour a day can help your heart, the AHA reports.

Walking at work is a good way to get moving. Pick a time that you can commit to for a daily walk, such as lunch hour or before or after work. Invite a co-worker to join you, and you’ll help keep each other accountable for showing up!

Try meditation for stress relief. The AHA recommends daily relaxation to relieve stress. Meditation is one proven way to calm mind and body tension.

If you’re new to meditation, start with a daily deep-breathing exercise. Simply sit comfortably and focus on your breathing for 5-10 minutes. If it helps, you can add some visualization by picturing yourself somewhere relaxing like lying on a peaceful beach.

Prioritize your sleep. With so much to do and so little time, it’s easy for sleep to get the short shrift. But Lois E. Krahn, MD, of the Mayo Clinic states that “the single most important thing that people can do when it comes to good health and sleep is to make sleep a priority.”

For adults, that means getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. To help ease your way into slumber, consider some basic sleep hygiene practices from the National Sleep Foundation: avoid electronic devices like computers and smartphones before bed, stay away from caffeine or cigarettes in the evenings, and always stick to a regular bedtime schedule, even on weekends.

HealthAhead Hint: Stay with It!
New Year’s resolutions are easy to make but hard to keep going. Yet when you set realistic goals and know the health benefits that simple lifestyle changes  can bring, it makes it more likely you’ll follow through in January—and beyond.