We've all been there.

Jan. 1 rolls around and it's time to make a New Year's resolution. Should I be nicer to my co-workers, make more time for my kids, see a play, help the homeless, quit speeding or stop swearing? But what most of us really want is to become healthier and more attractive. We want to drop a few pounds, stick with a diet or even kick a smoking habit.

So you hit the gym for a couple of weeks or you lay off the fried foods for a month, but in the end, with no one to answer to but yourself, you eventually give up.

It's nothing to beat yourself up over. You're in good company. Rough estimate surveys put the number of Americans who annually resolve to change their lives for the better at between 60 and 80 percent. Of those, only about 10 to 20 percent honestly stick with the resolutions. Of Americans' New Year's resolutions, health- and fitness-related make up a majority of the best intentions year in and year out. Healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente's nationwide "New Year's and Health Issues Survey" found that nearly 60 percent of Americans make health-related resolutions in the new year.

The company polled 1,000 adults about their health resolutions and found that only 10 percent stuck to their resolutions faithfully, while at least eight percent made no attempt to fulfill their resolutions at all. Most Americans, if they make resolutions at all, fall somewhere in between.

If you're going to make a health-related resolution this year - and drinking more beer or eating more fried chicken doesn't count - it's best to make it short and sweet. Experts contend that setting attainable, specific goals will go a long way towards actual results, and not the usual sense of failure and deflation that follows broken resolutions.

Deborah Bobbett, fitness coordinator at the Skaneateles Community Center, recommends goal-setting as the primary force to help keep you on your fitness track.

"People come in and the biggest thing they want is to get fit. We start with a goal setting session to see where they are with their fitness," she said. "You have to establish good goals so the fitness doesn't drop off."

It might seem like common sense, but New Year's resolutions don't have to be, and shouldn't be, monsters that hang over your head. The maxim "Don't bite off more than you can chew," or lift, seems apt during this time of fitness and diet commitments.

If you are a person who eats a bag of potato chips every day with lunch and you'd like to eat healthier, swap the greasy chips for a bag of baked chips. If you generally eat a pint of ice cream every night, cut your daily intake in half. Take the stairs, walk to the corner store, make small, but determined improvements.

The idea of a New Year's resolution is much like making a list solely so that you can cross things off. It's a sense of accomplishment, of getting the new year off to a good start, that is so appealing to most people. It's nice to set goals for ourselves and it's even nicer to carry out the mission, but the trick is in the goal itself.

"We explain the difference between open-ended goals and attainable goals," Bobbett said. "Fitness and well-being is not just a quick fix. It should be a habit, like brushing your teeth."

Bobbett recommends setting a specific and short-term goal. Make sure the goal has a measurable outcome on a specific timeline - for example, lose five pounds by March.

Once you have set the goal, identify the steps needed to achieve the goal. If your goal is to cut out caffeine from your diet by spring, approach the process in steps. Four cans of soda a day can become one over month if you set a schedule for yourself.

After you have sorted out your personal process for sticking to your resolution, you need to hold yourself accountable. Better yet, be accountable to someone else. Ask a friend or family member to help out, or set goals together so that you can each be accountable to the other.

Bobbett gives her clients "behavioral contracts," actual contracts that they sign that bind them to a commitment to fitness.

"It says 'I'm going to commit to this exercise for X amount of time for X duration.' It's a commitment to well-being," she said.

At the end of the day, health and fitness resolutions all hinge on lifestyle changes. It is the lifestyle you lead that will make you healthier or more fit. Ascertain what it is about your lifestyle that needs to be changed and make that a part of your resolution.

And if you fall off the resolution wagon, there's always next new year.

Staff writer Lauren Ober can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or lauren.ober@lee.net