As 2012 begins, you may be resolved (again) to lose weight and get healthy. Many people choose the first of the year to begin a new diet or exercise regimen. Unfortunately, the majority of those people fall away from their new diets by the time March rolls around. If your ultimate goal is to be healthy, you’ll need to create new eating habits that you can stick with for the rest of your life. Fad diets may work in the short term, but they are not sustainable forever.

1. Experiment with New Foods

Look for a new recipe to insert into your regular weekly menu. Choose a meal low in calories and high in nutrients, especially the types of nutrients not usually part of your typical menu. It can be fun to discover something you really like that is also healthy for you. Over a few months, you will have a long list of healthy recipes from which to choose.

2. Keep Track of What You Eat

Most of us do not have a good idea of what we eat throughout the day. Try to write down everything you eat every day for a week. Once you know what you are already eating, you can begin to make adjustments. Think about ways to replace some of your less-healthy foods with foods that are better for you. The act of writing down everything you eat over a typical week will help you focus on your eating habits in a new way.

3. Eat Smaller but More Often

If you plan to eat smaller portions several times a day, rather than three big meals, you will avoid feeling hungry, even if you reduce the amount of calories you eat overall. Six small meals can contain as many calories as three big meals, but you will metabolize them more completely because your body doesn’t have so much to deal with all at once after each meal. Be sure to include fresh fruits and vegetables as midmorning or midafternoon snacks. Fruits and veggies are low in calories, and they will help appease your sweet tooth.

4. Reduce Proteins

A healthy diet needs to include protein, but Americans tend to eat two or three times more protein than they need. The trouble with protein is that most is delivered through fatty foods like red meat. Avoid making meat the center of your meal. You can get more than enough protein through healthier alternatives like nuts, beans or eggs.

5. Increase Variety

Your body needs a wide variety of vitamins and nutrients to function properly. If you limit yourself to one or two different foods all the time, you miss out on nutrients you need. Make a menu that includes something from every food group, and change your menu every week. Variety will also make eating more interesting and you won’t feel like you’re limiting yourself.

6. Eat at Regular Intervals

Schedule your meals so you eat around the same time every day. Skipping a meal can make you feel extra hungry, which leads to overeating when you finally get to your next meal. Your body will process foods more comfortably if you feed it moderate portions at regular intervals. Research shows that your body actually experiences additional stress when you do not eat close to the same time each day.

7. Don’t Sacrifice Your Favorites

There is no such thing as a bad food. You can eat anything you like and still maintain a healthy weight. All you need to do is recognize what is in the food and compensate for it with your other food choices on the day you want to treat yourself. Denying yourself foods you love will only frustrate you. Remember that the goal is to find ways to eat a healthy diet you can live comfortably with for the rest of your life.

8. Make Changes Slowly

Realize that your body changes extremely slowly. You will feel healthier if you introduce changes to your diet gradually. Change one or two things each week so you don’t overwhelm yourself with a brand new diet all at once. Eat fruit instead of potato chips on your afternoon break one week, but wait until the next week to replace your daily soda with a glass of water.

9. Skip the Guilt

Realize that you will have days when you won’t feel like sticking to your eating plan. Eating food that is bad for you once in a while will not have a lasting impact on your overall health. If you beat yourself up over a less-than-healthy food choice, you might continue consuming unhealthy foods to console yourself. Instead, enjoy your momentary slipups, but then move forward.