Just as surely as December brings candy and and egg nog, January brings weight loss plans.  If you’ve followed my previous years’ resolution blogs (see the Holidays archive), you know that I lean toward the one or two small changes that stick.  The overhaul-everything-January-1st approach doesn’t boast a good success rate, after all.  This year, I’ve noticed more of a trend in the popular press toward that favored idea:  focus on eating more vegetables, for instance, or improving your breakfast.  Here I round up some of the most helpful articles I’ve seen recently:

On eating more vegetables  Here’s a change that allows you add, rather than cut down.  Eating more vegetables can improve your health, whatever happens weight-wise, and tends to help a lot in the weight department, too.  These articles may ease your way to those additional servings daily:
*Eat Two Pounds of Vegetables (Rule #1)
   *Healthy Habit #1:  Eat 3 More Veggie Servings Each Day
   *Sustainable Resolutions
     *Vegetables:  More and More and More!

And/or nuts!  Research backs what many nutritionists and diet coaches have long promoted—nuts may be high in calories, but a little goes a long way in terms of keeping you full and ultimately eating less.
*Are Nuts a Weight Loss Aid?

On learning portion control  We Americans tend toward very large food portions.  It takes effort, and time to get used to and satisfied with, more moderate ones.  These articles offer helpful strategies for getting that process going:
*The Power of Portion Control
    *What’s Your Portion Personality (10/13 issue, Cooking Light, Nutrition Made Easy, by Phillip Rhodes)

On reducing sugar:  you’ll find many articles on this key health and weight issue right here on this blogsite  (look especially through the Addictions archive for help cutting down).  You’ll find other ideas here:
*Smart Choices:  How to Cut Sugar

On eating more mindfully:  eating more mindfully, another habit developed with time and practice, helps you eat less, while noticing and enjoying fully what you do eat. 
*Slowing Down, Sitting, and Weight Loss
   *Healthy Habits:  Mindful Eating

On cooking more:  Cooking more helps keep weight down, period.  Easier said than done, in many of today’s households, but increasing is not impossible.  Get ideas from the Eat Sanely Cooking archive, and/or from these other sources:
*Sustainable resolutions
 *Easy Meal Preps Your Children Will Love

Helping each other:  maybe you’ve overlooked one key route to weight loss success—that is, hooking up with a friend or group.  The social aspect of weight control can spell the difference between continued diet failure and success for the long term.  Read more:
*Eating Smart:  Social Diet
     *It Takes a Village:  Using Others to Get Slim
      *Diet Buddies:  When Two is Best

Here’s to a New Year of saner eating for us all!