Every year, New Year's brings fresh enthusiasm and big, sweeping resolutions.

But most of the grand goals and best intentions have fallen by the wayside by the middle of January.

Instead of making a giant leap toward good health on Jan. 1, try taking a baby step with something simple.

"It's all about setting small, attainable goals," said Beth Davis, who leads smoking cessation classes for North Mississippi Medical Center Community Health.

Tracy Stebbins, director of the NMMC-West Point Wellness Center, often sees people sabotage themselves by setting goals that are too big and too ambitious. They get discouraged or hurt and then can't keep up.

People who start small get a bump from the early success.

"They seem to get less discouraged," Stebbins said. "They definitely feel encouraged."

Big resolutions feed into all-or-nothing thinking, said Leslie Kennedy, a registered dietitian with Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi.

"The extreme changes are setting them up for failure," Kennedy said. "Small changes can make all the difference in your health and your waistline."

Even baby steps can be overdone. Stebbins encourages folks to pick no more than two baby-step goals for January.

"Choose the things that speak to you," Stebbins said. "Go for what you feel excited about, what you feel you can do."

If you are not confident, she said, make the goal smaller or easier.

Take a page from Aesop's fable, The Tortoise and the Hare - slow and steady wins the race.

Here's a few simple suggestions for healthy baby steps to take in January.

Add 10

To get moving, Stebbins suggested adding 10 minutes of exercise to your day, six days a week.

"The easiest, cheapest is to go for a 10-minute walk," said Stebbins, who also does wellness coaching, a holistic approach to fitness that incorporates mind, body and spirit.

But it can be swimming, biking, dancing, hula-hooping, skating, jumping rope or "anything that gets them up and moving," Stebbins said.

For someone who has not been exercising at all, it's a great start to just get up and move for 10 minutes.

"That's substantial over the course of the month," Stebbins said. "You'd be close to losing a pound just from that" if you keep your eating in line.

Those little minutes every day add up.

"If they stick to 10 minutes a day, by the end of two months, they would have achieved something," Stebbins said. "You're on your way."

The next step: When you're ready, increase the workout by 10 percent, either by adding a minute or by increasing the intensity. Avoid increasing the intensity and the time at the same time, Stebbins cautioned.

If the 10 minutes, six days a week is still challenging, just keep going.

Drop a smoke

For smokers who want to kick the habit, start small by smoking one less cigarette a day, stepping down the amount of smokes each week, Davis said.

A pack-a-day smoker would ration 19 cigarettes a day the first week, 18 cigarettes a day the second week, and so on.

By Feb. 1, that's five fewer cigarettes a day. For a pack-a-day smoker, that's a 20 percent reduction, which is a very good start toward quitting, she said.

"You get your addiction level lower and lower," Davis said. "Reducing like that is better than going cold turkey."

Davis recommends folks keep reducing the number of cigarettes until they get to about half of what they typically smoked.

"Then you've reduced the addiction load to the point your body can handle it," Davis said.

To stay honest, she recommends counting out the cigarettes for a day and putting them in a bag.

"If you don't count them out, you won't know," she said. "You have to make a rule and stick to it."

It's very important to have a game plan to deal with cravings. Sugar-free gum, a drinking straw to chew on, a brisk walk or hard candy can help you get past the missing cigarettes.

Smokers can also make small changes in their environments to make smoking harder, like taking the ashtray out.

Next step: Keep reducing the number of daily cigarettes by one a week until you have reduced the number of cigarettes by half or three-quarters. Then make a plan and set a quit date.

Leave it

Portion control is a huge part of building a healthy lifestyle. A baby step toward that is leaving two bites behind at every meal, Kennedy suggests.

"Continue to eat exactly the way you have been except forgo a couple of forkfuls at every meal," Kennedy said. "You will not be hungry and you will cut out about 100 calories a day from your diet."

Simple things like not eating the crust of your pizza at lunch or not eating the entire muffin at breakfast can save 700 calories at the end of the week.

Next step: Exercise portion control at restaurants. Because restaurant portions are so big, eat half and take the rest home, suggests Leanne Davis, a registered dietitian with the NMMC Wellness Centers. Opt for small fries instead of large ones or swap them out entirely for a side salad.

Just add water

With sugar-loaded colas and sweet teas, people take in a tremendous amount of calories without thinking about it.

Someone who drinks a six-pack of Coke a day takes in 840 calories. People who guzzle 16- and 20-ounce servings can add up even more.

"Your body requires an extra 3,500 calories to gain 1 pound so if you don't burn those soda calories, wham! You gain a pound," Kennedy said.

Start by swapping a bottle of water for one high-calorie drink, Leanne Davis suggests. Every three days swap out another high-calorie drink for water.

Work your way down until there's no more than one high-calorie drink in your daily routine.

"Use it more like a treat, and let the water be your sole source," Leanne Davis said.

In 18 days, a six-pack-a-day drinker would have taken about 1,000 calories out of daily consumption.

For folks who don't like plain water, low calorie add-ins, like Crystal Light, can add flavor without lots of sugar.

Although people who drink diet colas aren't taking in the calories, Leanne Davis still recommends they consider stepping down their consumption to no more than one a day. "It would be healthier for them as well," Leanne Davis said. "You want water to be your main source."

Next step: Reform your snacks by trading regular chips out for baked ones and candy bars for low-fat granola or fruit.

Eat breakfast

Breakfast can get the short shrift in busy schedules.

"It's the most important meal of the day," Leanne Davis said.

There are lots of fast, healthful options - whole grain toast or a bagel with a tablespoon of peanut butter, a piece of fruit and some low-fat milk can get you off to a good start.

Yogurt, a boiled egg or low-fat cheese can also healthy choices to make sure breakfast is well-rounded.

Next step: Consider healthful changes in lunch or dinner. Focus on subtracting fried foods and adding more veggies and fruits.