Dr. Oz's 6 Strategies for Staying Motivated

At the beginning of the month, many of you made New Year's resolutions to lose weight and get into shape. Over the past 30 days we've given you the advice and support you needed to be successful in reaching your weight-loss goals. But if you want to stick to your diet resolutions beyond the one-month mark, you gotta have a plan. Here, Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of The Dr. Oz Show, shares his sure-fire strategies for sticking with your new diet plan next week, next month and for the rest of your life.

1. Recognize -- and accept -- that, occasionally, eventually, you'll screw up. "Get past that," says Dr. Oz. "The most important thing in any diet plan is knowing how to cope when you make a mistake. When you fail, accept it, embrace it and move on." So you had a slice of cheesecake at a party? "That will never sink a diet," assures Dr. Oz. "What sinks a diet is saying I'm off the diet anyway, now I'll have 450 more calories."

2. Focus on small changes. Just 100 fewer calories a day can make a difference, says Dr. Oz. "Every long-term dieting program has found one uniform insight -- eating 100 calories less today than you would have eaten. That's half a soda less; one doughnut less. It's not the big, three week starvation diet because your metabolism is too smart for that. Starving yourself actually sends a signal to your body to store more fat! You keep your body from going into starvation mode by not under-eating. So, small steps done well are what make it happen."

3. Find something that motivates you to stick with your plan. Something that you want more than you want that slice of cheesecake, that extra serving of lasagna, or that second cocktail," says Dr. Oz, "that reminds you about why you're doing this." Maybe it's a picture of your kids who you'd like to get and stay healthy for. Or maybe it's a photo of you in a bikini from your "skinny days." Put it on the fridge or in your desk drawer or tape it to your bathroom mirror. Dig back in your closet to find your favorite pair of skinny jeans, super slinky LBD -- you know the one you can't bear to toss because you're hoping to fit into it again, someday -- or that itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny bikini you'd love to wear come summer. Hang the clothes where you can see them every morning when you get dressed.

4. Find a substitute "crutch" for eating. We eat for a lot of reasons besides hunger. If what drives you to crunch and munch is anger, sadness or boredom, you'll need to channel your emotions through another activity. Exercise does double duty -- stops you from eating and burns extra calories -- so long as you're not swigging high-calorie energy drinks as you sweat. But scrapbooking works; knitting; even playing your kids' Game Boy or, better, the Wii. "The nice thing about video games is that both your hands are busy, so you can't eat," says Dr. Oz.

5. Get a diet buddy. Someone you can lean on when the urge to sit on the couch with a quart of double-fudge ripple and a spoon gets overpowering. "We propogate this fiction that we have to be able to do it purely on our own," says Dr. Oz. "But there are a dozen redundant systems in our bodies that force us to eat. Will power alone cannot do it, any more than will power alone will let you hold your breath under water indefinitely. I don't care how much you want to do it, you cannot hold your breath under water. It's impossible. Once you get past that misperception, it becomes a lot easier to get comfortable asking for help."

6. Avoid situations (and people) that might tempt you to abandon your diet resolve. It's a lot easier to fall off the wagon when your pal is begging you to split the cheese fries or crème brulee. "People who hang out with thin people lose weight, and people who hang out with heavy people gain weight," says Dr. Oz. "If there's someone who likes to go out and have a cream pie with you over lunch and talk over your misery, get them out of your life."

We have more weight loss advice from Dr. Oz! Find his sure-fire diet tips, how to avoid sneaky sugar and which chemicals are preventing you from losing weight.