How're you making out with those resolutions?

Here it is already Jan. 5. Perhaps you're tootling along beautifully with that new program of regular, vigorous exercise and healthy eating that you resolved to adopt this year.

But, if you didn't count New Year's Day because it was a holiday, gave yourself the next day off from your resolution because it was the day after a holiday and also gave yourself Saturday and Sunday off because it was the weekend, you already know that you're doomed to not follow through.

What now?

One of the fundamental dangers of making resolutions is that breaking them gives you one more reason to give yourself a hard time. One solution to that problem is to adopt one of Nancy Sheff's resolutions.

"I have a resolution not to beat up on myself so much," said Sheff, one of a number of people I talked to the other day about New Year's resolutions.

Yes and no

Her other resolution is to lose weight. It's a resolution that she has kept more than once.

"I lost it," she said. "I just gained it back."

Daniela Miller is quite familiar with the tendency to beat yourself up when, as she put it, you slide off the rear end of the horse and land on your bottom.

"My husband says I'm my own toughest critic," she said. "I tell him somebody has to be. It might as well be me."

Miller's resolutions for 2009 are to be more organized, exercise more and to eat better.

"I seem to make the same ones every year," Miller said.

Her pattern is to do well for a few weeks, she said. Then something happens to throw her off her routine and, eventually, her resolve is a distant memory.

In fact, Miller has done pretty well with her resolutions. In 2008, she lost half the weight she needed to lose to reach her goal of getting back to what she weighed before she had two children. This year, she just has the other half to go. And she is already exercising twice a week, except, of course, during the holidays. This year, her goal is to make it three times at a week.

Can't quit sugar

Miller recently saw something about resolutions on a morning news show. One reason people fail is that their resolutions are too broad. It's best to be as specific as possible, the TV person said. Ever the troublemaker, I asked whether that means, instead of resolving to eat better, Miller might say, "I will no longer eat sugar."

Heavens, no.

"I would never make that resolution because I love sugar," Miller said.

Another solution to the "giving yourself a hard time" problem is resolving not to make resolutions in the first place. That's what Wayne Conner recommends.

"Don't make them because you usually break them," said Conner. "It's a disappointment. So why bother?"

Or -- I shudder at the thought -- you could live such an exemplary life that you have no need to make any resolutions.

Shane Anderson is one of those people. He doesn't want to come off as arrogant, he said, but he doesn't make resolutions, because he feels pretty good about things as they are. He doesn't smoke. He eats well. He exercises. If he did make resolutions, he wouldn't peg them to the calendar year, he said. "I think birthdays would be a better goal."

Aaron "I'm not a resolutions kind of guy" Reeves thinks that making a resolution is a sign of trouble.

"They almost set themselves up for failure," he said. "If it's something you want to do, why wait until a particular time? You might as well do it."

One person I talked with not only believes in making New Year's resolutions but also has had good success with them. Kimberly Williams resolved to lose weight in 2008, and, by Jiminy, she lost 75 pounds. While pulling out her driver's license to show me documentary evidence of her transformation, she freely acknowledged that dental work early in the year that made it difficult to eat for a month got her off to a good start.

This year, she's resolving to figure out a way to make more money. With her children, Kayla, 12, and Austin, 10, growing up, she's feeling the need for more ready money.

"They get more expensive as they get older," she said.

Not that she's complaining.

"They're good kids," she said.

■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.