To be healthy and fit: It's a promise we make to ourselves each New Year as the old year fades away into memory. We hope that our poor eating and exercise habits become a thing of the past, reconciling ourselves to better health in the future.

We have the best of intentions, but as sure as February turns into March, those lofty goals go the way of all those resolutions from years gone by. What makes keeping that New Year's resolution so difficult?

"You need to be realistic," said Brett Parker, owner of Total Body Engineering at 466 Main Street. "Changes should be made gradually so that you can stay on course with your new goals."

Educated at Northeastern University in physical therapy, athletic training, and sports medicine, Parker insists that starting slow and steady is the key to a well- rounded fitness routine that can become part of any healthy lifestyle, long term.

"Eliminate one unhealthy item from your diet at a time," Parker said. "You can't go from Ben and Jerry's and McDonald's one day to fish and broccoli the next."

For example, one should start the New Year by replacing soda with diet soda, or water before swearing off every guilty pleasure from day one. In the following weeks continue to flush out other food items that might be replaced with healthier, more weight conscience alternatives such as whole wheat bread instead of white bread, and fresh salsa instead of that fatty processed creamy dip.

These steps may sound minor, but every little bit helps.

"If you can take only 100 calories out of your daily intake, " Parker said, "you can lose up to a pound in five weeks without doing anything else: that's only one slice of cheese!"

Though most people would like to be a bit more aggressive in their resolution to a healthier year, Parker illustrates this fact more so to prove that taking the smallest steps gets you started in the right direction and helps you keep your promise to yourself in the long run.

So what about exercise? How should someone approach that aspect of fitness?

"Again," Parker said, "slow and steady. The more difficult you make it, the quicker you'll give up on your goals."

According to Parker, you don't have to start off working out for five hours every day.

"You're 40 years old now," he said. "You can't start where you left off in high school." Allow yourself about 30 minutes, two to three times a week.

Parker's advice is to start walking.

"Grab a pedometer and walk. Just keep adding 500 steps to what you did the week before," Parker said. "Also, do things that you can do around the house such as push ups, leg squats or dips off of a bench or chair.

"If you do a little here and there in the convenience of your own home, you'll find that each week you'll get stronger and your endurance will increase."

This, in turn, will help you feel better about yourself and drive your desire to do more and keep your resolution. That's when the results come, both in your physical appearance as you lose weight and become more tone as well as in your strength and energy levels.

"And don't be afraid of a little soreness," said Parker. "It's a sure sign that you're working some of those lesser used muscles."

As you work out more often the soreness goes away, but always be in tune to the difference between being sore and being in pain.

"You don't have to kill yourself," he said. "Start off in moderation and avoid injuries."

In short, keeping your New Year's fitness resolutions is a matter of keeping your goals simple and keeping them fun.

"Enjoy life," Parker said. "If your routine's too difficult, you won't do it."