Everyone sets New Year's Resolutions. I've set them every year. And almost every year, one of my resolutions has been to lose weight. It so rarely ever happens. This year, I'm not going to make that resolution. But I am going to resolve to change my eating habits and to get moving. Yesterday, I wrote about the 11 Week Move It and Lose It weight loss program with Dr. Oz. This is a great way to help the goal to get moving. Another tool I plan to use to help me keep my eating in check is CalorieStory, a facebook app that lets you keep track of your daily calorie intake.

The cool thing about this calorie counting app is that it's easy and it's social. You just search for your food item and choose it form the list. If you don't see your particular item, you can create it. Once you've chosen the item, you can then add it to your breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack for the day. This app gives a daily calorie recommendation or lets you customize your personal calorie goal. CalorieStory also lets you track your water intake. So helpful!  What's really useful is that you can share your progress with your Facebook friends. We could all use a little encouragement in our weight loss goals.

Speaking of encouragement, CalorieStory's New Year, New Me Challenge is a great way to set goals for yourself and get your friends involved. You choose three goals, then share them in your status update. My goals are:

1. Do 30 minutes of exercise at least three times a week.
2. Order smaller portions when eating out
3. Eat a healthy breakfast each morning.

These goals are actually objectives toward meeting my overall goals of eating healthier and getting moving. When looking at them each separately, I'm able to follow my "baby steps" philosophy towoard making big change. I'm so excited about this challenge.If you sign up for the New Year, New Me Challenge on Facebook or the CalorieCounter website, you'll also be eligible to win prizes from the Challenge sponsors, including:

• The Carb Lovers Diet
• Eat Smart Scale
• YogaPulse
• GoodBelly
• Our Love Yoga
• LARABAR.

Look for more posts from me detailing my New Year, New Me Challenge, along with my experience using the sponsors' products. I just know this is going to be my year to get healthy! What are your New Year's goals?

*I will receive monetary compensation from my involvement with the Challenge as well as products from the Challenge sponsors. But this is really gonna be work. Wish me luck!

In my year in review post, I mentioned that I listened in on a conference call with Dr. Oz right before Christmas. It was chock full of information on healthy living. The purpose of the call was to introduce his new 11 Weeks to Move It and Lose It weight loss program, which debuts tomorrow, January 3rd, on the first show of the season.

I learned a ton of great information from Dr. Oz and was even able to ask him a question of my own. I'd love to share every word of the teleconference, but that would take a dozen posts. So here's a highlight of the most useful information on weight loss for families from Dr. Oz that I took away from the call, along with some fun anecdotes I think are just too neat not to share.

His Kids Interrupt Him, Too

One of the cutest things about this phone call is that Dr. Oz was working from home and was interrupted by one of his kids toward the beginning of the teleconference. I try to schedule phone calls and interviews for when the kids are at school and day care, but sometimes doing this type of work when the kids are at home just can't be avoided. It was refreshing to know that even a high powered celebrity such as Dr. Oz deals with these issues as well!

The Best Toys Involve Doing Something With Someone Else

My question for Dr. Oz had to do with the game systems that were sure to be under the Christmas tree, like Wii, XBOX Kinect and PlayStation Move. I wanted to know what kinds of precautions Dr. Oz had for inactive and sedentary families such as mine who would be engaging in physical activities with these systems. He didn't actually answer my question directly, but he did go into the kinds of toys and games he recommends. In fact, he joked about quibbling with his wife about the kinds of presents she was buying for the kids. He says, "I think we should rethink the fact that we don't let our kids play as much...and kids learn a lot from playing." He goes on to mention that such skills learned during play are stress management, as well as formation of bonds and teams, and that play has historically been a very adaptive social tool.

He says,"So I try to buy the kids games where they are forced to play with other kids or with me. God forbid, they want to play with me!" And guess what one of the presents Dr. Oz bought his kids for Christmas was? It was Twister! He likes this game because it becomes an interactive tool to get them active as a family. In terms of the kinds of toys and games his kids play with, he keep one thing in the back of his mind - "Could they do this by themselves with nobody else around? If that's the case, I'd rather them not have it.

Make Changes That Are Lifelong

Dr. Oz was asked why the program is eleven weeks long. His answer was, "I think it takes three months for us to be able to meausre that you will live longer if you've made a lifestyle change." He goes on to say that approximately three months is the time it takes to train the brain to stick with and make a lasting change, though the synaptic junctions and neurons in the brain can reconfigure themselves in two to four weeks. "You don't measure life expectancy impvement in a month. It usually takes about three months for that to happen." Dr. Oz says.

Dr. Oz Has His Food Weaknesses, Too

Finally, I have to tell you that Dr. Oz shared a couple of his food weaknesses with us. He gives into temptation when it comes to baklava and chocolate covered nuts! He says, "Between baklava and chocolate covered nuts, that's like the one-two punch that puts me over the edge. I could just rifle through a pound of this stuff!" He recommends that you just taste a small portion, then drink some water to cleanse the palate. This is a way of keeping a check on overindulging.

So there you have it. Dr. Oz is just as human as the rest of us. He has his weaknesses in terms of food cravings, and his kids come first when it comes to work/life balance. Tune in to his show tomorrow, Monday, January 11th to learn more about the 11 Weeks to Move It and Lose It program.

What are your health and fitness goals for the new year?

Do you have a PlayStation Move or do you plan to get one for Christmas? If so, you'll want to jump on this giveaway. If I had a PlayStation, this would be the game I would want. I even wrote about it not too long ago. Get Fit With Mel B is different than many fitness games. It offers:

• Real time feedback
• 200+ exercises including yoga, dance, kickboxing and step aerobics
• Tracking program
• Precision movement detection
• And more!

It looks like such a cool game. I really wish I had a PlayStation Move system. Unfortunatley, I don't. If you do, here's your chance to win this cool game and have fun while getting fit. All you have to do to be entered is leave me a comment telling my why you want to win. Simple as that. Entries will be taken until Thursday, December 23rd at noon EST.

Earn one extra entry by:

Following Everyday Baby Steps on Google Friend Connect in the sidebar

or

Tweeting about Get Fit With Mel B, linking to this post.

Just leave a separate comment for each entry. Two winners will be chosen December 23rd at noon. Good luck!

I've blogged before about my wheat and dairy free diet, and it's been a while since I've given you an update. The weight's not coming off as fast as I had hoped. In the past, I had more success when I had changed my eating habits, eliminating wheat and milk from my diet. In the past, however, it had been a number of years since having my last baby and  I was a lot more active!

Fast forward to today. I'm a work-at-home mom of three. I spend my days inside using the computer and caring for a one-year old. A year really isn't all that long for the postpartum body to bounce back. I've made efforts to be a bit more active by taking Brady for a walk each day now that the weather's been getting warmer. We love our walks together, but I know that in order to blast fat, more aerobic exercise would be helpful.

That's where Mom Bloggers Club and Game Crazy come in. They've partnered up to deliver an amazing fitness prize for one lucky winner.They're giving away a prize package consisting of a Wii, the not-yet-released EA Sports Active fitness program, and a $50 gift certificate to Game Crazy. This prize package is a $359 value!

Jennifer James, Mom Blogger's Club founder, is one of twelve challengers involved in testing the new EA Sports Active program that's due to be released May 19th. The EA Sports Active program allows you to get fit with interactive games in the comfort of your own home. I love that, and I know the kids would love it, too.

Actually, I need that. Just to prove it to you, I'm willing to put pictures of my trouble spots on the internet for all to see. Here's exhibit A - my big behind.

Sorry, but it had to be done. Maybe public humiliation will motivate me to get moving? Anyway, next is exhibit B, my stomach. See how I can't button my pants? I'm dreading the day the weather gets too warm for jeans, because I don't really have any capris or shorts that fit.

So frustrating because I have a closet full of clothes to wear if only I could get them zipped! I truly cannot afford to buy new clothing right now, so I have to fit into the nice clothes I bought for myself when I worked full-time. Here's my closet of clothes that's been hanging there for well over a year.

The kids will be out of school in less than a month. I want to have the energy to keep up with them every day. Getting active is what I have to do. I'm pleased with myself for starting out by taking regular walks, but I know I need to do more. If I were to win the EA Sports Active package from Mom Bloggers Club, I would have a weapon in my fat fighting arsenal that would surely help me on my fitness journey. And did I mention that the kids  would love to do it with me?