It's December 29 and once again, my resolution is the same as it has been for the last, I don't know, 15 years of my life. Some variation of lose weight or get fit or something. Some years I did well, other years I forgot by February. A couple of years, I got pregnant and had kids. Life, I reasoned, sometimes got in the way. Turns out, that's not a good excuse.

Let's take a look at the ways I have failed in the past.

1. Crash dieting. I could really throw down some spicy maple lemon cleanse juice, ya know? Restrict down to 500 calories a day? Sure, no problem if it'll get me into a lower dress size in 3 days. Rapidly losing weight through crash dieting severely messed up my understanding of how slow and steady wins the health race. I mean, why would anyone opt to lose a few lbs a month when you could lose 10 lbs in 2 days?! Because it's not sustainable and the weight comes back on and becomes harder to lose.

     Permanent metabolic damage is a thing.

2. Temporary diets there was no way I was going to stick to. Permanently give up carbs? Who are we kidding Atkins. Live only on vegetables, fruit, legumes and the occasional whole grains? The Eat to Live Dr. Fuhrman plan worked amazingly for a month until I had to reintegrate into society and didn't want to be miserable. I'm just not cut out for all that sacrifice, especially not while my husband is enjoying a delicious steak with a fully loaded baked potato while I am looking at a salad dressed in lemon juice.

     Permanent goal achievement means sustainable habits.

3. Giving up and binging after falling off a diet wagon. For some reason, probably because of participating in weight loss strategies from points 1 and 2, whenever I fell off a diet wagon, I just gave up and binged, undoing any of the weight loss progress I had previously made, instead of, I don't know, seeing it as a momentary setback in a lifetime of healthy habits. Some millionaire in Forbes magazine said something that has recently stuck with me: Success isn't from what you do but who you become.

     What do healthy people do everyday? I'm going to have to assume workout and eat right.

4. Unrealistic goals. Ever look back on pictures from high school/college/20s/pre-babies, back when you thought you were so fat and realize how freaking hot you really were? Why are we so predisposed to be unhappy with our bodies? Probably because of unrealistic goals based on what we see in the media from photoshopped magazines to celebrities on the red carpet in pre-baby shape 3 months postpartum. It's nuckin futs.

     Our bodies are amazing. The goal is not to be model thin or TV perfect, the goal is to be mentally and physically happy and healthy in a way that works for our lives and bodies.

Tell me dietbetters, what are some of your diet failures that you don't ever plan on repeating again?