Trainer and nutrition expert Diane Catrambone offers these words of wisdom for the year ahead:

Most people are familiar with the resolution idea. Each year they make their big plans, but if they don't believe they will succeed, they set themselves up for failure before they have even begun! So my favorite resolution is, "This year I'm going to work with someone who can educate me to get the best results I can for all the work and effort I'm about to put into my health!"

Don't fall prey to false expectations! 30 pounds in 30 days....Eat all you want and everything you want and lose 10 pounds 10 days! You know what I'm talking about. Unrealistic advertisements that again set people up to fail before they have begun. People need to judge their weight loss by stages. First, get your body back into a state of homeostasis by eating five small meals per day filled with high quality macronutrients. That does not mean dieting, folks!! Then you need to stay off the scale and begin to connect with your body by honoring each change as it happens to you. And it will happen! If you eat enough (that's a whole story unto itself), if you recognize what bad fats and high sugar will do to your metabolism and then begin to engage in supportive eating, if you exercise regularly AND INCLUDE WEIGHT TRAINING, NOT JUST AEROBIC ACTIVITY, and if you give yourself TIME for your body to adjust to the changes; you will be able to make changes to last a lifetime, not just the month of January.

LAURIE: I'm not sure I would want to honor EVERY change that might happen in my body if I stopped getting weighed - close monitoring just works better for me, I've found. But one way I look forward to the next year, regarding resolutions or life goals, is to look back and see how well I did during the one just ended. There are always good things to recall -- and there's also the basic fact that I'm starting a new year mindful of the importance of good health and regular exercise. No specific resolutions, but I have the right intention -- and that inspires me.

ELLEN: I posted my resolutions the other day. My best sources of education are folks out there who have tried several new techniques and succeeded. So if you are reading this, please weigh in and let me know how to get started on my ambitious year ahead. If you are worried about privacy, you don't have to use your real name in the response form. You do have to use your real email so we can stop spammers. The "forget info" button protects the innocent. Help me out, invisible girlfriends and honorary girlfriends.

YVONNE: Ellen, you are being very selfless. Re your concerns:

1. I would love to have my daughter work out with me. So I'm going to have to do some serious lobbying to get her to commit to this. Any tips here, bloggers?

Find out what she likes to do and compromise. And resist the temptation to lecture her. The more knowledgeable I get about fitness the more I have to guard myself from being overbearing with others.

2. My husband is a golf addict and I have tried many times to take up the sport. This year I will renew my efforts. Can this marriage be saved without the links? No. How do I find the time to take lessons?

If you have no time or interest in golf I wouldn't worry about it.

3. I am a night owl and I want to switch my time orientation to morning lark.

It is so dark this time of year at 6:30 a.m. that it's hard for anyone to get their routine going. Can I suggest you wait till March. The natural light coming into my room then always gets me going.

LAURIE: I have tried golf a few times, and the one thing I discovered is it's a lot more fun to play the actual course (even if for only 9 holes) than winging balls at one of those pitch 'n' putt places. When I played with my mom (perhaps this might address another of your goals?), son and stepdad (after Parkinson's disease took the edge off his formerly excellent game), we would all just start the next hole at the spot where the closest ball landed. We didn't count strokes -- except to give up after 4 or 5! -- and had lots of fun without driving the people behind us crazy.

Probably your husband wouldn't hear of such rules. So don't play with him yet.

Please, everyone out there, share your own advice for Ellen and be entered in a drawing for fitnesswear from our Girlfriends Locker Room Online Store!