RALEIGH, N.C. — The New Year always brings resolutions for people to take off extra weight, but after a few days, real life gets in the way, and all the efforts to diet just seem to go by the wayside.

If you have already ditched your New Year's diet, there is no need to worry. Here are some tips to get back on track.

First, resolve to drink more water. For that matter, make a commitment not to drink your calories, except milk, and you will save calories every day.

Above all, ditch soft drinks. Just two soft drinks per day add 110,000 calories to your diet every year. If you give them up, you will lose 30 pounds this year.

Next, try to add 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables to your diet every day. The best time to enjoy fruits is for a snack or dessert, so if you have a piece of fruit instead of three cookies for your afternoon snack, you will save 70,000 calories, which adds up to 20 pounds this year.

Third, fill up on fiber. Aim for at least 25 grams of fiber per day. Twenty-five grams of fiber daily can block the absorption of at least 90 calories per day, giving you a 10-pound weight loss in just one year.

Fourth, control portion sizes. It is often not what we eat that makes a difference, it is how much. Americans have a bad case of portion distortion, caused mainly by super-sized meals and restaurant portions.

This portion distortion usually adds up to an extra 200 calories per day. If we get back to real-world portions, we could lose between 20 and 30 pounds per year without going on a diet.

One of the best ways to cure portion distortion is to use measuring cups. They are a quick and easy way of letting people know if they are on the mark.