How often have you made a New Year’s resolution that fell by the wayside? You start out with great resolve and change your behavior for a while. Before long, however, you revert back to your old habits.

Let’s face it. Behavior change is hard. What’s familiar is always the path of least resistance. Unforeseen challenges arise and throw you off track. Things improve a little and you forget the pain that made you want to change in the first place. Before long you figure that maybe you don’t need to follow through after all.

If your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight, calcium and dairy can help, according to new research by Loyola Marymount University Professor of Natural Science Hawley Almstedt and her student Alexandra Hybki. The everyday nutrients found in milk may be the key to helping you size down this year.

People on fad diets or extreme weight loss plans often avoid dairy products because they believe those foods are high in fat. Some dieters go so far as to completely stop consuming dairy products. Research indicates that not only will those dieters not lose weight, but even more importantly, the lack of calcium and dairy will have a harmful impact on bone material density, according to Hybki and Almstedt.