By Dana Sullivan

We’re a week and a day into the new year, and some of us may already be rethinking all those noble resolutions: "Do I really need to drop 12 pounds?" you're wondering as you peer into the pantry. "Working out four times a week? Hmmmm, aren't two are better than none?"

You probably know that by the end of January most people have given up on their resolutions. That's because we are creatures of habit, good, bad and otherwise. The bad ones are hard to drop but the good ones can be hard to adopt. But if you really want to make a change, don't stop now. Commit for at least 21 days, ideally 30 or more. That's how long experts say it takes to change behaviors.

If you need a little extra incentive, some recent research suggests that learning new habits will help keep our brains healthy. There's even a book about it, called "This Year I Will...." by M.J. Ryan. In it she says “Getting into the stretch zone is good for you. It helps keep your brain healthy. It turns out that unless we continue to learn new things, which challenge our brains to create new pathways, they literally begin to atrophy, which may result in dementia, Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases. Continuously stretching ourselves will even help us lose weight, according to one study. Researchers who asked folks to do something different every day — listen to a new radio station, for instance — found that they lost and kept off weight. No one is sure why, but scientists speculate that getting out of routines makes us more aware in general.”