NEW YORK, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- A U.S. network of businesses, advocacy groups and academic institutions concerned with health are starting the Healthy Monday Movement.

The New York-based initiative led by the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health wants U.S. residents to think of each Monday as a day to focus on getting healthy and another opportunity to renew and fulfill those resolutions made at the start of the new year.

The goal of the Healthy Mondays is to cut the rate of heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes.

"The idea is to use Mondays to get people to cut calories, drink less, quit smoking, get their butts off the couch and do all the other things all of us know we should -- but always find excuses not to do," Sid Lerner, chairman of the Healthy Monday Campaign, said in a statement.

Americans can improve on the present resolution failure rate of 63 percent in the first two months by writing resolutions down and remembering why they were made, looking at those resolutions every Monday during the new year, enjoying the good feeling of making it to another week, or if something was dropped, resolving again and making each Monday a fresh start to a better and healthier life style.