Whether you want to lose weight and keep it off for good, switch to a more plant-based diet, or just improve the nutritional quality of your diet, I can’t emphasize enough the need to do your homework.

Step 1 is to identify your overall goal(s): Do you want to lose weight? Lower your blood pressure? Control diabetes? Just eat “better?” We’ll talk a lot more about focusing your goals later, but first you just need to figure out what ballpark you’re in.

Step 2, as I described last week, is to do a study of your own current eating and activity patterns. By spending a week or so recording what you’re eating and what physical activity you’re engaged in, and to the best of your ability, how much, and under what circumstances, you will have priceless information on what you can and need to tweak to start working toward your goals. Keeping food and activity records should also help you refine your goals and determine the specific, detailed steps you’ll need to take.

Step 3 is to find out what research by nutritionists, medical doctors, and exercise physiologists shows about all the eating plans you may have considered. Luckily, US News and World Report, for 8 years in a row, has done a thorough analysis of every major diet or eating plan (if you’re used to associating the word “diet” only with weight loss). The fantastic thing about this issue, which is completely accessible online, is that the editors enlist experts to assess known eating plans not only for their effectiveness for short- and long-term weight loss, but also what’s known about the effects of these plans on heart health, risk for or management of diabetes, nutritional value, and ease of staying with the plan (considering numerous factors), among other factors. Naturally, as I emphasized last week, only you can determine whether a particular eating plan fits your lifestyle and needs.

Let’s circle back to Step 1, again: your goals. When we’re trying to change habits as ingrained and long-term as how we eat, we can get tripped up in an endless number of ways, but one of the biggest and earliest may be setting goals that are too vague or ambitious or impractical for your lifestyle. Adopting SMART goal setting lets you set goals that are:

Specific,

Measurable,

Attainable,

Relevant, and

Time-bound.

Next week, I’ll cover what each of those characteristics mean and how to apply them to your own eating and exercise life!