How should I set goals to improve my eating habits?

Goals for improving eating habits are as numerous and individual as the people who want to change their diets. However, some eating goals pop up more frequently than others, and they have several common themes. We often get comments such as: "I want to consume fewer calories," "My goal is to eat less fast food," or "My goal is to cut sweets and desserts out of my diet."

These are great ideas, but they are too general. Remember, setting a goal requires you to be specific -- the more specific, observable, and measurable the goal, the more likely you are to succeed. You need to identify a behavior that is observable and that can be measured. You need to be sure that it is a goal you can achieve -- don't set yourself up for failure. How could you make the goal, "I want to consume fewer calories" specific, observable, and measurable?

We came up with a more specific goal of "eat 1,900 calories per day." This is observable, because you can see yourself putting portions containing a certain number of calories into your mouth. Also, calories can be counted or measured. Calorie content can be found in books or on the Internet, and labels on most foods identify the number of calories in a serving (be sure to double check the number of servings in a package or a container -- often there are more than one).