A New Year, A New Light
A Call for Help
It was a good year, 2011. Before New Years, the beautiful wife and I traveled to San Francisco for the 34th annual holiday dinner sponsored by my fancy sister. She might object to the term "fancy," but I make my case with this picture of her Christmas tree. Do you think 4200 lights a bit much? My sister doesn't.
After 34 dinners, it has become more than a tradition. Though the main topic is resolutions—reporting on last year's resolutions, and sharing next years—it's more a validation of our family. We're far from perfect, but we're immeasureably better for having shared our walk through life with each other. So most years the beautiful wife and I drive 14 hours, round trip, simply to share a family dinner.
When it came time to make new resolutions, my goal to double the Word of Wisdom Living audience in 2012 was challenged. “You should grow ten-fold,” they countered. So that’s our goal. If we make it, we promise to continue for a 3rd year. We need your help—we've invited all our friends, and a few strangers. So we’re asking you to spread the word and expand our audience—in December we averaged about 250 readers daily, so our new goal is 2500 per day.
Please become a partner in the food reformation. Make a difference by commiting to bring 10 friends or associates to Word of Wisdom Living, beginning right now. Each month I'll report on our progress. (One easy way to spread the word is to share our new Facebook page with your friends and family.)
Healthy Changes
The Healthy Changes are like resolutions, but better—they're done continuously, all year long, one each week. I measured our family's performance on the 52 Healthy Changes in 2011. Following the Healthy Changes has made a big difference in our health but we weren’t perfect—I put our compliance at 80%. The hardest part was eating five vegetable servings daily. So we square up our shoulders and resolve to do better in 2012. If we do this for three yars, I think we shall have mastered it.
Over the Holidays we worked on the 52 changes, keeping most, improving others, replacing a few. We didn’t invent these changes—we sorted through the available literature and distilled the recommendations of doctors, scientists, and journalists into 52 topics. It’s a good list, the fruit of 1000s of hours of study, but if you have health issues, follow your doctor’s counsel first. And we're always open to suggestions for Healthy Changes.
We're making some improvements to this site too, watch for them over the coming weeks. (If you view this blog through a reader, you might want to click over to the actual site to see how things are changing.) We've thought a lot about how we can improve things and have come up with an ambitious list that includes small daily tips, web videos that expand on posts, and recipes that can make the Healthy Changes a little easier. We hope you'll stick around to see what we're working on and let us know if you have other ideas that would make this site better.
Measure Your Progress
Through 2012 we’ll collect the Healthy Changes into a list with the idea that you can grade yourself monthly as the list grows. There’s a repeating seasonal pattern—each 13 weeks we cover the key themes of lifestyle and diet reform, each time building upon the prior changes. The themes include eating less sugar, healthier fats, whole grains, more fruits and vegetables, and less meat. Other themes are more exercise, better kitchen organization (menus, shopping lists), cooking, and special topics. Be patient: reforming one’s lifestyle in a year is an audacious project.
Worried that your life is already too complicated without adding 52 things? The big blessing is the 52 Healthy Changes actually simplify your life. Factory drinks like sodas are this week's subject. Drinking water—which is essentially free—is simpler and more natural than constantly buying soda or other drinks. When we get to factory-made convenience foods we'll make the same argument—home cooking done right is simpler and cheaper. There's a deep thought here, one worthy of Thoreau: Living more simply is the first step towards living more deeply.
Please Comment: Share your thoughts on how we can advance the food reformation. Whoever puts their shoulder to this worthy task becomes a light upon a hill.
Monday, January 2, 2012 at 11:00PM | by Skip Hellewell | 29 Comments | Share Article | in healthy change, nutrition, word of wisdom | Email Article
Reader Comments (29)
I picked nine of last year's healthy choices to get us started in the new year. I'm interested to see the ones for 2012. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and talents.
Skip, it is possible for you to list the 52 healthy changes in one place? I think that would be helpful because I'd like to review them.
Also, I just wanted to say thanks again for writing this blog. You are one of the biggest influences in my life in terms of changing the way I think about food. I am now reading In Defense of Food and know I will continue my journey for healthy living and eating for me and my family, in part due to your positive work here.
Hi Skip, first, thanks so much for writing this blog -- it is one of my favorites and I read every new post without fail. Second, I just wanted to let you know that I read along in Google Reader, and I'm guessing several others do as well, so you probably have more than 250 people checking in on a daily basis that you don't see in your stats. Subscribers are generally more loyal readers than people who go directly to your url, so it might be worth it to consider including "increase subscriptions" as part of your goal as well. Just a thought.
We just bought an electric pressure cooker. It's wonderful. Maybe a blog about cooking methods?
Lisa, we've hesitated to list the 52 Healthy Changes during the first year simply because they were a work in progress. Based on reader response we expected some refinements, even additions. Reader response can refine or validate a Healthy Change.
For example, the final Healthy Change was to use fruit as dessert. People were asked to share their ideas on this but in five days there were no responses, which had never happened before. We concluded that though a good idea, there wasn't a reader connection. In 2012 we'll revise.
That said, if you still want a list of last years changes, email me (skip at wordofwisdomliving dot com) and I'll send you a typed copy. Best to you.
I like the idea of more recipes. I'm always looking for healthy recipes.
Hi Skip,
I really loved the fruit for desert post. It makes so much sense that there isn't really a response I would have written in the comments. Very often I take a melon or mango and I cut it up in slices on a cutting board and place it in the middle of the dining room table after our meal is done. My family loves it. Everyone takes a few slices. But, I don't do it enough. I love your idea. It's so simple and I need to do it more often. Thank you for the reminder!
- Lori
Skip,
I love the blog. Thanks for the time and effort you make for it. I too read from a blog reader so that might not be in your count.
I would welcome recipes also. I love all the suggestions and help but I still struggle with the implementation. I'm not a novice cook but it's just a different way of looking at things. I've always believed in homemade so that part isn't difficult but I just need to shift my thinking a bit.
I refer to this blog often and speak to my family about it to help them also make the transition.
Thanks for all you do.
Hi Skip!
I know I'm a bit behind, but where I live you can get Heinz tomato ketchup in glass bottles (as well as some smaller organic brands). It is possible that the glass bottles are only for the European market though.
Andrea J, I don't know what your work circumstances are, but I always have a 1 litre bottle on/next to my desk when I'm working, and make sure to empty one before and one after lunch. When I was a nanny I had a caraffe/jug on the kitchen counter and had a glass of water every time I went past it. I also had a smaller bottle in the diaper bag for outings. A friend of mine works out of the car a lot (she is a visiting nurse), so she keeps hers in the car and fills it up as needed when she visits patients (they usually don't mind when she asks to fill up her water bottle). Another friend has a water bottle in the reception at her office and takes a swig every time she passes (she trid to keep it in the staff kitchen, but she doesn't go there nearly often enough to get her water supply. Maybe some of these suggestions would work for you?