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.