Building Skills for Life this Year

Building Skills For Life This Year

Tue 05 Mar 2013

Story by Food Revolution Team
 

Our February Food Revolution Hangout was an inspiring conversation between esteemed nutrition expert Dr. Walter Willett from the Harvard School of Public Health and members of the Food Revolution community all about New Year’s resolutions. We began 2013 with tips from Dr. Willett on simple steps toward a healthy life, which ignited our community to share their stories and sparked a New Year’s Food Revolution. We were joined by him today to share take aways from his extensive research in the field of nutrition while we checked in with community members to hear how they are doing in sticking to their goals.

Here are some of the highlights:



“Most New Year’s resolutions seem to only focus on weight and of that is part of the picture but we want to focus on healthy food and being active as well.” – Dr. Walter Willett

“If we are planning a new change, it should be something that is sustainable. That means that you’ve got to enjoy it and feel good about it positive about it or else it’s not likely to be sustained.” – Dr. Walter Willett

“I used to go on diets and go on a crazy diet…and of course it not healthy lasts a few weeks but it doesn’t last long…so I decided to focus on sugar and refined carbs, because I figured if I just focused on one thing I could do it.” – Alix

“Sometimes [instead of restricting something] it is replacing something—replacing it with something better.” – Dr. Walter Willett

“Now I realize that in the supermarket there all are so many different kinds of vegetables and fruits that I never bought before. . .so I buy new things every week. . .and it’s not negative its positive and its discovering new foods discovering what it can do to you instead of doing a negative change.” - Alix

“I really didn’t see a difference between fake food and real food and now I do and it has just been wonderful.” - Lindsey

“I always make my own personal New Year’s resolutions but this year I chose to make a community resolution and get everyone involved or at least spread the word to everybody about the benefits of eating seasonal, fresh, local produce.” – Claire

“I don’t know if I would’ve stuck to it if I didn’t have that reminder that someone could be watching and inspired by my blog so it kept me going.” – Lindsey

“Since I started my resolutions I started writing a blog and now I’ve realized that once you go public you have some pressure and I’ve also been reading blogs of other people and I see how many people are trying for the same goals and it’s very encouraging.” - Alix

“I think that from the passion and the enthusiasm of the community I know that for me personally I have to keep driving this and keep driving it forward.” - Claire

“It’s a waterfall, when you touch one person, then they go and tell two people, and there is an energy around it.” – Lindsey

“Not just getting better foods in people's mouths but building skills for life.” – Dr. Walter Willett

“I started to involved my kids in cooking which I had never done before, because, you know, it’s a little messy, but I got over that and now, I’ll never go back.” – Lindsey

“Make goals realistic and make small changes into your lifestyle rather than cutting out everything and depriving yourself.” - Claire

If you missed it check out the full video here, and be sure to share your New Year’s resolutions with us on Facebook and Twitter using #newyearsrev #sticktoit. And for more information about each of our participants click here.

The Food Revolution Team

Photo credit: Kent Dayton