{"id":715,"date":"2010-03-08T20:00:21","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T20:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/?p=715"},"modified":"2010-03-08T20:00:21","modified_gmt":"2010-03-08T20:00:21","slug":"healthy-eating-where-are-the-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/healthy-eating-where-are-the-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Eating: Filling a Leadership Void"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finding “Lifestyle Leaders” in Everyday Places<\/h2>\n

People always kid me about reading month-old newspapers and magazines.\u00a0 I say it’s a great way to get an historical perspective on things!\u00a0 With that in mind, may I report on something from clear back in November of 2009:\u00a0 Prevention<\/em> magazine interviewed both Arthur Agatston, MD, of South Beach Diet<\/em> fame,and Andrew Weil, MD, pioneer in the use of integrative medicine.\u00a0 These health and wellness giants were asked about their own personal prescription for wellness.\u00a0 Three surprises:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. First, that their personal regimens are so similar and simple:\u00a0 Eating well, supplementing only modestly, getting plenty of sleep and exercising regularly are primary pillars for both.\u00a0 In addition, Agatston believes in moderate indulgences (chocolate being his favorite) and he cultivates strong family and friend relationships.\u00a0 Weil grows a lot of his own food and takes a mixture of Asian mushrooms for immune support.<\/li>\n
  2. Secondly, it was interesting to see that their regimens were, on the whole, pretty unremarkable.\u00a0 “Eat right, get plenty of rest and exercise regularly.”\u00a0 We’ve only heard that mantra a thousand times over the last 30 years!\u00a0 Shouldn’t good health require something more sophisticated, like intense knowledge about different foods, nutritional facts, statistics, and research studies?\u00a0 Apparently not.\u00a0 Both these men are enjoying wonderful health by following a routine so simple that any ordinary Joe Blow could do it.\u00a0 For dinner, as an example, both men typically eat fish or chicken with veggies.\u00a0 How hard is that (although I hope they subscribe to Vegetable a Month Online Magazine so they can do something fun with their fish and veggies, like White Fish with Leeks en Papillote<\/a>.)<\/li>\n
  3. That brings me to a third surprise in reading these interviews:\u00a0 Both experts were so candid about their personal habits.\u00a0 They could be because they actually practiced what they preached<\/em>.\u00a0 They could show as well as tell.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This final thought got me thinking about leadership in the healthy eating area.\u00a0 Who else is “out there,” modeling how to live a balanced, healthful lifestyle, even though practically every aspect of our culture militates against it?\u00a0 I thought about our business leaders, political leaders, spiritual leaders, celebrities, sports figures, non-profit leaders.\u00a0 Very few (even among those debating health care reform!) qualify as role models for the balanced lifestyle that leads to optimal wellness.\u00a0 In fact, many could be poster children for how not <\/em>to live.<\/p>\n

    Surveying the field, it became clear that healthy lifestyle leaders are few and far between.\u00a0 Weil and Agatston are remarkable not because of some special formula they possess but because they are two of that sadly small group. Maybe the absence of widespread role modeling helps explains why “wellness living” is such a tough act to follow.<\/p>\n

    Where does this leave us?\u00a0 Doomed to wander, aimless and leader-less in the fast food deserts?\u00a0 It might be tempting to consider ourselves helpless until “somebody” fixes our lifestyle mess.\u00a0 Meanwhile, we can continue buying cookie packs from the vending machines at work.\u00a0 \u00a0But maybe not so fast.<\/p>\n

    It may be a while before those in formal leadership roles become healthy lifestyle leaders.\u00a0 In the meantime, and before we die of heart attacks, why not head back to the grassroots?<\/p>\n

    We’re all potential good eating leaders, especially parents since the way we eat is one of the biggest determinants of how our children eat.\u00a0 It may seem like “nobody looks up to little old me,” but\u00a0 actually, anybody could be the spark that gets a fire started.\u00a0 So skip the cookies in the vending machine.\u00a0 People are watching and waiting for leadership, even from little old me and you.<\/p>\n

    Put yourself on a pedestal, honor every good choice you make and vow to be more like that person!\u00a0 That kind of crazy behavior can start a wild fire.<\/p>\n

    What if, day after day, people saw you eating nuts and dried fruit for a snack?\u00a0 What if you started bringing a lunch of healthy dinner leftovers instead of heading to the food court for pizza?\u00a0 What if you hosted a salad potluck instead of a dessert potluck for your monthly book club?\u00a0 What if your boss took your suggestion to ditch Friday donuts for a once-a-month healthy sandwich bar?\u00a0 What if your kids stopped bringing sodas to school and just drank water?\u00a0 What if you order the dish with lots of vegetables when taking clients dinner?<\/p>\n

    We all touch countless lives.\u00a0 What better gift can we bring to those encounters than a quiet testament to the beauty, joy and health-giving richness of real foods?\u00a0 I just read about a new documentary called Food Fight<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s subtitle:\u00a0 “Revolution Never Tasted So Good.”\u00a0 As with all revolutions, this delicious revolution is happening from the grassroots\u2014enjoy every minute of it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It may be a while before those in formal leadership roles become healthy lifestyle leaders as well. In the meantime, and before we die of heart attacks, why not head back to the grassroots? Put yourself on a pedestal, honor every good choice you make and vow to be more like that person! That kind of crazy behavior can start a wild fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[167,168,285,286,462,536],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-is-healthy-eating","category-supportive-thinking-for-healthy-cooking","tag-dr-agatston","tag-dr-weil","tag-healthy-eating-leadership","tag-healthy-lifestyle","tag-prevention-magazine","tag-south-beach-diet","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}