Little changes add up

Here's a challenge that's easy and guaranteed to make you healthier in eight weeks - without starving or obsessing.

©Washington Post
January 15, 2002

During the holiday season, from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day, readers were challenged simply to maintain their body weight status quo -- not "diet," not "lose a few pounds," but just prevent the 5-pound holiday weight gain that many Americans suffer during that period. Judging from the response, the challenge helped a lot of people stay the course. Some folks even lost a few pounds anyway.

But now comes 2002 ... and the rest of our lives. And so this week we launch the Everyday Challenge. Like its predecessor, this challenge is designed not to restrict your food intake or trigger a specified weight loss. It's intended to help you adopt more healthful eating habits and a less sedentary lifestyle for every day. If a few unneeded pounds happen to drop away, as is likely to happen for overweight and obese people who take up the challenge, so be it.

Like the Holiday Challenge, this one is dedicated foremost to holding the line against weight gain. Fact is, most Americans gain a few pounds every year, which helps explain why half of U.S. adults are overweight or obese. The latest government figures show that growth in overweight and obesity is paralleled by increases in related ailments such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and arthritis.

"Weight is increasing like crazy in every state. There's no end in sight," said James Hill, director of the University of Colorado Center for Human Nutrition in Denver. "If we could simply stop the weight gain, the public health impact would be enormous."

There are no limits or restrictions in the Everyday Challenge. Instead, it supports making simple positive changes -- one change each week in eating and physical activity -- that will add up to better health for the long term. Though the program is designed to be integrated into daily life for as long as you wish, we present it in an eight-week chunk -- short enough to be undaunting yet long enough to allow you to "see the progress," said Michael Mahoney, professor of clinical psychology at the University of North Texas in Denton and an expert in behavioral change.

Studies show that altering eating habits for good requires 10 to 12 concerted attempts to succeed -- which is to say about a dozen failures come before the eventual success. "That's not reason to despair," said John Norcross, professor of psychology at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania and a researcher on self-initiated change. "If anything, it's reason to say, "I'm not doing so bad."'

Simple reminders, like jotting down notes to yourself on a daily calendar, are essential to making behavior changes permanent. These notes act "like a twofer," Norcross said: as reminders about the change and reinforcers of any progress.

So let's jump right into Week 1 of the Everyday Challenge. The change for this week: Eat five servings of fruit and vegetables each day and get 10 minutes of some kind of physical activity.

People who eat five servings a day of fruit and vegetables, which are rich in essential vitamins and minerals and usually deliver some fiber, have half the risk of developing cancer as those who eat only one to two, according to the National Cancer Institute. Another bonus: Fruit and vegetables are low in calories and fat (unless they're fried, so no, onion rings don't count).

As for those 10 minutes of activity, only 15 percent of adults get the 20 to 60 minutes of exercise recommended three to five times a week by the American College of Sports Medicine. Yet the latest research shows that short bouts of exercise -- as little as 10 minutes each -- can help maintain weight and even shed pounds.

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