Healthful-living experts weigh in with their New Year's resolutions

By Jennifer LaRue Huget
Thursday, January 7, 2010; VA15

By the time you turn 49, as I recently did, the tradition of making New Year's resolutions has lost some of its luster. What remains to be resolved that hasn't been resolved before?

Feeling uninspired, I might have skipped the annual exercise. But then it occurred to me to ask others what healthful-living improvements they plan for 2010. Turns out these folks, all of whom I've interviewed for Eat, Drink and Be Healthy or The Checkup blog during the past year, had some pretty good ideas. In the spirit of a healthful and happy new year, here are their resolutions.

Susan Albers, psychologist and author of "Eating Mindfully": One of my favorite holiday gifts was a book given to me by my sister several years ago. She typed and compiled my mother's and grandmother's complete recipe box with all our family favorites. My goal this year is to make an updated edition of that book with healthier versions of our traditional, favorite Italian recipes. For example, replacing pork sausage with turkey sausage and nixing heavy cheeses for Parmesan. The healthier spin will help us all, as a family, to be healthier, to enjoy our heritage, while also eating more mindfully!

Adam Drewnowski, director of the University of Washington Center for Obesity Research in Seattle: The true value of foods lies in the nutrients they contain and not in the nutrients they lack. I will not be intimidated into choosing bland foods that are good for me merely by being "free" of this or the other ingredient. Rather, I will select foods that are nutrient-rich as well as affordable and appealing. Such foods can be found in supermarket aisles. One caution: This may require some cooking skills. And butter.

Hilary Garivaltis, dean of the Kripalu School of Ayurveda: Try a weekly fast for the senses: A wonderful way to calm and still the "monkey mind" and excessive energy in the body is to give a day of rest to the senses. Simple ways to do this include staying off the computer and cellphone, no television or radio, spending 30 to 60 minutes out in nature, keeping quiet, even refraining from talking as much as possible, and rising with the sun and an early bedtime.

Jane Hirschmann and Carol Munter, authors of "Overcoming Overeating" and "When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies": We women should promise to stop yelling at ourselves for what we eat or what we look like. We should try to eat with our hunger and stop when full as often as possible throughout the day. And most important, we should make a commitment to shape our lives instead of shaping our bodies. In these times, we need this commitment more than ever!

Stacy London, co-host of TLC's "What Not to Wear": For 2010 I'd like to eat every three to four hours, small healthful meals with lots of roughage, cut sugar to an absolute minimum, and enjoy eating, period!

Greg Miller, executive vice president of science and research for the National Dairy Council: I've begun making simple attempts to get more value from my everyday activities in order to improve my health, and I want to enhance that in 2010. So while I'm taking the dogs out, I'll run or walk fast to get my heart rate up. Listening to the morning news, I'll do some push-ups and crunches. Eating breakfast, I want to get some high-quality protein from milk, cheese, cottage cheese or eggs to curb my appetite. On my way to my office, I'll take the stairs. Going to the store, I'll park far away. It's a good mind-set, and actually fun: If I'm doing this, how can I add some healthy value to it?

Danielle Omar, registered dietitian in Fairfax: I eat pretty well, so my 2010 resolution is not food-related. What I'm really bad about is my water intake. I'm training for a half-marathon in January, and I've really noticed that I don't drink enough water throughout the day. I can feel it when I run. So, my resolution for the coming months is to drink more water.

Danielle Svetcov, author of "The Un-Constipated Gourmet: Secrets to a Moveable Feast": I may have 125 "moving" recipes at my disposal, but I tend to cook about 10 of them regularly and the other 115 on special occasions. It's a rut of the highest order. My resolution is to get out of the rut in small, realistic increments. Set aside 30 minutes on Sunday nights to comb my trove of recipes and prepare a shopping list with ingredients for two recipes that I haven't made in recent history and one that I've never made. I figure, if I stick to my guns even 25 percent of the time, my rut will be too wide to be called a rut anymore. I might even be able to call it a boulevard.

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