Dust off those New Year’s Resolutions….

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions for 2008? We are told that this practice originated with the Romans, who decided to let the two-faced Janus head up the new year in a 153 B.C. calendar revision. Because Janus is two-faced, he could look forward to the future and backward to the past. Based on the past year, Romans began to plan improvements for the future, or make resolutions.

If the perfect resolution doesn’t come to mind, you might want to consider one or more from a list of healthy behaviors that can add up to 14 years to your life. Kay-Tee Khaw and her colleagues from Cambridge University studied over 20,000 volunteers over a period of 11 years, and concluded that lifestyle really does matter. People engaging in all four key behaviors had the same chance of dying as people who were 14 years younger, but did none of the four behaviors. What are the big four healthy behaviors?

1. Don’t smoke
2. Exercise
3. Eat fruits and vegetables
4. Drink alcohol moderately

Khaw et al. did not set the bar very high. People were considered to be “exercisers” if they did as little as one hour of moderate exercise per week. Fruit and vegetable consumption was inferred from blood levels of vitamin C. “Moderate” drinking equates to 1-14 units of alcohol per week (up to 9 glasses of wine or 7 pints of 3-4% beer).

The healthy behaviors were helpful even if the person was overweight or had other health issues. In other words, an obese person who doesn’t smoke and drinks moderately is going to have about half the risk of dying as an obese person who smokes and drinks excessively.

The four behaviors were additive, as well. People who do all four behaviors had about one quarter the risk of dying within a given time period as people who did none, and people who did two of the behaviors had about half the risk.

You can read the whole article here.

You can find more resolutions ideas from About.com’s list of American’s Top Ten Resolutions:

1. Spend more time with family and friends
2. Exercise more
3. Lose weight
4. Quit smoking
5. Enjoy life more
6. Quit drinking
7. Get out of debt
8. Learn something new
9. Help others
10. Get organized

So what, you ask, are my New Year’s resolutions? Well, I’ve got Khaw et al. pretty well covered already–never smoked, exercise daily, eat lots and lots of fruits and veggies (thanks Jenny Craig). I do have the occasional glass of wine when Mr. F is cooking, but I’ve never been all that convinced that the positives of alcohol offset the huge negatives. We do have a family history of cancer, and when the World Health Organization concludes that “alcoholic beverages are carcinogenic to humans,” that gets my attention. Also, on a more superficial level, nothing puts weight on faster than alcohol. So, I think I’ll keep that “moderate” alcohol way down on the lower limit.

I did ask Karen if she had any suggestions for me, and being the athlete, she thought my daily walks could use a boost. I have no excuses for not doing more–we have more weight and cardio equipment in our garage than most gyms. So, I’m going to try to get on the evil stairmaster machine at least 2 times per week, and see how that goes. Wish me luck!