11 years of nutrition storytelling went quickly

Eleven years can go by slowly or quickly. A babe born on Jan. 1, 2000 is now a pre­pu­bes­cent. A car pur­chased on that day pos­si­bly has more than 150,000 miles and some rust. A colum­nist who has been writ­ing for that long still has top­ics to cover.

Eleven years ago I began pound­ing my key­board, edu­cat­ing news­pa­per sub­scribers on nutri­tion and related top­ics. I am blessed to have such an avid group of read­ers. Thank you for your faithfulness.

Many peo­ple who fol­low this col­umn talk to me as if we are per­sonal friends because my sto­ries are often about my fam­ily, friends or dogs. I am eas­ily rec­og­nized in pub­lic because my photo stares back at them each week as they peruse my 500 words.

I have a rhythm to my top­ics. I write about weight loss in Jan­u­ary; choco­late in Feb­ru­ary; March is National Nutri­tion Month. Dur­ing spring, April and May, I stress food safety and par­ties. June is Dairy Month so osteo­poro­sis and cal­cium is one of my top­ics. Dur­ing July and August I like to write about fam­ily and friends. Sep­tem­ber con­tains a back to school lunch arti­cle. Octo­ber is back to choco­late and Hal­loween candy. Novem­ber is National Dia­betes Month and Decem­ber holds a reminder to bell-ring for the Sal­va­tion Army.

The char­ac­ters in my arti­cles remain anony­mous. The names are changed to pro­tect iden­ti­ties and add cre­ative license. Only once have I hon­ored some­one by using their given name and my nephew, Joe, a Marine, deserved this honor when he was sta­tioned in Iraq.

My hus­band is usu­ally iden­ti­fied as Sweet­heart or “You Know Who.” My chil­dren and their spouses are Jonathan, Gee, Thomas, Lau­rie and Jane. I started with fic­ti­tious names when they were in high school to save them from embarrassment.

Dia­betes is one of my most pop­u­lar top­ics because I am a cer­ti­fied dia­betes edu­ca­tor. Many of the pro­jected cases of dia­betes can be pre­vented with weight loss and exercise.

These arti­cles are usu­ally writ­ten before sun­rise every Mon­day morn­ing, even though they are not due until noon. I lis­ten to clas­si­cal music while typ­ing out these words. I have tried jazz and rock and even rap but clas­si­cal music pro­duces ideas most eas­ily understood.

I have not exhausted the end­less top­ics in health and nutri­tion. The theme of each arti­cle starts when the last one is sent to the news­pa­per. I have received ideas at check­out coun­ters, ball games, par­ties and church. All week I think about and develop the next story. I call this thought process, “mod­el­ing,” sim­i­lar to a cow that rumi­nates. The topic is chewed up and digested many times before it is pro­duces the desired product.

The art of writ­ing and edu­cat­ing through sto­ry­telling is one of my God-given gifts. I give Him all the credit for my words; I am respon­si­ble for the typos and syn­tax errors. Thank you, my dear reader, for allow­ing 11 years of using this gift. It has gone by quickly. 

Bob­bie Ran­dall is a cer­ti­fied dia­betes edu­ca­tor and a reg­is­tered, licensed dietit­ian. She super­vises a dia­betes self-management train­ing pro­gram at Ault­man Orrville Hos­pi­tal. Con­tact her at brandall@dunlaphospital.org or 330–684-4776.

Posted by Bobbie Randall on Jan 5 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.