Does your own writing inspire you to make changes in your life?

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece on the benefits of the Mediterranean diet for a magazine in the US. Like most people, I know that we are supposed to eat more fruit and veg, cut out fats and sugar, and drink plenty of water, so I wasn't expecting to reveal anything life-changing in my research.  No matter how many health reports and documentaries I watched, I still found myself reaching for the potato chips instead of the pretzels at the grocery store.

Yet by the time I was finished I had radically changed my diet to include all of the super-foods I had written about. (Did you know that there is a chemical in tomatoes that can cancel out the carcinogenic effect of nicotine in your lungs???)  Somehow, by doing the research myself it made it more real.  By writing about it in my own words, the advice sank in, and I was filled with a new sense of just how important it is to pay attention to what we eat.

Now I am researching alternative energy sources and water saving techniques, and driving my partner nuts by unplugging every appliance when it's not in use and keeping a bucket in the shower to catch 'grey water' to water my plants.  I see it as a good sign.  If my writing can inspire me, then maybe it can inspire others?  And that, for me,  is one of the main reasons I love to write.

Does your own writing inspire you to make changes in your life?