We did it! Thank you!!!

Dear Supporters,

I want to extend my sincerest gratitude to all of you for helping me reach my research fundraising goal!!! Having met this goal, I now feel much more at ease about moving forward with all aspects of this study! Thank you for joining me in this endeavor!

Pursuing a PhD dissertation can be a very isolating process. However, though I've previously shied away from fundraising, this crowdfunding campaign has had the enormous benefit of allowing me to share my research with the broader community and turn it into a team effort. Everyone's incredibly generous contributions to the project have been both deeply moving and encouraging!

Tremendous amounts of work still lie ahead for me. The biggest challenge I face at the moment is participant recruitment. The success of this study now depends on getting enough people to volunteer to be in the study!!!

So, if anyone reading this has family, friends, or acquaintances in Austin or Houston, Texas with an interest in diet, lifestyle, spirituality, and/or health, please share with them the information about this study and encourage them to sign up! You can send them to the campaign site (https://experiment.com/lentenseasonstudy) and/or to the participant information and signup page (https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/hilaryjb/277969).

Remember, this study aims to recruit both people who do make dietary restrictions AND people who do not make any dietary changes during the Orthodox Christian Lenten period. In fact, participants do not even have to be Orthodox Christians! Basically any US-born adult between the ages of 18-75 who is willing to complete two 7-day food diaries, three surveys, and two basic health assessments (performed by me – they do not have to go to a doctor!) is invited and encouraged to participate!!!

Thank you, again, for joining me in this quest for a more comprehensive understanding of how the foods we eat and lives we live contribute to our health and well-being!

Sincerely,

Hilary