One of my goals for this year is to be greener any way possible. This means for the environment and for our family too. I have to admit that when the whole environmental movement surfaced I kind of balked at the ideas purely because I was so caught up in the world of ease and conveince.....seriously rice that cooks in a bag in 2 minutes in the microwave......
As I began, searching out clean eating I came to find that it is all related (again....go watch Food Inc - can you even believe that cows can travel 1500 miles to be made into ground beef AND that one pound of ground beef can contain meat from hundred of cows). Too much convienince is costly the planet big time and while so many things are cheap and easy NOW what will happen in the future?
I know, it is a huge movement and as one person we many seem insignificant but they do have a point everytime we shop we are making a point and let's face we all shop!
Back to basics is the way we are trying to more.....want less, waste less, recycle, reuse....
Here are a few things we are doing around here....
1. Reducing our plastic consumption - out with plastic containers and ziplocs.....do you think that plastics have had any impact on our current world health? These glass dishes make it easy and affordable. They come in all different sizes and have a great guaruntee.
2. Eating everything in our fridge and NOT wasting as much....this means lots of interesting soups at the end of each week. I am thinking about bringing back a meal plan so we plan better our purchases to be used up entirely at the week's end. I used to do it religiously and it was a great way to save money and never be without an idea for dinner or an ingredient. It also saves you time from all those last minute shopping trips.
3. SIGG Bottles - We are all carrying one of these cool bottles. Fun, green, and well, who can't stand to drink a bit more water.
4. The 100 mile challenge....This website is not entirely up to date but it does still give you some great ideas of where to shop. Add to the mix, some GOMPF Bison. Winter is hard because of our climate but two of my favorite summer stops are Fort Whyte Farms and Cramptons Market....
If you can't do local, try at least in season foods so to avoid the engineering of ripe perfect fruit year round.
5. A recycle party! Who would have thought but this year at our last retreat, we all brought good stuff that was just no longer of use to use but in need of a new home - seriously, there was Lululemon, Matt and Nat bags, jewellery. We swapped it all around and to this day I have receved more compliments than I can count on my "new" (Nat's "old") orange purse. I saw a really cool idea on this blog about a party for her MIL where there was an auction of used stuff and the monies raised went to charity- how cool is this? Audrey - HELP - can you send me the link to that exact post?
6. Shop with these bags. I gave one to my Mom for Christmas and she gave one to me...can you say same wavelength? So cool, so useful and fun! They are so small they can fit into a jacket pocket or a few can fit in your purse.
7. This is not Green but GREENS.We have started adding this our smoothie every morning....Greens Plus is a 100% natural blend of 29 nutrient-rich Superfoods, Sea Vegetables and High-Energy Herbal Extracts. One serving of Greens Plus delivers more essential vitamins, trace minerals, live enzymes and high-ORAC antioxidants than 5 full servings of fresh fruits and vegetables, and provides every vibrant color in the dietary food spectrum.
So I am nowhere near perfect but we are trying our best! Any other ideas?
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