A healthier way of life

Today is 1 month since I decided to go from vegetarian to vegan and I couldn't be happier with my decision. You may wonder what being vegan has to do with being "green", and since you are wondering, I'll be glad to tell you. Meat and dairy production is the largest producer of greenhouse gases, namely methane. When cows pass gas, they are releasing methane into the environment, and with the obscene number of cows raised for meat and dairy, that's a lot of methane. Also the waste from the meat and dairy industry pollutes water ways. The Amazon Rainforest has been devastated from cutting down countless tress to plant corn to feed the cows. There are countless ways why being vegan is better for the environment and if it is something that interests you, you should really look more into it by ready any of John Robbins' books, visiting Peta.org or FarmSanctuary.org, or going to you tube and looking up factory farm videos. Education is the key to survival of our species and too many people are all to comfortable in their lifestyles to think that they might need to change.
I pretended for far too long that eating dairy was okay as long as I didn't eat meat, but the reality of that just isn't true and the documentary Forks Over Knives was the wake-up call that I needed. Now there are many ways you can be a vegan, not all of which are healthy. To truly be healthy and step lightly on the Earth, you need to adopt a plant strong diet. Well isn't that what being vegan is??? Not exactly. Being vegan means that you avoid all animal products meat, dairy, eggs and even honey. With that in mind... potato chips and soda would technically be considered vegan.. but while potato chips and soda don't cause animal suffering, they are going to cause human suffering because they are incredibly unhealthy! A healthy plant strong diet is one that avoids excess sugars and processed foods and relies on fruits, vegetables and whole grain, preferably organic and locally grown.
That is what I have been doing for the last month. I gave up all dairy and eggs, my Snapple or 2 a day habit, my Starbucks iced Caramel Macchiato, in place of lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, grains and the occasional Toffuti Cutie for dessert. I definitely feel better in soooo many ways. My biggest joy is that the skin on my face is so much clearer than it has been in a looong time. I have lost weight and have more energy and ambition to exercise. I generally feel better mentally and I know that my new choices are better for my health, my daughter's health (she is trying very hard to be vegan as well and doing very well, with the exception of a little cheese here and there) as well as for the environment. I'm not going to say that everyone should try to do this overnight... I have been vegan at other times in my life, so for me the change was not all that difficult as I was not a huge consumer of dairy to begin with. My suggestion to everyone is to educate yourselves. Watch Forks Over Knives, read some books on the subject, and try to make healthier choices one meal at a time. If you really want to try a vegan lifestyle, tell yourself that you're only going to do it for a month and then see how you feel after that time and if you want to continue. You must remember that making this switch is not just about taking things out of your diet, it is about adding in healthy alternatives. Find a good vegan cookbook and try out some new recipes. Wander around your local farmers market and see what new things you can find. I can promise that if you do make the switch you will be happier and healthier and your body and the Earth will thank you!

Something new to get my adrenaline going!!

So, I have mentioned before how recycling is a last ditch effort to try to do something with all the plastic that we are inundated with... but what I found out today has my stomach in knots! Basically everything you buy at the store comes in plastic and if you are like me and you have to buy something like shampoo or yogurt... etc... you just figure you'll recycle the containers when you are done.
For a few years I have been taking all the caps off shampoo and anything else with a hard plastic cap and dropping them off at my local Aveda store. I do this because those hard plastic caps are not recycled by your local recycling company because it is expensive and difficult to do so, however, Aveda does recycle the caps into new shampoo bottles.
Well, I called my local town recycling's hot line today and asked them what #'s of plastic they recycle... 1 and 2 ONLY!!! Guess what # the majority of plastic containers are... #5!!!!! I am beside myself!! All that plastic I have been throwing into the recycle bucket hasn't even been getting recycled!!!
Thankfully, there is a solution, if you don't mind driving around with your garbage. I found a company called Preserve and they have a program called "Gimme 5". They have drop off locations for your #5 plastics that they will recycle and turn into toothbrushes and other products. I am excited that the Whole Foods Market near me is one of their drop off spots. Check out Preserveproducts.com for more info about their company. Oh and the best part is that they take Brita filters too!!

What can I say about dirt?

Oh how I love thee... let me count the ways... no seriously, I really do love dirt! I love getting my hands in the dirt and planting tiny seeds and watching them grow into amazing plants that in return give me healthy fresh veggies to eat. Well today I gave my garden a present... compost! I bought a composter 2 years ago and started throwing leaves, twigs, egg shells and fruit and veggie skins into it and viola... 2 years later I have some fresh, nutrient rich soil to add to my garden!

 I find the concept of decomposition totally amazing and totally worth doing. The composter I have is made out of plastic... gasp! Yes I know, plastic is evil! Anyway, it is a big black drum that has a handle on the side to make it easy to turn. Unfortunately, plastic being what it is, the handle dried out from the elements and just broke on me! I can still turn it without the handle, but I will be contacting the mfr for a replacement. So if you are ever wondering what to do with all your fruit and veggie skins... go out and get yourself a composter... your garden will thank you!

Left the grocery store with a broken heart

No it's not a new country song, it's honestly the way I felt when I left the supermarket today.  Trying to become more aware of my own plastic habits has made my eyes painfully open to the overwhelming amount of plastic that we are surrounded by everywhere we go. As I walk up and down each isle I suddenly feel the desire to cry and scream. "Look at all this plastic!!!! Where is it all going to end up??? Why are we doing this to ourselves????" Plastic shampoo bottles and plastic drink bottles and plastic baby bottles and plastic laundry detergent, plastic salad dressing, plastic ketchup... the list goes on endlessly. The more I look, the worse I feel and the sadness deepens when I realize how much of this plastic I need to take home with me.  Now of course I avoided the obvious plastic bags at checkout by bringing my own bags, and I just put loose veggies in my cart to avoid those bags until the cotton mesh produce bags I ordered from Amazon arrive, but what about everything else??? Some produce is already pre-packaged in plastic like strawberries, blueberries, grapes, celery, among others. Now pretty soon I will have my own strawberries to pick in the back yard, but in the meantime I am FORCED to accept yet another plastic, single use container or not buy strawberries. Which is the lesser of two evils??? Not being able to give my daughter a healthy lunch or adding more plastic to her diet and the environment??? Every loaf of bread in the store is wrapped in plastic, sometimes DOUBLE wrapped... what is that all about???? I think my next adventure will be making my own breads. I enjoy baking and I think making fresh bread will be very rewarding... I'll blog about how it comes out in the future and if anyone has any good recipes, feel free to let me know. When I got home I felt very sad and almost hopeless about the plastic situation. I will always do my part as much as I can and I hope my blog inspires others to do the same... as soon as I get some more followers!! But sometimes it feels like there is no way out of this plastic infested, chemical laden, consumerist society we live in. A friend of mine is building a house with her fiance and intends to live as close to nature and as far off the grid as possible.  I envy her and admire her and hope to one day be her neighbor!

Fresh out of the garden

Part of tonight's dinner consisted of salad made with spinach and red leaf lettuce pick right out of my own garden. That is the most rewarding part of vegetable gardening... when you get to harvest and enjoy your own produce knowing that it is organic and did not travel half way around the world wrapped in plastic to get to you. And the taste!!!! Nothing in the grocery store can even try to compare to the taste of something fresh out of the ground... the way it was supposed to be.  This was my first year growing spinach and what a success it was!! I will definitely be growing it again next year... I think I need a bigger garden!!

Drowning in Plastic

I have been thinking a lot lately about the serious amounts of plastic that we all use on a daily basis. Last time I wrote about plastic bags that we get while out shopping, but how about all the plastic that surrounds us on a daily basis. Here's how my day starts.... I wake up and the first thing I touch is my PLASTIC alarm clock, I then put on my PLASTIC glasses and head to the bathroom to sit on the PLASTIC toilet seat. I then go into the shower and use the PLASTIC shampoo, conditioner and body wash containers.  When I get out of the shower I brush my teeth with a PLASTIC toothbrush with toothpaste from a PLASTIC tube. Now imagine that I have only been awake for half and hour and so far everything I have come in contact with has been PLASTIC!
So I usually stop at Starbucks for coffee with my reusable PLASTIC cup and get a non-reusable PLASTIC straw, but today I decided to make another change. Do I really NEED a straw??? Nah! I can drink out of the cup, and with one simple decision I just stopped contributing to plastic straws washing up onto a beach somewhere.
Plastic has become part of our society, a part that is so well ingrained we can't even imagine living without it. As I type this blog on my PLASTIC laptop I am saddened to think about what our Earth is becoming... one big PLASTIC sphere!!
What's that you say?? What about recycling?? Recycling is a last ditch effort to try to handle the wasteful nature of the human race.  Most of the plastic we consume is either downcycled or not recycled at all.  Plastic is difficult to recycle because there are so many different types, that's what all those little numbers on the bottom of your containers are.  #5 is said to be best for human consumption, but guess what, it's the hardest to recycle. Aveeda has teamed up with some schools and organizations to collect #5 plastic caps and recycle them for their haircare products, but the overwhelming response has forced them to turn organizations away because they just can't handle all that plastic. Check out their website for more details.
There is a blog that I follow called http://myplasticfreelife.com. It is a really interesting blog about really challenging yourself to live without any plastic at all. I don't imagine I will be plastic-free anytime soon, but everyday I try to make another step towards reducing my consumption of single use plastics before we really are drowning in plastic!

One less plastic bag

Being green has basically become a way of life for me, but there are times when I make some not-so-green choices.  Whether its a conscious bad decision or one I realize later was not so good, I am certainly not perfect when it comes to making the most environmentally conscious choice.  I ALWAYS bring my canvas shopping bags when I do my weekly grocery shopping, but there are plenty of times where I run out to pick something up and forget my bags.  If it's only one or two items I will most definitely carry them out in my own two hands, but if it's more then a few things I have to resort to the *gasp* dreaded plastic bag :(  Now any plastic bag that manages to make it's way into my house always gets a second life, usually consisting of picking up doggie waste.  So I was thinking about how many plastic bags are getting used on a daily basis and it really made me feel guilty about ever forgetting my reusable bag. Let's think for a minute... almost 3 million people live on Long Island... so if everyone used 1 plastic bag a day that would be 3 million plastic bags a day, 21 million in a week, 93 million a month and 1 billion 95 million a year.  Now we're just talking Long Island here and we're only talking 1 per day. How many bags do you think the average person gets at the grocery store... 20? 30? What about department stores, drug stores... etc... we're getting into some serious #'s here!! So the point of this is that the reverse is also true... if everyone refused 1 plastic bag per day on Long Island that would be 3 million less plastic bags in the environment a day... etc... So I challenge you my friends to really try to start reducing your plastic bag consumption.  If you forget your reusable bags, use your two hands if it's only a few items.  If you don't have any reusable bags, you can get some almost anywhere now-a-days. 
So why should we even care about reducing our dependence on plastic bags anyway??? Well... were do I even start.  Let's start with aesthetics.  I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but I feel like every time I am driving around lately I see some random plastic bag flying through the air, usually until it finds itself lodged in a tree, also a hideous sight.  If it doesn't get stuck in a tree some where, it might make it's way to the ocean.  I don't know how many of you know this, but sea turtles eat jellyfish.  Now have you ever seen a plastic bag floating in the water? Well from underwater, plastic bags often resemble jellyfish, which the turtles then try to snack on, which you can imagine is not healthy for the turtles.  And if you're still not convinced, there's always that pesky little fact that plastic is made from oil and if anyone has been to the gas station lately you can see how this could be a problem.
So my overall point is, don't beat yourself up if you forget to bring your reusable bags sometimes.  Just try to make a conscious decision to reduce plastic bag consumption whenever possible and be one more person using one less plastic bag.