Digging the green life: what it means to me

I am super concerned about my impact in the world and the contributions I am selfishly making to our environment. It is important that we all reduce our footprint. To that effect, I will begin chronicling my efforts to live a more sustainable life.

Three things are important for me to track through this blog. For me, the most important is the food I eat. As someone who is beginning to have health problems (hello Lymphedema and Grave's Disease), I will be watching the foods I ingest more carefully. Good-bye processed foods. Hello organic, homemade deliciousness. I will also strive to eat more local foods (within a 100 mile radius of my home in Richmond, Virginia). However, I will not beat myself up if I choose to buy a pineapple or bananas from the store. Meatless Mondays will observed every week. Restaurants will be for special occasions (as was the case when I was younger).

My second concern, and therefore my second focus, will be reducing my carbon footprint. To this end I will be driving my SUV around a lot less, and focusing instead on walking or riding my bike (even if it means biking up the big hill at the Nickel Bridge). To begin, I pledge to walk/bike twice a week (meaning twice a week will be designated as no car days). Tied into my carbon footprint is my desire to reduce my plastic purchases. I totally admire Beth Terry at My Plastic-Free Life and Bea Johnson at Zero Waste Home.

A third goal of mine, and one I intend to track, is to live a simpler, frugal life. It's mind-blowing to me how much my husband and I spend on food - and there are just two of us! Well, and the two cats. . . and the two dogs. By eating out less, growing more of our food, and making meals at home, I hope to drastically cut our food expenses while not feeling deprived. With less spent on luxuries, and let's face it restaurants are totally luxuries, we can throw more money at our growing debt.

Along the way I hope to track my progress at accomplishing these three goals and learn more ways to live a simpler, frugal, greener life. xx