Read'n'seed to Eco Chic Lifestyle change.... the switch to the SMART goal.

In a turn of events I have switched to focus on a lifestyle change instead of my original plan for the Read 'n'seed.

My SMART goal?

I'm going to commit to one, but attempt to eat 2 local meals a week.
I wanted to do this last year when the locavor challenge was a focus at Whole Foods. They were encouraging even just 1 meal a month minimum just to get started. I didn't do a great job. I did, however start becoming aware of what was local at the co-op and made some more local food choices. This time I want to commit to a local meal one time a week but push for 2. I love the idea of buying from people that live in my area who work hard to provide us food. I love that it is closer to home. That you can more easily meet the people who grow the food. I love that it has traveled less time in a truck and taken less fuel to get to me. I also love that it is more fresh than some foods that are picked before they are ripe and the nutrients are not ready for our bodies to process, sprayed with chemicals and colors to make them look ripe.


My success so far?

I was encouraged when we were eating soup for Sunday's lunch and realized everything we were eating was local in our soup. It was chicken soup with a lot of root veggies. Joel had cooked off the chicken and saved the broth. It was SOOOO GOOD! The chicken and the root veggies and parsley were purchased at various farmers markets here in town.

This time the success of the goal came without planning. I have had thoughts of paying more attention to this and we have been attempting to get to farmers markets more. Now with this goal it is less of a casual thought and becomes a planned event to get food for my meals. It will be fun to go to the market and create a meal or two when I'm there.

I learned that local food can be SO YUMMY! That soup ROCKED!

I will continue my goal as is for the moment.

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

For my first quiz I did the Carbon Independent quiz on the EcobusinessLinks Environmental Directory.

My usage was 9.52 tonnes of CO2 compared to the U.S. average of 20, the UK average of 13.4 and the India Average of 1.2.

I am at a little bit of a disadvantage as I don' t get heating bills to compare. I live in a duplex, so on the positive side I and my neighbors help each other heat and cool our houses. I had to make a lot of guesses. And, it is a UK survey, so I'm not fully sure the best conversion method, not only for the answers, but for the actual assumptions made about what a small house consumes.

If we take the numbers as some level of accurate, it is cool that I am below the average American and UK resident.  Got a long way to go to be on the level of my Indian friends. (I would love to know if the numbers for India include only Indian residence or if it is an average used over the country for all people living there. In other words, are the american people living over there temporarily for outsourcing projects counted.)

What can I do to improve?  I'm fully moving up to Duluth so I will be reducing both bus and car trips to the cities. That will help. I could make a more conscious effort to include more local food than I already do and maybe cut out some food that I eat that travels a long distances. I'd have to research that a bit.  I know bananas are not so friendly to our environment, but they come in such WONDERFUL packages that I can't help but think mother nature put them there for those of us needing to travel with fruit.  I could plant some food trees or bushes so that next summer I can eat REALLY local! :)

It was interesting to do. I wish I felt better about the accuracy of the numbers.  I want to look for ways to keep improving. It is nice to know I'm on the right track.


The second one I did was the IUHPE Ecological Footprint quiz.

Below is the screen shot of my results.
(I'm a little sad you can't see my avatar character for the quiz... she had KICKIN' BLUE HAIR!)

  Click here to go to the website where you can take the quiz and get your results. 

Doing this one made me feel sad. I don't like to see the 3.8 earths that are needed to keep all me's alive. I feel bad about that.  I use most of my energy on services according to the circle graph.  I'm not fully sure what that means exactly.  Goods and mobility are coming out  the lowest for me.  I think that might be true but am afraid that isn't as true as the numbers say.  I do take the bus for school. I don't drive so there is some sense in that being low for me.

I would both love and would be very uncomfortable with having someone following me around and getting the real numbers of daily activities. Looking at reality and not just my perception.

Again, I think taking stalk in what I can do and get locally for foods and goods is an interesting start.

Today, my lunch soup was all local ingredients. And the salad was grown in hydroponics in the living room of where I ate, so that was VERY local.

Being aware on a more frequent bases helps me make better choices.

Cool snap shots and thought provokers.

I'm not clear if I need to do a third quiz as I see that one part says I need to do one and another three.  I will reduce my eco footprint right now by meeting in the middle and doing two. Thus saving energy by turning off my computer faster.

Happy eco footprint downsizing!