resolutions – Health4earth

3 Sustainable Choices

A new year, new habits!

“Small acts when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world!” Greenpeace

The new year has arrived, and we all have the best intentions to have a fresh beginning. With all the uncertainty and discord around us, focusing on something bigger than ourselves helps to rise above all the confusion. Choose to do things that are fun and make you feel better about your place in society.

New goals and new ideas help stimulate new interests and are good for our mental health. First of all, don’t worry about being perfect, just do something different. No one is perfect, but if everyone does something it adds up to big things for us and our community.

Millions of people around the world have been harmed by storms and our warming world during the past year. With all the harm humans have done to our planet the last hundreds of years, our warming Earth is struggling to find some equilibrium, and we can all lessen our negative impact. By reducing our consumption of the Earth’s resources, we can help our corner of the world and make a big difference. My ideas are to help you think of ways you can make a positive difference and hopefully have fun!

Every day my household works on three big things to reduce our consumption of the Earth’s resources:

Reduce meat consumption

1. Cutting meat consumption and always celebrating meatless Mondays. There are so many meatless options in the frozen food section of grocery stores it can be easy and fun. The hard part is finding meatless options without increasing plastic pollution. Here are some ideas to get you started. Vegan Recipes To Help You Eat Less Meat : Life Kit : NPR

Quick & Easy Vegetarian Recipes | EatingWell

Vegan Recipes To Help You Eat Less Meat : Life Kit : NPR

How is plastic in our food affecting our health?

2. Reducing plastic is paramount. Plastic creates waste and litter, it contributes to climate change, pollutes our water and is harmful to wildlife. It is concerning how plastic affects our health and what it’s impacts might be for us. We have a lot to learn about how plastic is harming our health. Please reduce your consumption of plastic. Start by using reusable bags, cups and bottles, and then you will slowly learn new ways to reduce plastic in your environment. So much plastic can’t be recycled, but if you must purchase items in plastic, make sure it can be recycled.

Irritable bowel syndrome linked to more microplastics in gut (nypost.com)

30 to 40% of food in the USA is wasted!

3. Reduce Food waste. Food waste is a total waste of water, labor, time and energy. First start with your shopping, don’t buy more than you can use. Buying in bulk is a good way to regulate how much you purchase (bulk can reduce plastic waste also). Second, staying on top of what items are in your refrigerator/freezer is extremely important. Maybe have an “eat first shelf.” I keep a container in my refrigerator to accumulate celery tops and other vegetable scraps for weekly soup making or stir fry. Finally, turning leftovers into a new meal is one of the best things about cooking. Make it fun and challenging! Wraps and rice bowls are winners!

How to Reduce Food Waste | Sierra Club

Below are many ways you can help our planet and also your soul:

Opinion | 10 New Year’s Resolutions That Are Good for the Soul – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

7 Ways to Make 2022 More Sustainable – Plastic Free Home – Environmental and Zero Waste Blog (theplasticfreehome.com)

13 sustainable choices for your green life | Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (state.mn.us)

3 eye-opening, science-based New Year’s resolutions that could help everyone | PBS NewsHour

12 Ways to Live More Sustainably (biologicaldiversity.org)

Resolutions to help You and our Planet to Better Health

“If everyone does a little bit, it adds up to a whole lot!” health4earth

We all need to take some personal responsibility to make ourselves and our planet healthier. Below are some of the things I work for everyday, and I hope you will add a few of them to your 2016 agenda. Please respond with your clean climate ideas.

My series #31daysoflesswaste continues:

1. Buy less stuff, reuse, reuse and reuse the things you have.

2. Stop idling your car, bundle your car trips together to drive less, and carpool more! Or take the bus!

3. How can I use less electricity?

4. How can I prepare for drought and inundation? Save water run-off by planning and building a rain garden with native plants. http://bluethumb.org/raingardens/

5. Compost food scraps and strive to be a Climatarian. https://health4earth.com/2015/12/28/climatarian-a-new-resolution/

6. Recycle and donate your unwanted stuff “More and more people understand that there is no “away” in the finite system that is planet Earth and that we can’t keep using our precious air, water and land to dump the stuff we no longer want. If something can’t be reused, repaired, refurbished or otherwise repurposed, the next best thing is to recycle it.” David Suzuki www.earth911.com or donate to your local donation non-profit

7. How can I reduce single-use consumption of plastic bottles/containers, and reduce my consumption of plastic bags?

What do you do for our planet and yourself to be healthier?

Happy 2016!

Climatarian, A New Resolution!

Lentil Stew for Meatless Monday (lentils from Montana, carrots and onions grown in Minnesota)

My series on reducing waste continues, #31daysoflesswaste

What is a Climatarian?

A Climatarian diet involves choosing what you eat based on the carbon footprint of the food, and using your power as a consumer to drive down the production of beef and lamb which have the biggest impact on our climate. A climatarian is about eating local food to reduce transportation and reducing food waste.

Climatarian defined in NYT’s top food words 2015: http://nyti.ms/1SZ0jFc see http://bit.ly/goclimatarian for more info

What on Earth is a climatarian?

http://www.climates.network/climatarian

https://health4earth.com/meatless-mondays/

My easy suggestions to become a Climatarian

Celebrate Meatless Monday, and a few other days also
Shop food co-ops and eat locally grown foods. Even in December I can find foods grown in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Walk or take the bus shopping, and grow and preserve your own food
Eliminate beef and reduce cheese consumption
Compost all food waste

Earth Positive Resolutions for 2015

I like these resolutions from the Sierra Club Sierraclub.org to start the new year and thought they had a unique twist. We can all do better and there are some good ideas here to get you started.

1. Keep the TV off.

2. Make dinner tonight. Why waste the gas and money to go out for dinner, when you can make a nice, hot meal right at home? Go with local, organic ingredients to step it up a notch. Not only will you be saving money, and help out the local economy, you’ll have leftovers for later.

3. Take a shorter shower.

4. Clean out your closet. It’s time to clean out all those clothes you never wear and put them to good use. Donate them to your local Salvation Army or upcycle them into something new. You’ll feel better for having cleared out some of the clutter, believe us.

5. Drop that paper towel. Sure it’s easy to just grab that roll of paper towels when there’s a spill or you need a napkin, but a regular kitchen towel does the same trick and reduces waste. It’s a hard habit to break. Just reducing use makes a difference and always use recycled paper towels.

6. Cut back on driving.

7. Sponsor a wild animal. Check out World Wildlife Fund WWF.org I just wish they would reduce all their mailings.

8. Recycle, recycle, recycle. Everyone can do better on this one!

9. Turn down your thermostats. This will help lower your energy usage, and your bills. And yes, that was plural. We’re not just talking about your heater and AC units, think about your refrigerator settings as well.

10. Protect clean air. A fresh, new year requires fresh air. You can help ensure by educating yourself and pledging to take a stand against toxins caused by coal mining. Visit the Beyond Coal website and sign the petition, donate funds, or volunteer time to fight for clean air throughout the year.

11. Make a compost bin. In general, it’s best to cut down on food waste when you can. If you have a yard, look into setting up your own composting. If you’re living in a smaller space, there are a couple different options to keeping your waste to a minimum. Try out some of these simple compost ideas.

12. Invest in rechargeable batteries. It may sound like an odd resolution, but think about the number of times you replaced batteries last year. We go through them quicker than we’d like to think, and much of the time they don’t get disposed of properly.

13. Switch to reusable bags. New year, new mottos! And we say that plastic is out and reusable is in. One of the easiest ways to help reduce plastic waste is to ditch plastic bags when shopping. You can purchase reusable bags or make your own. Either way, make a mental note to always keep one handy, either in your purse, briefcase, or glove compartment.

14. Donate blood.

15. Clean up your neighborhood. For today, start by taking a walk around the neighborhood and seeing how much trash you wind up with after a couple blocks. You’ll be surprised by what you find. It might inspire you to do more, whether you form your own clean up crew or join an outing near you.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/14aa7ed245170922

16. And never never use Styrofoam. Tell business that use Styrofaom to please work for a recyclable or compostable alternative.

Is this what we want our earth to look like?