"As a nature lover, I am committed to helping conserve and preserve the beautiful planet we live on. My husband and I have planted about 20 trees in the last 5 years and enjoy raising trees from acorns we find. I hate driving and love every opportunity to avoid it and get to where I need to go in different, more green ways."
POINTS TOTAL
0
TODAY
0
THIS WEEK
244
TOTAL
participant impact
UP TO
0.0
locally sourced meals
consumed
UP TO
80
minutes
spent learning
jeannine's actions
Transport
Use Muscle Power
#49 Cars
I will cut my car trip mileage by only taking necessary trips, and I will only use muscle-powered transportation for all other trips.
COMPLETED 6
DAILY ACTIONS
Food
Keep Track of Wasted Food
#3 Reduced Food Waste
I will keep a daily log of food I throw away during the EcoChallenge, either because it went bad before I ate it, I put too much on my plate, or it was scraps from food preparation.
COMPLETED 7
DAILY ACTIONS
Women and Girls
Support Women-Owned Businesses
#62 Women Smallholders
I will spend 20 minutes each day researching women-owned businesses I can support when shopping.
COMPLETED 4
DAILY ACTIONS
Food
Support Local Food Systems
#4 Plant-Rich Diet
I will source 5% percent of my food from local producers each day. This could include signing up for a local CSA, buying from a farmer's market, visiting a food co-op, foraging with a local group, or growing my own ingredients.
COMPLETED 6
DAILY ACTIONS
Food
Smaller Portions
#3 Reduced Food Waste
I will use smaller plates and/or serve smaller portions when dishing out food.
COMPLETED 8
DAILY ACTIONS
Participant Feed
Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.
To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?
Spring has sprung! Or not. I walk my two very energetic dogs all the time. It has to be very, very cold or icy for me not to so I have a record going of 42 weeks of walks. As we walk, I noticed that the snow melt has uncovered a littered landscape. So I've taken to taking some extra bags on the walks and doing a clean up as I go. It's a bit challenging with 2 dogs who don't like waiting on me to pick up litter and recyclables but I can definitely see the difference I've made so far.
My husband and I do not like to throw any food away. We rarely do, we cook, eat leftovers and compost food scraps. My favorite trick for using up fruit I've tired of is to chop it up and add it to our nightly dinner salad. Those last few grapes, one bruised apple or the lone clementine get chopped up and thrown in. My other tip is to eat fruit seasonally. I eat apples in the fall, citrus in the winter, blackberries in spring and blueberries and melon in the summer. I find that I am rarely disappointed with the fruit I get when I take this approach. Bananas are my only year round fruit and yes I eat them even with brown spots. I hate to waste.
I love the reusable cutlery that I found. Made in New Zealand, I keep this in my purse to avoid using disposable cutler when I am eating lunch at work.
A year ago I switched to the largest shampoo bottle available from Aveda. Not only is Aveda a great sustainable company, the bottle lasted a year. This reduces the amount of single use plastic within my control. I wish I could go an refill it.
Today I started assessing my vitamins, I use a brand that my dr. recommends but the bottles seem wasteful so I am going to research if I can buy in bulk somehow.
For 8 years, I lived in the city and never had a car. My choice of transportation was bus followed by walking. I did the el on occasion and cab rides were rare. I now live in the suburbs where I have to drive a lot which I hate. I curb the use of my car by always mapping out my errands to make one trip and I walk/bike to the stores that are close to my house. I have made several walking trips to Jewel, Walgreens, Tuesday morning, the post office, UPS and Merle Norman. My dream is to retire and only have to drive 1-2 days a week maximum. I aspire to get an electric bike when I am retired as well.
Dependable fresh food, supporting local farmers and building resilient communities are just a few benefits of local food systems. Which of these (or other) advantages inspire you the most?
Fun fact: Your brain and stomach register feelings of fullness after about 20 minutes of eating. While dishing food out, we tend to load our plates with more than we need. Using smaller plates helps to mitigate this. Aside from the environmental benefits, what other benefits might come out of eating smaller portions?
MARIA ALBULESCU 4/13/2019 7:38 PMJeannine, that is so inspiring! Thank you!