(no subject)
After having read about a half dozen books about American diet habits and the American condition overall, I'm determined to eat healthier. Fast food Nation, Fat Land, Chew on This, What's Cooking?, The Omnivore's Dilemma, (okay, not quite half a dozen)... But overall what I've gathered from this all is that we're feeding petroleum products to our corn crops, feeding our corn crops to our cattle, feeding our cattle to our cattle, slaughtering our cattle in terribly unclean conditions, and feeding the result to ourselves. At a horrible loss of resources overall. That pound of beef is costing us immensely in terms of our health, the cows' health, the environment's health. So I'm trying hard to cut down my meat consumption. It's certainly not going to hurt my figure any either. I've been wanting to trim that down a bit too lately.
I also wish I could trim back on my automobile reliance. I'm one block from the bus line that goes from here down to work. I just have to get in the habit of leaving 15 minutes early and getting to work 15 minutes late so that I can ride el autobus. Unfortunately I can't completely eliminate my reliance on the car, because my kids live so damned far away in suburbia. It angers me to learn that the automobile industry financed the buyout of so many public transport systems and then shut them down. And THEN lobbied the government to change regulations to accomodate the automobile more than the traditional foot traffic. I think if I could keep it in the city, I'd rather ride me a horse the 6 miles to work. Instead of that, I may try riding a bike in the near future. I've just got to get myself into MUCH better shape than I currently am.
I -have- attempted to visit the local farmer's market. I went one Saturday a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I've either been out of town or at work the Saturdays since then. And they also run them Tues and Weds evenings, but since i get out of work at 6:15 and they only go until 7pm, it's tough to get there on those evenings, and I haven't even tried. Buying locally is something I'd like to try to do more of.
One thing I can manage to do rather regularly is buy things second hand. I just got myself more of a bedroom set than I really wanted for $200 from craigslist. I love craigslist. Kingsize waterbed bedroom set FTW. I win at that game. Thrift stores are awesome too. Only time I've ever managed to buy designer clothes and housewares. Can't afford them otherwise.
I used the $30 amazon gift certificate I was given for my bday to buy myself some reusable canvas shopping bags, so I've managed to not consume as many plastic shopping bags since I got those.
It's slow progress, but maybe I'm getting there. I'd like to get a bit more of a garden going on with veggies and herbs and such. Haven't had much luck with those in the past, because the cats like to sit on and eat the seedlings as I try to sprout them. We'll see how far I get. I feel like I'm making progress, however. Overall, that is.
I also wish I could trim back on my automobile reliance. I'm one block from the bus line that goes from here down to work. I just have to get in the habit of leaving 15 minutes early and getting to work 15 minutes late so that I can ride el autobus. Unfortunately I can't completely eliminate my reliance on the car, because my kids live so damned far away in suburbia. It angers me to learn that the automobile industry financed the buyout of so many public transport systems and then shut them down. And THEN lobbied the government to change regulations to accomodate the automobile more than the traditional foot traffic. I think if I could keep it in the city, I'd rather ride me a horse the 6 miles to work. Instead of that, I may try riding a bike in the near future. I've just got to get myself into MUCH better shape than I currently am.
I -have- attempted to visit the local farmer's market. I went one Saturday a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I've either been out of town or at work the Saturdays since then. And they also run them Tues and Weds evenings, but since i get out of work at 6:15 and they only go until 7pm, it's tough to get there on those evenings, and I haven't even tried. Buying locally is something I'd like to try to do more of.
One thing I can manage to do rather regularly is buy things second hand. I just got myself more of a bedroom set than I really wanted for $200 from craigslist. I love craigslist. Kingsize waterbed bedroom set FTW. I win at that game. Thrift stores are awesome too. Only time I've ever managed to buy designer clothes and housewares. Can't afford them otherwise.
I used the $30 amazon gift certificate I was given for my bday to buy myself some reusable canvas shopping bags, so I've managed to not consume as many plastic shopping bags since I got those.
It's slow progress, but maybe I'm getting there. I'd like to get a bit more of a garden going on with veggies and herbs and such. Haven't had much luck with those in the past, because the cats like to sit on and eat the seedlings as I try to sprout them. We'll see how far I get. I feel like I'm making progress, however. Overall, that is.