I recently subscribed to the RSS feed for a blog about healthy organic and vegetarian living. A recent post linked to an article about how food companies are using agressive advertising and universal availability of their unhealthy products to increase sales. This calls to mind a recent change in my own food purchasing habits.
Lately I have been trying to buy organic products whenever possible and I have started shopping at Whole Foods almost exclusively. I used to resist shopping there because I thought their prices were too high. I’d walk in, buy a single shopping bag worth of organic produce and pay over $30. Ouch. But is that really too much to pay? This is the fuel my body runs on. Is there any price too high to pay for quality food which is free of of harmful chemicals or unhealthy ingredients?
Also, after reading another recent article by PETA, I’ve decided to try to decrease even further my animal product intake. They cite a recent UN study that finds the global cattle industry produces more greenhouse gases than the transportation sector. So I’ve started buying soy milk and soy yogurt at the grocery store and I’m working on eating less dairy when eating out. Not only do the soy products taste great (I highly recommend vanilla Silk yogurt with fresh blueberries and/or strawberries), but I also feel good about supporting a local company which uses green energy.
If you’re not already buying organic and eating vegetarian, give it a try for a few weeks. You just might find it really agrees with you (and it’s good for the planet).
One of my neices turned 16 a couple months ago. That means she’s learning how to drive now. My sister took her to a school parking lot near their home and let her drive around a bit. Apparently my neice did so good that my sister let her drive home. She continued to do fine until she pulled into their driveway. At which point she accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake and banged up her mom’s car a bit:
Hang in there, Alyssa. Driving will become second nature before you know it. Use this incident as a reason to encourage your folks to buy you a car of your own.
Last week I was biking home from work and I had what I consider to be a good commute. I was riding along the Cherry Creek bike path after dark when I saw a fox on the path up ahead. It ran off right away, but it was still cool to see a fox there on the path. I thought to myself, “Now that’s why I like commuting by bike!”.
I soon left the bike path and was riding up Lafayette Street, struggling a bit to stay upright in the soft and slushy snow. It’s a little tricky riding in that kind of snow, but I was having a fun time. I rode past a woman who was about to get into her car and as she watched me ride past she asked “How do you do that?”. I coolly answered “Practice”, and continued to pedal past. I then thought to myself, “That’s why I like to commute by bike in the snow: to impress the cagers.”
Yesterday I was on the Cherry Creek bike path again, this time on the way to work. It was wicked cold out, but sunny and a nice day so far. Then I hit a section of the trail that doesn’t get much sun (and apparently is never plowed by the city). There was a long section of sheet ice and I was going too fast. I went down hard and even continued to slide for a bit after I was down. Ouch. That makes for a bad day on the bike. I banged my right elbow and got an ugly bruise on my right hip.
So did I ride my bike in to work today? Heck yeah!
I didn’t send out any holiday cards this year. So allow me to officially say “Happy New Year” to you all. My version of a holiday card will be this first post in my new blog. Why a blog? I want my 15 minutes of internet fame, of course. Or maybe I’ve realized a blog can be an effective way to allow friends to keep tabs on what’s happening in my life. And maybe this will prove to be a good medium for a future travel blog. More on that later.
I didn’t send out any holiday cards this year. So allow me to officially say “Happy New Year” to you all. My version of a holiday card will be this first post in my new blog. Why a blog? I want my 15 minutes of internet fame, of course. Or maybe I’ve realized a blog can be an effective way to allow friends to keep tabs on what’s happening in my life. And maybe this will prove to be a good medium for a future travel blog. More on that later.
