April 22 has come and gone, but it’s never too late to celebrate Earth Day by “going green.”
If you’ve wanted to do something to go green, but weren’t sure how, here are 3 examples of ways to have a positive impact via the choices you make with food.
Before we get to the actions, here’s some food for thought with 3 tips taken from coaching. Use these to help yourself gain traction as you internalize new behavioral patterns:
- Start small to make your new practices sustainable.
- Find practices that speak to you. Use the following list to jog your thinking.
- Create a buddy system. Read on for specifics.
Actions:
1) For one week, stop buying pre-packaged, pre-processed foods.
Look for fresh foods not wrapped in plastic or boxes. This includes cola beverages especially diet sodas, which do nothing to support your internal ecology and create empty cans that require recycling.
Great beverage recommendation: Purchase unsweetened juice concentrates at your local natural foods store and make your own flavored water or sodas. Use stevia as a healthy sweetener. Try mineral water if you want a carbonated beverage. You can make a sparkling cherry lemonade for pennies per serving and enjoy knowing your choices created far less impact on landfills or recycling systems.
2) Start a food exchange group.
Create healthier food options AND delicious community by gathering 4-6 friends to co-create a food swapping group.
First, meet to draft guidelines for sharing food you’ll be preparing.
Agree on portion size and ingredients that work for everyone. Decide whether you want to swap main dishes, starters, soups, desserts, etc. Determine whether you want the dishes to be vegetarian, organic, wheat-free, dairy-free, sugar-free…
Decide how often to meet (monthly works well).
Allow the initial set-up conversation to be nourishment istelf via the soulful connecting of community.
To add an element of ease, get identical storage containers (healthy, sustainably produced, freezer-appropriate).
Cook in bulk and have a meet up to exchange dishes. You’ll come away with dishes you can freeze for healthy heat-and-serve meals. You can also agree to exchange recipe cards or ingredient lists for all of the dishes.
3) If you shop for fish or order a fish dish at a restaurant, ask how the fish is sourced.
Are they sustainably wild harvested, netted by factory ships with no regard for sustainability, or farmed in a chemically/pharmaceutically dependent environment?
You may not always be able to access clean, sustainably harvested wild caught fish – but you can plant seeds of awareness by speaking up as a consumer.
Whether you change one purchasing habit, create community around healthy food choices or simply ask a question the next time you order food in a restaurant, there are many easy-to-implement options related to the food you eat every day. Making it easy on yourself means you are more likely to begin and sustain new behaviors.
Sustainability, baby – that’s the name of the game, in change, in life and in business. Use the power of choice, the power of your purchasing dollars and the power of your words for cumulative benefits.
As a fellow resident on this little planet, thank you for using your power in ways that benefit all of us!
Hugs,
Lyn
