Christy The Writer

I’ve completed Day 4 of the Sierra Club’s No Impact Challenge, which focused on healthy eating to help lesson your ”foodprint.” This one was a bit tricky. Not because I don’t eat healthy – a 50-pound weight loss several years ago taught me that. And not because I don’t love food because ha-ha, where do you think the extra 50 pounds came from?

What made this day a little more difficult for me is having to focus on food that’s local and seasonal. I buy food at the grocery store. I try to buy organic as much as possible, but honestly, I don’t really pay attention to where it comes from. Farmers markets are for lazy, sunny Saturdays when we happen across one while out doing other things.

So this challege was to eat local, seasonal, unpackaged food. According to John Hendrickson in “Energy use in the U.S. Food System,” an average item of food travels 1,500 miles to your plate. Wow. WOW. That’s a lot of carbon just to transport food. My town has a farmers’ market set up in a municipal parking lot that’s right on my way to the train, but it’s on Tuesday mornings. And of course I wasn’t organized enough to stop there on Tuesday, don’t even bother wondering.

So on a whim, I headed for my local Whole Foods Market where I often go for organic food and grains in bulk. Turns out they also have produce marked with signs indicating what’s grown locally. I live in New Jersey, for crying out loud – the Garden State. Why don’t ALL the supermarkets around here carrying locally grown produce? As soon as I finish this, I’m writing notes to all the stores in my town to ask.

What could I do besides buying locally grown produce? Well, I’ve made a conscious effort lately to cut down on red meat, so that part wasn’t too hard. Actually, I’ve been toying with the idea of going vegetarian altogether. And I only have organic dairy products in the house.

Packaged products are a bit harder to give up, but in truth they are full of preservatives and they create more trash. My family in-law has a running joke that my niece and nephews know it’s almost time for dinner when they hear the crinkle of cellophane in the kitchen. But in my sister-in-law’s defense, convenience foods got that name for a reason. And also she has something like 78 kids.

So while I focused yesterday on fresh fruits and vegetables and organic dairy products, I need to work on making this a more permanent change. I make changes all the time – I’m always starting something new and exciting only to abandon it a few days later because it’s too complicated or I get bored or maybe because I tend to have the attention span of a squirrel.

Is this a change I can make permanent? I think so. I just need to make healthy, local, seasonal food convenient until it becomes a habit. I’m going to start leaving for work earlier on Tuesdays so I can stock up at the farmers’ market. I’m going to lessen my foodprint by keeping those foods ready to go and within easy reach.

No word yet on whether I’m going to be able to give up my daily can of Dr. Pepper. Don’t rush me. At least I recycle the can.

Day 3 of the Sierra Club’s No Impact Challenge is behind me, and this one, I have to say, was easy for me. Tuesday’s challege focused on transportation and brainstorming ways to change our modes of transportation to have the least impact possible.

I actually started driving much less when I was downsized from my job last fall. Funny how not having to go to work really cuts down your commute time.  I began working as a full-time freelance writer, which means for the most part, I work from home. But then one of my clients, based in a nearby city, asked that I work from their office for a few hours most days. I started thinking: the train station is only about a half mile from my house, and about the same distance from the other train station to the office. If I walked to and from the trains, I’d get an extra two miles of walking into my day, and I wouldn’t have to sit in traffic.

I considered that option for about an eighth of a second before I decided to do it. And I gotta tell you, I love not driving. Yes, there are days when I waste so much time in the morning that my leisurely walk to the train becomes a sweaty, screaming sprint. And yes, I sometimes have to wait for the train if it’s delayed. But to be able to settle back and bury myself in a book, or listen to my iPod on the way to work and sing “Rock You Like a Hurricane” loud and off-key for the enjoyment of my fellow passengers… oh yeah.

Yes, there are times I’m not crazy about this arrangement. It breaks my heart to see how many little animals are dead in the road and in the gutters, no match for our huge growling vehicles that show our self-proclaimed dominance over all living things.

We also had a whole stretch of days where it did nothing but rain, and I arrived at work every day with soaking wet pants and a decidedly bad attitude. Did it rain that much before I started walking to the train? Dunno. I suspect it was another of Mother Nature’s screw jobs. And being a pedestrian in northern New Jersey has its own little treats, like people honking at other people for not trying to run over me while I’m in the crosswalk. Haha, good times.

But having said all that… taking mass transit still beats coming around a bend and running into a sea of taillights. No traffic, no tolls, no parking meters, no stopping for gas.

If I need to make any stops after work, I’ve got a pharmacy, two grocery stores, a liquor store and a dry cleaner right on my way home. I stick a reusable shopping bag in my purse when I’m leaving in the morning, and take care of my errands on the way home. Zero fossil fuels burned and now my thighs could crack a walnut. Well, okay, a grape. Well, okay, a pudding.

I’ve completed Day 2 of the Sierra Club’s No Impact Experiment and I have to tell you… Ms. “I Already Live Uber Green” is flat-out amazed how much trash I generate without even thinking about it.

Monday’s challenge was to discover how wasting less improves our lives. We were urged to consider all trash bins off limits. First I emptied the little trash bag I’d toted around all day Sunday and divided into two piles: stuff I used for more than ten minutes, and stuff I used for less than ten minutes. The less-than-ten-minutes pile was embarrassingly bigger than the other pile. My biggest contribution to the trash pile? Paper towels. Apparently I loves me some Viva. And the most disturbing part of all – I tear off a paper towel and use it to wipe up a few spatters of water from the countertop, then toss it in the bin without thinking twice.

I have a package of reusable cloths that my parents gave me for my birthday (along with some eco-friendly shopping bags – apparently my reputation preceeds me). I always use them when I’m cleaning – I have one I keep in the bathroom and one I keep in the kitchen. Last night I took another one out of the packet and put it under the paper towel dispenser. When I was cleaning up after dinner, I used that instead of a paper towel to dry off the counter. I never would have dreamed that forgoing one paper towel would make me feel so virtuous. There’ll be no living with me soon.

I also followed some of the Sierra Club’s suggestions for reducing waste during the day. I dug out a resusable container for my sandwich at lunch instead of wrapping it in foil or a plastic bag. I made myself an iced coffee and put it in my old travel mug instead of stopping for one on my way to work. So not only did I avoid a plastic cup, lid and straw, but I saved myself some calories and about five bucks. Did the Happy Dance, right there in the kitchen. Doing it again now, just at the memory.

I also pulled out some handkerchiefs I got as a gift a few years ago, and tucked one of those into my purse. They’re white and have a ”C” embroidered on them and if you don’t think I felt dainty and feminine later when I used it to cover a huge spitty sneeze, well… you’d be wrong.

I’ve completed Day 1 of the Sierra Club’s No Impact Challenge. I actually did better than I expected.

The first thing I did was find a reusable bag to start collecting my trash from the day. I never hated coffee grounds until today, by the way. We’re to analyze the trash later, so more on that still to come.

The main part of Day 1 was to pay attention to our consumption and reduce the stuff we buy. I hadn’t expected this to be all that difficult for me. The economic downturn of recent years has made me thrifty (read: cheap as hell), so it wasn’t like I had to stop myself from my usual Sunday afternoon trip to the mall. But I would have gone grocery shopping, and I didn’t.

Grocery shopping on the weekends has almost become a habit for me. I jot down a menu for the week for lunches and dinners, and then I shop. If I’m buying too much to carry in a couple of bags, I do drive to the store, but I always go to the store that’s closest to me. And I always take my stash of reusable bags. I shop green, baby, don’t think I don’t.

But this particular Sunday, as I read through the Sierra Club’s pamphlet on reducing consumption, I started to wonder if I could get by for a week without buying groceries. Could we live on what was already in the house? I’m always struggling to find room for what I bring home from the grocery store, so what exactly is it that’s in the way?

I went through the kitchen and realized we had more than enough food for breakfast, lunches and dinners for the entire week. A forage in the one cupboard alone resulted in a scone mix I’d forgotten about – I baked those up – and several nearly empty boxes of cereal that I combined with the rest of a box of raisins and made into granola. The cereal boxes I folded up and put in with my cardboard recycling. Breakfast was done for a few days. 

Soup mixes, a can of tuna, a few pieces of fruit forgotten in the crisper (it makes me wonder why I even use the crisper. I think I just like to say crisper), some chicken thighs abandoned in the back of the freezer, pasta, potatoes, a frozen stir fry, something I didn’t recognize but I’m sure is probably edible … we had more than enough in the house already to comfortably survive the week. We’ll be doing more on food later in the week, and much of what I learned today will come in handy then, I’m pretty sure. How very like me to work ahead and then gloat about it. This may be why none of the other kids ever came to my birthday parties.

Anyway, I spent the rest of the afternoon fixing up an old skirt I’d tossed on the floor of my closet when the zipper broke. I took the busted zipper out (actually remembering to stick it in my bag of trash) and instead of running to the store for a new zipper, stitched the sides together with bit of stretchy elastic from one of Guy’s old socks that had been bound for the garbage. Then I added a few funky buttons from the bottom of my sewing box. I now have the coolest looking skirt that I can’t wait to wear today, and I didn’t go out and buy it.

So overall, it was an exciting, rejuvenating day, and I didn’t spend a dime. Now I can’t wait to analyze my trash! Wow, there’s a sentence I never thought I’d hear myself say.

When I first told Guy that I was taking part in the Sierra Club’s No Impact Experiment, he got a look on his face that plainly showed he was thinking of my peace rallys in downtown Newark and the cleanse I tried involving granulated lecithin and twelve pounds of beets. What can I say? I don’t do anything half-heartedly. The man knows me.

When I explained that the No Impact Experiment is a one-week carbon cleanse designed to help us learn to live a happier life that will result in a happier earth, he agreed it sounded like a good idea.

But, as he pointed out, we already live pretty green. I take the train to work, we use fabric shopping bags, we recycle, I buy mostly earth-friendly household cleansers, I’ve been using Glad Rags for ten years. How much greener can we live?

And that is the challenge I will be addressing starting tomorrow, which is Day 1 of the No Impact Experiment. More people are becoming aware of their carbon footprint. More of us are striving to make lifestyle choices that are better for us and better for the Earth. Does that mean we are already living as green as we can? Somehow… I think I am about to get quite an education.

If you’d like to sign up to do this with me - and a big hug to those of you who already have – there’s still time. Click here to visit the Sierra Club’s website and sign up. And don’t worry - there’s no granulated lecithin involved.

Okay, I just signed up for the Sierra Club’s No Impact Experiment. It starts this Sunday and is a one-week experiment in living with a lower carbon footprint. I’ll be posting updates every day, to let you know how it’s going.

(Oh, and if you didn’t hear Rita Moreno’s voice when you read the headline above, it just means you’re too young for my humor.)

*Update!* I’ve heard from several people, here and on Facebook, who want to do this with me. How awesome are you?! Let’s do it!

Some words of wisdom from New Jersey Transit’s web site. Please make a note of this, and tell your friends and co-workers, okay? It is really that important:

 ”The way to avoid being hit by a train is to stay out of its way.”

I know, right? I shudder to think how many times I’ve ambled along the middle of the train tracks… during rush hour…

A friend got all over my case yesterday for saying I think girls should dress like girls. Sorry, but when I’m behind someone who has baggy jeans, a beat-up t-shirt and hair like my cousin Eric, it’s a little startling when I see the front and realize it’s female.

Jackie forwarded me something she found on the Web – a list of five secrets you should keep from your significant other. She couldn’t believe there were only five. I disagreed more with the content itself. One of them said you should never admit that you’re attracted to a co-worker – instead you should pretend all your crushes are on Hollywood celebrities. Yeah, right. Then how come Guy didn’t seem to like it the other night in bed when I called him Jerry Seinfeld?

Fabulous James and I were discussing things that annoy us. I said I hate it when people call my office phone and, when I don’t answer, immediately call my cell. James said he can’t stand it when men at the dance clubs jump up on the speakers and start voguing. Clearly life hands James and me very different problems.