New Life: Part 1

When Andrew and I were getting ready for our honeymoon we each bought some books to read on the beach. One of the books that I brought with me was called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Interestingly enough one of the books Andrew brought with him was called Twinkie Deconstructed. There was a definite theme emerging that each of us was interested in learning more about what and how we eat.

Since we were both interested in the subject matter I started a new tradition of reading to Andrew while he drives and I pretty much read the entire Animal, Vegetable, Miracle book to him on our trip. This book was fantastic, eye-opening, scary, funny, sweet, and inspiring. It is a true story of Barbara's family becoming "localvores" for an entire year, trying to live off of food within a 100 mile radius of where they live.

One of the biggest benefits of living as a localvore is reducing your carbon footprint. Each time you eat a food that has to be shipped from across the world you are contributing to a huge proportion of petroleum consumption --> carbon emissions --> global warming. Also, many of the foods we eat are made of mass produced ingredients or toxic ingredients that deplete and poison our land. I URGE all of you to read this book and educate yourself on how you can help the world, your neighbors and yourself live a healthier life.

Andrew and I were so inspired (and scared...) that we wasted no time making changes when we got home. Thursday morning we went to a new grocery store that opened 3 blocks away called Local Harvest Grocery. We bought all locally and organically grown vegetables, bread and meat.

Thursday afternoon I got a new bicycle that I can ride around town to run errands, complete with it's own uber-cool basket on the handle bars. Saturday morning we both rode our bikes to the local farmers market and filled my basket to the rim with local veggies, fruit, meat, chocolate, eggs and more bread. The food tastes great and we feel healthier already.

We also spent Saturday watching Live Earth. Please visit their website and find out what you can do to help stop Global Warming.