by kate |
Have you ever felt like you were almost at a stopping point in your life? Like your days just melt together and then you wake up to realize you are another year older? I hope you haven’t had this feeling, but most of us have at one point or another – it like adult growing pains.
I recently had this experience, and it occurred to me that I just may need to do something a little radical to break the spell. What I chose to do was an all-natural detox, this was the Spring Slim Down Detox, courtesy of Laurel from GTB’s favorite blog: Laurel On Health Food.
It totally worked…in every aspect I was looking for. By providing myself with the 7 day challenge to eat completely different than my normal diet I proved to myself that I have the power to make a difference. In the instance of an all-natural detox, the outcome provided benefits to myself:
- Weight loss
- Mental Clarity
- Clearer skin
- Improved attitude (also a benefit to my friends & family)
- Some new breakfast & lunch options to continue with…
Last night I watched No Impact Man, a documentary about a family who decided to challenge themselves to create zero impact on our world for a year! That is 365 days people, my challenge was one person, benefiting one person, for 7 days. The Beavan Family was challenging three people, benefiting thousands if not millions, for 365 days. They win. Hands down. 
Colin Beavan created this challenge as a way to create awareness. Granted, they went to the extreme by eliminating all forms of carbon producing transportation, including elevators, as well as eliminating dispoable toilet paper from their daily use (it really does affect our tree population), and all forms of electricity – which eventually converted to the use of a solar panel, but this family grew closer and changed their way of thinking during this experiment.
That is my favorite part. Through living this way, by not adding any waste & contributing to the good in the world, they impacted so many people and probably had at least 100 people who saw their media coverage commit to making a change they could live with to help our environment – so, in my opinion, No Impact Man should have been called: Impact Thousands of People -Man!
My other favorite part is that they discovered it wasn’t easy, but that they enjoyed their time along the way. People gave the family some pretty tough critiques, but I think that is only because those with the criticism hadn’t had their minds open yet to the importance of the experiment.
Sure, it was radical, but in the end, the family decided on a few key things they could commit to doing on a regular basis, and it will make a change to our Earth. It will. Seems to me they have the GTB philosophy down to a pat, just making the efforts to get their arms around the tree.
I would strongly recommend you consider giving yourself an eco-conscious challenge for the summer. Consider biking to the farmer’s market each week or volunteering with your favorite non-profit. Maybe even just carrying a reusable bag is something that will work for your life, but see what you can do within your limits to help contribute to the preservation of our world. Get those arms around the tree.
P.S. They did take toilet paper back into their lives.
Brighter Planet
We Can Solve It
Laurel Health Coaching
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I love that we can make such big changes in our bodies by just putting forth a little effort. Makes me wonder why we don’t do it all the time!
This covers all the bases = saves you money, helps the environment, helps your health, makes you feel better, it’s so easy to do and it costs less than $50.00; Save money and the Earth and be clean at the same time! Add Bathroom Bidet Sprayers to all your bathrooms. I think Dr. Oz on Oprah said it best: “if you had pee or poop on your hand, you wouldn’t wipe it off with paper, would you? You’d wash it off” Available at http://www.bathroomsprayers.com with these you won’t even need toilet paper any more, just a towel to dry off! Don’t worry, you can still leave some out for guests and can even make it the soft stuff without feeling guilty. It’s cheap and can be installed without a plumber; and runs off the same water line to your toilet. You’ll probably pay for it in a few months of toilet paper savings. As for water use a drought is always a concern and must be dealt with prudently but remember the water use of industrial users far exceeds the water use of household users and in the case of toilet paper manufacture it is huge. The pollution and significant power use from that manufacturing process also contributes to global warming so switching to a hand bidet sprayer and lowering your toilet paper use is very green in multiple ways.
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