Monday Misc.

1. My heart rate monitor died, so I bought a new one. This one measures kcal burned. For some reason, I really like knowing this number, to see how high I can take it! I wore it when I went out for a run (2 miles, 181 kcal) and I wore it when I went out for a club ride yesterday. This is the first time I wore a heart rate monitor while cycling. We rode 29 miles and I burned 880 calories. After hearing that number, one of my cycling buddies felt justified in going home and eating anything she wanted. Dangerous. Very. Dangerous. Probably more important was that I discovered that my average heart rate was quite a bit lower than I would have guessed, which means I am getting my ass in shape. So far this season I have ridden about 550 miles, which really is not all that much, but it seems to be paying off. Yesterday’s ride also felt easy, like I could have ridden faster or longer.
   

2. I am still doing the little things to try to lessen my environmental impact. I don’t use a paper towel to dry my hands and I try not to use paper towels in the kitchen. I bought a body scrubber thingie that holds a bar of soap so I don’t have to use bath gels that come in plastic bottles. I try to use less of everything that comes in plastic bottles, and I am buying the biggest bottles I can find of all those things. I don’t turn on the hot water as often and I am trying to take shorter showers. I pack a cloth napkin in my lunch bag and a real fork. I keep a tote bag in the car so I can avoid plastic bags. I use only cold water in the washing machine and I try to run full loads as much as possible. I shopped at Mrs. Greens and bought grains and beans from the bulk bins. On Saturday I had to run some errands and I contemplated taking my bike, but ultimately I got in the car. I just didn’t have enough time to get everything done. But, maybe another time I will. DH and I went to a BBQ/party yesterday that less than a mile from our house and we walked! There are always people out walking, even though our neighborhood is not walking-friendly. I’m so used to seeing everything from a bike, it was actually quite pleasant to walk down the road for a change.
   

3. In my quest to get rid of stuff (7 Things Project) I joined my local Freecycle and I already freecycled 1 thing—an iTrip for an iPod Mini. My Mini died and I replaced it with a Nano, so I had no use for the iTrip. It has been promised to an autistic boy who loves music!

Big Foot

Over the last week, I have been thinking about my environmental footprint, and quite frankly, I feel like Big Foot. We live in the suburbs and have to drive everywhere. We have not 2 but 3 cars. Our house is not small, and heating and cooling the house requires big hunks of energy. We are very plugged in: 4 computers, 3 TVs, Tivo, Playstation, 3 iPods, 4 cell phones, you get the idea. We do make the effort to do somethings right: setback thermostats, CFLs everywhere, recycling as much as possible, again you get the idea. But the last few days I have really opened my eyes to the resources I consume without even thinking about it. Everything is disposable. I am finding I have to be incredibly vigilant to decrease my footprint-- it's not easy! But I am definitely putting more thought into consuming less resources. I have adopted the BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) philosophy. I am trying to think about combining errands so I don't have to drive as much. I'm a vegetarian. Every time I put a disposable container of any kind into the garbage I try to think of how I could have avoided using it. I am trying to use less of everything that comes in plastic containers so I don't have to buy them as often. I'm not ready for really big changes, but I am trying to make small changes that are easy to live with. I'm not sure how far I will go with this, but I would like to think that even small changes can add up.

Low Impact Lifestyle

I recently stumbled across 2 blogs that I found very thought provoking, both having to do with sustainable living /low impact lifestyles. The first, No Impact Man, is written by a man who has challenged himself to reduce his environmental impact to zero for 1 year through a series of serious lifestyle changes: no electricity, no car, not buying anything new, recycling, etc. The second, Living Plastic Free in 2007, is written by a woman who has pledged not to buy anything plastic for 1 year. Both blogs are fascinating reading, and of course I followed a whole bunch of links to other blogs and ended up spending a couple of hours reading about low impact living. So I am somewhat inspired to reduce my environmental footprint. Here is what I did today toward that goal:
1) I presented my own traveling coffee mug at the coffee cart this morning. I know, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but this simple act kept 1 styrofoam cup, 1 paper bag and a couple of coffee-stained napkins out of the trash pile.
2) And I have also decided to join Crunchy Chicken's Local Food Month Challenge which starts July 1. Here's the basic premise:

During the month of July you're going to increase your consumption of locally and sustainably grown food and decrease your consumption of imported and packaged food.

I don't think I will be making my own soymilk, but local produce is so abundant during the summer months that this should be a relatively easy way to get started. And with the kids GFTS, I look forward to preparing mostly vegetarian meals from fresh local foods.