The Beginning

After losing about 20-25 lbs (depending on what day you weigh me) last year after my freshman year of college I became inspired. I lost weight through the South Beach Diet and counting my calories- but neither of those really stuck with me. What I really learned from losing weight was I wasn't taking care of myself properly. I learned how to make food that was good for me and most importantly to eat enough of it that I was full- not too much so I was in a food coma, not too little to induce starvation. From SBD(South Beach Diet) I learned how to cut processed foods out of my life, and I felt SO much better because of it! Well now I am hoping some other life changes, to an even more healthier lifestyle. A lifestyle that has little negative impact on my health, my bank account, and the environment.

Since losing weight I have become totally obsessed with healthy foods and healthy cooking. I have been labeled as an "outdoorsy" girl my entire life and thought of myself as an environmentalist. Yet I have always come up with excuses of why I can't have less impact on the environment. My two favorite: "I'm too busy" and "I live in an apartment". Finally my spending habits are having a very large negative impact on both my health and the environment. They affect my health because everytime I buy something new I stress about the purchase and have massive guilt over it. My environment only suffers from my purchases as the materials to make it and the amoung fuel used to make it have negative impacts. So here's to going green on my entire life!

I would like to say thank you to the documentary No Impact Man for the MASSIVE amounts of inspirations among many other documentaries such as :
Capitalism: A Love Story
180 Degrees South
Meat The Truth
Killer At Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat

I would also like to thank some incredible bloggers for their words of wisdom, inspiration and copious amounts of information:
Kath Eats
Carrots 'n' Cake
The Front Burner
Small Bites

If you are looking for inspiration to go greener on your life and health any of these documentaries/blogs will help!

Next I’ll let you know that I am no expert on going green or eating healthy and this will be a blog about learning, not being perfect since I am far from it! As I am a college student living in an apartment with 3 roommates in a large city sometimes being completely sustainable or healthy is challenging. Time and space are sparse in my life. But this blog will be about being realistic, not extreme. I want to make changes that most everyone would be able to make and sustain, no matter their living situation. Without further ado here is my list:

Goals To Live A More Sustainable (in every aspect) Lifestyle
1. Compost

2. Buy NO NEW clothes
- Except underwear, socks, shoes, and the occasional pair of jeans- some things just don't work to buy used.
- If I ABSOLUTELY need something and cannot find it at a thrift store first then I may buy it new.

3. Walk/Bike/Bus FIRST
- Along with this NO elevators/escalators.

4. Buy LOCAL food not packaged and shipped food from the grocery (as much as possible)
- This means farmers markets and local food businesses first
-Work on my indoor garden (currently I have a basil, mint, and aloe plant along with some decorative plants)
-REDUCE all animal product consumption- Meat, Eggs and Dairy (look forward to a blog post about this soon)
-NO packaged foods and NO plastic bags at the grocery store this includes no more disposable containers such as coffee cups, to go boxes and fast food wrappers.
- No fast food, horrible for me and the environment.
-Finally on food- cook more! Experiment with new foods, recipes and as always keep learning.

5. Learn to make my own soap (from Mom!), hair styling products, and cleaning products.

6. NO more gum chewing
- Most people can chew gum and not have a huge environmental impact but I am an addict to chewing gum. So this is me quitting cold turkey and saying goodbye to dumping out handfuls of trident wrappers weekly from my backpack/purse into the trash where they will sit in a landfill for the next million years.

Now the main focus of the blog will be the “Low Impact” part of the title- so my struggles and triumphs of going greener. But the “Fashionista” part applies to my addiction to fashion that will turn from designer/brand names to what I can dig up at thrift store. As well as this, although I am no expert, I will post songs, recipes,and art that I love! Hopefully I will also be making some art that I am proud enough of to post :)

Finally here are my personal goals/promises for the blog:

1. Be honest. About feelings, experiences, and what does and does not work in my life.
2. Update blog 3-5 times a week.
3. Make art to post on the blog!
4. Improve my writing…mainly my poor comma use and run-on sentences (sorry readers!)
5. This is not a quest for perfection. And as always rules/guidelines are meant to be broken :)

Hope you enjoy what ensues! And hopefully you might be inspired to make even the smallest change in your own lifestyle to make it more sustainable. Hopefully by first saving my health and money more I can begin to help save the earth and start reversing the damage of global warming and BP oil spills :)

Think globally act locally!

Do you have any goals to be more sustainable towards the environment, your health, or your finances? Is there one small change you can make today to become more sustainable?