Beverages

Lately we've been on this big self improvement kick - getting our finances in order, doing things that are better for the environment, and now we're working on improving our health.  I've been going on 1-3 mile walks/jogs a few times per week for the past couple of weeks.  We have a 5k that I found on Groupon that both of us will be running with Mom in August.  Another thing we've been pondering over is our reliance on plastic - after watching "Tapped" on Netflix, we cut out bottled water in our lives.  And I've been cost comparing to replace all of our tupperware and gladware with Pyrex or other brands of glass storage containers.  BPA and other harmful chemicals can leach into your food and drink when stored and microwaved in plastic, and plastic is recycled more infrequently than other materials.

Our next step away from plastic is getting milk and juice in the cardboard half gallon containers.  These can also be recycled and won't leech bad things into our drinks.  I also wanted to move to organic milk, because it contains  hormones and pesticides that are making immediate impacts on people.  There are plenty of foods that have these sorts of things in them, but we're taking baby steps here.  The half gallon of organic milk cost the same as a gallon of regular milk ($3.50), so we opted for Walmart brand organic soy milk ($2.50).  Future steps will involve switching to friendlier meats (organic, grass fed, free range - I've still got research to do there) and organic fruits and veggies.

We also got Mott's vegetable juice to boost our veggie servings (yes, in plastic, I don't know that it is realistic for us to eliminate plastic all together), and Eric got some soda (which I have successfully given up!  No more caffeine headaches!).

Day 324: Bottled Water

Tonight Eric and I wanted to watch a movie that neither of us were terribly interested in as background noise to our homework and regular playing on the computer.  We have a ton of documentaries lined up on Netflix, and decided to watch "Tapped" - a documentary about the bottled water industry.  I've got far too much to say about the movie, so instead of typing it all out, I'll post a review and hope you will all watch the movie as soon as you get a chance!

The rest of the night we took care of business at home - laundry and graduation announcements.

"Tapped, a new documentary about the bottled water industry from director Stephanie Soechtig and the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car?, is a pretty damning look at how consumers have been tricked into spending too much money on water packaged in plastic and quite often not as clean as what's available from the faucet.

I knew bottled water sucks, but I didn't know it sucks this much. Not only is it a clear waste of resources (only 20 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States are recycled, and far too many of the rest probably end up in the Pacific Garbage Patch), it's an incredible waste of money for consumers, who pay more than the price of gasoline for water that's marketed as "pure," but in reality is largely unregulated, full of harmful toxins like BPA, and far less safe for drinking than free tap water. (In fact, 40 percent of the time, bottled water is nothing but municipal tap water, freed from the government oversight that keeps it safe.)

Tapped, which began a one-week run at the IFC Center in New York on Friday, traces the evolution of bottled water from its hoity-toity Perrier days to its present ubiquity, and succeeds at making the industry reps look like total jerks. A few too many mid-interview cutaways to Soechtig looking concerned came off as a little journalistically self-important, but Tapped does a solid job of covering every aspect of this damaging industry and inspiring more outrage than despair. It features interviews with the likes of Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin and Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), not to mention some footage of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) tearing into an FDA rep at a government hearing.

I will never look at bottled water with anything less than loathing from now on.

Watch the trailer:" ~ Claire Thompson, grist.org

Our collection of reuseable bottles and travel cups - we are definitely through with supporting the bottled water industry.

My second round of line dried clothes!

 Eric finishing up his graduation announcements.

It was a really hot day and we don't have our air conditioner turned on yet, so I cooled Mystic down with an ice pack.

As soon as Eric stepped on the chair to adjust the fan settings, Mystic was immediately laying on his feet.

Ta-Da!

Day 321: O'Reilly & Line Drying!

Oh, Friday!  You are so good to us!  I'll let the pictures do the talking today!

Eric's first day at O'Reilly went well.  He's a little overwhelmed at how much there is to remember, but confident that he'll catch on quickly.

I got to go see little miss Charlotte and Katie on Mass Street for some 3 Spoons Frozen Yogurt.  The guy working misunderstood my punch card and accidentally gave us both yogurts for free instead of "buy one, get the last one free".  Yea!

I spent $1 on nylon clothesline, and $1.50 on clothes pins.  Now I can save electricity and money by line drying our clothes!

My first time line drying!  Lesson learned?  Wear sandals, socks are a bitch and take too many clothes pins! 

We went on another walk/roller blade ride tonight.  Eric decided to take on this "sweet jump" behind the grocery store. 

I had to make him do it three times to come this close to an action shot, haha! 

We watched the movie "Into The Wild" tonight, which was a really good movie about a guy who gives up on our material life and goes to live wherever he pleases, ultimately ending up in Alaska.  We paused the movie halfway through to go on a walk, and landed on this hilarious still frame!

Day 319: Living A Better Life

The first thing I'll say here is - Eric and I aren't perfect and we're not trying to be.  Also, we're not looking to make anyone else change but ourselves.

With my recent kick of nonfiction books, I've read A Year Without "Made in China" by Sarah Bongiorni, 365 Ways to Save Gas by Ronald M. Weiers, PhD, Do One Green Thing by Mindy Pennybacker, and No Impact Man by Colin Beavan.  Eric and I have already made a lot of "green" changes in our lives - using fewer lights, washing laundry with cold water, no heat/air unless REALLY needed, etc.  Recently we've been making a few more changes.

Unfortunately, walking/biking to work isn't an option for us because it's more than ten miles of highway to get to work.  But I am looking at finding someone to carpool with next fall, and Eric and I will be carpooling for the summer while we both work in Olathe.  We buy a lot of our food in bulk to save us money, and to save the waste in packaging materials.  We are planning on (at least part/most of the time) cloth diapering our future kids to save on plastic being thrown into the landfill.  We drink purified tap water instead of bottled water.  And I'm working on bringing home more fresh fruits and vegetables.

Basically, we're working toward making better choices one step at a time.  We're no environmentalists, and we still do a lot of things that are bad for our world.  But we're doing a better job at being conscious about our decisions and the impacts they have.  Later this week I'm planning on setting up a clothesline on our porch and giving our dryer a break for the summer.  Wish us luck!

I couldn't come up with anything better, so here's our purified water pitcher!  Ooooo, ahhhhh....