2009: The Year of Health!

I always make resolutions that I know I can keep. One year it was to not eat doughnuts anymore... I have probably had one or two doughnuts since making that maybe 5 years ago. I do little things, not like most people who swear to quit smoking, lose 100 lbs, or climb mt. everest. Last year Mark and I decided that we were going to start supporting local businesses and not eat at chain restaurants. This has gone very well for us, so well that we have each gained a few pounds.

This years goals will be small, but big at the same time:

1. Buy local produce- We're joining a Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) farm. For more info visit http://www.localharvest.org/csa/. Its about $200 for a 2 person share and we work directly with a local farm to basically buy their crops in advance. The farmer has people that support them, and we have no middle man so our prices are generally lower- around $8-12 a month. We get all of our veggies fresh from the farm, organic, clean, and direct from the grower. That is huge, and that is how most other people on earth eat, so it will be good for the soul as well.

2. Throw away less. Even recycling is bad for the environment, to a degree. If you buy plastic water bottles and just recycle them, then you ignore the fact that you are drinking purfied tap water and using bottles with harmful substances in them when you could just be refilling a nalgene with a brita filter. We are going to start baking our own bread from whole grains, I have already started making my own yogurt. We carry bags to the store to avoid using plastic, and we do a LOT of recycling. I am going to start a compost bin out back and a doggie septic tank, so we can naturally get rid of the poop. We're also going to buy bikes this spring and start riding our bikes when we do errands that are within a 5 mile radius of the house.

3. No more deep fried foods. This is the one that made Mark cringe. He LOVES french fries. We decided to meet in the middle and one day a week he can eat whatever he wants. We did this for a while this summer- we ate at home and only ate out once a week and when we did eat out, we ate whatever we wanted!

4. Enhance our lifestyle. We're starting to realize that we're about a year and 8 months away from Mark being a doctor. We plan on opening a clinic for him in an area that we're going to be a part of the community. We want to have the appearance of professionalism, maturity and health. We're both going to be representing his clinic in public and we both have to give off those vibes. We're going to start practicing what we preach about health, wellness and overall life. We started wearing shoes that are good for the back, Ecco, Sofft, etc. We need to start doing healthy things that will help Mark- running, biking, races, etc. Also we need to drop the extra pounds. This can come off slowly... but if we want him to appeal to athletes, we need to look like the athletes we are!

So thats it for me at least... Hopefully this year will make us better people, who make a smaller carbon footprint on the earth, and start living a healthier lifestyle!