New Year Resolutions 2015
Looking back at 2014, I can safely say that it was a great year personally. Hopefully yours was too.
It’s that time of year where we look forward to 2015 and see how we can change ourselves for the better.
Last year, we as a family committed to simplifying our diet, influenced by wanting to set a good example to our baby, and stuck to it throughout the year. The plan was to only have natural food in our house, additive free. On the rare occasion we were to eat out, it didn’t really matter; moderation is key and as 99% of the time we were to eat naturally, treats were okay.
It wasn’t something we dived into head first, we gradually got more and more into it. It was hard at first, not knowing what to cook. It was difficult to plan meals out as we had to research which ingredients we could find without any additives in. Supermarket trips took hours rather than minutes, reading the back of diced tomato tins to discover acidity regulators or the likes. Once it did get easier we began looking for meat without any nasties in. It’s still a work in progress, but we are delighted about where we are. My wife used to suffer from a lot of headaches but hasn’t had one since the change in diet. She’s also dropped two sizes in clothes, without really trying or going hungry. We’ve probably eaten out once a month.
It isn’t Paleo or Atkins or anything that can really be pigeon holed, we just eat the things we feel are right for us, which are free of crap.
Where to go this year? After reading an article this morning it’s pretty clear.
The Telegraph published a paper which mentioned that 112 Empire State Building’s worth of natural resources are used each day to maintain the growth of consumerism and the ‘greed culture’. Now, I’m no scientist but that does sound like an awful lot, and it is only getting worse.
We know that too much reusable stuff is thrown away, it’s just too convenient to replace than to reuse, and that feeling of buying something new is a buzz we often crave. Maybe the tide is turning; upcycling has become pretty popular in the last few years.
We are to be the change we wish to see in the world, and I’m making the effort in 2015 to further reduce my consumerist footprint.
My 2015 resolution is to buy, wherever possible pre-owned stuff. Or, ethically produced products if not feasible to source second hand.
I’m committing to not buying anything new unless I have to, and then I’ll only go for ethically produced stuff. eBay, Gumtree and Craigslist are to be my best friends, albeit only when I truly need something. I’ll try to avoid the carbon footprint of postage as much as possible by trying to source locally too.
The path that this will take is a little unclear at the moment, but I’ll keep you all updated on how it is going.
What are you looking at for 2015?