"Be the change you want to see in the world"

One of my many goals for this momentous year is to be less of a consumer - live the "reduce, re-use, recycle" catch-phrase(to be known as RRR). I've always been a bit of a greenie (ONE of the reasons for being vegetarian, although being a "bunny-hugger" is my biggest reason) - have recycled as much as possible for a long time- but I know there's a heck of a lot more I could do. A few months ago I started using Melaleuca products which are environmentally friendly cleaners etc etc- but I've rejoined SAFE lately, and found out that Melaleuca test on animals!!!That's blown it for them-so that's the end of buying their stuff!!! So I'll start buying www.ecostore.co.nz products from now on, plus start using some of the multitude of vinegar/baking soda hints that abound on the net for making homemade eco-friendly cleaners. You'd think I was a clean-freak with all of this talk about cleaners - definitely not - am more of a "live in the mess until it's really annoying me and then do a marathon effort" type of housekeeping here.Really MUST crack open my Flylady journal (www.flylady.net) I haven't learned how to do those link thingies yet and have to put the whole website address.

Clean green RRR efforts so far: - using the compost bin for all scraps; go back to using tinned catfood instead of pouches as the tins are 100% recyclable; plan to get a "no junk mail" sign for the letterbox to reduce the paper that comes into the house; aiming to buy in glass, not plastic from now on; have bought my latest pantry supplies at BinInn (www.bininn.co.nz) , and although you fill plastic bags, I have kept the bags to take back and refill next time. You can use refillable bottles there as well for vinegar, sauces etc, so will keep a few bottles out of the recycling to use. I've been wanting to use cloth bags instead of supermarket-type carrier bags, so have bought 2 dresses ($3 each from the op-shop) to make into bags - must keep to my refashion pledge and only reuse material, not buy it new. When I get my camera, I'll do some before and after pics. The dresses are truly hideous shift dresses, homesewn from materials that have dogs printed all over them. Great carrier bag material - but DRESSES???!!! Also bought a remnant of leftover material from another opshop to make a curtain for my bedroom ($1.50), and a tablecloth/runner thingy ($2) to recover the manky looking cushions on the very old cane chairs that I've previously bought for my front porch. But now I need to find some stretchy curtain wire stuff for the curtain - blast it my sister has recently thrown some away. I want to reuse some 2nd hand stuff, so will check out SaveMart for that. Also found another shift dress at the first op shop (whoever the owner is, she's been a busy girl) ($3) and will cut it down for a skirt. I can feel the warm glow of smugness washing over me!

Feeling VERY motivated to make changes- woohooo!!!

On another positive note - weighed in last Monday and lost another 2.65kgs - total 8.6kgs in the last 5 weeks - yippee! In 2 days time I weigh in again (not expecting much after such a good loss at my last weigh-in) and I will have been V-free for 7 weeks and saved approximarely $140 by not buying the sugar-laden, caffeine-loaded green cans! I've never drunk so much water before, so that has to be good for my health and help keep the wrinkles at bay (no sign of the wrinkles lessening so far - but I'm ever hopeful, lol)