Because March 1st was the wrap-up of the 28 Day Real Food Challenge, I neglected to post about my One Small Change for March. But first, a quick update on my January and February changes.
January – Goodbye, Dishwasher
This was going really well until my sink broke. You know what’s hard to do with a broken sink? Wash dishes. I figured that washing dishes in the bathroom sink or bathtub would most likely defeat the purpose, so I’m back to using my dishwasher. However, my water bill reflected a fairly substantial decrease in water usage, so that’s a good thing.
February – 28 Day Real Food Challenge
I haven’t yet found a way to articulate how this challenge impacted my life. In short, this experience was simply phenomenal, and I am so glad that I participated. Not only was it beneficial from the standpoint of environmental impact, but I never anticipated the overwhelmingly positive effect it would have on my health. That is a topic for another time, but I will certainly be continuing with this “small” change in some capacity.
And for March…
I’m giving up horses. This probably seems like an odd one, so let me explain.
For the past six months, I have shared a lease of several horses who live in a pasture 20 miles away from my house. It was a self-care lease, which meant that I had to drive to the pasture on a daily basis to feed them, even on days I wasn’t planning on riding. As is the case in many rural areas, public transportation was not an option.
The fact of the matter is that I can cut my gas usage by almost 3/4 just by giving up the horses. At this point, I honestly can’t justify driving that much for a recreational activity, when there are other perfectly reasonable alternative activities or the possibility of finding a horse lease within biking distance.
Which brings me to the real change for March. Beginning now, I will be closely examining the radius of my daily life and will start factoring transportation impact into my choices in a much bigger way than ever before. This will be the first step in laying the foundation for what I hope will be an increasingly car-free life.
To be honest, I’m not sure how this one is going to go. I’ll definitely keep you posted.
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I will be watching for that update on how the 28 day challenge improved your health. I have also experienced a positive change in health from the challenge, and have also not yet been fully able to articulate the ways my kids and I have been affected. I was shocked to realize that my breathing improved noticeably- because I previously had no idea I had any breathing trouble! I have thought a lot about what other unnoticed symptoms have crept into my life as a result of poor diet. It will be interesting to find out as I continue on this path.
Maggie – I’m so glad to hear someone else shared my experience with the challenge. I was feeling crazy for not being able to explain it! Like you, I experienced improvements with issues I didn’t even know I had. Incredible.
It’s always interesting to see someone who is willing to give up much of their driving, especially in a “car culture” like the US. Sometimes, you just can’t get away w/out driving. But, as you’ve pointed out, you can take a step back and see what you can do to decrease your driving. Please, keep us posted and let us know it goes.
I can’t wait to hear how this goes either!
Driving is such a tough one, since it’s so much a part of American life. Moving to San Francisco meant that I gave up my van; I simply was unwilling to pay the exorbitant costs in this state for license, registration, and gas. So, I got rid of it and bought a Zipcar subscription.
Now, the funny thing is that I’m using Zipcar even less than I ever expected. It’s great to have for a day trip to rural areas that are not served by public transit, but I discovered that I actually enjoy either walking or riding the bus to the grocer store or farmer’s market more than I like picking up a Zipcar to get food. Since I have to carry what I buy, I’m eating fresher food in healthier quantities.
Again, looking forward to see how reducing your carbon footprint by not driving as much goes.
What’s a Zipcar? Is that like a rental car subscription or something?
Hey Maggie,
A Zipcar is like a subscription car rental. We also have CityCarShare here, which is the same thing. The each have a fleet of cars, many of them hybrids, and you ‘rent’ them by the hour or day. The fees include gas, insurance, and mileage. They have lots all over the city, you reserve a car online, and then use a card to unlock/lock the car (only your card will get you into the car you reserved at the time of the res.
So, it’s pretty much shared ownership.
It’s been great. I can rent one for an hour to pick up groceries or a few days to go to Yosemite. My plan is $75/mo, which is less than the insurance I was paying before, not to mention fuel is included. For that, I usually do about 3-4 trips a month, which is actually all the driving I need here. So, I plan outings to be more efficient. The rate works out to be ~8/hr.
It’s also fun to pick up a Mini one time, then a Prius, or maybe a pickup if I need to go to Ikea or whatever.
Thanks for posting that, Criz! That’s pretty cool. I don’t know of anything like that in my area, but it’s a great idea.
Ooh! I didn’t realize you were car-free, although I probably should have. How do you handle it with the animals? That’s the main reason I can’t picture giving mine up completely. I think public transportation + bike could get me where I need to go, but I wouldn’t be able to take the pets anywhere without my car.
I actually got a great soft-sided fully mesh/canvas “crate” for Abby, so that none of her hair flies out of the car, and we use a ZipCar to get to the beach or park or whatever.
Although, mostly due to my working 40 hrs/wk again, we don’t have the time to get out like we used to. So, she deals with short walks on leash around the neighborhood.
To tell the truth, I’m still trying to sort out Abbycare – she’s just not getting the exercise that she used to get. There are lots of dog walkers around, but that got prohibitively expensive.
Re: zipcar–what a cool idea. I’d imagine it works especially well in large urban areas, and helps (or could help) cut down on parking congestion, as well as car-related costs. *sigh* I love the city I live in, but when it comes to decent public transportation or car-sharing ideas, it’s stuck in the dark ages.
I hate the car thing too. I have one guy in preschool and juggle working my home based business so I’m always rushing to get him there and then pick him up at the last minute, then another guy in Tball which we have to drive to since getting there is tight after he gets off the school bus and it ends right at 5 so we need to get home for dinner. I can’t wait until the kids are older and I dont schlepp them around. I try to minimize their activities so we aren’t driving all the time. I see my neighbors regularly have their kids in coop preschools, soccer, tball, gymnastics and are always driving the kids around here and there. I have to ask myself if that really benefits the kids or am I doing it just to keep up with what everyone else does. I wasn’t raised that way. I played outside with rocks and sticks (and a bb gun). The kid thing makes it so hard to reduce your carbon footprint sometimes!
It would definitely be a harder shift with kids. I remember how much my mom schlepped me around when I was little. It got better once I was able to use public transportation, but then worse when my schedule got so busy that it took too long to take the bus to my various activities!
I think you have a point there about kids and activities. As a high schooler, I was overscheduled, but by choice. Before that, I don’t know how much I really benefited from doing so many things.
I totally love the ZipCars! Unfortunately, they’re not available in Olympia, but I think I probably would have given up my car and used ZipCar in DC if it weren’t for the dogs. Fortunately, the bus system is pretty decent here – not quite like Boulder (where I grew up), but good enough. And it comes out to my house, and we live in the boonies!
I am so glad the Feb challenge had such an amazing impact on you. I am taking the Real Food Challenge over at Not Dabbling in Normal this month (sounds pretty similar). I love your March change! Feel free to stop by any time this month and let us know how it is going! http://1smallchangeblog.blogspot.com/
Thanks so much for the comment! I will definitely keep you guys posted on how it is going.
And thank you for the link to Not Dabbling in Normal. The post she has up currently – relative gluten and fiber in flours – is something I’ve been looking for over the past several weeks because I would really prefer to know whether my bread is going to be flat and strange before I bake it. Perfect!
Awesome…so glad you found it useful. I hope you are having an awesome March so far!
Make sure to stop by the One Small Change blog to enter into our latest giveaway and see what the community is up to!
http://1smallchangeblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/giveaway-reusable-produce-bags.html
We also started a face book fan page which can be accessed from the blog!
Thanks!
Suzy