Ok Peeps, we have a new challenge to do!  This one is called the Responsible Consumption Month, and it will start tomorrow, April 11, and run until May 9th.  May 9th is the magical day of my half marathon.  I am not eating meat until that day, so this seems like something good to add on. Plus, it is exactly four weeks.

Here are the guidelines from their site.  My comments are in pink.

1. Daily mindfulness meditation session of whatever length feels available and good to do.

You can end your practice with a few minutes of contemplative meditation practice, using the words “There is enough.” If you are not familiar with contemplative (ie directed thinking) meditation practice, there are good simple instructions in the book “Turning the Mind into an Ally” by Sakyong Mipham. Yeah, I’m not going to do this.  I will “meditate” while I run.

2. Limiting Waste in the following areas:

-plastic bags
-coffee cups I don’t drink coffee, but I won’t take any throw-away cups of any kind
-napkins
-energy, lights, air conditioning, cell phone charging, computers Uh, I’m still going to charge my cell phone. But I’ll be better at unplugging things while I’m not using them.  At Home Depot, do they sell those on/off switches like they have in England?
-Exploring Composting - resources available on the waste resources page We already compost, but I’ll be sure to try harder.

3. Travel

-utilizing public transportation, ride shares I can look into the  bus in Fitchburg, but I’ve heard it isn’t that reliable.
-walking, biking whenever possible I already do this.  If it’s in walking distance, and it’s not raining, I’m most definitely walking there.
-planning ahead to make less trips in the car (if you have one) I really want to get rid of my car.  I think my mom and I could share a car, because neither of us works full time.  Plus, I can walk to class.

4. Food

-buy local as much as possible  I’m not sure how reasonable this is, because it’s April and nothing is growing in Mass.  But I promise I will STOP buying things that aren’t from the USA.
-buy food with as little excess packaging as possible
-try to eat less meat This is already part of my plan.

5. General

-limiting general purchasing and consumption of new products Already doing this to save money.
-trying to use second hand stores, library, Craig’s list, freecycle.com, downloading music and movies… Libraries are awesome.  I also use Bit Torrents.

6. Personal

-find something personal that you would like to add to your month. This could be working with the mental states that arise around a particular vice or low-level addiction that you would like to practice freeing yourself from. For example, in NYC, one community member is giving up cigarettes, one is giving up coffee, and one is giving up sugar all together!!! I know that I said I would give up diet soda, but I haven’t yet.  Blah. I will.  I have one more Diet Pepsi Max left, and I will drink that, and be done with it.

7. Keeping a Journal and Sharing Your Experience

Share your experience with our community online! You can go to our 24-hour diary page and share everything you have consumed in a 24 hour period, Post photos to our Flickr group, and discuss general topics in our general discussion thread. This will create an amazing resource of shared experience that everyone can benefit from. I have a blog.

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Need help with having less waste?  Look into these:

Drink bottle : mason jar, canteen, what have you, but try to avoid plastic since they are suspected of leaching chemicals and are generally less environmentally friendly
- Container for food/left-overs: tiffin box, tupperware, fabric wrappers
- Shopping bag: nylon, canvas, string bags I already use these.  My Chico Bags are awesome.
- Chopsticks, silverware: bamboo and eco-plastics I need to get good silverware to carry with me, and to have a cool carrying case for them.
- Cloth napkin I already bring these with me for lunch and in my purse.  Cloth napkins are awesome.  I would love to have a big awesome purse, and also carry around a hand towel.

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Does anyone have any more tips that I can use?

Who’s in?