*Please update your bookmarks to my new website: Hi friends! Happy EARTH DAY!! 
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What do you all do to go GREEN?
Here are a couple of things that I’ve been doing lately:
- Bring my own reusable bags to the grocery store
- Switched over to natural cleaning products
- Eat a mostly plant-based diet
- Buy organic and local as much as possible
- Walk to the grocery store and mall instead of driving (I’m lucky that I live close enough to do this!)
I find all of these things very easy to do, and feel good knowing that I am doing a small part toward helping our planet. If everyone did a little something, I think we could all make a BIG DIFFERENCE!
And in honor of Earth Day, I decided to finally invest in some Glass Straws! I’ve been seeing them pop up all over the blog world lately, and since I use straws in my juices and smoothies almost daily, I figured it was time to take the plunge!
My timing was great, too! In honor of Earth Day, Glass Dharma is running a special on their straws– Buy 1 Get 1 Free! Click here to take advantage of this AWESOME deal! I can’t wait to get my new straws!!
Hopefully this will be one of the last times I have to use my cheap, plastic straws:
Yep, I had the SAME smoothie again for lunch!! I can’t help it! It’s just that good. 
For dinner last night, though, I did try to break out of my rut:
A new salad combo! I used a whole bag of mixed greens, topped with a sliced banana and a small handful of raisins, dressed with a simple mix of lemon juice, stevia and ginger. It was alright… but I was still craving my usual goat cheese salad! What can I say? I’m a creature of habit.
For dessert, I had some Raw Brownie Batter:
And I might have taken an extra dip into my Artisana Coconut Butter while making it…
Coconut butter might be one of my favorite things on the Planet!! I know this lady would agree.
I’ve been really good about keeping up with my food journal lately, and I’m so glad to hear that some of you have started journaling as well! I think keeping a food journal is a great way of monitoring how your diet may affect your cravings and mood. I don’t think it’s something anyone should keep up long term (you might drive yourself crazy!!) but I think it’s good for a period of time, to gain perspective.
I, for one, am having some MAJOR cravings lately, and I’m dying to know what is triggering them!! Here’s what my journal has looked like for the past couple of nights:
I’m having major cravings to binge, specifically on cookies– which is my favorite sweet of choice. What I’ve noted so far, is that these cravings come at night, almost immediately following my dinner– whether I’ve had dessert or not! Since I’ve only tracked a full 3 days, there’s really no way to know if I’m just having sugar withdrawal, or if it’s something I’m eating that is causing these cravings! I’m wondering if my body may be over-yeasted, and perhaps I should cut back on some of the fruit I’ve been eating…
You’ll notice in my “Thoughts” column last night, I thought about switching around my lunch and dinner meals– having my larger meal and lunch, and having a green smoothie for dinner instead. During my experiment with the CLEAN Program, I don’t remember having major cravings at night, and maybe it was having a smoothie for dinner that helped? Or less sugary fruits? Or perhaps it’s the time of day that triggers my craving, and has nothing to do with what I’m eating?
Like I said, I know I haven’t been using my journal long enough to REALLY figure out what’s going on, but I’m going to keep it up, and perhaps I’ll figure out what is triggering my cravings! I feel like I’m conducting a science experiment, which is funny because I hated science more than anything in school!! Go figure.
Okay, I’ve got to get back to work! Hope you all have an awesome Earth Day!!
Something to Try: Green Cleaning Recipes That Really Work!
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i love what you have been doing to help the planet and environment! i walk to work everyday and bring my own mug to coffee places instead of using plastic or paper cups. have a great day
I love your spreadsheet! I’m going to start doing that as well. I like the idea of tracking your cravings.
I have committed to bringing my bags to the grocery store, because that was something I neevveerr remembered to do. I feel good about it now, because when I look under the sink there aren’t any plastic bags at all!
i bring re-usable cloth bags to the grocery store, we recycle and instead of my kids bringing a plastic water bottle to school every day, they have water bottle that i wash every night for them.
you are so good with your journaling! i’m sure you will soon figure out what the cravings are about.
LOVE YOUR BLOG everything is SO delicious! happy earth day too!!!
We love coconut butter as well! Food journaling is great, we have learned a lot from ours. Keep it up!!!
I bring reusable bags and use a reusable water bottle every day. I also recycle and shut off lights when I leave the room. You’ll figure out what is triggering you, keep up the journaling
Good luck figuring out your cravings… maybe part of it could be the structure that something like the Clean Program provides makes it easier to not binge since your trigger foods are off the list of foods you can eat. It’s a tough balance controlling yourself around trigger foods when you’re the only one holding yourself accountable – I try to just think of something else when I think of a food I want to binge on and pretend I just can’t eat it. It doesn’t always work, but it could help.
I so need to check out glass straws!
I’m finding that I’m craving bread like mad.. today was a bit easier though. I hate that I have cravings that are so strong like that when I’m not even hungry. I never thought that fruit could be the cause of the cravings.. hmm.
Those glass straws are so cool! I’ve wanted some ever since I found out about them.