My Journey to a More Sustainable Life

About 10 months ago we made the transition to a vegan diet. (More on that here.) We did this primarily for health reasons and I have loved every minute of it with no intentions of ever going back. Since making this transition for health, it has been also unavoidable to learn more and more of the ethical and environmental impacts being vegan has. It takes about 3 times as much water to feed a meat eater than it does a vegan, livestock are the highest producers of pollution, and heart disease, cancer, and diabetes rates are all lower in plant based dieters to name a few impacts. Basically, eating a diet based in animal products is not a sustainable life for our health and for the world we live in.

Another aspect that I’ve learned about recently that hit me kind of hard is the fashion industry. I love to shop, and I love to shop good deals and low prices. But I’ve learned how little the people making these cheap clothing pieces are getting paid and how bad their working conditions are, and it’s changing the way I view shopping and clothing. I had already been in the clean out kick since pregnancy with a desire to only have pieces that I really love, but now even more so. I’m really thinking and looking at quality over quantity. Also – these cheap clothing pieces are filled with chemicals and pesticides, and they are filling our landfills at alarming rates as people cycle through their cheap clothing at rapid rates.

Additionally, I’ve been transitioning everything over to nontoxic products. It’s crazy how many chemicals that are so harmful to us are in products we use everyday like our skin, hair, and beauty products, cleaning products, and even our clothing. Our skin is our biggest organ so how can I not be more conscious of what I put on it, especially when I’ve become more concerned with what I put in it.

It seems like cancer and other diseases have become so much more prevalent, and I’m not saying in anyway that I know what’s causing it because I’m definitely not an expert, but I can’t help but wonder about all of the chemicals in everything now as we as a society seem to be focused big time on fast production, low cost consumerism.

Lastly, our planet. I’ve never been one to really think about environmental stuff or to be concerned with saving the earth or being eco friendly, but the more I think about it now with having my two boys, I’m realizing it matters. We’ve done so much damage just in the last 60 years that it’s hard to think about what it will be like 60 years from now because it seems like we are on an even faster track of destruction now. I want a world for my boys to live in and for my future grandkids as well.