Almost three years ago my wife and I halved our meat consumption. We did that by having one week of regular eating and then one week where we don’t eat meat. The weeks we do eat meat we don’t eat a crazy amount of it – just what we used to eat before – maybe two to three times a week. Plus leftovers.
Sometime in the last two years we started buying a lot of our food from something called the Good Food Club which is food that has been ethically sourced from local farmers – some of it is a little more expensive but we know that we are supporting local and therefore it feels like a good choice and so we do that.
Then when it comes to Green products that are organic or environment friendly, or both, we have a number of those that we invest in, in terms of soaps and cleaning liquids and more.
But in each of these areas there is always more that can be done.
Good choices can be expensive
What we have discovered as we have tried to live well, is that you can always do better. Once we started looking at our meat there was our overall food to look at. Once we had made steps there, there were cleaning products. Then there was the environment. Recycling. Saving water. The list goes on.
The moment you think you might have got a grip on all the right things you need to do, someone asks about that cheap t-shirt you are wearing with a ‘made in China’ label hidden somewhere in the back. You grow a conscience about eating at Spur because of the whole Indian vibe which you know makes your American friends who visit very uncomfortable. So you start boycotting restaurants and avoiding certain types of clothing.
It can become terribly overwhelming. Paralysing in fact. You very likely won’t get it all right all of the time. But that shouldn’t stop you from getting any of it right.
There was a time when we ate X amount of meat. Now we eat half of that. Will there be a time when we eat no meat at all? Possibly. And we will continue to have conversations with our vegetarian and vegan friends and learn new and exciting recipes and maybe lean towards that, but for now half X is a great step.
And so on in all the other areas.
The journey of a thousand miles
When you can’t make all the choices, start by making some.
That is the best way to get past the feeling of being overwhelmed – start by intentionally taking one step that you can make – one change, one new thing or one less of a bad thing. And then add to it.
That is how we find ourselves in the place we are now (which could still be better but is a lot better than where we were three years ago) and we continue to have sometimes difficult conversations and challenge ourselves to be better and try new things out. And it works.
Let us know some of the choices you have intentionally made in some of these areas, in the comments below.