Yet another month of makings changes for the better, pat yourself on the back!

• 1 – Run your feet through the grass
• 2 – Learn something about another religion
• 3 – Consider glass food storage over plastic
• 4 – Safe toothpaste
• 5 – Ignore cleaning, do something meaningful
• 6 – Use rechargeable batteries
• 7 – 15 things you have accomplished
• 9 – 10 things you still want to do in your life
• 10 – Buy in bulk
• 11 – Dispose of batteries properly
• 12 – Clean filter in your dryer
• 13 – Drive below 60 mph
• 14 – Donate to cancer
• 15 – Empty your car to improve fuel efficiency
• 16 – Give props to a dad
• 18 – Charge cell b/f bed, unplug phone and charger overnight
• 21 – Share or donate magazines
• 22 – Do not buy anything with plastic
• 23 – Make a new friend
• 24 – Use reusable bags
• 25 – Go without a shower
• 26 – Avoid all GMO soy
• 28 – Opt No for receipts or have them emailed
• 29 – Open communication, if you need to say something, say it

There is no shortage of automated receipt systems out there, banks, gas stations, retail outlets.  When you are asked whether you want a receipt or not, opt for NO.  Save yourself more clutter in your life and hold onto your electronic records instead, without the paper.  While recently in Office Depot, I found they now have the option to send your store receipt to your email address, as do many if not most ATM machines.  If you really need your receipts, you can always print them out as necessary.  In the meantime, save a birdie a tree and go paperless.

So many of us bottle up thoughts and emotions that need to be communicated.  Mind you though, have it come from a good place, not a resentful or judgmental one.  We are all human, and while we cannot predict how someone will react, if you go into discussion with true sincerity, non-judgement, an open mind and an understanding there are two sides to every story, you should be off to a good start.

Avoid building up layers of stress in your life for things that may be cleared up through communication. Preferably with face to face dialogue rather than texting :).

Good luck on this on!

Below is a rerun on this topic from OneChangeDaily on March 20th regarding GMO corn….

GMO’s are rampant in our US food system.  GMO stands for ‘genetically modified  organisms’ and remain very controversial.  They are plants or animals created through genetic engineering, merging DNA from different species, creating unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and viral genes than cannot occur in nature or traditional crossbreeding.  For example, in traditional breeding you could breed a pig with another pig to get a new variety, or the same with an apple and a pear.  With genetic engineering, scientists can “breach species barriers set by nature” such as splicing fish genes into tomatoes, which they have done.

The concerns of GMO’s are associated with health problems, environmental damage and violations of farmer’s and consumer’s rights, and there is no shortage of information discussing all of these topics.

While they are in an overwhelming number of our foods in the US, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on production and sale of GMO’s, in more than 40 countries around the world including Australia, Japan and all of the countries in the European Union. There is no legally required labeling for GMO’s, so you will have to do some reading and investigation of your food.  According to the Grocery Manufacturing Association, 70% of items in US food stores contain GMO’s.  Whole Foods just announced two days ago that they will be requiring the labeling of genetically engineered foods on all products sold in the company’s 339 stores within five years. The most common GMO’s are corn, soy and canola oil.  Some good news, you may be surprised to know that currently no North American wheat is genetically modified.

…your best bet is to eat only whole foods or ones that are specifically labeled that they containn No GMO’s.

Okay, if absolutely necessary (and you know who you are), you may not be able to make this change today.  However, if you have not overly exerted yourself to a stench, take a day off, do a European shower and save some water and time.  Who knows, you might like it!

Imagine if every person skipped one shower a week… 25 gal (avg water used for a 10 min shower) x 52 (one shower per week in a year) x 316 million people = 410 billions gallons saved in a year :).

Not only will you look chic, but you’ll be helping to save the planet from using more plastic bags.

A favorite mommy friend of mine reminded me of this fantastic idea (for kids and big people too), with some great reviews on a few she has tried…

Green Sprouts – waterproof, durable and easy to clean, PVC free, but smell like plastic when you get them.

Lunchskins – waterproof, wash by hand or washing machine, strong velcro seal, great size and you can write a message on the bag, but more pricey.

Itsy Ritzy – easy to clean, cotton exterior so you can hand wash or machine wash, good size, easy to zip open, but the cotton exterior dirties easily.

I personally have some from Pouch Pals that work nicely :).

Google the food bags, or you can find them on Reuseit.com, Amazon.com, Etsy.com or Vine.com to name a few.

Friends enrich our lives in countless ways.  You may have heard that a friend may be for a reason, a season or a lifetime… that’s the best part, you never know what is in the package, so welcome a new found friend into your life, for whatever reason.  Imagine if you never gave ice cream a chance the first time you tried it… the years of missing a delicious treat.  Friends are quite the same, imagine if you never took that first moment to meet a special someone in your life.

You can start by just saying ‘hello’ to someone new, you never know the treasure you may find.

This could be a tough one as so many things are packaged in plastic, let alone, made of it.  Today, make an effort to avoid buying anything with plastic.  It helps remind us how prevalent it is in our culture… and the efforts we may want to make to lessen our dependency on it.

More than 2 billion books, 350 million magazines, and 24 billion newspapers are published each year, according to the EPA.   There is inconceivable importance for the transmittal of information and stories and the need to have this industry survive, but in keeping sustainability in mind, printed paper is unquestionably taxing on our environment.

Find a few friends or group to which you may belong and consider swapping your magazines and books (i.e. friends, neighbors, school parents, book clubs, etc).  The library is also always a great alternative to obtain and reuse printed material.

I can’t even imagine how many people plug in their cell phones just before turning in to bed, to leave it to charge overnight (including me, ugh!).  Imagine the energy saved in the world if everyone unplugged their cell phone as soon as it is charged, take the charger out of the electric socket, and then turned your cell phone off overnight.  Seems somewhat small for one person, but multiply that by even a fraction of the 300+ million mobile phone subscribers in the US alone, and a difference it could make.