2011 Health and Happiness Resolutions from the Eco Chick Team!

African sun by Haley Sherif

Happy 2011 to the Eco Chick community! As we roll into our sixth year of publishing this little blog dedicated to all the fabulous green fashion and living ideas out there, I look back over thousands of posts (some of them quite controversial!) with a huge smile on my face. Thanks for reading, commenting, buying my book and supporting this amazing project; let’s all make 2011 the year of reaching joyfully towards our next goals! Here are some of what Eco Chick contributors will be working on….

Starre Vartan, author, publisher of Eco-Chick.com</strong

Starre’s Goals: 2010 was probably the most amazing year of my life to date. In terms of travel, adventure, romance, and pure challenge, I don’t know that I’ll ever have such a stretch of 365 days again. And I don’t want to! The past is behind me, and as wonderful as it was, it wasn’t perfect – nothing is! And greatness comes in parts, not lumps of discrete experiences. I move forward, hungry for more amazing life of a different sort.

My hopes for 2011 include more time at home (though I do have one jaunt scheduled for late Spring), focusing on writing and turning in my thesis so I can receive my MFA, and emptying my house slowly but surely; recycling, passing along, and getting rid of all the ‘things’ that are unnecessary in my life (I learned very late my family’s dictum about minimalism, or perhaps I was just being immature and rebellious).

I spent much of 2010 focusing on health, both physical and mental. After reaping the benefits of joining a mastermind group, I can confidently say that it was one of the best time investments I’ve ever made. I also worked with a personal trainer to learn how to challenge my body safely, and his lessons will be with me for the rest of my life, as valuable as any I learned in school. I’m stronger and healthier than I’ve ever been, despite getting older! I look forward to continuing on this path, and making ongoing improvements and tweaks to what I have begun.

I also continue on the vegetarian path I began almost 18 years ago now, and now that I’m not travelling, will have a bit more room to experiment in the kitchen; I’m planning on some yummy dinner parties to challenge what I think I can do as a cook.

And I’m extremely excited and looking forward to launching Eco Chick Escapes, which will be all about eco travel for women and is a spin-off of the original Eco Chick site that you’re reading now! Coming soon….

Haley Sherif, Contributing Writer</strong

Haley’s Vows: I wanted to write a list of vows in order to structures these resolutions of mine:

I vow to be kind to me. I vow to be kind to others. In that order otherwise the latter does not work.

I vow to be kind to the world. No matter how I do it, either with advice, substitution, or a little sacrifice like, to continue to use the moisturizer I love, but use a sustainable face-wash instead of one that hurts the environment.

I vow to continue to write, like I eat, but realize I can’t do it all the time and that is OK.

I vow to continue to read all the time and to understand what I read. Rather than unconscious read over words I do not know, find what the definitions are.

I vow to take me time and realize that me time is as essential (if not more so) as we time.

I vow to allow a lot of room for mistake and to not allow room for abuse about those mistakes, for without mistakes we do not learn.

I vow to forever love the friends in this life and realize that there love and care for me sometimes overwhelms, but facilitates me to be me.

I vow to take classes four times a month in whatever it is I want to do, and no less.

I vow to remember the above are vows and none of them are written in ink, which allows me to cross them out and alter them as needed.

I wanted to end with the last two lines of a traditional Navajo prayer to consider:

“Beauty is on every side/As I walk, I walk with Beauty.”

Kimberly Jordan Allen, Contributing Writer

Kim’s Commitments: 1. Continue buying local! I can get organic veggies, organic local goat products, organic meat (though I am vegan – my family eats some meat) and organic flowers/herbs within ten miles of my house.

2. Continue learning to crochet and knit to make more of my own duds.

3. Get composting more and fortify my bin outside from critters.

4. Harvest some of the wood on the land of our new home and mill it ourselves.

5. Heat our house with the stove only.

6. Teach my children more about recycling, composting, and the arbitrary nature of the delineation between us and garbage.

7. Meditate more – change comes from within, as Gandhi said “be the change you wish to see”.

8. Avoid utilizing medications, even over the counter ones, which end up in our water/ecosystem, as we as support the pharmaceutical industry.

9. Barter with my friends and neighbors! A friend came over yesterday to fall some dead trees and I am paying him in cookies, a nice dinner at our house, and a hunk of cheese.

10. Cook more for myself and my family

Alicia Lubowski-Jahn, Eco Art and Design Correspondent</strong

Alicia’s Intentions:
I am continuing to work on self-expression. In 2010, I came across the coaching company The Handel Group as well as the Anusara Yoga teacher Elena Brower.

Both the HG and Elena Brower have inspired me to strive for more honest and open communication as well as for greater presence and awareness.

Stephanie Rogers, Natural Beauty Correspondent</strong

Stephanie’s Plans: While I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, I do have a series of goals that I’ve been working on and plan to continue during 2011. One has already been a challenge: living with less stuff. I’ve gotten rid of over half of my possessions and I’m still not done. It’s such a relief to pare down to the essentials, and get rid of all the clutter that I’ve carried around “just in case”.

Why am I doing this? Partially because I’m going to be building my very own “tiny house on wheels”! Building should start by March or April, and I’m hoping the process will not only earn me lots of practical skills (as well as, in the end, a cute if incredibly small place to live) but more interaction with my community and time spent outdoors. I’m really excited about all of the change that will be coming into my life this year and ready to embrace it head-on.

Lindsay Brown, Contributing Writer</strong

Lindsay’s List: 1.) Be more adventurous with my vegan cooking. Cook/bake at least one new vegan recipe every week.

2.) Juice daily.

3.) Create time to make my own home-made products like lotions, cleansers, masks, deodorants, etc using natural ingredients and pure essential oils.

4.) Meditate every morning.

5.) Continue to challenge myself and do something out of my comfort zone daily. Every day is an adventure!