Some Other Changes as Well

The no groceries for a year project has definitely led us to making changes other than just our food choices. For one thing - we've gotten pretty good at gardening as well as being resilient gardeners.

But other things have changed as well. Personal care items have made a pretty major shift. I phased out nearly all commercial shower products and have stopped dying my hair <GASP>. That was a hard one as I was dying it black - which I dearly loved. So now I have brown and gray roots. The chemicals in hair dye are just so harsh and many of them are carcinogenic. I'd rather just go without. There's alternative dyes, but most of them require too much of my time to do so I'm just going cold turkey.

Instead of shampoo and conditioner I'm now using baking soda and vinegar. My hair has never been happier. I now use homemade cold-process soap instead of body wash.

I recently changed my face care regimen as well. I'm one of those poor souls blessed with wrinkles and acne together. The wrinkles I'm OK with. I'm committed to aging gracefully (along with the gray hair). The acne on the other hand has got to go. What am I? 15 again? I'm trying out Delta Moon Soapworks Red Clover Tea Goat's Milk soap and then I use coconut oil that has some oatmeal and coffee steeped in it as a moisturizer. I just started this, but so far so good. I love how my skin feels right now. If this works out I'll post my moisturizer recipe.

But it's not just skin and body care that's changed. We've also just made some behavior changes as well. The first change actually led to the second change.

Our house is small. We don't have a formal dining room but rather a breakfast nook that's just big enough for a table slammed up against one wall. It seats four people. During the colder months we just can't have people over for dinner. We do have a giant patio though, which allows us to do quite a bit of entertaining during the summer.

We've decided to now eat dinner at the table every day instead of in the living room - where we usually eat. Since we eat so late it was really the only time that we watched TV. So that helped push us to make another major change. We canceled our TV service last night.