Living More Sustainably Covers the Top New Year's Resolutions

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According to these statistics and an unscientific online search I did for this newsletter, top new year’s resolutions this year include the following:

1. Exercise more

2. Eat healthier

3. Lose weight

4. Drink less

5. Improve mental health (the top resolution for Gen Z and millennials in this survey)

6. Quit smoking

7. Reduce spending

8. Volunteer

9. Learn something new

10. Spend less time on social media

11. Spend more time with family

12. Reduce stress

Most of these goals happen to be side effects of sustainable living.

1. Exercise more

While you may start walking or biking more and driving less for environmental reasons in 2023, you can also tick off the exercise resolution box.

I’m very fortunate to live within walking and biking distance of the farmers’ market, grocery stores, the library, restaurants, my health care providers and so on. Mostly, I ride. In our temperate climate, making my bike my main mode of transportation year-round is not difficult. (Go here for how I shop by bike.) My sister, on the other hand, lives in a rural area and has to rely on her car to get around.

If you’d like to ride a bike to work or for errands but don’t have one, you may be able to share a bike. This Wikipedia page lists bike-share programs around the world.

2. Eat healthier

Project Drawdown outlines the top 100 solutions for reducing emissions or sequestering carbon from the atmosphere by 2050. It ranks the solutions according to two scenarios. In Scenario 1, the planet’s temperature increases 2˚C by 2100. In Scenario 2, it increases 1.5˚C.

Under Scenario 1, eating a plant-rich diet ranks third out of 100 solutions. It ranks fourth under Scenario 2. So by eating more sustainably—eating lots of vegetables—you’ll eat healthy too. Check another resolution box!

3. Lose weight

See #1 exercise more and #2 eat healthier. (Results may vary.)

4. Drink less

If you go hardcore zero-waste and start brewing alcohol from scratch, you many not drink any for a while because your beer or wine or moonshine will need time to ferment after you bottle and rack it.

You could also make this easy, young mead and drink it within a couple of weeks. It has a fairly low alcohol content, so if you reduce your waste and brew it, you’ll consume less alcohol than you would in a beer or glass of wine.

Or drink kombucha.

5. Improve mental health

I’m not a therapist. If your anxiety or depression makes functioning difficult, look through these resources to find help.

Living sustainably usually leads to slowing down and living more intentionally, which can improve mental health. And if you have eco-anxiety, taking some sort of action to address climate change can also help—protesting, eating more vegetables, electrifying your appliances, contacting politicians. (Taking action helps keep me sane.)

At the same time, while taking action, remember to take care of yourself. Don’t let your activism—which does not garner results overnight—lead to burnout. Try to eat well, sleep enough and exercise regularly. (Go here for a recent newsletter on self-care.)

6. Quit smoking

If you have resolved to cut plastic and you smoke, you could start with cutting cigarettes. The cellulose acetate filters (i.e., plastic butts) are the most commonly littered item on the planet.

There’s so much more concern about plastics these days. And this one particular kind of plastic has no function except to sell cigarettes which kill people and cost our health care system a lot of money. So why do we want to even tolerate it?

— Tom Novotny, professor of public health at San Diego State University

7. Reduce spending

You can start cutting expenses today with your next meal.

Uneaten food decomposing in a landfill emits methane gas, a greenhouse gas much more potent than carbon dioxide. In addition, the production of that wasted food emitted greenhouse gases all along the supply chain, all for nothing.

The easiest way to cut wasted food at home is to cook the ingredients you have on hand before shopping for more food. After you’ve eaten down the refrigerator, freezer and pantry, then go shopping.

Simply by eating, you’ll reduce emissions—and save money! The average American family of four spends $1,500 on uneaten food every year. For 22 more ways to reduce wasted food, go here. And check out my award-winning cookbook, filled with ideas to reduce wasted food.

Reduce expenses even further

This isn’t for everyone but consider living in an intentional community. Community cuts down on consumerism. Living together (or within close proximity) in an intentional community, not every individual needs to buy their own electric drill, canning equipment or internet service for example.

I lived in an intentional community for 15 years and loved it. I knew my neighbors, we shared stuff, we helped each other out. When I needed a sitter for my kids at the last minute, I found one immediately. After a long day, we would often eat dinner, prepared by volunteer cooks, in the community kitchen with friends. The community was an oasis.

Go here for more about the community I lived in and go here to search for intentional communities around the world.

8. Volunteer

Whatever your talents, a climate-focused organization needs them—from drafting social media posts, to emailing newsletters and issuing press releases, to web development and maintenance, to fundraising, to participating in climate strikes. Just some climate groups to consider joining:

• 350.org

• Citizens’ Climate Lobby

• Climate Reality Project

• Extinction Rebellion

• Greenpeace

• Indigenous Environmental Network

• Indigenous Climate Action

• NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program

• Natural Resources Defense Council

• Protect Our Winters (POW Europe)

• Sierra Club & Beyond Coal Campaign

• Sunrise Movement

9. Learn something new

As we became more of a consumer culture, we abandoned many basic skills, leaving us helpless and dependent on corporations to fulfill our every need. And as those corporations squeezed more out of their workers and drove down wages, many of us have no time to apply these skills.

If you have the means to slow down, a more sustainable lifestyle leads to the recovery of various hands-on skills: gardening, mending, sewing, carpentry or cooking, for example. Growing and fixing and making not only have tangible applications, these skills also improve problem-solving abilities and resiliency.

10. Spend less time on social media

I can make this one work…

If you want to buy less stuff in 2023 for environmental reasons, stay off of social media. You won’t be tempted to buy the clothes and consumer products and doodads you see promoted all over the place.

You also won’t feel pressure to gut your kitchen and spend thousands remodeling it into an Instagram-worthy backdrop. As someone who teaches online cooking classes from a real-life kitchen, I know the struggle is real. But a coat of paint works wonders and keeps cupboards out of landfill.

Reducing time on social media may also improve mental health, resolution #5.

11. Spend more time with family

As I said earlier, living sustainably usually goes hand-in-hand with slowing down. A slower, simplified lifestyle can save money, which may lead to working less and having more time to spend with loved ones.

12. Reduce stress

You’ve exercised (#1), eaten better (#2) and reduced time on social media (#10). No wonder you feel less stressed!

Here’s another tip for reducing stress: eat gut-friendly fermented food. Fermenting preserves food and reduces food waste. It tastes amazing. And it can improve our mood. Study after study has established a connection between the gut and the brain.

Eating probiotic, fermented foods such as sauerkraut or yogurt or dill pickles can improve gut health and reduce anxiety and stress. Find more recipes for fermented foods in my recipe index.

Happy new year and thank you!

I’d like to wish you and yours a happy, healthy, peaceful 2023. And I’d also like to thank you for reading these newsletters. I know you have many reading options and appreciate you taking the time to read what I write here.

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Upcoming free events

In-person talks in California

Sunday, January 8th, 3pm: Sunnyvale Library

Go here for more info. No registration necessary.

Tuesday, January 10th, 7pm: Los Altos Library

Go here to register for this in-person talk at the Los Altos Library, organized by Green Town Los Altos.

Saturday, January 14th, 2pm: Camarillo Public Library

Go here for more information about this in-person talk in Southern California.

Online Zoom workshop

Friday, February 10th: Eleanor’s 9th Birthday Party! Sourdough Starter Workshop, 9am PT/12pm ET

All you need to make your own sourdough starter are flour, water and a bit of patience. In this class, I will show you how to start a starter culture and how to keep it alive. Bring your flour, water, jar and questions and I’ll answer as many as I can after we start our starters together. Register here.