Make a Difference!

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We are living in a world defined by food scandals: Mad cow disease, foot-and-mouth disease, dioxin chicken scandal, rotten meat sold as new processed food, liquid egg scandal, hch in our milk, salmonella in poultry, hormones and antibiotics in our meat and now the horsemeat scandal. The scandals involving meat don't ever seem to end. And yet in a couple of months, the horsemeat scandal will have been forgotten and customers will grab lasagnas out of the deep freezers again without questioning its origins. It is always the same procedure after each food scandal. We don't learn, we just forget. We don't improve our lifestyle, we just suppress negative emotions and keep living the life we were living before. No change, no improvement, no lesson learnt. We teach our kids to eat healthy but we don't set them a good example. Forgetting past events and negative feelings is part of our nature and our instincts. When a person dies, we mourn, we are angry, we lose our  motivation to keep living. But time heals everything and we start to heal by forgetting. We forget the voice of that loved person whose faces becomes blurry and our memories of that special person become faint. The same happens with food scandals. We forget. And there is no change.

I have been a vegetarian for 13 years. I try to avoid buying plastic bags, I try to walk or ride a bike instead of driving and I separate garbage. I am not perfect and like everyone else, I am part of a society defined by overconsumption and degrading values. I am too stressed, I work to much, I enjoy too little. I too love technology and work with computers. I too love my smart phone. I feel like I am being pulled in 2 directions at the same time. I am advancing with society but I am protesting against it at the same time. I feel like humans are not getting it right and society is a combination of deadly factors. How can we get it right? 

The one mistake we keep doing is distancing ourselves from nature. No matter how many machines we create and how comfortable our lives are becoming, we need to remain close to nature. This is much easier than we think. When was the last time you took a walk in the forest and listened to the voices of birds? Or the last time you chose to walk instead of drive to the supermarkt? How many time a day do you get up from your desk chair excluding the number of times you go to the bathroom or to the cafeteria? There are many things we can do to make a difference for our bodies and our environment. 

10 Tips on how to Make a Difference for Our Bodies and Our Environment

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1. Take a longer break at least twice a day to get up and take a walk. If you work in a city, try to find the nearest park where you can sit on a bench and enjoy your surroundings. You will see that you will work more effectively and faster than before. 
2. Think twice about buying processed food. Instead of buying lasagna buy frozen vegetables intead and research on the internet on how to make a sauce at home with natural ingredients. It doesn't always take hours to cook a healthy meal. Sometimes 30 minutes is enough to whip up a tasty dish filled with vitamins and minerals. You can get some ideas here:

Quick and healthy dinner recipes 
30-minute healthy dinner recipes
Healthy 30-minute recipes

   3. Find a sport you like and try to practise it at least once a week for an hour. The sports clubs closest to you have a variety of different offers for every taste.
   4. If you have to run an errand where a car is not necessary, how about using your feet or your bike? Most of the time we only take the car because it is comfortable, not because there is no other way to fulfill the errand.
   5. Don't stay glued to the television or the PC on your free days. Think of other ways to entertain yourself that do not involve a screen.
   6. An apple a day keeps the doctor away! Eat fruits and vegetables per day. Try not to eat them additionally but try to replace unhealthy snacks you eat on a daily basis.
   7. Take a cloth bag to the supermarket and refuse plastic bags. 
   8. Keep informing yourself about healthy living. This blog offers some tips but also other useful blogs:

Ideal Bite
Tree Hugger
Self Improvement Blog

You will be astonished about how easy it is to live healthily and without making a lot of efforts.

  9. Buy organic clothing like clothing made from bamboo.
 10. Drive an eco-friendly car and think about eco-mobility.