The green movement offers a wealth of information on the benefits that eating well brings to oneself and the environment. Consuming home-prepared foods rather than fast food means you can control everything from fat and salt to portion size, excess packaging and waste. Environmentalists are largely silent, however, on just how difficult it is to eat right and lose weight.

While it’s important to be informed about the consequences of what you’re eating, getting from the knowledge that an unhealthy diet is bad for you and the planet and actually eating better can be challenging. What is most important to keep in mind at all times is compassion–anger and self-judgment are the gateway to unhealthy sources of comfort like overeating. The New York Times’ Well column consistently strikes this chord of compassion for people who are trying to keep their humanity while facing health issues. A recent article on frugal dieting gave tips on how to lose weight on the cheap, backed up with statistics on the effectiveness of each method, from DIY to joining a program.

Here are some tips for getting more in tune with your eating habits.

• Find a balanced view of responsibility. Many people carry extra weight that is held in place by health problems, medication side effects, genetics, or other factors that are difficult to control. Nevertheless, the hand that brings the junk food to our mouths is our own. Forgiveness is a powerful weapon against the guilt and passivity that keep bad habits in place.
• Change your schedule. Most of us are creatures of habit. Our path through the grocery store can be mapped pretty accurately, as can the places where we trip up with unhealthy treats. Analyze your day, your shopping habits, and the times and places where you tend to feel deprived. Going a different way to work or avoiding certain aisles while shopping can take you out of temptation’s path.
• Add a new habit for every old one you take away. One of the most difficult things about dieting it involves restraint, something that can’t be measured immediately. Most of us want to DO something when attacking a problem, which is why expensive diet supplements and exercise equipment are often the first on a new dieter’s list. The “weight-loss” industry is only too happy to indulge these impulses, and keep indulging them, since it’s in their best interests to keep you buying rather than help you lose weight. Even if it’s something very simple, give yourself something active to do when cravings strike: a meditation, a cup of unsweetened herbal tea (not that “diet stuff), a walk, or some non-food-related enjoyable activity. Nutritional supplements like herbs for general cleansing are okay for this purpose, but not those promising weight loss.
• Find safe indulgences.Figure out some foods that are neutral–environmentally and health-wise–and allow yourself to eat as much as you want. Avoiding the feeling of being deprived helps prevent caving in to craving. These “neutral” foods may not be your favorite but you can’t hate them either. You can only consume so many baby carrots, rice cakes, or glasses of unsweetened chocolate soy milk, but knowing that there is no limit makes them seem like a treat.
• Be careful at restaurants. All but the healthiest restaurants use more fat, salt, and flavorings than you would at home, making for a rich meal that you feel compelled to finish because you paid for it. Think about why you’re there–the food or the friends?–and order conservatively, asking for your companions’ support in avoiding the free, often fattening, fillers like bread.
• Find exercise you like doing and make reasonable goals. Starting off slow with walking or gentle yoga is a good way to prevent injury while your body gets back in the swing of things. A general rule: if you hate every second of it, you probably won’t stick with it. Instead of buying an expensive new piece of machinery (which may end up on the curb as waste if best intentions falter) or buying pricey new running shoes, look for the many cheap ways to get exercise.
• Try new foods to make up for the ones you’re giving up. There is a world full of tasty, healthy recipes that most of us haven’t tried because we’ve been too busy returning to the same unsatisfying processed foods. Make a goal to try one new recipe or food a week.
• Make positive goals.  Instead of “eat no chocolate this week,” try “have a different fruit for dessert every night this week.” Avoiding punitive, negative goals is a way to re-set your internal attitudes from punishment/excess to the enjoyment that is supposed to come with eating.
• Reward yourself the right way. It can mean taking extra time to prepare a favorite but seldom-made healthy dish–or learning a new recipe. Finding non-food sources of reward is also important. Dieting isn’t just about what you eat, it’s about your entire life as a whole. Some of the energy that used to be caught up in frequent snacking is ready to be directed into other activities. Get in touch with these interests and reward yourself for avoiding a restaurant pitfall or for a mostly successful week.
• Remember, even failure isn’t failure. In many cases, getting frustrated acts as a license to give up. If you fall off the wagon, reassure yourself that nobody’s perfect…and avoid “rewarding” yourself with the type of bad food you think a “failure” deserves.
• Find the food values that matter to you and hold on to them. It’s all too easy to begin thinking, “oh, a little bit won’t hurt” and end up with an empty plate full of regret. What are our values for if not for steering us through difficulty? Do some research on the story behind your food, its social, ethical, and environmental impact. Ask your doctor for information on how too much sugar, fat, or salt, or a dearth of fresh foods, affects your current and future health. Think of your eating habits on a social scale. Arming yourself with this information can help “just one” donut look less innocent,.

Any green dieters out there with more advice for attaining a balance with food?

• Conserve water. Apparently, washing your car in front of your house is actually pretty wasteful. A typical garden hose will use about the same amount of water as a commercial wash after only 2 minutes. A water-saving nozzle helps, but no matter how skimpy you are with the water at home, commercial washes are more water efficient, especially because they tend to recycle water. Even their recycled water typically mixes 40 to 80 gallons of fresh water for each car that goes through the wash.
• Go waterless. Car washes using no water and environmentally-friendly cleaners are popping up around the country.
• Use responsible detergents. At home and at the car wash, the detergents should be a cause for concern. Phosphates and toxic chemical runoff have a major impact on our water systems, so look for facilities that don’t use ammonium bifluoride and hydrofluoric acid-based cleaning solutions but rather phosphate-free, biodegradable detergents. Another way to ask about this is to request EcoLogo certified products.
• Recipes for homemade car cleaners, including soap, wax, and tire cleaner
• Drain responsibly. It’s recommended that you pour any dirty carwash water into the sink or toilet rather than the storm drain.

Of course, it would be better for the environment to rely on public transit, renting a ZipCar or similar service when necessary. Many Americans don’t have that choice, however, but regular maintenance like proper washing can help make car finishes last longer. Cars are actually threatened by environmental factors like industrial emissions. These deposits along with bugs, tree sap, and bird droppings can get baked on the car surface, causing permanent stains or damage. Making stuff last longer is one way to reduce the amount of stuff we consume.

• Use commercial products that are hypo-allergenic and DEET-free
• Make your own insect repellent using essential oils. I’ve experimented a good bit with these and have found that some might stain and others might have objectionable odors or cause their own share of itching. The mixture that worked well for me was rosemary oil, neem oil, lavender oil, and citronella oil, diluted in water and sprayed through a mister. As long as it was applied before donning clothing, it worked very well. The same oils can be added to a moisturizer or shampoo you already use–if used in the latter the odor (which is what keeps the bugs away) seems to last especially long because you’re not sweating it off.
• Just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s safe for you. Pyrethrum, which is a natural compound derived from the chrysanthemum, is the active ingredient in many treated mosquito nets. It is highly effective but should not be used on clothing, sleeping surfaces, or anything that will be close to your face for a long period of time. People with asthma are particularly sensitive to it, but anyone can develop a reaction to pyrethrum if exposed to it for too long.
• Isolongifolenone, a natural compound found in the South American Tauroniro tree, has been found to be effective against mosquitoes and ticks. This is good news for those concerned about Lyme disease.
• Citronella candles really can be effective for outdoor time–just choose soy candles or some other alternative to paraffin candles, which are derived from petroleum and create soot.
• Some say what you eat can affect how appetizing your blood smells. Test out some of these foods and see if it’s true for you.
• To alleviate mosquito bites, or any insect bite, try neem powder. Made into a plaster and applied to the site it’s a little green and goopy but very good at taking away the itch.
• Lastly, if you’re looking for natural skin products but don’t want to spend a lot, “natural” pet products are often made of the same high-quality ingredients as human formulations, but at a fraction of the cost. There is one such skin product, containing neem oil and cedar, which I’ve found to be effective and refreshing to the skin.

“I don’t understand your logic. At first you very clearly explain the problem: that we have become so effective at ‘mining’ the oceans for food that we are on track to run out of fish. However, that ‘mining’ is so inefficient that more than half of the catch is considered unusable, or “bycatch.” Often this results in large quantities of dead or dying animals being dumped back into the water, or ground up for agricultural purposes.

You even clearly understand the ridiculousness of Bittman’s job: “…to go around and promote … what had previously been considered “underutilized” species until they became overfished and then … promoting the next species on the list.”

And yet this is exactly what you promote when you suggest “eating fish lower on the food chain.”

The reality? “…just like eating vegetarian is better for the environment” is true: don’t eat any fish! In order for all people to continue eating fish, the fishing fleets still have to overfish our oceans-regardless of species. In fact, because what we’d be avoiding are the “higher level carnivores,” fishing vessels would have to choose between killing tons of those carnivores-and throwing them away-or raiding sensitive breeding grounds known to be safe from other predators.

Meanwhile, simply eliminating all seafood from your diet eliminates the maximum demand for fish, which sends the clearest message to the fishing industry to BACK OFF.

Unless the government decides to bail out that failed business model too…”

The comment is correct in asserting that the best way to help the oceans would be if we just stopped eating fish until the stocks rebounded.  Of course this is also true about most of the planet and its ecosystems.  If humans didn’t exist the world would be under a lot less stress, it’s just a fact.  However it is the position of New Dream and most in the scientific community that fish stocks have not yet reached levels where we should entirely abstain from them.  In terms of our health, the benefits of eating fish outweigh the possible negative harm of contaminants in the fish according to a 2006 Harvard Study.  The EPA also keeps a good site on government recommended daily values for fish consumption and how to avoid contaminants.

The fishing industry is in dire straits particularly in places like Europe where strong fishing lobbies have led to gas and other price subsidies that created an artificially large fishing fleet.  The Economist wrote a good piece on this arguing for the reduction of fleet sizes globally.  However not all is so dire.  The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Management Act, which is the body of law governing most of America’s fisheries, requires an end to overfishing by 2010.  This is to be accomplished by having each fishing zone in the country be overseen by a board of scientists that is to set annual limits at levels substantively below the maximum catch that would still be sustainable.  This means that even with the combined forces of unforeseen natural disasters and illegal fishing the nation’s fish stocks should soon be on the mend.  While this does nothing to help plummeting fish stocks globally, it’s definitely a good step in the right direction and may be a model for the rest of the world to follow.  This effort is being implemented through the National Marine Fisheries Office and the overview and updates on the annual catch limits can be found here.

Having members of the environmental community eat fish allows us to participate in and thereby influence change the fishing industry and its business model.  The largest benefit in the short term would come from not eating fish.  But if everyone who had an environmental conscious simply stopped eating fish then what would happen is those consumer voices would be ignored and the industry would not undergo the change we are looking for.  By removing ourselves from the equation the industry focus will still remain on those high level carnivorous fish like bluefin tuna and salmon that have higher profit margins.  If instead we direct people to groups that fish sustainably and to types of fish that are more sustainable those companies will do well and their competitors will begin to take notice and change their ways.  Capitalism works based on companies chasing the largest amount of profit with the fewest hassles.  In order for them to go through all the hassles of changing their business practices they have to see money in it, which they won’t if there are no conscientious consumers in support of more eco friendly fish choices.

Where to find sustainable seafood lists:

-          The Marine Stewardship Council keeps a constantly updated list of companies and their products that meet their green qualifications.

-          When out on the town the Monterey Bay Aquarium has a pocket guide and an ipod app of what type of fish to eat.

Also the reader makes the point that if everyone was eating fish sourced directly from the oceansthe seas would go barren, regardless of the species harvested.  According to the Fish and Aquaculture Department of the U.N. wild caught fisheries production has peaked and remains between 90 and 95 million tons annually.  What I had meant to discuss but felt would be too long in my previous post was aquaculture and its increasing importance in the development of the global fish market.  Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic plants and animals - agriculture but in the water.  As the 2008 U.N. State of World Fisheries points out this is the first time where aquaculture now accounts for over 50% of fish production globally.

Aquaculture is a quickly evolving field with many benefits and drawbacks to it.  Like any kind of farm, aquaculture sites can produce vast quantities of waste, except unlike other farms this waste is already in water and can flow easily into local waterways.  Farmed fish also have the potential to pass disease and potentially inferior genes into the wild populations when the farmed animal escapes its pen and swims into the wild.  However, fish lower on the food chain, like Carp and Tilapia, are actually the most efficient seafood to farm.  Carp, Tilapia, and Catfish all require less then 2lb of grain for every 1lb of meat.  Cows take a hefty 7lbs of feed per pound of beef, pigs take 4lb, and chickens 2lb.  In fact fish farming could be considered a more efficient protein source then soy.  This is because of the relatively low yield of soy.  The average farm in Iowa yields 140 bushels of corn or 35 bushels of the lower yielding soy.  After processing of the soy this means that you would have less soy protein then if you harvested tilapia fed with the corn.  The efficiency of production means that fish farming is going to be a fundamental protein source for the ever growing human population.  By the way all of the statistics have from Plan B 2.0 by Lester R. Brown the President of Earth Policy Institute, if you ever want an ultimate source of knowledge of what’s going wrong with our planet and how it can be fixed check out his book.

Fish farms greatly magnify the need to eat lower food chain fish as those like Tilapia are able to be farmed in a far more sustainable manner then their carnivorous brethren.   Carnivorous fish require large amounts of protein which is usually sourced from cheaper bait species.  Depending on the amount of ground up fish in the feed it can take anywhere from 8 -15 pounds of baitfish to bring one pound of salmon to market compared to 0 pounds for Tilapia.  It makes sense that fish that eat fish that eat grain take more energy to raise than fish that just eat grain.

Oh one more thing, while back in the 1970’s the statistics that 50% of all fish caught wind up as bycatch may have been true, modern technology means this is no longer the case.  Bycatch is unintentional catch, the wrong species that have to be thrown back.  These are species, sometimes sharks or turtles, can get caught on long lines or stuck in nets and wind up injured or killed.  According to the U.N., 23% of all fish landed are discarded as bycatch.  However the vast majority of this occurs in the shrimping industry which accounts for almost a third of bycatch totals but only 16% of the fishing industry.  As always New Dream advocates that its members avoid shrimp entirely. Read more about New Dream’s advice on the Seafood Page of our Conscious Consumer Marketplace or the other pages in our Cater to the Earth Campaign.

Hanging on to umbrellas is kind of a point of pride with me precisely because a human and her umbrella are all too soon parted if she’s not careful. In my experience, the more complicated it is, the more likely it is to break, or to stick open or shut at the wrong time. Buying the very cheapest rain gear is also a bad idea, because not only are they very flimsy but they are somehow too small, meaning you’ve traded a couple bucks for wet shoulders. Only the strongest winds can really twist an umbrella completely out of shape….Usually a thin wire or paperclip (to hold together a broken joint) or a needle, thread, and tape can keep your portable shelter going for a very long time.

Here are some tips for more sustainable umbrellas:

• Buy one made out of recycled plastic
• Or one that comes with a lifetime warranty
• Pay a little more for a model that looks sturdy…you can save several inferior models from the trash
• Learn how to repair an umbrella from step by step instructions

Of course, all good things come to an end. If you’re lucky to live in an area where there’s a broken umbrella collection, you can destine your worn-out umbrella to become arts-and-crafts fodder for a creative person. If you want to try your hand at being the craftsperson, see these easy instructions for recycling your spent umbrellas into reusable bags.

I think the valuable lesson here is in showing us that now is the time to change. In humanity’s typical fashion we have waited until the last useful moments to start saving the fish. Like a kid cramming for finals, we’re just making it harder on ourselves and we’re not learning much. Insert Big Yellow Taxi reference here. There was a good article on this issue in the New York Times last week by Mark Bittman. Bittman, a former NOAA staffer-turned-sustainable chef, now writes columns for the New York Times and has a blog called the Minimalist about how to cook and eat sustainably that includes yummy recipes.

The article itself discusses the middle path of sustainable seafood. Several environmental groups like Sea Shepherd argue that there is no such thing as sustainable seafood unless it is a single individual fishing to feed only their immediate family. The article points out how this isn’t the case but that we cannot simply continue our current habits either. His argument is that we can still eat fish just smaller amounts of our current favorites interspersed with the increasingly popular fish like tilapia that are plentiful and can be raised and caught with minimal environmental damage.

Bittman’s background is a perfect example of the government’s attitude toward the ocean. Up until a few years ago the ocean was viewed as an infinitely renewable resource. This is why unlike land animals that either fall under the jurisdiction of the USDA or EPA, fish are monitored by Bittman’s former employer the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A branch of the Department of Commerce, NOAA’s main job is to watch for and warn about hurricanes.

By placing fish under the purview of the DOC they were placed in the same category as minerals like oil and coal, something to be dug up as fast and efficiently as possible. In fact Bittman’s job was to go around and promote consumption of what had previously been considered “underutilized” species until they became overfished and then they just moved on to promoting the next species on the list. As a college senior, my entire life has been an era of environmental awareness and worry, which is why I can’t fathom this older attitude of unlimited consumption. It seems to have had a lasting affect and might even be the root of all our environmental and social problems.

To keep it real: the days of cheap bountiful fish stocks are gone. Like everything else on this planet, they are becoming increasingly scarce. We reproduce more and more in a quest to model Star Wars capital planet Coruscant. For all the non-nerds out there it’s the planet that’s just a giant metropolis because the human population got so big it consumed the entire planet’s surface. Because we can’t just all go on an intergalactic cruise and let robots clean up for us like in Wall-E we need to change our habits in order to fix this problem.

This doesn’t mean you can never enjoy a romantic salmon dinner for two or a crab broil ever again, just not as often as before. You can then fill the interim with fish that are better for the planet. The same principles work on both land and sea. So just like eating vegetarian is better for the environment then eating Quadruple Bypass burgers from the Heart Attack Grill (which serves its 8000 calorie burger with a side of jolt cola, French fries that have been deep-fried in pure lard, and a pack of unfiltered Lucky Strike cigarettes), eating fish lower on the food chain is better than eating the higher level carnivores. This is because as factories organisms are woefully inefficient with only 10% of its energy able to be passed on to whatever eats it. As we head up the food chain we get a smaller and smaller amount of energy for ever greater amounts of input. So instead of those salmon why not a nice tilapia or carp filet? The tilapia filet most likely cut your fish bill by more than half. Along with saving you money these lower level fish can also save you from contact with harmful levels of pollutants like mercury. Due to a process called bioaccumulation which is diagramed and described on our seafood page, the higher the aquatic food chain one goes the higher the levels of contaminants. Also on our seafood page you’ll find links to the EPA guidelines on fish consumption and a link to fresh water advisories listing from which bodies of water fish are safe to eat and in which ones they aren’t.

Which fish is sustainable and which is not is an ever changing list that can leave even the most knowledgeable fish lover scratching their heads. Luckily the Monterey Bay Aquarium has continuously updated pocket guides listing what we should avoid.

Fish Fun:

Check out New Dream’s page on the Health Impacts of Eating Fish with several great links to recent studies on the issue and EPA guidelines on safe consumption.

2008 U.N. report on the State of World Fisheries.

If you want access to comprehensive data on the state of the ocean’s fisheries, including easy-to-understand graphs and charts, check out the Sea Around Us Project website.

“Deconstruct” the same old restaurant for the same price tag, and the result is a bunch of useful materials that can be used to construct a new business–in this case, a new Salvation Army in South Burlington, Vermont.

Building deconstruction is a growing trend in the building industry, as it becomes easier to reuse the many useful parts of an old structure (from wiring to tiling). You can even get a tax write-off.

• Read about one family’s experience with home deconstruction.
• Some states, like New York State, have green building initiatives that make it easy to route old materials or find supplies for your own building project.
• See these tips if you’re considering deconstructing your home.
• The Habitat for Humanity ReStore accepts used building materials.
• Gifts in Kind International has a disaster-relief effort that accepts in-kind donations of building materials.
• Read about the economics of deconstruction

If you only have a small amount of lumber or have extra paint in opened containers, consider setting up a neighborhood building materials pool. Having a place to go for scrap wood in a pinch can be a real help, and might rescue otherwise useful materials from the landfill.

It reminded me of something I read, a memoir by a novelist who recounted spending time with an older gentleman. “What’s the name of that plant? Or that one?” asked the older man, pointing. The younger man didn’t know the name of any of the growing things. “And you call yourself a writer?” the old man asked. “Writers are the ones entrusted with describing the world,” he said, shaking his head. People just used to know a lot more about plants. Whether we consider ourselves writers or not, we are all entrusted with the care of this planet. A common tactic to increase awareness of human rights issues is to attach a name–and a face–to situations like homelessness, refugees, or child labor. The same strategy can be applied to the natural world. How much more likely are we to care for plant life if we know it by name?

Spending time with people with knowledge of botany can really deepen your appreciation of your locale. Chances are, there are plenty of wild things growing near you. Going on a plant safari starts with finding a natural area–wild space if you have access to it, a backyard or park if one is nearby, or a botanical reserve if you’re feeling ambitious. And…get to know your neighbors. Go with a friend or bring your kids. Bring some paper and pencil to sketch the plants, or a digital camera–the goal here is not to uproot all of the wild things while learning to identify them. Start a scrapbook, blog, or Flickr feed documenting your efforts. As you begin to learn the names of your plant friends–testing each other can be a fun family activity–you can go deeper into your surrounding habitat, learning what birds and animals survive off the vegetation, how the seeds are distributed and even what plants might be safe to eat. Foraging can make for some uniquely satisfying meals, if you know what you’re doing.

While it might be fun to look over your scrapbook or blog at the end of the summer to see how much you’ve learned (you can even have a “Name That Plant” challenge) the learning doesn’t have to stop after plants stop blooming. Now is a great time to start, especially since so many of us have had so much rain to deal with and will no doubt have a bumper crop of flowers, scrub, and weeds to deal with.

One of my favorite photo blogs about nature in New York City is A Year in the Park. Submit your own favorite photo feeds having to do with your local vegetation.

1. You’re sure to have the best-planned costume
2. The tips you learn from Green Halloween can be used all year round

New Dream has written about simplifying gift-giving holidays in our Simplify the Holidays booklet, and you can create an Alternative Gift Registry to manage all the material and non-material gifts you might want for any holiday or occasion. Halloween is one of those holidays that seems as though it doesn’t need that much simplification: no gifts are exchanged, per se, and candy that is exchanged comes only at the price of some good old fashioned fun.  Where others see only ghosts and witches, Green Halloween founder Corey Colwell-Lipson saw an opportunity: If Halloween spending is in the billions (it topped an estimated $5.77 billion last year), then couldn’t those funds go towards a greener, healthier holiday?

What began as a local initiative in Washington State has become a nationwide movement and a website with tips for parents, activities for kids, a blog and expert advice. The principles behind Green Halloween are just as applicable to parents trying to get kids through the summer months in a healthy, fun, and environmentally responsible way. Eating junk food at any time of the year comes at a price, and parents are always looking for activities that encourage kids to engage with the world in a fun yet thoughtful way.

The party tips on the Green Halloween site are equally applicable to any summer get-together, but if you’re looking for something more appropriate to June, check out the Celebrate Green site for advice on how to green any occasion. Of special interest to all you last-minute kids out there are the Father’s Day tips.

Stay tuned for more kid-friendly, fun-filled tips from the Green Halloween site.