Let’s be honest is a Food Circle project to open up the conversation about the challenges when being or becoming a member of the SC (Sustainability Club). This series will shine a light on the different approaches to making life more sustainable and the step-backs and difficulties that arise. Being more kind and understanding, instead of critical, will hopefully help to encourage us to try instead of giving up when facing a step-back or failure. This is made possible thanks to Sapient, the mother company of Food Circle, which every year offers internships to students from all around the world, creating a uniquely multicultural environment!
Let’s celebrate the achievements and give room for honesty and struggles!
Lia
Lia wakes up at 7.45 am and rushes to accompany her son at school. Afterwards, she goes for a quick run of groceries at her local food market. Amongst them you can find biological tomatoes, vegan feta cheese, ecological toilet paper, a plastic-free dish-wash soap etc.
For breakfast, she chooses oatmeal with freshly chopped apple and topped it with raisins, almonds and peanut butter for her daily dose of carbs. It keeps her full and energised for a good amount of time. Then she eats in peace without screen distractions.
For the moment, Lia does her work from her couch because she just decluttered her desk office since she did not liked working from there and now here she is, convenient at her dark grey couch sending some important emails.
Some time later, she gets back to her kitchen to clean her dishes with the new ecofriendly soap she purchased.
Edit is her next stop so as to be consistent with her audience, since she is a youtuber under the name ´´Ecofriend.lia´´ and posts videos three times a week, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, for anyone interested.
As she goes about to make her lunch, she clarifies that usually her family is having leftovers for lunch but today they had none and that is why she is going to prepare something delicious with the few things that are stored in her shelfs and fridge. The decision was made: wraps with onions, zucchinis etc.
This afternoon her work is limited, so she has some time to do her favorite thing, read books. However, today she thinks of trying to read from her phone as a change. The book she is starting is called 'Essentialism', a book for minimalism that she wanted to read for a long time.
While guiding towards her son's school, she enjoys a refreshing stroll with beautiful sights and sun shining above.
For dinner, the family will have vegan paneer, with homemade vegan bread, healthy and tasteful recipes.
After eating, it is time for a documentary. Lia chose a documentary for whales before taking her shower. Then she will probably read some more and call it a night. [1]
Jules
From the other side, we have Jules.
First things first, Jules is making her bed and petting her little dog. She likes slow mornings and taking time for herself to wake up smoothly and then jump into the day. Today, she chose not to put an alarm.
She prepares some cucumber water and sips to feel refreshed. Matcha is her next step and a ritual in her morning routine. While drinking it, she usually sets her day intention. This day's intention is to slow down and tune into her own channel.
Her favorite thing is to sit down in her yoga mat, aside having her matcha and a pen with paper. She likes to move her body freely and write down all the thoughts that rush through her mind, without as she says, expectations or judgements, just free flowing. It is so liberating and gives space to herself to just be present and enjoy the moment.
Her personal approach is to do what you can, when you can and that makes everything accesible and doable.
For plastic free July, she made some good purchases of plastic-free and sustainable household goods as also to her skincare and self care routine. She aims to reduce her waste and carbon footprint and tries to support suastainable brands with the resources and time she can spare.
For lunch, Jules decided to use whatever she had in her fridge before going bad and of course she wanted to try her neighboor's peppers, that she cultivated in her own backyard. The leftovers were securely stored in the fridge for later usage. But after something salty everyone needs a sweet. Jules decided to bake some gluten-free cinnamon rolls to accompany her afternoon tea. While waiting for her cinnamon rolls to bake, she reads from her kindle to relax a bit.
The rolls came out delicious.
At 6.30 pm, it is time to pick up some dinner. [2]
Gittemary
When she wakes up, Gittemary likes to make her bed so as to have a fresh start in the day, especially not going back to sleep. Picking an outfit to start the day is essential and in Gittemary's wardrobe almost all of her clothes are second hand except from some sustainable pieces.
To keep her toilet low-impact, she has installed a bidet and uses ecofriendly toilet paper, even the packaging is plastic free.
Everyone has a skincare routine...well almost everyone. As a moisturiser, Gittemary uses a face lotion that one of her friends made. After the cream though, water is always a must. To clean her teeth, she uses toothpaste taps with fluoride and owns a bamboo toothbrush.
For her make-up, she owns some products that have paper packaging or better are inside sustainable and reusable containers.
The jewellery she owns are from second hand stores or made from recycled materials.
As for house chores, laundry is a weekly one. At the moment, she uses soap berries to wash her clothes and to give them more freshness and a nice odor, she spills some drops of essential oils in her laundry load. Moreover, she uses a guppyfriend bag for her synthetic clothes to minimise the amount of microplastic that is released during the wash. To keep her laundry low-impact, she washes the clothes in colder temperatures and avoids using the dryer.
Time for breakfast! Daily smoothie is being prepared with fruits coming from dumpster diving and homemade oatmilk. Perfection!
Her plants and re-grow projects need also some nourishment so then she goes about watering them from her raindrop collector instead of using tap water. She is also growing her own herbs and micro-greens which means that she can avoid buying them in plastic bags or greenhouses and of course she claims that this option is more fun and sustainable.
After that blissful morning routine, it is time to work. Her technological gadgets such as her laptop, camera and mobile phone, are all second hand. For organizing her life, she uses a calendar from recycled paper.
Her cute little dog, Molly, also needs to be taken care of. Both of them go out on a nice walk to enjoy each others company and breathe some fresh air. For Molly's hygiene, Gittemary uses a biodegradable poop bag and she also picks up some trash she spots on the ground and collect them in a glass jar, so she can use them in an art project in the near future.
For her grocery shopping, she brings with her tote bags for dry goods, and some glass thrifted jars for liquids such as soap, oil, liquid cleaning products etc. For transportation she uses mostly her bike but in some occasions, she uses public transportation.
For lunch, this specific day, Gittemary went out with one of her friends and tried a vegan food truck which uses in season and locally grown products on their menu. All the dishes are plant-based. This way they support local small sustainable businesses rather than big chains.
For dinner, although she loves cooking, she had planned a pizza and movie night, so she visited a restaurant that served a delicious vegan pizza. She then, collected the clean,unused napkins so they don't get thrown away. In the movies, they had their tickets in digital form so as to avoid print in paper and brought their own reusable containers to store the food that were purchasing from the cantine.
It is not a goodnight if you don't clean some dishes, so Gittemary has a wooden brush for cleaning and her sponges are compostable and her wash cloths are reusable and made from organic cotton. Her dishes, glasses and all cutlery are second hand.
Last stop before going to bed is the shower.
For her pretty short showers, she uses a shampoo bar and a safety razor.
Some of her nights, she spend them by dumpster-diving and doing her sustainable groceries by reducing her carbon footprint. [3]
Wish you all a happy New Year!
Author: Alexandra Bakalianou
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