SAY NO TO PLASTIC …

We live in a throw away society and the consequences for our environment are devastating. We are mindlessly trashing the oceans, as we use plastic products that are toxic to our systems and toxic to the environment.

Collectively we throw copious amounts of recyclable trash every day.  It’s not just plastic bags . . .   it’s cell phones, computers and electronics . . . and I’ve just scratched the surface.

This is a ecological disaster  most people are blissfully ignorant about.  Sorry for the emotionally charged words, but it is a disaster … one that can be addressed if not completely eliminated. Once your consciousness has been raised, it is impossible to walk away.

If you think this isn’t a world wide problem, think again.

An estimated 100,000 marine animals perished last year as a result of litter in our oceans. Our demand for convenience and general lack of concern for our world’s plight are disturbing and destructive.

With space in landfills rapidly diminishing and oceans continually being clogged with endless amounts of garbage, it is obvious we need to do something. The problem is so acute off the coast of Africa that a cottage industry exists in which natives harvest plastic bags and weave them into hats and shawls. (Hello! people in poor countries are weaving our plastic trash into hats & shawls! emphasis mine.) They collect an average of 30,000 bags a month.

The enormous environmental footprint left by our natural resource consumption could be significantly reduced if we would simply reuse.

If you say you care about the environment, the oceans, the air that we breathe etc.  it’s time for you to take action.  YOU can help.  YOU can make a difference.

What can you do?

1. Support this blog.  Go to the Ocean Keepers page and consider donating and getting your own reusables kit. Let Bagnesia know you are supporting Ocean Keepers.
   
2. Stop using plastic bags.  Now that you know the magnitude of the problem, there’s is no reason to continue using them any more.
3. Forward this information to people you know.
   
4. Talking green is one thing, living green is something else.

Consider this.

Every time you refuse to use a plastic bag, every time you bring you own bags when you shop at a grocery store, department store, home improvement store, pharmacy etc, you are helping to change the world one plastic bag at a time!

Updated since Kirstie’s appearance on Oprah yesterday.  Please check out our new Diet and Life Style page … if you are looking for help loosing weight and keeping it off!

What’s so funny?

Well not Kirstie’s weight gain or  thousands of tons of additional plastic contaminating our oceans and the environment every year.

I wrote about plastic pollution, Oprah’s weight gain, and New Year’s resolutions in January. You can read it here.  Now we faced with a similar dilemma.

American actress Kirstie Alley has revealed that her one desire right now is to lose 80 pounds so that she can wear a bikini again.

Alley, 58, said in an interview on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” on April 30 that she is ready to work out, and is sorry for the people she had let down.

Sadly, Kirstie ended up comparing herself to Valerie Bertinelli who has successfully kept the weight off.  Kirstie has made a classic mistake of comparing herself with someone who has a completely different body type.

Having once taught health and physical education as well as physiology of exercise I could do an entire column on diets and healthy life styles.  I won’t here, but let  me make a couple of points about weight gain before tying in our misuse of plastic to Kirstie’s increased girth.

For starters, when people say diets don’t work, I submit that it isn’t that diets don’t work. Diets, no matter how silly usually work.   If a person has lost the weight then the diet worked.  The problem is once the desired weight loss is achieved many/most people fall back into their old habits. Why?  They focused on the wrong  goal . . . they focused on the scale or a particular dress or suit size. Wrong goal!

The goal should never be just to reach a particular weight.  The goal should be to change your life style so the weight won’t return.  Changing your life style and changing habits takes time.  Researchers have found it may take up to 6-9 months to change a particular habit because of the way the pathways in our brains function.  If you recognize before you start that slipping up is NORMAL then  it is easier to forgive yourself if you slip back or forget.  This doesn’t make you a bad person.  Hear that Kristie?

If remembering to bring reusable bags when shopping is so difficult (and yes it is) changing the habits that packed on the pounds can be equally challenging. Remember, I said challenging… not impossible.  It takes commitment and a recognition that you will occasionally slip, but that’s part of the process.

I gave this advice to Oprah and I’m going to give this advice to Kirstie.  Ease up on yourself and start looking at ways to incorporate life style changes into your daily life. Those changes mean less food and more exercise . . . but you know that already.  Remember to focus on the right goal.