Back to the Beginning...

Ok, so I realize that two of my blogs have been way too long - and I will make a bigger effort to keep my blogs more manageable, at least size wise!
Back to when I started this blog - if you still remember (I know it was only 10 days ago)- or if you can still find it(just joking). I made 5 major commitments about how and what to buy.

#1 - Buy local food & product as much as possible.
#2 - Buy proven organic/fare-trade items
#3 - Buy things that have 5 ingredients or less.
#4 - Only buy things I cannot reasonably make myself.
#5 - Only buy things that are toxin-free or harmless.

#1 - This one I fully anticipated would be harder in the winter - and it is, but I do my best and if I can't find Utah product I look for California and so on. Probably the hardest one for me is, to not buy food products etc from IKEA, since Sweden is home to me and I love most things Swedish. Oh, the sacrifices that one makes - Just Joking!!!


#2 - This is pretty self-explanatory, other than maybe there are times when proven organic may not be around or when labels aren't what they claim to be; like the Coffee/Tea issue. A group of Swedish researchers started traveling and visiting the different Coffee/Tea plantations around the world - they found that the Coffee that was labeled fare-trade/organic really was organic/fare-trade coffee. On the other hand when they went around to the tea plantations most teas that were labeled organic/fare-trade really was not, in fact in most instances there was not a difference between the "normally" grown tea or "organically" grown.
I do take this into account when I purchase things, is this really certified and/or under what standards is it certified? And then I make my best decision from there.

#3 - Is actually only meant to include food-items. And I do this from a nutritious stand-point only.

#4 - This is probably the most subjective of all of my commitments in that; What is reasonable for me may not be reasonable for somebody else, or even, What is reasonable for me today may not be tomorrow. IE Right now it is reasonable for me to make my own laundry detergent, but it is not reasonable for me to make my own clothes. It is really fun to use my own oatmeal face wash at home, but when I travel I buy both that and Shampoo.

#5 - Read the Label, read the label and read the label in other words this is all about knowing the ingredients and also if possible how it was produced so that it didn't produce toxic by-products for the environment or the workers.

Anyway these are my own personal guidelines in a nutshell. If they inspire or help somebody else, Great, if they don't - I have really had fun myself and an amazing adventure along the way and a reason to write more - which is what I love to do!

Hejdå,