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Today was Car Free Day - a world wide event encouraging consciousness about our use of vehicles and how it affects not only our environment, but also our communities. Here in Australia I didn't hear anything at all about it - but I have a friend in Germany who was aware of it (go figure). We've been sans car since we moved to Australia 10 months ago. There are times when not having a car irritates or worries me - grocery shopping is now a recurring aggravation - and we do use a taxi to bring it all home. I sometimes worry as well that one of the kids will be sick or need immediate parental presence.I will have to have a car when I return to work - and that is unavoidable. I can say however, that I will be MUCH more conscious about using it. I am very supportive of car share programs - and if an idea to make this work for our family was put in front of me - I'd grab it in a second!

I've been talking a bit with friends and family about my decision to go vegetarian/vegan and find myself having to come up with a short list of why I have made the decision. It's funny because even people who are really close to me seem to find this choice of mine hitting from left field. For me going vegetarian feels anything but - I have spent months thinking about it, researching it and ever so gradually - stepping away from meat.I'm discovering I don't like giving 'reasons' for why I have made the decision to go vegetarian because I notice that often 'listing reasons' makes people defensive. I say, "I can't justify the killing of a living being to put food on my plate anymore" and then get to hear how animal killing doesn't bother *them* (yes but we weren't talking about why you decided to become vegetarian, and honey you did ask me why I did - lol) Or I say, I really feel better about my health when I am not eating meat - less problems with hives, bloat - don't have to worry about my heart and arteries etc. Then I hear how *they* don't believe the health 'propaganda' being spread by vegetarians. Heh, it's all a bit funny.All that said, I do have some good reasons why I made this choice. My top 5:1 - My health; cheaper health care/life insurance2- Better nutrition; more conscious consumption3 - Sustainability4 - The environment5- Humanitarian - choosing a 'do no harm' policy not only for animals, but for issues of global hungerOther people have developed their own lists - and if you'd like to look at them, check out these 49 Reasons, or these 21 Reasons. If you're toying with the idea of trying out vegetarianism, you may also want to look at VegCooking: Making the Transition or Vegetarian Society: Going Vegetarian as starting points.It was really helpful to me to know that it was ok for me to 'try it out'. Choosing to go vegetarian for 30 days is a viable introduction. You don't have to sell your life away - and its quite alright to make small or incremental change too. I noticed an article called something like Simple Tips For Good Health (lost the link sorry) but one of the ideas in there was 'try eating vegetarian occasionally'. For some people 'occasionally' meant one or two days a week, for others it meant eating vegetarian one month each year. There's no rule, any change toward health is better than none.I also think it is important to know your own reasons for giving a no meat diet a go. Research the subject, make your own list of reasons why you're interested in giving it a go. If you can't come up with any good reason to bother - vegetarianism is probably not for you at this point in your life - maybe it will be some other time :)

I've been talking a bit with friends and family about my decision to go vegetarian/vegan and find myself having to come up with a short list of why I have made the decision. It's funny because even people who are really close to me seem to find this choice of mine hitting from left field. For me going vegetarian feels anything but - I have spent months thinking about it, researching it and ever so gradually - stepping away from meat.I'm discovering I don't like giving 'reasons' for why I have made the decision to go vegetarian because I notice that often 'listing reasons' makes people defensive. I say, "I can't justify the killing of a living being to put food on my plate anymore" and then get to hear how animal killing doesn't bother *them* (yes but we weren't talking about why you decided to become vegetarian, and honey you did ask me why I did - lol) Or I say, I really feel better about my health when I am not eating meat - less problems with hives, bloat - don't have to worry about my heart and arteries etc. Then I hear how *they* don't believe the health 'propaganda' being spread by vegetarians. Heh, it's all a bit funny.All that said, I do have some good reasons why I made this choice. My top 5:1 - My health; cheaper health care/life insurance2- Better nutrition; more conscious consumption3 - Sustainability4 - The environment5- Humanitarian - choosing a 'do no harm' policy not only for animals, but for issues of global hungerOther people have developed their own lists - and if you'd like to look at them, check out these 49 Reasons, or these 21 Reasons. If you're toying with the idea of trying out vegetarianism, you may also want to look at VegCooking: Making the Transition or Vegetarian Society: Going Vegetarian as starting points.It was really helpful to me to know that it was ok for me to 'try it out'. Choosing to go vegetarian for 30 days is a viable introduction. You don't have to sell your life away - and its quite alright to make small or incremental change too. I noticed an article called something like Simple Tips For Good Health (lost the link sorry) but one of the ideas in there was 'try eating vegetarian occasionally'. For some people 'occasionally' meant one or two days a week, for others it meant eating vegetarian one month each year. There's no rule, any change toward health is better than none.I also think it is important to know your own reasons for giving a no meat diet a go. Research the subject, make your own list of reasons why you're interested in giving it a go. If you can't come up with any good reason to bother - vegetarianism is probably not for you at this point in your life - maybe it will be some other time :)