The Low-Carb(on) Diet

 I am not a fan of fad diets. Not only have they caused my family all sorts of grief over the years, they rarely are eco-friendly or people-friendly. Needless to say I have not tried the low-carb diet. Fad diets overlook the holistic approach (which can be slower) of finding your own body's natural rhythms and cycles and working with your body to achieve health instead of inflicting weight loss upon the body. Working with your own body usually involves a lot less pain, though it can take longer to figure out. 

However, I am starting to try the Low-Carbon diet. This diet doesn't only impact what I eat, but holistically looks at my full lifestyle. A Low-Carbon lifestyle takes into account our full carbon footprint on the Earth. Our housing, our transportation, our wastes, as well as what we eat. The first step in looking at lowering your carbon footprint is finding out what your current carbon footprint is! 

There are a wide range of Carbon Footprint Calculators out there. Some are really nitty gritty in the details, such as the Environmental Protection Agency's or the calculator on CarbonFootprint.com. The Nature Conservatory has a calculator as well and they offer this set of facts before you get started:

"The average carbon footprint for a person in the United States is 16 tons, one of the highest rates in the world. Globally, the average is closer to 4 tons. To have the best chance of avoiding a 2℃ rise in global temperatures, the average global carbon footprint per year needs to drop under 2 tons by 2050."

Whoa! If we are averaging 16 tons per person in the US, and enough people in the US reduce their carbon footprint, the Global average will go down significantly. In the US, we release tons of carbon simply by driving more than we need to. However, there are plenty of other ways in which we can work on lowering our personal carbon footprint. I hope you will take a look at one of the carbon footprint calculators and see what you can do to start your Low-Carbon lifestyle.