Greetings Miss Cazziie123!

Congratulations on your new adventure and thank you for writing to ask our advice!

I agree with Lill.  Those are all very good suggestions.

Living greener isn't necessarily about doing it all at once.  Baby steps, much like it works for changing your lifestyle habits surrounding releasing unwanted weight. Be gentle with yourself, practice loving your body for everything it DOES do for you and love yourself as you are rather than waiting to love the future you.  Your body actually responds to those emotions.  It's quite amazing.

 I like to say "releasing" vs. "losing" as losing can infer you might find it again, as with releasing, you are letting go of it.  The consciousness of that wording in general can even lead to weight loss, as you are allowing yourself to release weight, to let it go, back into the nothingness from which it came.   Releasing can also lead you into healing the emotions and situations which may have led to the weight gain to begin with.

You can also incorporate greener living with weight release by using alt forms of transportation like bus, bike, or walk.  This will definitely help you with both!

 For more tips on greener living, check out your local green columnist online - try http:www.examiner.com and find your local city.  You can also read my column.  I am the Seattle Green Living Examiner.  

 Let us know how it is going and if we can be of any further help.

Best to you in your new journey!  Love and be gentle with yourself the whole way.  Big changes aren't necessarily easy, yet very rewarding when we stick with it to the end results!

Thank you so much for writing in.  Thinking about an answer for you has stirred my brain into reminding myself about being gentler with myself as well about life things!

Bright blessings,
Amy Woidtke
EcoKind Design interior decorating & space therapy
Seattle Green Living Examiner

While I am not a doctor, I have a great deal of experience in this area and am happy to assist. I am a zealous environmentalist who suffers from type 2 diabetes.

The two most effective things you can do to reduce your waistline and your environmental impact are:

1) Go vegetarian (or cut your consumption of animal protein and animal products at least by half); and

2) Buy locally-grown fruits and vegetables such as in the nearest farmers market. Generally, such foods are transported a relatively short distance and are not wrapped in excessive packaging.

Now, with all of that being said, you must be certain that you replace the protein from meat with a suitable protein source. In my case, because I am diabetic, my choices are somewhat limited. Hence, I take an amino acid supplement. There are many fine products on the market but I take Amino 1000 from GNC. You can order it online if you choose at

http://www.gnc.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2133702

Nuts are very high in protein and walnuts in Omega 3.  Sprouted grains are also a great way to supplement proteins.

I still eat eggs and a minimal amount of cheese, organic whenever possible.