• To Increase Sustainable Consumption, Show People What’s In It For Them | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation – I think you're on the wrong track, Fast Company. We need to reduce consumption, sustainable or not.
• Supermarket Meat Comes From Sick Animals | Mother Jones – Ugh. I go back and forth on which meat to buy…this is definitely pushing me further from buying regular supermarket meat.
• Rogue Farm Corps – Farm Internships – I think we're going to need more farmers and farm workers in the near future. Here's one way to get started.
• 4 New Ideas for a Bicycle Planet by Kate Malongowski and Jennifer Kaye — YES! Magazine – A pedaling school bus, a bicycle-supply vending machine and more.
• Environmentalists Need To Stop Pretending It’s All OK | The Good Human – Hard truths? We're all guilty.

“Does that fit into your lifestyle?” the leader asked.

Happily, I was able to say “Yes!”

If you’re working, raising a family and volunteering in a few different organizations, it’s not easy to fit in trips to the gym, or even walking and running outside (especially during these dark winter days). And of course, the comfy chair is always a temptation at home.

I do, of course, ride my bike to work (usually 5 days a week), which helps. But my weight loss has been stalled for a while, so I needed to bump up my activity levels.

When we received a Wii game console for Christmas, I knew I wanted to get some kind of active game for it. I ended up with Just Dance 3. The program includes Sweat Challenges. There are three options for a seven-day challenge: 500 points daily (equivalent to walking for 30 minutes a day), 1000 points daily (equivalent to running 30 minutes a day), or 3000 points daily (which they SAY is the equivalent of swimming 30 minutes a day). You don’t have to dance every day; just get the full amount by the end of the week.

So the game works well for physical activity. But what about the time and motivation to do it?

Well, I have three kids. They like to dance. They like to dance WITH me! So they make sure I dance.

For instance, tonight I got home around 5:00, and we were planning to go out to dinner (a fundraiser for Outdoor School) as soon as my husband got home. I could very easily have sat down with the computer to check Twitter and Facebook until then, but my daughter was already dancing and she handed me the other Wii remote before I had a chance to sit down. And we did 1300 points, easy-peasy, before dinner.

Oh, and the daughter? She’s doing the 3,000 points per day challenge this week!

FYI, the Just Dance games are also available for Xbox 360/Kinect and PlayStation/Move. And if you don’t have a game system (or if you just want to see what it’s like), you can play the Just Dance videos on YouTube and follow along (you just don’t earn points or compete with anyone).

My current goal is to lose 5 pounds by Valentine’s Day, and to have fun doing it!

Disclosure: Yes, those are Amazon affiliate links up there. If you buy something through those links, I do get a tiny percentage. Thank you!

• Group hopes dormant Ore. volcano will generate energy | kgw.com Portland – Possible source of geothermal energy…or possible source of earthquakes? I guess we'll see!
• Five packaged foods you never need to buy again | Grist – Here's one thing I need to work on: buying fewer packaged foods. Because our garbage service is every other week now, and we just don't have room!
• Brown Girl in the Lane: Naturally, the solution – This really struck me as an argument for bicycle facilities vs. vehicular cycling (just acting as if you're a car): "When we're living in a world where the only sort of people who feel comfortable riding requires a heavy dosage of testosterone and a huge sense of self-justification – we need to think deeply about why we're allowing this to continue. Don't we deserve better? Why the hell are we selling ourselves short? Why aren't we demanding more?"
• Last full-scale farm in Vancouver hangs on by a thread as the world changes around it | OregonLive.com – Sounds like it will be a shame to lose this place!
• When ‘Budget’ Foods Start To Eat Away At The Wallet : The Salt : NPR – I've definitely been noticing higher prices all around.

• BikePortland.org » Blog Archive » Exploring Alameda, California by bike – Nice report of some REALLY nice bike facilities in Alameda, including bikeway access to a middle school.
• Shareable: Policies for a Shareable City #12: Food Sharing – I'm sure the original intentions were good, but all too often, government gets in the way of communal food sharing and charity work.
• How Americans Really React to High Gas Prices – Commute – The Atlantic Cities – Higher gas prices really do push more people toward transit use: "The upshot of this analysis is a recognition that automobile use does not occur in isolation. It's strongly tied to both gasoline prices and the quality of the public transit system."
• BikePortland.org » Blog Archive » Is ‘mo’ the ultimate urban mobility solution? – "mo" makes it easier for people to get around car free — and rewards them in the process!
• A view from the cycle path: I cycle, so you could cycle too – David Hembrow says infrastructure is key to getting more people to cycle as transportation.

As a person concerned about sustainable living, I gravitate toward used books. For environmental sustainability, I want to limit my consumption of resources. For my own economic sustainability, I need and want to spend less. And if I buy from a local, independent seller of used books, that’s good for the local economy, too.

On the other hand, I do agree that authors deserve to be compensated for their work. Will that cease to happen if I buy used books? No. Someone’s got to buy them new before I can buy them used, right? And many of the books that I buy used are books that I might not buy otherwise.

When I want something badly enough, and I can’t easily find it used, I do go ahead and buy a new book — especially if I’ve already read a library copy. For instance I heard about The Resilient Gardener by Carol Deppe, and first I checked it out of the library and read it. I quickly found that it was one of the best gardening books I had read, and that it was something I would refer to time and again, so I ordered a new copy with an Amazon gift card (I earn and save these up sometimes).

So if you can afford to support authors by buying new books, and feel good about doing so, I’d say go for it! But please don’t tell us that this is what everyone should do. It’s not the right thing for every person.

NOTE: Yes, I put an affiliate link in there for you. You can send a little cash my way if you buy through that link. You’ll also be supporting Powell’s Books AND the author. Or, go forth and find a used copy — it’s your choice, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

But what could take the place of our current economy? I saw this video (produced by the Center for a New American Dream) on the BikePortland website, which explains how we could adopt an economy of plenitude instead. In fact, some of the things mentioned are already taking place.

• Riding the crimson tide: bicycling when you have your period | Grist – Elly Blue mentions the unmentionable.
• I find what happy women get right – Instead of trying to balance life, why not try tilting it toward what matters to you?
• St. Johns "library" is also a preservation society in North Portland – Food preservation, that is.
• Temporarily car-free in Nashville, Tennessee – Good overview of the benefits and challenges of going car-free.
• Cargo Bikes: Coolest Bicycles Ever Made? | Bicycling Magazine – A whole lotta cargo bike love, with lots of Portland pictures.

Yesterday, I served my family chicken burgers, and I had a Boca “chicken” burger. So that was easy.

I’m eating Weight Watchers Smart Ones meals for lunch, so I just picked meatless meals: Santa Fe rice and beans, pasta with veggie sauce, spinach lasagna.

I don’t normally eat meat with breakfast.

Tonight’s dinner was veggie chow mein. I used onions, carrots, broccoli slaw, a very small amount of fresh broccoli, zucchini and napa cabbage in it. No one even asked whether there was any meat in it, so I’m counting it as a success!

Also on this week’s menu: spinach ravioli with marinara sauce, bean burritos, scrambled eggs with potatoes and something yet to be determined that will be prepared and eaten while camping this weekend.

And thinking about all that? I’m not feeling deprived at all.

But that’s not entirely why I haven’t been posting much. It’s also because some of the things I normally write about have become mundane, ordinary parts of my life now. Riding my bike to work? This is my fourth year of doing it. And I’ve had my Xtracycle for over three years now.

I’m still cooking and canning and gardening, too. But it’s kind of old hat now.

I know there are more things I could do in the pursuit of sustainable living. I’m just not sure what to do next.

So I’m asking you: what do you want to know more about? Is there something about bicycling or canning that you would like to know about, or that you would like help with? Or, do you have an idea for a challenge? I’m willing to take on challenges within reason, if you’re willing to play along, too.

Let me know. Let’s do something.

In the meantime, I signed up a while ago for the 2011 EcoChallenge, and then didn’t get around to DOING anything about it. And then apparently they put me on a list of FEATURED BLOGGERS! Oops. So, I’m starting my EcoChallenge late. I’m still going to do the 15 days, starting today, and my challenge is to limit myself to eating meat no more than twice a week. This will take planning. Join me?

Eating good food feels sooooo good. But chasing that feeling is also sabotaging my weight loss goals.

I’ve been losing weight for a little over a year now. I started on my own, and then started Weight Watchers when we were offered free meetings at work. That first year of Weight Watchers went quite well, although perhaps a little slowly. I didn’t always stick to my point limits, but I did (mostly) cut out regular soda, fast food, and convenience store breakfasts. I added more fresh fruits and veggies to our menus. I started choosing the turkey sausage and other lower-fat products. I continued riding my bike to work, and added some crunches and yoga here and there, along with some longer bike rides. The weight came off, and I reached my ten percent weight loss target over the summer.

Since then, however, I’ve been bobbing up and down right around that ten percent target number. I’m not really getting anywhere. Part of that is probably the stress of starting a new school year, both on the job and with my own kids. But it’s also that weight loss is getting a little harder for me. I took off the easy weight. If I want to take off more, I’m going to have to work a little harder. I need to work on portion control and just eating less each day, and I need to add a little more exercise. And I need to make it a lifestyle change, so that I won’t just start bingeing again.

And THAT is hard. It’s hard for me to resist the euphoria of good eating. And sometimes, I just plain feel hungry when I eat less. I get a little of both.

I know the usual suggestions:

• Do something besides eating that makes you feel good.
• Plan healthy snacks so you won’t get hungry.
• Eat more protein and fewer carbs.
• Drink more water.

Sometimes those things work. Sometimes they don’t. The hardest part is the “do something besides eating.” I haven’t found anything that really works.

I’m going to keep plugging away, though. I’ve committed to tracking my food and activity this week, which I’ve been slacking off on, so I’ll be able to see what I’m really doing.