I've been trying to change my life for the better for awhile now, including simplifying, getting fitter and healthier, and trying to get greener - and in the last few months I've been doing a lot of researching into reducing my carbon footprint as well.

    And while there are hundreds or even thousands of things we can do to reduce the resources we consume and the emissions we produce, I've been focusing on three areas that have （among） the biggest impacts.

    One of the greatest things I've noticed is that these three changes not only help you to become greener, but can go a long way toward improving your health （and helping you to be more frugal）. Going green and being healthier and fitter often go hand in hand.

    And while I'm far from perfect, even in these three areas, I'd like to share some of my thoughts and findings with you, in hopes that you'll look into and perhaps consider these changes yourself.

    1. Human-powered Transportation.Namely, cycling and walking. While cars are seen as convenient, even the greenest cars use up tons of resources （literally） and contribute greatly to greenhouse emissions. Autos are one of the biggest emissions contributors in most people's daily lives. While not everyone is going to go car-free all the time, we can reduce the amount we use cars.

    I've been walking more, as have Eva and the kids, to parks, playgrounds, the library, meetings, restaurants, movies, things like that. Walking is an amazing form of transportation - you barely use any resources or have any emissions （other than your breath）, and you get really fit walking around （see my Japan trip report for more on how I lost weight walking）.

    Cycling is something I also love, although I'm in between bikes right now and looking out for a good used bike （I prefer used as it means I'm reducing the amount of resources I consume）. Cycling for transportation takes some getting used to, I'll admit, but it's another incredible way to get around by consuming very few resources and emitting just about zero pollution, while getting in great shape. Seriously, I highly recommend this - try it for a couple weeks and you'll see that it's a very satisfying way to live.

    Mass transit, of course, is another great form of transportation, although in places like Guam it's a bit more difficult as we don't have a very good transit system. I've tried using it and it's extremely inconvenient if you have to be anywhere within a couple of hours. I loved the transit system in Tokyo, however, and would use that all the time if I were living there.

    Try to use human-powered transportation more often - you'll love it. It really helps put you in touch with the outdoors, and takes you out of the confinement of cars, out of the frustration of traffic, and reduces the amount you spend on gas and maintenance. Someday, I'm going to go car-free, and I hope I'll take all of you with me. :）

    2. Vegetarianism or Veganism.Or, if that sounds too difficult, start by just reducing your meat consumption. From GreenWikia: "More land has to be put into agricultural production to produce meat than to produce plant products. Because the methane they belch is 23 times more effective at retaining heat than CO2, domestic animals contribute more to global warming than all human transportation combined."

    Becoming vegetarian （and especially vegan） is one of the changes you could make with the biggest impacts on the environment. If we all gave up meat and other animal products, we'd have enough food to （theoretically, at least） feed the world （most of the food we produce goes to raising animals for meat, milk and eggs）, and we'd drastically cut down on the amount of pollution and greenhouse emissions.

    Becoming vegetarian doesn't have to be difficult - in fact, it can be a lot of fun if you explore new foods and ethnic cuisines. And while becoming vegan or vegetarian does not guarantee that you'll be healthier, most vegetarians are healthier （on average） than the average American. If you replace （usually fatty） meat and other animal products with fruits and veggies and whole grains and legumes, you'll get healthier. If you replace them with French fries and Twinkies, you won't. （Feel free to argue this point, but please please don't share info from the discredited Westin Price Foundation - it's really full of pseudoscience, we've had this discussion many times before, and I would rather not have links to fraudulent articles on my site.）

    I'm not saying that you're evil if you eat meat or drink milk, or that you're necessarily unhealthy. It's definitely possible to eat healthy with animal products in your diet. But I am saying it's something you should consider, for the sake of the environment … and if you get healthier in the meantime, that's a nice side benefit.

    I recently decided to go back to veganism （I've been lacto-ovo vegetarian for about 18 months, and was vegan before that） and will write a post about it soon, including some links shared by friends on Twitter.

    3. Consume Less.This is a pretty simple （though not necessarily easy） step that can make a huge difference in all areas of your life: how many resources you consume, how healthy you are, how much you spend, how much clutter you have. Buy less, use less, eat less - get away from loving and buying stuff.

    It's interesting because when we try to become greener, many of us automatically look to buying green products … which is good, when you do have to buy something, but actually, buying fewer products overall is better than going out and buying a bunch of environmentally-conscious type products.

    By consuming fewer products, clothes, gadgets, furniture … stuff … you'll use fewer resources and contribute less to landfills. When you buy something, a lot of resources were used not only for the materials needed to make the product （wood, paper, metal, plastic, cotton, etc.）, but to harvest those materials, to manufacture the product, to package it, to transport it to the store or to your door. Get into the habit of buying less, needing less, and when you do get something you need, get it used if possible. You'll end up spending less money as well.

    By consuming less food, you'll （likely） get healthier. Well, not if you're underweight - you probably need more food actually. But for those of us who have a few extra pounds （or a lot of extra pounds）, eating less is just what the doctor ordered. Fewer calories means you'll lose weight, and if you add to that a regimen of walking and cycling, eating less meat and consuming more plant foods, you'll definitely get healthier. Eating less food doesn't mean you need to starve yourself - just eat smaller portions. Eat slower and more mindfully. That takes practice, but learn this habit over time and you'll save not only your waistline, but your budget and a lot of resources as well.

    一直以來，我都在嘗試做些改變使我的生活質量更高，包括簡化生活，使身材更健美及健康，甚至做個環保主義者 ----最近幾個月我也做了許多減少碳使用量的嘗試reducing my carbon footprint

    雖然我們能做上百甚至上千件事情去減少資源的消耗以及自身生產物的排放，但我始終專注于進行其中最重要的三件。

    最棒的一件事是我已經發現這三個改變不只使你成為一個環保主義者，還可以對你的健康大有裨益（同時幫助你更節儉）.因為更環保和變得更健康以及身材更勻稱這三件事通常是相鋪相成的。

    雖然在這三個方面我做得也不夠，但愿意在這里與你分享我的想法和發現，希望會引起你的觀注并對你有所幫助

    1. 人力交通工具。比如，自行車和步行。汽車被視作便捷的交通工具，即便是最環保的車也要使用上噸資源（書面）并且排放大量的廢氣，日常生活中，大多數人使用的汽車便是廢氣大排放量的交通工具之一。當然我不是呼吁我們做什么都不要用車，只是可以人為地減少用車的次數。

    我經常步行，和Eva帶著孩子一起，去公園，操場，圖書館，去開會，去飯館或去看電影，諸如此類的。 步行是令人驚奇的"交通方式" - 你不會用到任何資源或排放什么 （除了你的呼吸）,并且通過步行你的身材真的會變得很勻稱健美 （參看我的 Japan trip report可以知道我如何通過步行減輕體重）.

    騎自行車也是我喜愛做的一件事，不過我會找一個性能良好的自行車而不是隨便一輛騎上就走（我喜歡騎得更省力的從而減少我資源的消耗）.騎自行車旅行的方式需要時間來習慣，這點我承認。不過，這是另一個不可思議的消耗極少資源以及幾乎零污染而得到健美體形的方式。 我極力推薦這個 - 試它個一兩周時間你就會看到這是一種另人滿意的生活方式。

    當然，軌道交通是一個很不錯的運輸工具，但是像在關島這樣的地方因為沒有非常好的交通系統而使得出行變得困難，我曾經乘座過，但是到任何地方都要花上個把鐘頭，它顯得尤為不便。然而我喜歡東京的軌道交通，如果我在那生活，出行都會選擇它。

    嘗試著更頻繁的使用人力交通工具吧--你會愛上它的。它真的可以使你方便地走出家門，擺脫汽車工具的束縛，遠離交通擁堵的煩惱并且省下你的汽油費和修理費用。某天，我要實行無車日，那時我希望全程有你陪伴：）

    2.普通素食主義者和純素食主義者，要么，如果那聽起來太難做到，就先從減少食用肉類開始。引自 GreenWikia:"供生產肉類產品占用的土地比生產植物類作物的土地，范圍要廣闊。因為他們冒出的甲烷產生的熱氣比二氧化碳高23倍，所以家畜的貢獻超過了人類因交通運輸制造的全球變暖"

    成為一個素食主義者（尤其是全素食主義者）會對環境產生巨大的影響，而這是你可以做到的一個改變。如果我們都不食用肉類和其它動物產品，我們會有足夠的食物（理論上講，至少）供應整個世界（我們生產的很多食物同時用來提高動物的產肉，產奶以及產蛋上）,而且我們應該大幅度降低嚴重的污染和溫室氣體排放。

    成為素食主義者不必很困難--事實上，如果你發掘出其它一些新的食物或民族美食你也會感到很多樂趣的。當然成為純素食主義者或普通素食主義者也不保證你一定會比不食用前更健康，（平均而言）許多素食主義者是比普通人健康的。如果你用谷類豆類或蔬菜，水果等代替比較肥膩的肉類及其它動物制品，你會更顯健康。相反如果用法式的薯條或高糖份蛋糕Twinkies來代替，那就未必了。

    （大家隨意探討這些話題，但是千萬請不要提及名譽掃地的威斯汀價格基金會-它真的充滿偽科學，我們以前也討論過多次，在這里我不再鏈接這些文章了）

    我不是指吃肉類或喝牛奶的人就是魔鬼，就必然是不健康的。當然在你的飲食食用這些也會是健康的，但我要說的是你應該在吃之前要考慮一些事情，（三思而后吃，嘿嘿，我加的）,看看我們生存的環境…而如果你在此其間想變得更健康，這是個對你有好處的建議。

    我最近還是決定做回純素食主義者（我曾經做了18個月的奶蛋素食主義者，之前是純素食者）我會盡快寫些文章，和我的朋友們在Twitter上分享

    3.減少消費。這是一個非常簡單易行的改變（雖然不一定很容易）,它可以使你的生活產生翻天覆地的變化：你消費了多少資源你就有多少健康，你花了多少錢就有多少垃圾被你買回來。少買些，少用些，少吃些--從物欲和購物中解脫出來 get away from loving and buying stuff.

    這是非常有趣的現象，當我們試圖變得環保的時候，我們多半會自然而然地去買環保產品當然你若真的需要它，這樣做是好的。但是很多時候，買得較少則好過買一大堆有環保標識的產品

    通過購買較少的產品，服裝，小工具，家具，雜物…你會使用較少的資源降低堆填區的容積。當你購買行為發生的時候，許多資源不僅僅是做為生產產品的材料（木頭，紙張，金屬，塑料，棉花，等等）它們本身是產品，你還需要去另外的材料，包裝好，運送及貯存，直到送達你處，請習慣買得少用得少吧，當你確實需要就盡可能的使用它。你也會為此花費更少的錢。

    通過食用較少的食物，你會（可能）更健康。當然，如果你體重過輕--你可能需要更多食物。但是對我們大多數體重偏重（或超重）的人而言，醫生也會指示你少吃為妙。較少的卡路里意味著你可以降輕體重，如果加上散步或騎自行車的提議，少吃肉類和少購買大量的食物，你一定會變得更健康。少吃食物不是說你必須餓自己一頓--只是吃小部份而已。細嚼慢咽， Eat slower and more mindfully要做練習，隨著時間的推移練習這個習慣，這樣你不只保持了你的腰圍，還保持了你的預算和資源。