I Want To Be a Granola

Granola: An adjective used to describe people who are environmentally aware (flower child, tree-hugger), open-minded, left-winged, socially aware and active, queer or queer-positive, anti-oppressive/discriminatory (racial, sexual, gender, class, age, etc.) with an organic and natural emphasis on living, who will usually refrain from consuming or using anything containing animals and animal by-products (for health and/or environmental reasons), as well as limit consumption of what he or she does consume, as granola people are usually concerned about wasting resources. Usually buy only fair-trade goods and refrain from buying from large corporations, as most exploit the environment as well as their workers, which goes against granola core values.

(I stole that definition from Urbandictionary.com)

Most people who have known me for most of my life will laugh when they read this post. But in my mind, I'm a granola. I care about the environment, about animals, about healthy eating and living, energy conservation, pollution. Sometimes I want to be a vegetarian, except for the not eating fish part. That would just literally kill me. But if it weren't for that I'd probably do it. I'd like to cut all artificial products out of my diet. I'd like to eat only organic whole foods. In my head I'm a completely different person that I am in reality.

The problem is I don't know how. I live in a small southern city. We don't have Whole Foods or organic grocery stores. We don't have organic restaurants. We don't even have a recycling center for goodness sakes! I wish I lived in San Francisco or other places where these things are readily available. I have made some small changes though. I've stopped buying bottled water and instead started using a refillable Brita water filter to reduce waste. I've started using some meat substitutes like Boca Crumbles and Burgers and Morningstar Farms products in place of ground beef, sausage, etc. I try to eat products with no artificial ingredients whenever I have a choice. I've recently really starting loving the Kashi brand products. But there are only a few things available in my area. I've also recently cut out diet drinks and products containing aspartame.

Maybe one day my city will grow and these things will be easier to obtain. Maybe there is even something I can do to help. (Although I don't know what that would be.) Or maybe one day I'll move to a bigger city where this way of life is accepted or encouraged. But until then I guess I'll just have to keep taking the small steps I can with what I have.