Falling off the Green Wagon?

Alot of the stuff that I think is important to do in order to be more sustainable takes a bit of a hit during the winter months.

My bike commute ends, I start controling the temperature of my apartment with electric heat instead of nothing, and I watch more movies.

I think that reducing ones footprint isn't a all or nothing issue, and making it one risks scaring alot of people away. When I am using more resources in one area, I try and cut back in another.

Count me in there as well! Working on it....

I was just thinking of this last night, I do my best to make each decision based on thinking green, but naturally I take the easy route every now and then.  (throw away a soup can because I don't want to rinse it out, take long hot showers on cold days...etc) But my question, is when is enough enough? Where is the line between living green and becoming a "Green" Debbie Downer?  Believe me I will never stop being green, but I am starting to find it so tiring trying to be "publicly green".

For example, I just met my fiance's mom for the first time.  She is from South Africa where the green movement isn't exactly the topic on everyone's mind.  She is living with us while she's here and I found myself trying to explain to her what needed to be recycled, how to rinse the dishes, that she can't use non-biodegradable sunscreen while we're on the cruise, it will destroy the reefs, and you can forget about using that Styrofoam cup...

Before I knew it, everything coming out of my mouth was negative and usually ended with the statement "and then it will be sitting in a landfill for thousands of years."  Once I realized how terrible I sounded, I started just ignoring everything that I usually speak up about. 

How do you balance living what you believe and letting everyone else around you do the opposite?  Every time I see someone who doesn't care about the situation, I feel like I have to double my efforts, it is becoming an obsession...I think they have pills for this sort of thing!

Do you find yourself biting your tongue around people you know?  Or do you say it anyways and just feel good knowing you did your part??  I always repeat the phrase "practice what you preach" in my head when I want to make a decision, but lately, I'd prefer to skip the preach part and just practice!!

I'm a very non-preachy person.  Fortunately most of my friends and family are pretty eco-conscious already, so I don't really have to be.  Sometimes I'll use birthday or christmas presents to sort of nudge them in the green direction.  Like my brother-in-law and dad use a lot of electronic gadgets, so I got them each a solar charger for christmas.

For small stuff like cleaners or something I might mention that there's a greener alternative, but that's about as far as I go in terms of preaching unless they're doing something really bad.

Sometimes it's hard to to stay on the wagon ...

An easy way to get back on the "green wagon"If you want to lower the amount of toilet paper going into the sewer and harming the environment the best solution is to add Hand Held Bidet Sprayers to all your bathrooms. Makes cleaning the toilet itself a breeze also. For those of us who really like to be clean it is the best invention since the toilet. I think Dr. Oz on Oprah said it best: "if you had pee or poop on your hand, you wouldn't wipe it off with paper, would you? You'd wash it off” Available at www.bathroomsprayers.com  with these you won't even need toilet paper any more, just a towel to dry off! Don’t worry, you can still leave some out for guests and can even make it the soft stuff without feeling guilty. It's cheap and can be installed without a plumber; and runs off the same water line to your toilet. This is a green solution that saves you green at the same time.