Ready for Work

As I have mentioned before, being greener takes a bit of organization. Since I started my new job this week, I decided that this was a great time to re-organize my routine.

For many years, I got ready for work the night before, so that all I had to do in the morning was jump up, throw on clothes, wash my face and brush my teeth, and I was gone. Lately, however, I'd let that routine slide in favor of watching too much TV in the evenings (really? Private Practice? I mean, I love TV, but c'mon Catfish. That's ridiculous).

So it was time to get back in the groove -- but a new, greener groove. Turns out it was a bit more work than I thought it would be.

The picture above displays all of the things I've been getting ready each night:

• Lunchkit (that's Southern for lunchbox): I fill my lunchkit with foods that have been minimally-processed - apples, almonds, peapods and carrots for snacks; items to make a wrap for lunch (avocado, homemade hummus, turkey, spinach, and a tortilla - the tortilla and turkey are the items that are hardest to find in a "minimally-processed" version. I just try to find those that have the fewest weird ingredients).
• Smoothie Fix'ins: Chop up and freeze berries or banana, measure out 3/4 of a cup organic milk and a teaspoon of flax seeds. In the morning I put it all in the blender with a 1/2 c. of organic French vanilla yogurt and blend.
• Coffee: I've been stopping at Starbucks each morning for the last two years, and I really don't like Starbucks coffee without the paper cup (I guess I just like the addition of cardboard in my coffee ...) which is weird. In order to reduce my paper cup consumption, I'm trying to make my morning coffee each day. I get the machine ready the night before. I do occasionally have an afternoon Starbucks, but at least I've gotten rid of one paper cup per day.

I have to say, the first day I tried this routine (including ironing my clothes for the next day and showering), it took me about 45 minutes. I was pretty sure I couldn't maintain that. However, I've cut it down to about 30 minutes now, and that seems reasonable. However, it's only week 1. I'll keep you posted on how I do on keeping up the green routine.