Eating Healthy - results so far,

It's been around a month and a half now since we started mostly eating healthy.  We haven't been quite as good as I had originally planned, but I knew it would be unrealistic to expect us to be healthy all the time.  It probably didn't help that I got my period and got ill at the same time, whilst trying to arrange other things.  Then Ed got ill and so all thoughts of healthy eating basically went out the window.

The reasons behind us slightly changing our diet weren't just about eating healthier and hopefully losing some unhealthy fat, but also to help us save some money by not buying lots of unnecessary, usually sugary, food or as much takeaway, to waste less food, and to eat a little more sustainably mostly by eating more seasonal food with less packaging.  

So the plan we've been following is to have seasonal food Monday to Thursday, which we steam and have with a homemade sauce of some kind (based on a video I watched by ?on YouTube.  We've kept Friday night as our usual be an idiot and eat pretty unhealthy things, but really enjoy it.  Then Saturday and Sunday go back to seasonal food, but this time we follow one of the recipes that we like.  This is actually working out quite well and has meant that I've been able to batch-prepare our weekday dinners along with my healthy lunches on Sunday night.  It makes it a lot less stressful during the week when I have less time to cook and means that we are much more likely to actually eat the healthy food we have.

I've also been concentrating on reducing my sugar intake throughout the week.  In the past, I was definitely eating much more sugar than I should have done but now, instead of having something daily, I have it a couple of times a week.  I can still feel the sugar cravings, but I've been doing my best to ignore them and most of the time I've been winning.  I have also reduced the amount I've been eating to a much healthier portion size for someone my height, which has suited me just fine and has actually meant that I've felt less sluggish.  This has all led to me losing some weight, but not a lot which I was expecting as I have gotten back to my physical job again where I'm building back up my muscles.  However, you can visually see that I have lost some fat so I just need to carry this on.

At the moment we're not actually getting bored of this meal plan despite it being pretty similar each week.  Due to that, we're going to keep doing this for a few more months to help us continue changing the way we react to food.  When we do start to get bored of it we'll go back to the recipes that we made before, but just make them a whole lot healthier.  I have to say though, this has been a whole lot more convenient than what we were doing before so I would be very happy to keep this going for a while.  And that means this will keep me eating much less sugar and us spending much less money.

Goals 2023 Update #4

It wasn't the most effective year this year when it came to reaching my goals and normally I do much better at these.  However, this year definitely feels like it's been one of those years in every respect, which means I'm not really too surprised by the outcome.  This is how it went.

Financial

• Four months emergency fund - on this we reached our 2023 goal and then some.  In fact, we've actually almost reached half our savings amount.  This is a pretty good achievement and I am happy about it despite knowing that we could have done better had we been stricter.
• Sinking funds - all of these were reached and we have been happily using them for their intended purposes.   This time of year has made it very clear how good it is to have your Christmas sinking fund all saved up as we've been able to spend without having to worry about how we're going to afford it all.
• Pension and personal spending - I reached my goal this year of putting 12.5% of each pay cheque into my pension scheme, which is good.  I just need to set up my pension with my new employee so that it automatically comes out of my wage without me having to do anything additional.  And that now ends the good streak moving us neatly onto our personal spending.  This definitely hasn't been great, for either of us, and it's something we'll need to work on over the next year if we want to reach our long-term goal.
• Changing my bank account - I still haven't gotten around to this, even though I know who I think I should change it to.  I am basically just being lazy about this, but there are some things I'm concerned about when it comes to moving to this bank.  I think I just need to write down a list of what they are and then research them instead of just putting it off.
• Secondary income - this has been on the back burner for now as I haven't really had the time or headspace to think about it properly.  This is something else to look at over the coming year.

Learning A New Skill

• Skateboarding - we did manage to fit some skateboarding in this year, but not as much as we had originally planned so I'm still not particularly good at this just yet.  Though at least I'm better than I was at the start.
• Surfing - we did have a lesson a little while ago and were told that we were good enough to practice on our own for a while until we felt it was time to go to the next level when we would need an additional lesson.  However, we haven't actually gotten around to that yet, partly because we find it difficult to find days off together that match and partly because on those days we're a little lazy.  Really I just need to be a little bit more organised.
• Sailing - this is still on the back burner whilst we learn other skills and save up to be able to afford the lessons.  As we do have other savings goals right now which are more of a priority it'll need to wait.

So not quite the year I was hoping for but we still haven't done too badly either and you can't have good years every year.  I also, perhaps, put a little bit too much on myself to accomplish this year anyway.  However, despite not completing everything we are still moving forward and that's a good thing.  I've also learnt some lessons which I can carry forward onto the next year.  One of the main reasons for not succeeding in the number of these goals was not properly organising my time, and that's a good lesson in itself.  Now I need to think about what I want to do next year, which will probably be along the same lines as this year but maybe with just a bit more teeth behind it.

Walking: Pont ar Daf to Dyffryn Cellwen

It had been quite a long week and I really felt like I needed to stretch my legs and give my mind a chance to just wander aimlessly, preferably in a location where there weren't other people.  So I decided to go on a long walk in the mountains.  For ease, I wanted to start somewhere where Ed could drop me off on his way to work, but I also wanted some parts of it to be in an area I hadn't been to before with some off-path sections so I planned on heading up Fan Fawr and then just going west.

I knew the weather wasn't going to be good and a little bit chilly, but it was meant to clear up a little as the day went by (though that didn't really happen).  I made sure I wore a number of layers and had more in my bag, along with a thermos of hot tea to make sure I was able to stay at the right temperature throughout the day and in case anything bad happened so I could protect myself from the elements.  I also took both my walking poles to give myself a bit more stability when crossing any rivers and when going through the boggier areas.  As an additional safety assurance, and because my route wasn't 100% fixed, I set my WhatsApp so that my husband could see where I was at any time.

So, from Pont ar Daf I headed to Storey Arms and up onto Fan Fawr, straight into the clouds.  It wasn't actually as cold as I was expecting, but it was as wet as predicted and I knew that my feet weren't going to stay dry for very long (I had also packed my trainers, some dry socks, and a miniature towel for when I finished - a luxury for sure, but definitely a good one).  However, I find as long as I can keep my body warm my feet do just fine in these conditions.

From the top of Fan Fawr I headed towards the trig point and then north with the plan of cutting across west a little bit later to look at some old, unused sheepfolds on Nant (brook) y Gaseg.  Unfortunately, at that point I couldn't see far enough in the front to be able to navigate properly so I decided to follow a path I already knew which would lead me to Nant Mawr, a tributary I could follow down to Nant y Gaseg.  From there it would be easy enough to find the sheepfolds.  As I was following this I finally came out of the clouds and could see them ahead of me and this allowed me to then take a more direct route.  

After a little nosey around it was time to cross over the brook.  It took a little while to find a safe spot as the water had risen quite a bit in the rain and the main issue was not trying to not get my feet wet (this had already happened) but more that you could see the rocks were a little bit too slippery to use safely.  However, I did finally find somewhere and I was very glad I had my walking poles with me.  Then it was straight up the very steep east side of Fan Llia back into the clouds.  If I'm honest, I actually quite enjoy walking in cloud cover and mist.  You may not get the views, but there's something very magical about it and I love how easy it is to mis-interrupt things you see in the distance and the changed noises that reach you.  

The plan was to then find a route down the west side of Fan Llia, cross the road, and look for a route around the side of Fan Nedd that would take me to the actual path leading to the top.  However, visibility had gotten even worse by this point and I knew this wasn't going to be a safe option at all.  So I changed my plans and decided to just follow the Beacons Way off Fan Llia and onto the Roman road I was planning on following later, leaving Fan Nedd for another day.  I have walked this path before so I took the slightly lower route this time, not that I could really see anything to make this really feel any different.  It was, of course, raining pretty heavily once I'd reached the bottom and it was time to have my lunch.  Nothing that a good, hot cup of tea couldn't fix though.

Then it was onto the Roman road for 2.5 hours.  I'd already walked just under half of this before when I had walked this section of the Beacons Way, and I have to grudgingly admit the other half wasn't any more fascinating than the first.  Up until this point, I hadn't bothered listening to anything on my headphones as I was enjoying the more natural noises of brooks, rain, and wind.  This time of year also meant that there weren't even livestock noises out on the hills, but now I needed a little bit of extra distraction so I put on some podcasts I'd been saving.  It was also quite a straightforward walk from here on so I could afford to concentrate less on where I was going.

As expected, it did get a little bit more complicated when I was walking through farmland and I ended up not being able to finish the very last part how or where I wanted.  Instead, I ended up walking along a B road which allowed me to look into the fields where the Roman fort and camp were meant to be.  It turns out there wasn't actually too much to see so I didn't feel like I'd missed out too much.  Then it was onto Dyffryn Cellwen to meet up with a friend who kindly drove me to get a pint or three.  Though things didn't exactly go to plan this walk was still exactly what I needed and, though physically tired, I felt much better afterward.  I also ended up with a lot more energy again, managing to get quite a lot done in the days following that walk.  It's definitely something I need to remember to fit into my days a lot more often.

Visiting St Fagans National Museum of History

St Fagans is an open-air museum containing buildings (mostly homes) either relocated or reconstructed from around Wales and from different time periods in our history.   They also hold some of the artifacts that people from those times would have used when living in those spaces.  These are actually the types of museums that interest me the most as you get to have an idea of how everyone got to live, rather than just the rich few.  

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to look at all the buildings properly as there is so much to see and some were not open to the public this time around.  There were a couple that I really wanted to see, but that just means that we'll need to return sometime soon.  And, now that I know what there is there I can go back with more specific questions in mind and maybe even get some ideas about what to have in our home when we finally get around to getting it.

I did end up taking a lot of photos of buildings and interiors, more specifically of structural things like up close-ups of stone walls and the weaving inside the thatched rooves.  There are also quite a few of the gardens where they were using their greenspaces to grow vegetables and keep livestock rather than just for growing flowers.

It's interesting to see what people used to use in their everyday lives, especially at a time when they would also make their own clothes and textiles or have to make all their food right from scratch, as well as the objects that persisted for centuries, such as the cawl spoon.  For some reason, I'm always interested in fireplaces.  I think because for many years they were used for more than just heating and because you can get an idea about what types of things people were eating based on what hardware was around the fires.  Unlike what I've seen in many other places a lot of the cottages and farmhouses fires only had space to put a kettle on or just one pot in which they probably cooked cawl.  However, I do know there was often a communal bread-baking oven in the villages so they wouldn't need this in their homes at least.

We'll definitely be back to have another look around, especially of the buildings we didn't get to see time around.  The only things that we didn't quite enjoy were the blacksmith and the weaving demonstrations that were happening, which were both underwhelming.  However, we might have just turned up at the wrong times.  It's always interesting to me that the number of skills that I would like to learn were in fact completely commonplace not so long ago.  So, having a look at these homes and seeing how these skills were woven into their everyday lives is always of interest.

Toiletries: What's Left & What I'm Aiming For

There was a time when I had a ridiculously large amount of toiletries.  I'd never intended for that to be the case, but I had become very good at 'storing' them to the point where I'd actually forgotten what I had.  It wasn't until I pulled everything out one day that I realised just how bad it had become.  That was a few years ago now and since then I have worked through all of those products, as well as starting the process of experimenting with different types of toiletries to find the most sustainable items that fit what I need at the moment.  Right now I'm still here in New Zealand, so a number of the items I have are New Zealand brands and aren't necessarily in keeping with how I'd like my toiletries to look just because I don't know enough about what's available here just yet.

So, this is what I have left, by category, and how I intend to have this category in the future.

Dental Care
I never thought I'd say this, but I actually miss my Georganic toothbrushes and toothpaste, they are just really good quality products and pretty much all of the packagings were re-usable or recyclable.  However, it has been really easy to get bamboo toothbrushes here, which we've been composting, and I'll definitely keep buying wood-based brushes in the future.  I love the Georganic floss that I've been using and will keep buying the refills (or equivalent if I can find it) as long as they keep selling them.  The water where we're staying right now has fluoride in it, so we've been buying the fluoride-free Red Seal toothpaste.  This toothpaste has a lot of good point about it, however, the packaging is still not great and I want to get back to either the pot based or tab based toothpaste I've used in the past as soon as I can.  Time to do a bit more research on those, so if you know of any good brands please let me know.

Hair Care
I'm now down to just two brushes (I'm not entirely sure why I had so many before), one for wet hair and one for dry.  I do seem to be having a bit of bad luck with my Kent Head Hog brushes though.  The last one fell apart around the bristles and had to be replaced, and the end of the handle on this one has fallen off.  Thankfully, I don't really need that part for the brush to function, but they still don't seem to be lasting as long as they used to with my first one lasting about 10 years before it gave up the ghost (when I dropped it down some concrete stairs).

The shampoo and conditioner are ones that I got here in New Zealand (you can read more about the products I've brought in New Zealand here).  Whilst I do really like this shampoo I definitely prefer having a shampoo bar instead of the liquid soap as, not only is there less waste, but it's so much more compact.  I still haven't quite found a bar that doesn't make my hair feel waxy after a period of use or have SLS, it seems to be an either-or thing, but I'm going to keep looking and hopefully have found some new items to test once this liquid shampoo runs out.  I had stopped using conditioner for a while and, whilst the health of my hair overall pretty much remained the same, I had noticed that it got tangled a lot easier and was harder to brush through.  I know now that I can live without conditioner and am only using it at the moment as I want to donate my hair in the future, but if I could find a bar conditioner in the future then I would keep this product as part of my hair care routine.  So I guess I'll be doing some more looking here too.

Deodorant
Right now I'm down to only one deodorant and it's a natural one.  I used to always have a couple of deodorants with me as I would use an antibacterial one for when I was at my job, but if I wore it every day it would stop working so I would wear a non-antibacterial one on my non-work days.  As I can't go to work at the moment I'm not having to worry about that and have used up all my previous deodorants.  I actually quite like just having the one, more natural deodorant and I'm hoping I can carry on doing so once lockdown is over.  I might have to change that, but I'll just see how that goes.

Face Cleansing
Right now I'm still using the micellar water and reusable cotton rounds (which I removed the inner padding of as it was absorbing most of the product) I was using while we were still living in a tent.  It is a quick and easy way of cleaning the makeup off your face but, as the flannel I now use to do my second cleanse shows, it doesn't do a very good job of getting my skin properly clean.  Once I've used this up I want to go back to using oils to cleanse my face as I find they're the most effective without drying out my skin.  I've used up all my face toners and I'm not sure I'll bother buying anymore as I haven't really noticed any difference in my skin since.  Also, oil cleansing I normally use means I don't need the extra step to ensure I've removed all the dirt from my face.  I also don't have any face masks or scrubs left and, whilst I don't really feel I need them that much, I do miss the Juice Beauty Green Apple Peel Sensitive Exfoliating Mask.  I do have a problem with dry skin on my face, which does produce flaking patches, but I don't really like using physical scrubs if I can help it.  This does a really good job at keeping that at bay and I only had to use it once every one to two weeks.  I'll be on the hunt for that once I'm able to start earning money again and I'll just have to rely on the trusty face clothe for now.

Face Moisturising
Right now I am down to just one item in this category, and that's a mixture of the face night oil I make myself (a mixture of Jojoba Oil, Avocado Oil, Rosehip Oil, and Frankincense essential oil) and the Pixi Collagen & Retinol Serum which I threw in with my night oil as I didn't think they would let me take it in its non-seethrough packaging in my hand luggage on the plane.  It has turned into an interesting colour and texture, but it seems to be doing the same job on my skin as when I put them on separately.  I just can't double moisturise at the moment, which is fine for now but will become a problem if I'm still in New Zealand during their winter.  I do really like the serum though, so I'll be rebuying it in the future, but only when I'm earning again.  Fortunately, I still have a lot of the oils waiting for me at my parents' house in the UK so I can just remake my own night oil again once I'm home.  I've used up all my morning oil, which was actually just Jojoba oil, and I'm beginning wondering if I really need to use it at all in the mornings as long as I make sure I moisturise my skin enough at night.  Something to experiment with in the future and anything I can remove from my morning routine would be good.  I've also used up all my eye cream and should probably look into buying some more of that as that is quite a delicate area for me.  However, I do want to make up my own form with the oils I already have, so maybe I'll leave off buying anything for now and do a bit of research on eye oil recipes.

SPF
Right now I'm using the best sunscreen I could find here in New Zealand for the budget we have (see the blog already linked).  However, in the future, I want to go back to the types of SFPs I was using before, namely more natural, coral safe, and reliably cruelty-free.  I'm also just using a body sunscreen for my face, but I've heard people say that you shouldn't really do that so I'll need to see if that's really the case and if it really makes that much of a difference.  I know the old faithful I like back in the UK, but if I'm going to be here a while longer I'll probably need to look more at the products I can get in New Zealand.  The main issue here is the price of the more sustainable ones.  Definitely need to keep looking.

Body Cleansing
This one's pretty simple, it's soap and it'll stay that way.  I'll keep using soap that has no SLS, is cruelty-free, and the most natural I can find.  Thankfully this is becoming easier and easier to do so I doubt I'll have any trouble sticking to this.

Body Moisturising
I brought a pretty big tub of moisturiser here in New Zealand and it's working pretty well, however, I do have to put it on pretty regularly to keep my skin healthy as it's usually the thicker, less absorbent types of moisturiser that work for me.  That's the type of moisturiser I'll actually look for once this is finished.  One of the ones that worked really well was the moisturising bars that you get from Lush.  I was also much easier to carry around and used a lot less packaging, so I'll look for something similar to this in the future.

And then there's hand cream and lip balm.  The lip balm is a new one I'm trying from Ecostore and it was the only one I could find at the time.  So far it's working pretty well, it's also cruelty-free which is good.  I'm down to just one lip balm, with no duplicates, and that's how I'm planning on keeping it.  I am purposely working through the hand cream, not because I have duplicates as this is now the only hand cream I have, but because I've had it for a while now and don't want it to get old before I've finished it.  I'm also not really sure if I will need to separate hand cream if I find a good body moisturiser, but I guess I'll see how that goes once I start working again.  It might be that I need something more intense to use on a daily basis to counteract the drying effect that manual labour always has.  I also want to see if I can find more solid, possibly tin-based versions of these products in the future, just for ease of travel and reduction of packaging.  The Welsh Lavender Ltd's Farmers' Hand Cream is in a tin, but as it's of a more fluid texture it can get a little bit messy if it ends up on its side.  I do really like it though and, if I need to buy a hand cream again, the messiness wouldn't necessarily put me off.

Hair Removal
I would still be using my safety razor at the moment if it wasn't for the fact that I've used up the last of my refill blades and haven't been able to find replacement ones here in New Zealand yet.  That means that I've had to resort to buying a pack of disposable razors for now, but I'm going to keep looking for the blades so that I can go back to my safety razor once these are gone.  Lockdown, budget, and tent living have also meant that a trip to the beauty salon or the use of an 'at home' tub of wax and reusable cloth stripes for waxing hasn't really been an option, meaning that the humble waxing stripe has now become my main form of hair removal.  They're definitely not my favourite way of removing hair because of the amount of waste they produce so, once we're more settled, I definitely want to go back to either the tub and reusable cloth stripes or budget in regular beauty salon visits again.  It all depends on the budget.

Sanitary Products
These are still the same as before and I will keep using these for the foreseeable future.  They are, of course, the Mooncup and the reusable sanitary pads from Bloom and Nora, which I only really use for emergencies.  Not only are these much more sustainable products, but they've also meant that I've had to carry far fewer products with me when I travel and have spent no money on sanitary products since purchasing them.

Tools
These are pretty simple and I don't think they've changed too much recently.  I still use, when I remember, the dry body brush to help exfoliate the skin, help with circulation, and deal with ingrowing hairs (a real problem when you're dry skinned like me).  I've had these Tweezerman tweezers for years and they're still going strong, though I do need to finally get them sharpened now (if I can work out how to do that).  It's definitely a good example of spending a bit of money on something that will last a long time.  Then there's the pretty standard nail scissors, file, and manicure tool, though I actually don't use the manicure tool that much so I'm thinking of getting rid of it in the future.  I do have cotton buds, which I've been able to find with bamboo instead of plastic, but I always feel bad about using these and I really need to find an alternative in the future.  Any advice on that would be much appreciated.  There's also a brush for my eyebrows as they go completely mad if just left to their own devices and, of course, a flannel (this one's from The Body Shop and is pretty cute but not of great quality).

And that's it, that's all my toiletries for now.  There are some things that I have used for ages and will continue to do so, but there is definitely going to be changes happening in the future to a much more waste-free, sustainable selection.  I basically want to have as little bulky, liquid containers in my toiletries bag as possible, especially as it's likely that I'll still have quite a nomadic lifestyle for now depending on the work I am able to get during this time.  It has been interesting though, having a period where I've been without certain products for a little while.  It's definitely shown me what items I can do without and what items have really made a difference to the health and appearance of my skin, hair, and teeth.  Hopefully, by the end of this year, I'll have a core set of toiletries that I use completely and nothing more.  I let you know if I manage it.

Finding Ethical Beauty Products in New Zealand

Getting to see new countries is always pretty amazing and I feel particularly lucky that I've been able to take the time I have to spend so long in New Zealand. However, the length of time has meant that I have gotten through all the beauty products (not including make up) that I brought with me and for which I know the ethics of, and am now having to look for new companies to temporarily replace those I already know and love.

The big companies that aren't cruelty free and I don't want to buy from are pretty much the same here as in the UK so that part was particularly easy to get around, but finding more ethical brands did seem to be a little bit more of a challenge as I was basically starting from scratch. Lush and The Body Shop are both here and, of course, Living Nature is actually produced here. However, they are all located pretty far away from where we're based and just a little bit out of our price range at the moment. My aim here was to find products that ticked most of the boxes on the ethical front and were easy to find, either in the supermarkets or in the local area of Matamata. As we don't have a fixed base at the moment ordering products on line was a little bit problematic so in store items were what I was aiming for this time round.

My usual resource for checking on a brands cruelty free status, LogicalHarmony, wasn't really of use here as the brands I have been looking at didn't appear to be on any of her lists and even struggled to find some of them on an Australian based cruelty free website (Choose Cruelty Free) that is recommended here in New Zealand. So some real research was needed to decide on which brands I would purchase. I do have to make a slight note here to the fact that I found it difficult to find items that weren't in plastic packaging (bar the soap – no pun intended), so in that case I opted for the biggest item I could find to proportionally use the least amount of plastic. Something that New Zealand is particularly good at. All of these items are recyclable and that's what I will be doing with them when I'm finished (after scrapping out every last bit of product of course).

So let's start with the soap. I went for Ecostore Soap in Lemongrass. I've see this product in basically every supermarket that I've gone to and it's a really nice product for a good price. It's packaged in only cardboard and is vegan, cruelty free, grey water suitable (in case that was something you needed), tallow and GE free, and made in New Zealand itself. This one smells really good and works very effectively so it's turned out to be a real find. I don't think I'll need to repurchase before I travel north, but I would buy this again if I was staying.

For sun cream we went for the Cancer Society's product in spf factor 50+. There's been some controversy over this product as when a number of sun creams in New Zealand were tested independently quite a few of them didn't reach the factor they claimed. Cancer Society was one of the companies that failed this test, but the testers did say that the factor was still high, so we decided to still buy this product fully knowing it's flaw. Whether or not it is cruelty free is a little bit of a grey area and I've seen mixed reports on the internet despite Cancer Society saying that they don't test on animals. It's also not reef safe as far as I can tell. Basically this product was the best of a bad lot and I would definitely want to find something else if I was staying here, though the prices of the more natural sun creams are pretty eye watering. Some of the profit do go to charity though and it's made in Australia so it hasn't had to travel too far to get here.

Red Seal was the choice we made for toothpaste. Again this items it pretty much available in every supermarket in New Zealand. It's cruelty free, has not artificial colours, flavours, or preservatives, no parabens, and New Zealand based, so it ticked a lot of boxes. The only problem I had with this product is the lack of fluoride in it. Under normal circumstances I usually activity pick toothpastes without fluoride because this mineral is commonly found in the tap water, especially in most of the areas in the UK. But in the area we're living in right now there's no fluoride added to the water and so that little bit of protection for your teeth isn't available. I know there are other ethical toothpastes that do contain fluoride in them and which I've seen in some shops around us, so I would probably buy those next time if I need to (though I don't think I will until once I'm back in the UK). Still a really good product though and I would recommend buying it if you don't want fluoride in your toothpaste.

The Organic Care Shampoo in Dry Nourish is a really lovely shampoo. I've been trying to use bar shampoos for a while now and, whilst I always initially love them, they do tend to make my hair really waxy, itchy in the heat for some reason, and unmanageable after a few uses. So this time I just went for the usual liquid shampoo to give myself a rest for now, but will be back on the bar hunt again once this product is finished. Again, a product that was easy to find in the supermarkets, pretty well priced for what it is, and is cruelty free, contains no animal ingredients, is grey water safe, free from petrochemical cleansers, parabens, sls, als, sles, and ales, and the bottle is made from 100% recycled plastic (which can be recycled again). It also leaves my hair feeling pretty soft and smelling great. As I only wash my hair about once a week a bottle this size is definitely going to last me a very, very long time. Especially as I'm getting my hair cut much shorter pretty soon – hopefully.

Conditioner is not something that I've used in a very long time as I've not really felt like I've needed it. But since coming to somewhere hot with a lot of sun my hair has definitely started to dry out quite a bit and has gotten a lot knottier than usual. As I'm wanting to keep it in as good a condition as possible as I'll actually going to be donating it when I get it cut I decided to bite the bullet and buy one. This is the Essano Kakadu Plum Conditioner I only got a small bottle and wasn't too bothered about it being easily available as I'm intending on being back in the UK at the end of the month where I won't be needing conditioner again by the time it runs out. However, it is vegan, cruelty free, made in New Zealand, and the bottle is made from 100% recycled material (which again can be recycled again). It also smells really nice and definitely makes my hair a lot easier to brush.

I usually prefer to use oils and a flannel to remove my make up at the end of the day, but living in a tent has meant that that's a little bit impractical and I've been using micellar water instead. This one is the Essano Rosehip Micellar Water with organic rosehip oil. I have to admit that this isn't the best quality micellar water I've ever used and I usually have to go over an area a few times to remove the black smear that appears when I'm trying to remove my mascara. However, it is made in New Zealand, is vegan, and cruelty free. It also has no parabens, harsh chemical sulphates, silicones, phthalates, or ethoxylates. As I use up more make up, and therefore put less product on, the effectiveness of the make up remover will matter less so right now I'm not too bothered about the panda eyes. But I won't be getting this one again.

Lastly, body moisturiser. The dry heat has made this especially important at the moment and my skin has definitely been getting that dry, itchy feel a lot more often over the last few months. Luckily I was able to get this super sized bottle of the stuff, which is just as well as I've smoother myself in it pretty regularly. This is the Voeu Jojoba Oil and Oat Extract Body Lotion. It does take a little bit of work to get it to melt in and even then it leaves a white caste for a few minutes. However, it doesn't feel like it's just sitting there in the way I've noticed with other moisturisers and yet it still feels like it's done a good job. It's smells amazing as well and is easy to get in most supermarkets here. There was a question as to whether or not it is actually cruelty free, and after a bit of searching I have found a few websites that have said that it is cruelty free.

And that's it for now. These products will definitely last me until I leave New Zealand and probably for quite a while when I'm back in the UK too. That is, of course, unless a specific virus stops me travelling back home at the end of the month. In which case I have a bit more of an opportunity to do some more research to find even better products that tick all the boxes that I have been striving for in the UK. With everything being so up in the air at the moment, who knows where I'll be in April. Should be a very interesting few weeks.

What Good Can I Do?

When talking to people about some of the issues we face today the most common reason I hear from people to do nothing at all is 'What good can I do? I'm just one person and my contribution will be so small it won't make a difference'.  And whilst there are some people who use this as just an excuse to do nothing, there are those who are genuinely overwhelmed by the issues we face today.  This has been coined eco-anxiety when it comes to making the decisions on what the best actions to do for climate change are.

The general idea is that one action carried out by one person will be engulfed by the overall inaction of everyone else.  In which case, why waste the effort at all.  But I don't entirely agree with this idea and here's my reasoning why.

1. The effect of your behaviour and actions on their own could be small, but if they inspire others to follow the same then the knock on effect can actually be quite large.  Just look at Greta Thunberg and the climate strikes she has inspired across the world.  While there is the unfortunate possibility that these strikes will have little affect on changing Government policies, they will inspire people to change aspects of their behaviour that, collectively, will have a larger impact.  I've also noticed this in my life and the choice I've made to become an almost (work in progress) dairy-free vegetarian.  I'm not militant about it nor do I try and push it onto others, but people naturally have questions and they especially have questions when it comes to the very physical job I manage to do without meat (apparently the one thing you need to by physical).  When they find out that I'm healthy and happy, that I have no problem doing the work I do, and how easy and tasty the dishes that I make are they want to try it too.  They don't necessarily go completely vegetarian, but they do end up adding vegetarian dishes to their meals and cutting back on the amount of meat they eat, which environmentally still makes a difference. 
2. You may not be able to act directly for a cause or action you believe in, but you can support those who are.  Most of us in the western world are in a fortunate position to be able to make a financial donation to one or more of the variety of charities available to us.  Whilst on our own we wouldn't be able to make provide the necessary funds to make a difference, our smaller individual donations are all part of supporting the work they do and without it the organisations wouldn't be able to function at all.  It's a little contribution to us, but it makes a big difference to someone else. 
3. If we've learnt nothing else from Brexit (though lets face it, there's a lot to learn from Brexit) the one thing we have learnt is what a difference a vote can make.  Studies that came out after the voting took place showed that around 35% of Britains didn't actually vote and, if everyone had voted, then the likely results would have been 50.35% in favour of remaining (https://ukandeu.ac.uk/what-if-everyone-had-voted-in-the-eu-referendum/).  Obviously this is not conclusive, if it had happened that way then the last 3 years would have been very different.  Today, especially with the types of politicans we have at the moment, we often think that voting is really a bit pointless and won't produce any positive changes to the way our lives are.  But Brexit has clearly shown each vote really did make a difference, and not necessarily for the better. 
4. Recently I've been coming across a lot of articles about how being kind to people has a positive impact on the giver, which would make it a worthwhile action in its own right (my favourite article on this comes from the Random Acts of Kindness website).  But as a way of making a positive change in the world it's actually been shown to be quite effective. Those who have acts of kindness shown to them are much more likely to then act kindly themselves in their behaviour and decision making.  Not only does this have a cascading affect, as in the person you are nice to are more likely to be nice to multiple people who will themselves be nice to multiple people (as shown here), but people will also be kinder even if they don't actually receive the act themselves but see it happening to someone else.  In otherwords, acts of kindness are contagious.   So, that one little act you might think is insignificant and impactless can actually have a very large affect on the world around you.

When you think about everything that is wrong in the world and all the things you would need to do to fix them completely it can be very overwhelming.  It may even make you not want to try at all.  But even just little behaviours and actions can make a difference.  And, even if it turns out that my actions don't have as a big a impact as I would hope, I'd still rather know that I had actually tried than have done nothing at all.