Staying At Home is Helping Us Adopt Healthier Habits

For people all over the world, staying at home has provided some major benefits. Many of us have enjoyed stronger relationships with our loved ones for an extended period of time and the much-needed break from the hectic pace of round-the-clock modern work life. 

But all this time at home has had another positive effect. Despite the popularity of “couch potato” memes across social media platforms, a survey by OnePoll found that staying at home has encouraged many of us to adopt healthier Earth-friendly habits and rethink how we treat our natural surroundings.

The survey, which polled 2000 American adults, found that 70 percent of respondents are now significantly more conscious of their impact on the world around us. 55 percent said they are recycling more often, and 44 percent are using fewer paper products. 

An incredible 89 percent of people said they considered this green wake-up call to be a permanent shift and are planning on keeping up their more environmentally-friendly habits in the future. This newfound awareness of how we impact the environment is profoundly important. 

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesdays little hack/ tip is one you all could probably do , just get saving your toilet roll tubes. We seem to love toilet roll in this country hehe ????. I saved mine so I could get more planting done without the need to buy any plastic pots. Simply cut around 4 slits into each tube about 2 to 3 cm and then fold up into the tube, to form a closed base. That’s it, I pooped in some compost and planted a bean in each one. Then watered. I hope they all start to grow as the slugs ???? and these have eaten my peas. Great !! . There’s lots of other hacks to use a toilet roll tube for, bird feeders is one, Make a couple of holes in the tip of a tube and thread some jute through and tie, cover in smooth peanut butter and roll in seeds and hang. Or if you need something to store wires in use a toilet roll tube , they’re great for keeping wires organised. It’s good to know you’re reusing something that would normally just get thrown in the bin. If you have a compost bin then pop in there instead of the bin. Have you reused your toilet roll tube for anything ? #ecogreentuesdaytip #greentips #reusetoiletpaperrolls #reuseable #reusewhatyouhave #plasticfreeliving #plasticfreeliving #lowwastemovement #lowimpactliving #zerowaste #zerowasteliving #gardening #gardenlife #ecofriendly #ecotips #greenliving #growyourownfood #growyourown

A post shared by eco green revolution (@ecogreenrevolution_) on May 19, 2020 at 5:27am PDT

“We are intimately interconnected with nature,” said Inger Andersen, the UN’s environmental chief, to The Guardian. “If we don’t take care of nature, we can’t take care of ourselves. And as we head towards a population of 10 billion people on this planet, we need to go into this future armed with nature as our strongest ally.”

This move towards sustainability and harm-reduction goes beyond consideration for the Earth’s health. Time at home has led to a revolution in nutrition for many people. An April 2020 study by HUNTER Group entitled “America Gets Cooking: The Impact of COVID-19 on Americans’ Food Habits” found that 50 percent of Americans are cooking and baking more often, and 38 percent reported ordering take-out and delivery less often. 

It’s clear that many of us are embracing the joys of cooking at home. Visits to cooking websites have skyrocketed, home baking has exploded in popularity, and we’re seeing a surge in Instagram posts of home-cooked meals that look like they were prepared by a gourmet chef. Since eating out isn’t an option right now for some of us, we love this trend of creating a restaurant experience in your kitchen!

Who says Home cooked food shouldn’t be served well.. afterall presentation matters.. ???? #homecooking #lunchtime pic.twitter.com/Mp9gNpXesZ

— shruti (@vyasshruti) May 15, 2020

The same trend is found on the other side of the Atlantic. A survey by British supermarket chain Tesco found that 20 percent of Brits are now cooking every one of their meals from scratch, with 35 percent of respondents saying they were more careful about food waste. Encouragingly, 89 percent said this isn’t temporary - they are committed to cooking at home in the future.

Home cooking isn’t just healthier for us - it’s also better for the planet. If you’d like to reduce your carbon footprint, a great first step is whipping up a meal in your own kitchen. David Pimentel, Professor Emeritus at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, said to Forbes that “Without question, it takes less energy and resources to cook at home.” 

He explained that processing, packaging, and transporting food all take up massive amounts of energy - not to mention putting more vehicles on the road when ordering delivery and take-out. By cooking at home, you’re conserving natural resources like gas and oil, as well as reducing carbon emissions.  

In our always-on world, it’s easy to forget to truly connect with ourselves and the world around us. This down time has caused many of us to finally have some alone time with our thoughts, sparking curiosity about what exactly we’re capable of doing. Can we recreate our favorite restaurant dish at home, even though we’re not exactly a professional chef? Can we radically reduce how much we waste? The answer is yes! 

Habits that are healthier for both ourselves and the Earth, whether they’re cooking at home, recycling more often, or reducing waste, are something we should strive to maintain for the long run. We’re celebrating this shift towards greener practices! 

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
7 Fabulous & Free Workouts To Get You Moving At Home!
Nature is Waiting to Cheer Everyone Up!
9 Easy Swaps for Everyday Household Items