Happy Move Your Money Day! I applaud the national movement to move personal accounts out of the big banks. Today I read up on a new "green" bank in Chicago called GreenChoice, & I contacted them to start the process of opening checking & savings accounts & transferring my direct deposits & automatic payments. They offer all the benefits of my current bank (Chase), & they use no-fee Star ATMs, which are available at numerous places in my neighborhood. I can earn interest on checking--at a higher rate if I sign up to receive electronic statements; likewise my savings will earn more because I'm willing/able to do my banking electronically.

But the day started out with a long walk! I used a Groupon for a hair appointment at a salon about 3.5 miles north of me; I ended up walking about half the distance & then getting on the L. I asked the stylist to figure out a style that would require minimal product (I feel terrible about all the plastic & chemicals used in personal-care products) & not require blow-drying, yet keep my very fine hair from sticking too close to my head. That's a tall order! But I think she did a great job. It will take me awhile to get used to seeing myself with this sleek new look.

Then I walked ALL the way home, stopping at a grocery to pick up a few items, then at a little Mexican restaurant to carry out a couple of tamales for lunch.

I had thought about going downtown this evening for the Occupy Chicago march, but my time is very limited. I need to do some batch cooking this weekend, plus I have a freelance project that needs to be addressed. I also wanted to take time to peruse GreenChoice's website & decide whether to open an account there. And tomorrow afternoon I'm making a short presentation to my church's youth group, & I need to prepare for that. I decided to focus it on the nefarious doings of the Coca-Cola corporation, encouraging them to boycott. (Of course there are BIG health reasons to avoid soft drinks, but there are also justice reasons. I have a friend who narrowly escaped being killed because he was a union leader at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Colombia; management hired paramilitary thugs to handle security, & the paramilitaries began to kill the union leaders!)

These are ALL green, anti-establishment things to do, aren't they? Walking & riding the L to/from my appointment, getting a minimalist hairstyle, making yummy vegetarian food from scratch, editing electronically, starting the process of switching to a small ecofriendly bank, preparing this short talk for the youth group. I'd like to go back to Occupy as well, but today is a day to be green right here at home!

P.S. I'm not really losing weight at this point--I knew it would be harder once I went off the meds. But I'm VERY happy not to be gaining! What I'm wanting to lose at this point would take me from a 22.9 BMI to 22.0. I can still do that, & I will eventually! But in the grand scheme of things, making my life more earth-friendly satisfies me even more than this mostly cosmetic weight loss will.