Fruit and Vegetables in crates and boxes. (from freeclipartnow.com)

One way I tried to improve my diet/lifestyle (that actually worked) was to join a CSA.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. A person gives a a farm a certain amount of money which allows them to buy a share of the farm. Everyone who has a share gets a certain amount of vegetables during the growing season. Usually buying a share also means pledging to do a certain amount of farm work.

My share last year helped in a couple of ways. The variety of vegetables added more lower carb options to my diet.  I got some vegetables I would never have thought to buy when I was at the store. Since I already had them, I looked into interesting recipes. But, the CSA even had more. My CSA (like a lot of others) had a weekly newsletter that had interesting recipes. And, I had to work at the farm for a certain number of hours. So, a certain amount of outside exercise was something that I had to do.

If you are interested in signing up for a CSA near you, start looking into it very soon. My CSA sent me an email about sign-ups already. Quite a few CSAs sell all their shares by early February.

Looking for more information?

Here is a list of some Massachusetts CSAs: http://www.foodonthefood.com/food_on_the_food/2009/01/putting-the-loca-in-locavore.html

Here is a list of local farms and CSAs near Marlborough MA:  http://marlboroughlocalfood.wetpaint.com/page/Small+Farm 

Massachusetts list of CSAs: http://www.mass.gov/agr/massgrown/csa.htm

Looking for a CSA in another state in the USA: http://www.localharvest.org/