Summer is the season for locavores, consumers who consciously commit to eating foods produced closer to home. Beyond lessening their carbon footprint by paying attention to the origin of foods, they also enjoy fresher fare and support local farmers. 'Locavore' was even named the 2007 Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary!

Some locavores stick within a narrow 100-mile radius -- inspired by a Vancouver couple who wrote a book on their year-long 100-mile diet -- while others widen the net and eat regional foods or keep it simple and choose a handful of available foods to consistently purchase locally. I guess you could say there are no strict rules when it comes to being a locavore.

If that's the case, how about wearing a locavore hat for a meal or two this month? Head to your local farmer's market and buy ingredients for a locally-grown meal. Maybe a spring mix salad with veggies, sweet potatoes and slices of melon? You can also patronize a restaurant featuring locally-sourced meals, a new trend as chefs head to farmer's markets to purchase local foods to feature on the menu. Finally, don't miss the many tips and articles from writers nationwide over at the Eat Local Challenge blog -- it's a terrific, educational site.

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Are you interested in eating more locally grown, sustainably-produced foods? Diet -blog has compiled an excellent list of resources to help you get started. The links on that list will help you find local farm markets, local food co-ops, grass-fed meat and dairy products, and will also help you source locally grown foods.

Why eat locally? Here's a list from the Eat Local Challenge that outlines 10 good reasons to eat locally. Protecting the environment, eating fresher foods in season, and supporting local farmers are just a few of the reasons. Sustainably-grown foods not only support the local economy, they're also grown in a way that supports conservation and protects the Earth so that it can continue to support agriculture.

Springtime is a great time to make eating locally a habit. Farm markets and roadside stands will soon start cropping up all across the nation, the perfect opportunity to pull over and pick out some freshly picked veggies for dinner (and support a local farmer while you're at it.) Who knows, you may become hooked and never eat an imported vegetable again!

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One Small Step is our attempt to show you all how easy it can be to improve your health, and the health of the planet. Each week, we'll take one more little step and encourage you to take it with us. This week, I've finally agreed to listen to my husband and:

Get ultra-local.

Yes, I love the concept of the Eat Local Challenge, but this isn't just eating -- it's drinking coffee, and going to the dentist, and buying my favorite books. I guess you could call it "shop local." So today, when I went to get my hair cut, I didn't go downtown to the chic Aveda stylist where I got my hair done for my wedding (and the one who usually cuts my hair oh so well). Instead, I went to the corner barbershop -- literally, on the corner two blocks from my house. No energy was expended in getting there, and Tammy (along with "Bip", her partner) lives in the neighborhood. She gets her coffee at my favorite coffee shop -- she's about as local as you can get.

It was my husband's idea. I'd been encouraging him to go to the dentist about a mile up the street, instead of the one several miles away we'd been seeing; we've heard such great things. He went even further.

[In our regular feature, Home Cooking, That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown encourages us to explore with her the challenge of eating and cooking with local foods. No matter where you live or what local products are available to you, we all can benefit from the creative and healthful mindfulness of choosing to take advantage of our local resources.]

Goodbye shopping cart, hello adorable collapsible canvas basket.

As part of an "eat local" movement that is beginning to sweep the United States and the blogosphere, I'm going to focus on getting my groceries and meals as much as possible from sources within a 100-mile radius of my home. In the past year, hundreds if not thousands of bloggers have challenged themselves to do something similar.

Some eschew all corporate groceries -- a wild dare if you ask me. Just think about trying to find locally grown coffee, local baby formula, or local soft dark licorice! Others commit to preparing one entirely local meal per week for the course of the summer, which in my neck of the woods -- where there are more than a dozen farmers' markets and one operates through December -- seems too easy.

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