After years of touting the latest gadgets and beauty products, the former publisher of a Canadian women's magazine is making amends for years of promoting over-consuming with her pledge to buy nothing for an entire year.

Former Chatelaine publisher Lee Simpson -- who is now a United Church minister in Lunenberg, N.S. -- is still frequenting the grocery store to fill her fridge, she says she’s given up the habit of buying for the sake of buying. That means she’s stricken such items as new (and second-hand) clothes, shoes, furniture, books, gifts, and toiletries all off of her shopping list.

"This is largely ecologically driven on my part to leave a smaller footprint," Simpson told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday.

Simpson, who is blogging about her year-long challenge, says the decision to scale back on shopping is also her own "personal mea culpa" after spending years in the magazine industry encouraging readers to purchase stuff, the majority of it being “fattening, silly, fragile, fleeting.”

“I was an enthusiastic participant in a business that reduced people to their lowest common denominator: consumers,” she wrote in her blog.

Simpson said she was inspired to embark on the year-long-challenge, which started on Jan. 1, 2014, when she was searching for a Christmas gift for her grandson last December.

"I discovered that there was nothing on offer that wasn't stereotyped, branded, plastic, made offshore, and frankly, an invitation to join a giant corporate cult of buying," she said.

To prepare for her self-imposed challenge, Simpson stockpiled eco-friendly household cleaning products and toiletries.

"TP is not optional. But cloth hankies await the first sniffle, and my mother kept a clean kitchen for decades without paper towels. Remember 'rags?'" Simpson wrote in her blog.

While the challenge hasn't been too difficult so far, Simpson admits there have been a few times when her mission has been less than easy.

Not being able to buy gifts for other people, Simpson admits, has been a "psychological challenge."

"I'm one of those people who would spend hours looking for the perfect shade of blue to match my daughter's eyes," she said.

But Simpson hasn't given up giving gifts. Recently, rather than buy her son-in-law a birthday present, she decided to make him a loaf of bread every week instead.

"He seems delighted with it and I'm exploring new bread recipes."