Surprisingly, all is going well in the land of sustainability.
For my sustainability project, I decided to focus on changing my consumption ways and focus on the waste I produce in different aspects of my life. To my surprise, changing has not been that hard. There are a few areas that I still have some trouble with but everything seems to be going smoothly so far.
Except for tonight when I ate a hamburger (my bad), I've eaten no meat at all this week. My plan was to limit meat to once or week or, even better, no times a week. I didn't realize how much I wouldn't miss it. I always opt for the pasta dishes at the dining halls anyway so I never consume too much meat as is. But, luckily for me, the vegetarian pasta dishes are as delicious, or even more delicious, than the ones containing meat! This has been a smooth transition for me.
I've decided to change my eating habits as well; mainly, I've started to not eat after 7 pm. How does this relate to my sustainability goal? Well, because I'm not eating anything after 7 pm, I no longer go to buy plastic wrapped snacks. Of course, I still buy some occasionally but my numbers have decreased drastically. I'm hoping to switch this number to zero in the long term!
Taking showers during the day was an easier switch than I thought it would be; in fact, it's become relaxing. It's a mid-day pick-me-up! Unfortunately, I often forget to bring my cloth towel to dry my hands with to the bathroom; I need to work on remembering that!
Now electricity consumption has been the hardest alteration. Although I have been able to turn off the lights completely instead of leave them on for my roommates, this isn't an everyday occurrence. Especially with both my roommates having multiple midterms, they want the main light on when I go to bed early instead of turning on their own smaller lamps. I hoping I can convince them to think otherwise. Hands down the hardest thing I've had to change is my laptop usage. The lessening my usage by 5 hours per week plan has not been going down as smoothly as I would have hoped. I usually use count or upright forget. But, I think I've come up with a solution! I tend to sleep early as is (if you call midnight early) but I want to see if I can sleep an hour early. Not only will this make me better rested, but it's another hour that will be taken away from me using the computer.
All in all, my plan has had relatively few bumps in the road and I aim to make sure this is a lifestyle changing journey.
May 4, 2010 at 3:56 PM
Good job! It looks like you are making a lot of headway. Let me also suggest that using lamps with energy efficient bulbs will also save energy, especially with those pesky midterms/ finals that make up stay up all night studying.
Also, I hadn't thought about laptop usage. I guess I should also try to cut down, although I'm practically married to the thing. I guess you can also think about it like this: be more efficient while you're on your laptop and use the extra time to run around outside!