Share and Voice 10: Eco Store in Duluth

I don't know how many times I have driven by this place, but never thought twice about the title until I saw the commercial the other day! Eco is a store here in Duluth that supports eco-friendly decorating for residential and commercial buildings! I checked out their website, and there stuff looks really cool and modern! Eco stands for economically conscious options; such a good acronym! Check out their website at http://www.ecolivingspace.com and look through to see if there is anything you can get for your homes right now! 

Check out these screens... I wouldn't have thought that is what this was! I'm excited to see there are places like this since I will be looking for my own place within the next year. I wish I was able to explicate prices between them and other companies to say that you are saving money by going there, but I haven't been inside there yet so I am not much help in that area. But one really cool program they offer is you can go in and make your own decorations using their tools! Of course you have to pay a small fee for whatever it is you are making, but what a good project for the holidays, and you are practicing ways of being environmentally friendly! I wish I would have known about this place earlier because I love making gifts for people! 

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 10: Overall Project Reflection

My SMART goal(s):
My SMART goal at the beginning of the semester was that I will use my reusable bags 100% of the time I go to the grocery store, Target, etc. for the next 15 weeks. However, it did change a few weeks ago to I will tally up my saturated fat intake to see if it is less than 7% of my total daily caloric intake. I chose to change it to become more aware of my diet, and to double check to make sure I am eating well.


Successes and Challenges:
For my first goal, I was very successful with remembering my bags when I went to the store. I think it helped that I live right by the grocery store, so I didn't have a hard time remembering to grab them on my way out the door. I also planned out when I went shopping early in the day, so I remembered to put them in my car if I was running some errands. As for my second goal, I had an easier time tallying up my saturated fat with foods at my house than when I went out to eat. Even though I could find online the nutrition facts for most of the food I ate when I did go out to eat, it was still hard to remember always to jot them down. One thing I have started to do, and will continue to do in the future is to check out the menu at the restaurant prior to going and figure out which options are the healthiest! 


Benefits, What I learned, and Behavior Change:

This project helped lead me to becoming more environmentally aware internally and externally. I learned how to change different things about myself to be healthier and to support going green! I know this will affect my behavior the rest of my life because I found out so many things this semester I didn't know and I feel confident with changing old habits into better eco-friendly habits.


External Benefits:
By reducing the use of plastic bags, I definitely helped the environment! Less amount of litter that could be spread, and not having to recycle plastic as often has a positive impact on our environment. 


Continuing on:
I will definitely keep using my reusable bags when I go to the store! There would be no point in starting this behavior and stopping it for no reason. Plus, I set a good example with using them when I go. I plan on paying attention to my saturated fat intake, but don't need to write it down everyday.


Recommendations:
I highly recommend everyone to making a lifestyle change! Reading everyone's posts about their own shows how happy they are with themselves and doing a good thing at the same time. With the problem of global warming, it is very important to tweak some behaviors so we all can help out our environment. I wish their was more promotion on the news, TV, radio, etc. for everyone to start becoming environmentally sound. It's funny because I don't see a lot of my friends changing, but having taken this class, I know they would!




Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 10 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy

Advocacy Project: Letter to the Public Official or Letter to the Editor

Honorable Congressman Earl Pomeroy,

I am a novice Health Advocate and I am very concerned about the obesity epidemic in our nation.  There are many different approaches that have been taken to help reduce this problem, but very few that have to deal with affording resources.  With that being said, I am pleased to hear about the proposed bill concerning affordable healthy choices.

The act provides health insurance accessibility to all individuals and employers, which shows no bias to any persons. Socioeconomic status and race are two major reasons that not everyone is guaranteed health insurance.  Although health care is a cardinal issue being discussed within our government, it is important to allow health insurance accessibility to the entire nation in order to help alleviate the epidemic obesity.  This disease costs our nation billions of dollars in health care expenses alone, so approving this act will help the US population decrease our governments expenses, as well as, improving  the health of our people.

Personally speaking, this act will mean I can press the importance of health insurance to improve the quality of lives throughout our country.  Statistics show this disease is still on the incline, especially in the youth population.

In the past, you have demonstrated support towards health care strategies.  I encourage you to vote in favor of the Affordable Healthy Choices Act.  If support or any type of assistance is needed, please feel free to contact me at any time. Thank you for your time and support.

Sincerely,
Rita Lerud

Reflections: Week 11 and 12

Week 11

It was quite a challenge trying to define environmental literacy words! Making the definitions understandable to a 10 year old is very tough! It really made me realize how I take for granted the dictionary because it does such a phenomenal job of defining words for most of the population, regardless of age, can understand. When we watched "Story of Stuff" I was shocked to see how different things are really recycled and broken down industrially. The video does a very good job of making the audience understand easily how recycled products are processed. It is sad to see how our society strongly pushes for 'going green' and one way to do this is by recycling. It was a very big eye opener for me, because I realized that just because I am recycling, doesn't mean it is necessarily going through the process correctly. 
Afterward we did a junking activity where Dr. V brought some random objects from home and put us into groups so that we had to come up with different ways to use the object. This was such a good practice for all of us to get ready to think of different ways to junk for our project. I really enjoyed brainstorming!!




Week 12
Blog hopping was fun because I really wanted to see what everyone came up with for their photo essays anyways! I thought everyone did a great job, and it was cool to see what everyone decided to do. I really enjoyed doing that assignment myself because I enjoyed asking my Aunt and Uncle what they use to junk, and I know they had a fun time helping me! Although this took up most of class time, we afterwards when over the proper way to communicate with decision makers and the media. I would have never known there is a certain way to write a letter to the editor or public official had we not gone over it. Granted, I know I would have done most of the stuff we covered in my letter, but I know for sure it wouldn't been the way it should be. I think I will write my letter to a public official for two reasons: one, I don't think I could keep my letter under 150 words to the editor, and two, I feel very strong about my bill I want passed and I feel like it would be the right path to go. We also went over different ways we can do the online learning activity assignment, and I got a few ideas, I just need to sit down and put my thoughts together and spit out one I really want to do!

Share and Voice 9: Shape Your Body the Way YOU Want at Home!

This is a new 'game' that just came out for Nintendo Wii and it's called Your Shape. It has just started being advertised in this area, and it really caught my attention. Many people are too scared or intimidated to go to the gym if they haven't had much experience with working out in their past, but with this program you can do everything at home! How many times do people complain they don't have time to workout? Well even if you have 20 minutes of spare time, you can do exercises at home! The best feature about this program is it is conformed entirely to how YOU want to shape your body. If you want to get 'into shape' you most likely have some areas on your body, specifically, that you want to improve, and you can do that with this program! I give Jenny McCartney a lot of credit for representing this game, because it is a very creative way to get people more active. If you haven't seen the commercial, check out this short YouTube video to get the basics of the program!


Now no one has anymore excuses to get some physical activity! Did you know 63% of Americans are overweight and 31% are obese? There is no excuse for us Health Advocators not to practice what we preach, so why not support programs like this? I just did!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 9: Weekly Update

What and How???
My SMART goal this last week changed AGAIN! I had a test on Monday for one of my classes and some of the material was on factors associated with coronary disease. This covered a lot of fat and cholesterol data, thus sticking out in my head about my diet. I have said in the past I consider myself to be a pretty healthy eater, however, I really wanted to focus specifically on my saturated fat intake and see where I was. My goal ended up being:


"I will tally up my saturated fat intake for one week to see if it is less than 7% of my total daily caloric intake."


Successes and Challenges!!!
Last week I started to try and tally up the saturated fat grams in my head and would guesstimate, but Monday I started to write them down to see my accuracy. With that being said, I know I could have made some improvements last week with the holidays because of the sweets that were everywhere, but once I got back to school, I have been successful! It is hard to remember to write down information like that when you aren't looking to lose weight, rather just trying to be a little more healthy conscious. This will be a challenge for next week as I'm going to keep this as my goal. Another challenge is I eat a lot of cheese, so I will have to make an extra effort to make sure I don't over-consume it!

Feelings =)
I feel healthier by paying close attention to the saturated fat I eat everyday. I don't know if this is more psychological or if it really is making a difference in the way I feel. The only way to determine this is if I continue to see how I do in the next week or weeks.

<----- YUCK!!!!

I learned.....
I learned that even if you are a healthy eater, there is always room for improvement. Whether it's not taking another bite when you are full, or not eating something because it's there. Watching my family chow down on food last week even after they were really full made me a little grossed out! It is OK to indulge every once in a while, but you don't need to consume it all at once!


Plans!!!
My plans for next week are to stick to this goal which is:


"I will tally up my saturated fat intake for one week to see if it is less than 7% of my total daily caloric intake."


Like I have been doing the past few days is writing down my consumption grams and I found that to work best. I'm excited to see what challenges I come across this next week!




Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 9 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

Originally, I wanted to do this project on how much trash is left after sporting events in the stands and on the ground, but since my camera was getting fixed, I didn't have one for the games I went to. Instead, I chose to show creative ways people recycle or reuse items. Since I was with my family over the holiday, I asked my Aunt and Uncle what items around the house they have reused so they didn't have to throw them out. They are very good for doing things like this, so I knew it would be easy for them to show me some items. It's funny how people think to reuse items, and are being economically friendly by doing so. It makes you wonder how much you could come up with on your own. Here are a few they showed me in 10 minutes that I had never seen before... 




This shelf is not a piece of wood they bought; it's an old door from a closet in their house! Way to pinch those pockets!

If you look close, the back of the garage is styrofoam they glued on to keep the garage insulated! 

Instead of buying rags, they use old t-shirts or sheets and cut them up! My mom did this all the time when I grew up, so this was the only one I had seen before.

Now this one is cool! My Aunt and Uncle are great cooks, so to utilize these bottles they used up, they filled them up with oil and vinegar! The bottle on the left is an old wine bottle, and the bottle on the right is an old hot sauce bottle! Could you tell?? Cute tags on them too!

My uncle doesn't have a lot of jewelry, but these old containers are from when he bought watches and now uses them for organizing!

What do you normally do with old loofahs? Well my aunt watched hers up and put a few complimentary color ones together and used them for decoration in the bathroom! So smart!

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

-Albert Einstein