Reflections: Week 9 and 10

Week 9:

We have done many posts already this semester, but I knew there was one label we hadn't used yet and that was the Advocacy Project. I didn't know at all what to expect from this project, but I really like the introductory assignment to it. Having us go through and find our political representatives was a good eye opener because I have completely been avoiding these people and their significance to my life. Even though I'm not a huge political person, doesn't mean I shouldn't be aware of those affecting my life politically. In addition, I never knew CHES existed, let alone what it is. Although it doesn't have as much of impact on my life because of my degree, it was cool to find out about it. I liked working in groups, too! It was a short class period, but a good start to becoming an advocate. 

Week 10:
I was very excited about the topic we discussed on Monday and the video we watched to go along with the discussion. I remember taking Economics in high school and learning so much about the topic, but it has been many years since then, that I have forgotten most of the information I learned. The video "Unnatural Causes" has a perfect breakdown on the affects socioeconomic status and race in correlation to health. I would like to know the percentage of the nation's population that actually understands how just these two topics affects EVERYONE'S health. To go along with these affects, stress was a significant point brought up and how it affects health. Internally, someone could have no health risks or problems, but if their pituitary gland sends off too much of the hormone Cortisol, then they could result with health problems, regardless of their socioeconomic status or race! I wrote down the equation Dr. V put on the board because I want to use it to explain to my extended family how all of it ties together. That is why I really enjoyed this topic, because every holiday we get together on my dad's side, the issue with taxes always comes up since most of that side is Republican and most of them don't agree. The discussion after the video was important as we went over different ways to approach the topic which is getting us to critically think. This was a good way to guide us into doing the project due on Monday. 

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 7: Weekly Update

What and How
My SMART goal is to use my reusable bags 100% of the time I go to the store, and start looking up products I use to see how hazardous they are. I went to the grocery store once this week and used my bags, but ended up having to use one plastic bag to get everything back to my place. I didn't look up anymore products this week.

Successes and Challenges

As I walked out my door from my apartment building last week, I realized I had forgotten my bags. I stopped and thought either I could just go without, or take less than 5 minutes and run back in and get them. It was a quick decision as I headed back up to grab my bags. Once I was checking out, I was worried all my groceries wouldn't fit in my bags and ended up being right. I bought quite a few big cardboard items, so it made sense, but I can figure out a way to use my plastic bag I gathered. I didn't look up any more of my products, but it was because I didn't know which ones I should choose. I think I will keep that as a part of my goal only one more week, because I don't know how many more products I could look up that will be on the website. 


Feelings
I felt so good about myself for going back into my apartment and grabbing my bags! I obviously could have just kept going, but I knew that I need to stick to my goal, and continue on being environmentally friendly. I'm not sure what products I should look up this week, because many of them don't come up on the website that I have searched on. I will do some more digging to find more products and see how I feel about it this week.


I learned

I decided to look online for coupons to see if I could find any that work at any grocery store. As it turns out I was right! I stumbled upon the website www.coupons.com that you can print out for free. This was a good way to save money, which in turn is economically helpful! I will be using that website much more often for groceries, as I saved over $5.00.


Plans
My plans for next week are to continue with my goal and that is:


"Use my reusable bags 100% of the time I go to the store, and look up products I use to become more aware of how hazardous they are to my health."


Like I mentioned before, I will look up products only one more week to see if I can get more information to pull up when I search for some of them. I also plan on looking for coupons no matter what the store is!


Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 7 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy

Advocacy Project: Healthy People/THOMAS

Healthy People Goal:
For the Healthy People Goal 2010 I chose Nutrition and Overweight. One objective is to reduce the proportion of children and adolescence who are overweight and obese. According to the Progress Quotient Chart, the target has negatively gone away from target by 83% for this population.


Disparities:
Disparities within race and ethnicity, gender, income, and disability all can affect weight status. For example, one of the disparities in children who are 6-11 years old and overweight or obese, within Mexican American and black non-Hispanic populations has declined. However, for children 6-19 years olds, the prevalence was 50% lower in white non-Hispanic populations than the Mexican American and black non-Hispanic populations combined  (Healthy People 2010).


Opportunities and Challenges:
A few tools are being implemented with trying to reverse the affects of overweight and obesity rates in children. One of them is the dietary guidelines have been revised in the Food Guidance System MyPyramid. Another tool is to educate the public (children) on the food label to demonstrate choosing healthier diets.


Emerging Issues:
A few things I found really interesting were they have developed newly pharmaceuticals and increased bariatric surgery to use as potential treatment options (Healthy People 2010). In spite of that, the best way to implement reduced obesity rates is simply by prevention. By educating and putting in the positive effects on having a healthy diet with advertising and making actions are great ways to promote the importance of nutrition.


Progress:
There is only one objective that has moved toward it's goal, which is not my objective. It is food security, which is defined as household members having access at all times to have enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle (Healthy People 2010). With that being said, my objective has not met or exceeded it's target.


H.R. 3200 America's Affordable Healthy Choices Act


Title: Sets forth provisions governing health insurance plans and issuers, including: (1) exempting grandfathered health insurance coverage from requirements of this Act; (2) prohibiting preexisting condition exclusions; (3) providing for guaranteed coverage to all individuals and employers and automatic renewal of coverage; (4) prohibiting premium variances, except for reasons of age, area, or family enrollment; and (5) prohibiting rescission of health insurance coverage without clear and convincing evidence of fraud.


Sponsor: Rep. Dingell, John D.


Latest Major Action: 7/14/2009 Introduced to House. Status: Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, Education and Labor, Oversight and Government Reform, and the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.


Recommendation: Vote yes for H.R. 3200 America's Affordable Healthy Choices Act


My Political Representative: Congressman Earl Pomeroy

Share and Voice 8: Can You Imagine Being Force-Fed at 10 Years Old?

Last weekend, I was getting my hair done and I was reading through a magazine and found one interesting article. I'm not one to look through magazines so I was shocked to find myself wrapped into this one, but the story was jaw-dropping I had to read it. The picture was a woman extremely overweight with stretch marks and had a caption to go along with it that said something along the lines of how beautiful she was. She is from a country in Africa called Mauritania (pronounced more-tane-ya) which is one of the very few countries in the world where being fat is considered attractive. In fact, it is seen as more than attractive, it is seen as wealthy, too. This is a very old practice the US even had many, many years ago with having women being extremely overweight because it showed a sign of wealth. Mauritania still has this view. It is only practiced in women, though, and men are said to 'drool' at the sight of them! It starts at a very young age for females, around 10, and they are literally force-fed all day. These girls are said to take in between 14,000-16,000 calories a day! That seems absolutely ludicrous and surreal, but for these girls it's nothing short than normal. To achieve this caloric intake, many of the foods they eat are pure fat, or fat rolled into balls slathered with more fat on top of it. The article explained that if these girls are to refuse, their punishment is to eat MORE! If they are to vomit up what they eat, they have to eat their vomit! One lady had commented that her boyfriend she has constantly compliments her on how beautiful she is. The problem is she said she wants to lose some weight and wear jeans and heels like she sees in magazines, but she is too scared her boyfriend won't like her anymore. 
After reading about this I have researched a little bit here and there and can't find that exact article from the magazine, but have found some other ones. BBC News has the most recent article I found called Mauritania's Wife-Fattening Farm and said that although many rural women in this country are still practicing this tradition, it is slowly fading out. Check out the article and see how these women are treated! I found this video which describes it all! Very interesting ritual, but scary at the same time! I would love to go over there and educate these women on how they are jeopardizing their health. 

Read 'n' Seed 4: Third Quarter of "Last Child in the Woods"

Material Covered and What it Consisted of:
For the third quarter of our Read 'n' Seeds, I read 7 chapters which contained 84 pages. The 16th chapter focused on how school's curriculums need to incorporate nature, how nature is  not 'improving' like technology, and that other countries that have nature activities included in their school days produce higher scores and grades. An example of how nature isn't improving is when a little boy was asked about gardening he had a problem with it because it's not improving like TV's and computers. He said, "All these old wood gardening tools haven't changed in decades" (Louv, 213). 

This made me step back and think that one through because does have some truth to it! For the 17th chapter, Louv explains that the third frontier hasn't completely formed, but general characteristics of it include detachment from our source of food, disappearance of family farms, suburbs shrinking open spaces, etc. It is sad to think a child may not know what he or she is eating or where it came from. In addition, I think it is very sad to see family farms disappearing especially coming from parents who grew up on them. Neither of my parents took over their farms, and it makes me wonder why. Chapter 18 was Louv's explanation on how an approach to the fourth frontier could be having legal areas to play, which could help depreciate the rate of lawsuits that go along with injuries on properties. He doesn't give a definition of the fourth frontier, but he implies that it is a way to get kids reconnected with nature. I really like chapter 19 because it had so many examples of eco-friendly homes and how to improve your house and being more green. Some examples include a green roof and green walls. 

Some countries in Europe have already been doing this, and have saved so much money, as well as, helping our environment. It is a good investment, because it has shown to save money later down the road. The last chapter, chapter 20, was focused on how farmlands have increasingly been invaded and becoming more scarce. One lady made a comment that there is something warming about being in a city like Sioux Falls, SD where you have quick access to nature, yet still have a big town compared to Sacramento, CA. It was cool to read about this because my whole life I have always been wondering how our country will end up if we keep adding more housing developments on vacant land. How will we continue to farm? It will be very interesting when I'm retired and see how much our country has evolved. 


I learned:
I learned a lot about myself after reading chapter 20. Ever since I was a little girl, all I have wanted to do is move away from ND (or the midwest). I have been focusing on that this semester with finding a job, but the past few weeks I have been contemplating if I truly want to move away, and after reading that chapter it has definitely made me think a lot harder! This book has made me realize how much I enjoy being outside, but never realized how important it is for my health. 


Implications and Affects:
The main point has persisted in these chapters with how important it is to incorporate nature in our lives. It is hard changing your lifestyle if you were never raised with camping or encouraged to go to nature camps, but that doesn't mean it's too late to integrate nature in your life right now! Personally, I remember when I was little and it would blizzard out and I would love looking outside, but feel cozy in my house. I think we all have some type of memory like mine that makes you remember how great nature is! 

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 6: Weekly Update

What and How?
My SMART goal is to use my reusable bags 100% of the time I go to the grocery store or other stores for the next 6 weeks, and start checking products I use to become more aware of how hazardous they are. I did a good job of setting aside time last Thursday to look at some products I use. It didn't take much time, but I had to be sure to find some products that are on the list. I didn't bring my bags with me to Walmart last week, but it was because I only got 4 things and I figured I can just carry them anyways!




Successes and Challenges

I was fairy successful last week with my goal. Even when I didn't bring my bags with me, I found a way around getting plastic bags, and did so by carrying the items by hand to my car. This was also a challenge as I didn't have my bags, but I was quick to resolve it. I also succeeded in finding time to look up some products I use to see where I can improve on being environmentally friendly. I just to be doing laundry and noticed an environmentally friendly logo on my SHOUT bottle, but when I looked it up, it was not on the list. It was cool to see that though!




Feelings
I feel really good about continuing to achieve my SMART goal! I have all around been more aware of being eco-chic and love doing it! I feel good about being the person setting an example for others, and makes me feel smarter too!




I Learned
I looked up four products of mine I use and they are Right Guard deodorant, TRESemme hairspray, Garnier Fructis Mousse, and TommyGirl Perfume. The deodorant scored a 5 out of 10 for hazards and deemed to result in developmental/reproductive toxicity, allergies/immunotoxicity, and other concerns. My hairspray and perfume had the exact same results consisting of cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, allergies/immunotoxicity, and other concerns. However, my hairspray scored a 5 and my perfume scored a 7 out of 10. As for my mousse, it scored a 9 out of 10 and had potential repercussions of cancer, violations, restrictions, & warnings, allergies/immunotoxicity, and other concerns. This is absolutely crazy to think this could happen to me! I need to keep looking at that website and see what other products I can start to use that can replace those that are less hazardous and that I like to use.

Plans

As far as next week goes, I still plan on keeping my SMART goal exactly the way it is. I feel like I am doing a good job of maintaining it, as well as, becoming more aware of products I'm using by looking them up. On the whole, my goal for next week stays the same with: using my reusable bags 100% of the time I go to any store, and continuing to look up products I can start to veer towards that are better for me.


Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 6 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Advocacy Project: My Political Representatives

Here are my political representatives of the US, ND, and Fargo:

President of US: Barack Obama, Obama's Website
Congressman of ND: Early Pomeroy, Pomeroy's Website
ND Senators: Byron Dorgan, Dorgan's Website; Kent Conrad, Conrad's Website
ND Governor: John Hoeven, Hoeven's Website
ND Senate Legislators, ND House of Representatives Legislators
County Board Presidents
Fargo's Mayor: Dennis Walaker; Walaker's Website

There are more than a few people for the ND Senate and House and the County Board Presidents. If you click on the link, it will direct you to a website of their names. I knew all of the people in the positions above, other than ND Senate and House and County Board Presidents. This is a great way to get students to realize political representatives if they don't know all of them.