Allison Rhyu

(Word Count: 608) This week, the additional daily challenge I decided to embark was going on daily walks. While I do always walk to class, by allotting twenty additional minutes a day to walk around campus and enjoy nature, I found it to be quite relaxing. With this being a fairly stressful time of the year, having some time to walk around Bucknell’s beautiful campus, listen to some of my favorite songs, and get a small workout in proved to be quite therapeutic. With regards to one-time challenges, I finally mustered the courage to call the health center to get a check up! As someone who’s not the biggest fan of going to the doctor’s office, I admit that I often put off going to the doctor’s office until it’s absolutely necessary, or when I was younger, when my parents made a call for me. Thus, I decided to overcome my fear and finally scheduled a check-up for Tuesday. While I was admittedly nervous to enter the office, there was definitely a relief in knowing for sure that I was perfectly healthy, and I decided to get a flu shot as well to ensure this health. Another one-time challenge I embarked on was hosting a viewing party with my four closest friends on campus. Last night, since my friends and I had all finished our midterms for the week, I figured a good way to unwind and spend quality time, all the while informing my friends on an environmental issue I grew quite passionate about was hosting a viewing party for Food Inc., of course with healthy snacks such as veggies and hummus! With several of my eco-challenges focusing on eating more sustainably and making changes to my diet, whether it be cutting down on sugar or eating more meat-free meals, I wanted to inform my friends as to why I have been making such diet changes, since I have received a few questions about my diet these past few weeks. The party was overall a success, and while we all did admit that we were not fully ready to completely cut out processed foods or go vegetarian or vegan, what we can do is grow more conscious of our eating habits, and make efforts to eat more sustainably and support local businesses and farmers.

The only real barrier I face in making these lifestyle changes permanent is weather with regards to having daily walks. When it’s snowing outside and below freezing, even walking to class through ice can be a great challenge, so walking for an additional twenty minutes is not very feasible. Meanwhile, in the middle of summer, walking for long periods of time can not only be extremely uncomfortable, but increase sunburn risks without proper protection. However, I do want to take more time in my day to go on walks, and unless there are extreme weather conditions, I do want to make this a permanent part of my life, especially upon reading about the health benefits of doing so from Prevention.com. An effect they list is that it proves to boost your mood and help fight off seasonal depression, which is easy to fall victim to during the cold winter months. I have noticed that on days where I’m in the dumps or extremely stressed about schools, taking the time to relax and walk around campus has definitely improved my mental state. Additionally, going on these walks has physical health benefits such as contributing to healthy weight loss and an improved digestive system! It’s also a great way to get a rather low-effort workout in. Thus, I definitely want to integrate daily walks into my life.

Word Count: 817

For this week, I decided to take on one meat-free meal a day, brush my teeth without running water, and tell two friends about an environmental issue I’m most passionate about. For eating a meat-free meal a day, it made me much more aware of how much meat I was consuming, especially through fast and processed foods. As someone who admittedly loves Chipotle and Taco Bell, and always find myself adding meat at the Bada Basil or stir-fry option at the Bison, I realized that nearly all of my meals consisted of meat. Therefore, when I made the conscious choice to implement one vegetarian meal a day, I was shocked to realize I felt just as full with alternative protein sources. For instance, instead of adding chicken to my Bada Basil pasta dish, I would add quinoa and chickpeas to substitute the protein that the pasta bowl offered. Additionally, while brushing my teeth without running the water seems like an extremely simplistic lifestyle change, it was always a bad habit that I meant to stop, but never made the conscious effort to do. Thus, when I had the daily reminder to stop brushing my teeth with running water, I found myself finally beginning to break the habit this week. For the final additional daily challenge I took on this week, after realizing how much water I was consuming in my day-to-day life, whether it’s through long showers or leaving the water running for too long, I decided to tell two friends every day about methods of water conservation to help them implement similar lifestyle changes that I have this week. 

Meanwhile for one-time challenges, I decided to explore a new hiking trail and wash my next load of clothes in cold water. As someone who loves to hike and venture to the outdoors as a form of relaxation from my day-to-day stresses, I was quite excited to take on this challenge. As I had a block of free time between my two classes, I decided to venture out to Milton State Park for a quick hike in between my classes. While I’ve been to the Susquehanna River area a few times to hike and enjoy the scenery, I had yet to go to Milton State Park despite its close proximity to Bucknell. As I was fairly stressed out with upcoming exams and job applications, being able to simply walk around in nature and disconnect from my day-to-day responsibilities even for an hour was extremely relaxing. I also washed my most recent load of clothes in cold water. Given that the majority of my wardrobe consists of dark colors, doing so was not too detrimental to my wardrobe, and served to conserve energy as well!

A barrier I do face in making these lifestyle changes more permanent is that often when I’m seeing friends and acquaintances, it’s easy to get caught up in small talk, catching up with each other’s lives, and gossip. As a result, unless I make a conscious effort to bring water conservation, or any other political or environmental issue I’m passionate about to the forefront, it’s relatively easy to forget to bring up such topics on a daily basis. Additionally, as I’ve approached the majority of my close friends about water conservation since my goal was to approach two friends a day, I have to move towards approaching acquaintances and long-distance friends, which may be a bit more difficult to execute. Thus, after this week, I will most likely approach new people about water conservation as frequently as possible, but not necessarily two people a day. Another detriment is that with white clothing or certain delicates, it could be detrimental to the articles to wash my clothes in cold water. Therefore, I will make the effort to do conscious research to see when I can wash my clothes in cold water, and do so as frequently as possible.

However, I do plan on making the rest of these lifestyle changes permanent. With regards to eating one meat-free meal a day, I have noticed that there’s plenty of health benefits to doing so all the while significantly reducing our carbon footprint. For instance, upon looking at the EWG’s Meat Eater’s Guide, I saw that simply eating one less burger a week is equivalent to taking your car off the road for 320 miles. Thus, by eating one less meat-based meal a day, it’s the equivalent of taking my car off the road for thousands of miles a week, showing how impactful this lifestyle change could be. Additionally, especially since there’s no rational point in leaving the water running while brushing my teeth, I definitely want to break this bad habit for good. Especially after seeing from NC State University’s Sustainability page that doing so can save me 200 gallons a month, making this one lifestyle change alone is an extremely easy way to conserve water.

(Word count: 609) This week, the three additional daily challenges I embarked on was having one meal a day free of processed foods, getting at least 7 hours of sleep a night, and avoiding refined sugar in my diet. By experiencing with these challenges this week, I definitely felt better about the food I was consuming, and as a result, felt that I had more energy during the day and even more confident in my body. However, something that did surprise me was how much refined sugar I was consuming prior to this week, and this was admittedly the challenge that I struggled the most with this week. As someone who consumers candy, granola bars, and fruit snacks on a near-daily basis, cutting these foods out of my life was definitely a struggle, and I noticed myself slipping up this week. I did notice though that as I reduced my consumption of such products, I subsequently felt healthier and looked for natural ways to satisfy my craving for sweet foods. With my one-time challenge being going to the local farmer’s market, I made an effort to pick up some fresh strawberries and blackberries in order to facilitate the challenge of avoiding refined sugar. While that’s all I got during my trip, it’s definitely something I want to start doing regularly. According to HuffPost, more and more farmers are using organic and non-GMO methods to grow their produce, and label it as such to ensure you are not consuming chemically altered products. Consuming such products is not only more healthful, but also better for the soil and environment. Another benefit of shopping at farmer’s market that the article stated was that not only is the produce more inexpensive than those at supermarkets, but that due to the benefits to your health, you are more likely to save on healthcare expenses in the long-term. Thus, by shopping at the farmer’s market, not only would I be able to enjoy fresh, organic produce, I would also save money doing so! After hearing about such benefits and having such a positive experience with the fruit I did purchase, I’m definitely trying to make going to the farmer’s market a regular part of my life, and am hoping that doing so can help facilitate the challenge of avoiding refined sugar. The last daily challenge I embarked on was getting at least 7 hours of sleep a night. As someone who struggles with anxiety, which has unfortunately affected my sleep, along with a bad habit of staying up late to do assignments instead of tackling them on early in the day, this was actually the challenge I struggled most with; in fact, I admit that I slipped up a few times. However, after reading on Healthline on the negative impacts of a lack of sleep, I really want to try to make this lifestyle change permanent. According to HealthLine, those who received less than 6 hours of sleep a night are 12% more likely to experience a premature death. The site also states that according to a 2013 research study, sleep restrictions increases the amount of inflammatory compounds in your body, which are the same conditions associated with conditions such as allergies and asthma. As someone who already suffers from severe spring allergies, I’m really hoping I can make this lifestyle change more permanent, as the lack of sleep can definitely contribute to and worsen my symptoms. Overall, the challenges this week was certainly a learning experience, and I admit that I struggled at times, but nonetheless, I am feeling much healthier already and more motivated to not only continue these challenges, but take on more next week!

Word Count: 748
It was quite fun to experiment with the daily and one-time challenges I chose for this week! Since it’s only my first week of the Eco Challenge and I had midterms, I wanted to start off with relatively easy and attainable goals. Therefore, for the daily challenges, I chose weekly meal planning and writing down what I’m thankful for every day. Meanwhile, for the one-time challenge, since I am meal prepping, I decided to try a new method of food preparation. I figured that since I am currently living in housing that has access to a kitchen, I may as well utilize the kitchen to save money and resources. Since I was doing meal preparation, on Sunday, I made a masterlist of affordable items that I can purchase at the local Giant so I can meal prep one meal a day for the week. For the first three days, I made a simple tomato pesto pasta, which was quite simple and inexpensive to make, and served as lunch. For lunch for the next three days, I made a vegetable rice stir-fry with some sauces and condiments my roommate enabled me to lend from her. In doing so, I tried a new method of food preparation in that as silly as it sounds, when I was making my own rice dishes, I have always simply used instant or microwaveable rice. However, as my roommate had a rice cooker on hand, I finally decided to learn how to cook rice on my own, just to realize how easy it is. Additionally, I found it quite therapeutic to write down things I’m thankful for every day. I’ve certainly gone through my fair share of hardships within the past few months, and I’ve found myself feeling down more often than usual. Thus, in making a conscious effort to think about the positives of my life, I have noticed a positive change in my general mood as well. Something that surprised me upon undertaking this challenge was how much money I saved through meal prepping my own pasta and stir-fry dishes instead of going to the Bison for such dishes. While pasta and stir-fry is around $7 per serving at the Bison, when I prepared it myself, the cost came down to under $3 per serving after I did the calculation for my groceries.

The main barrier I face in making these lifestyle changes permanent is time. While allocating a few hours a week to get groceries and meal prep, or allocating five minutes a day to write down what you’re thankful for does not appear to be a large time commitment, especially during a time like midterms or finals week, it’s easy to forget to do such things. I’m definitely guilty of feeling constrained by time, which often prevents me from doing many things I want to get around to doing, whether it be journaling more often, going to the gym more, or cooking more. However, I do want to start making a habit out of the challenges I chose in order to make these lifestyle changes permanent, especially as I’ve grown aware of the issue of food waste worldwide. In fact, each year, according to the statistics drawn from the sustainable development goals of the UN, approximately ⅓ of food produced ends up going to waste. I’m definitely guilty of not finishing my food sometimes, or buying groceries that since I don’t know how to utilize them in a specific meal, I end up wasting. In doing so, I not only waste money, but also contribute to food waste worldwide. In order to make a habit out of meal planning, I checked Mayoclinic’s menu planning resource for some tips. Since time is my key constraint, I am definitely making a calendar check as advised to determine which nights to cook and which nights to eat leftovers, which conserves more time than simply getting fast food or going to the Bison. Some other tips I will utilize is looking for sales when shopping at Giant or Wal-Mart in order to save even more money, along with mixing things up and keeping the menu interesting. Mayoclinic offered the suggestions of meatless meals or having a breakfast for dinner, which I will definitely utilize. I also came up with some other ideas for upcoming weeks, such as making Korean-inspired meals similar to ones that my mother prepares at home or making my own variety of salads instead of relying on the Bison and Commons.