Annie Maley

This week was a very work-heavy week for me and at times I felt super overwhelmed. Despite this, I feel that I did pretty okay with my new daily and one-time challenges. I’ve started outdoor-running (instead of the gym because of COVID-concerns) and so I’ve been using that time every week for my nature walk. I follow a similar route as I have in previous weeks along the trails by the golf course and surrounding wooded area. Next week I hope to run down by the river and some of the parks in Downtown Lewisburg. In previous years when I lived downhill I would sometimes run down there to relax and connect with nature, but since I’ve been in the senior apartments I haven’t found myself in downtown Lewisburg/by the river as much. I was surprised by how much I found nature-running relaxing, despite the fact that it was more physically exerting than nature-walking. 

One of my one time actions this week was signing up to vote (a one-time action in the “community” section) and it fit super well into my schedule this week. This semester I am a Mauch fellow with the Political Science department & the Lewisburg Area League of Women Voters. As a part of the fellowship we hold monthly discussion events (over zoom this year) to provide students with a place to discuss concerns regarding the election. This past week we held a discussion and the topic was mail-in voting and voter registration, so in preparation for the event I made sure that my registration was up to date and compiled a voter registration guide so that others could check their registration/sign up if necessary. 

One barrier I face in my lifestyle towards making these changes permanent are the time and location I am living in the future. My second one time challenge this week was car sharing. Instead of going grocery shopping on my own this week, I waited until my roommates needed to go and we all coordinated driving together to the store. While this is very easy to do now, keeping this habit long-term will be much harder once I graduate college and enter the “real world” as I may not live in a place where I have a ton of roommates or have the flexibility in my schedule to wait for them to go to the store. On the same note, one of my daily challenges has been to drive less. This has been not too difficult, as I have simply been choosing to walk to places downtown/downhill instead of drive my car but once again after college I may not live in a place where I have the ability to walk everywhere. 

One resource that I used this week that really made me want to make some of these changes permanent was the water footprint resource. One of my new daily challenges was using fewer plastic water bottles by carrying a reusable water bottle around. A resource on that action’s page is a water-usage calculator that asks you a bunch of questions and then shows you how many gallons of water your footprint is per-day. It showed me that many choices, including my diet and shopping habits, impact my water footprint- not just how long I shower or wash dishes. The calculator said I had a footprint of around 1,225 gallons/day of water (and the US average was 1,802 gallons/day!!). This shocking number really motivates me to make some of these environmental actions (such as eating meat less and using a reusable water bottle) permanent choices.  

This week’s challenges have definitely been a step up from last weeks, but it has been an incline that I have enjoyed. I feel that I have learned a lot about myself this week through the additional challenges I have undertaken, which actually provided a lot of new thoughts and ideas. One experimental challenge that I have found surprisingly easy is the meals challenge. This week I have been aiming to eat one meatless and one vegan meal per day. I have to admit, I didn’t realize how close my previous diet was to being vegetarian. Furthermore, prior to this week I didn’t realize how easy cutting out a few ingredients was to make one meal a day meatless. For instance, I usually make a grain bowl for either lunch or dinner a few times a week. In this bowl I previously would use quinoa, whatever veggies I had leftover in the fridge, sweet potatoes, chicken, garlic, and plenty of seasonings. This week I switched to using black beans in the bowl instead of chicken and so far I haven’t missed the chicken at all (side bonus- black beans are way cheaper than chicken!). Another meal that was an easy switch for me was my quesadilla. Similar to the grain bowl, whenever I’m on the go I will usually make a quesadilla real fast out of leftover meat, cheese, rice, etc. This week I switched to making it more veggie-centered and I used beans, cauliflower rice, cheese, and leftover potatoes to make it a vegetarian meal. In both cases, with the right seasonings and preparations, I actually liked the taste of the meals better than my original recipes. My other daily challenge this week has been meditating for two minutes everyday. To my extreme surprise, this one has actually been harder than eating vegan/vegetarian for two meals a day. I have found that remembering to take two minutes a day to clear my mind is actually really difficult. Furthermore, when I do give myself those two minutes, I’ve found it really tough to clear my mind. Meditation is a skill I hope to build on through this challenge, as it’s an area of my life I didn’t realize I needed to improve on so much until this week. On an exciting note- tonight I am doing goat yoga, so maybe the baby goats will help me relax and meditate and little more! 

Some barriers I face in making this a permanent lifestyle is my love of food. While at home for a meal or two I don’t mind sacrificing meat or animal products, in the long term going out to cool restaurants and trying interesting foods is really a love of mine. I enjoy learning about how the recipes are prepared, learning the ecological reasons behind why the food tastes the way it does, and attempting to make variations of delicious  restaurant dishes at home. Moving forward, I think the key thing I will try to focus on is eating sustainably and ethically raised foods, especially when I choose to eat meat. Additionally, I will aim to reserve my meat consumption for special occasions, and limit the amount of animal products I use. 

A resource I read that gave me some confidence that I could make the one vegan meal a day challenge permanent was the Solutions U resource, that linked to an article about vegan tacos. Personally, al pastor tacos are one of my favorite foods and the article discusses a vegan version that made me consider how fun it would be to try and recreate some of my favorite meat-filled recipes with substitute ingredients such as jackfruit. I think that making my diet partially vegan (around one meal a day) is something that I would like to make permanent because not only would it be good for the planet, it would be a fun and interesting way to learn new recipes and challenge my culinary skills. 

Overall this week I really enjoyed experimenting with the eco-challenges. However, I found some challenges definitely easier than others. For example, the turn it off challenge I found to be much easier than I expected. Although I was not in the habit of unplugging devices when not in use and turning off lights, the effort was easier to remember than I expected. I liked that I had to log my progress everyday, as it was a nice reminder to stay focused and continue my challenges. One challenge that was unexpectedly difficult was the 30 minute nature walk. Last week was a busy academic week for me, and one day I was unable to fit in a 30 minute walk in nature. What surprised me was how much it impacted my mood, and how much I missed the break in my day outside. The following day I made sure to take an extended walk, and I was impressed by how much the designated outdoor time reconnected me to my surroundings and gave me a sense of mental clarity and focus. On Saturday, Charlotte and I along with some other friends went on a hike at Dale’s ridge which was a great, relaxing way to connect with the natural world and start off the weekend on a positive note. 

Some barriers that I face in making these changes permanent are time and focus. I have a tendency to overcommit to responsibilities, and am often balancing jobs, interning, classes, friends, and clubs all at the same time. This challenge has shown me that I need to prioritize where I put my time and focus each week. Spending thirty minutes to an hour each day walking, turning off lights, and learning about environmental issues around me has had an immensely positive impact on my mood and energy-level that is worth the sacrifice of time. 

One resource that made me want to really try and incorporate nature walks into my permanent routine was the Greater Good Magazine article “What Happens When We Reconnect with Nature”. In the article the author references several studies that suggest that regular nature exposure can lead to dopamine releases, greater connection to neighbors, and feelings of gratitude and awe. Personally, from my one week of nature walks I have found these impacts to be true and something I have really enjoyed. Some days I walked with only one friend, other days I went on walks with several but in all the walks I enjoyed connecting with the environment and people around me. It was an excellent way to take time away from the stress of school and work, and focus on the friendships and nature that surrounds my daily life. 

Another resource which I found to be very helpful was the “Shrink Your Dorm Print” article on smarterhouse.org. One tip they offered for reducing electricity usage was using power strips to simplify unplugging devices. As someone who already owns a power strip, simply plugging in all my charging devices to it so that I could easily remember to turn it off when I wasn’t using them was a great idea that was easy to implement. As a fairly forgetful person, I found it easier to remember only one switch on the power strip versus trying to remember several chargers and devices every day. This resource also made me aware of some of the eco-friendly aspects of my dorm that I hadn’t paid attention to before. For instance, the lights in our bathroom and shower are motion sensor and all of the lightbulbs are LEDs, which already fit some of the resource's recommendations for a greener dorm room!