Nicole Snyder

Throughout this week, I noticed that the challenges I have been doing for many weeks now have begun to get easier. I now turn off all of lights when I exit a room and have continued to do my laundry in cold water even though that was one of my one time challenges. This week’s challenges were honestly a little more difficult for me. I chose to spend more time outside; this challenge was not one that provided me with difficulty. I tend to enjoy spending time outside, especially now with all of my classes being on zoom. Since the walks to class and time walking to bison and other places on campus have been removed from my schedule, I like to sit on my front porch to do work or talk on the phone. This allows me to get fresh air but also to clear my mind and have a change of scenery. The article I read for this discussed a project done in the UK. It’s called the mappiness project and it tracks when people are most happy doing certain activities. The activities that made people happiest were listening to music and being with friends but overall being outside. Just being outside raised people’s moods and attitudes.

My one time challenge this week was to buy from a local farm. I was unsure on how to complete this because I do not know where local farms are or how I would be able to arrange to purchase produce from them. Instead, I decided to take a trip to the farmers market and buy produce from one of the vendors. I bought cucumbers from one of the outdoor stands and was shocked to find that they were only 50 cents each. I purchased two! I also bought coffee from one of the indoor locations. I know this is not produce but it smelled so good as I walked by so I decided to try it out. While I was not supporting an agricultural business, I was still supporting a local business of Lewisburg and I felt good about that.

My last daily challenge and the most difficult one for me has been to limit my screen time. I chose this because it is something that I truly believe I need to work on. I know it is so bad to be on your phone for too many hours in a day and also not a good way to spend a lot of your time. However, I feel as though over this summer I became very dependent on my phone, especially since I was unable to see my friends in person. Now, I find it hard to break the habit I created. While I definitely have been spending less time on my phone, it is something that I consciously need to think about every day and not something that I can forget about. I realistically have not completed my goal in the amount of time I was hoping for but in small increments I have lowered it, this also greatly depends on the day. The article I read for this topic was about 11 things that someone can do that does not involve their phone. From this I have looked at the reading a book because this is something that I have wanted to start doing but always tell myself that I do not have time. Another time I want to stop using my phone is when I am with my friends. I want to be more present and put my phone away. 

This week’s challenges added more to my plate then just having to do three from the week before. I found an interesting overlap between two of my choices. For the first week, I chose to complete forty-five minutes of exercise a day and in the second week I chose to go for a twenty-minute nature walk. I was unsure wither or not I was going to count these as the same activities or complete them differently. On Wednesday, I worked out for forty-five minutes and then had class in Tustin. For me living downtown this is at least of fifteen-minute walk. On this day, I decided I would use my trip to class to count as my walks. However, on Tuesday I do not normally have a lot of free time since I am in class for so many hours a day. On this day, I decided to go for a forty-five-minute walk and count that for both my exercise amount and my walk outside. I think the main point for both of these is to be more active while also spending some time outside. I think if some days I combine them and others I do them separate I am still reaching the goal. 

My one-time challenge for this week was to wash my clothes in cold water instead of using warm. I wash my clothes in cold water most of the time anyway as I find it helps to retain the color of all of the items and does not create any damage. This was easy for me because it did not change much of my weekly routine. After reading an article about the benefits of cool water I found that heating water makes up for 90% of the energy that is used by the washing machine. By using cold water, you are able to reduce that energy usage. In addition, it improves clothes longevity and many of them say to wash in cold water anyway!

My last challenge was to focus on adding more servings of fruits and vegetables to my diet. I found that this was a lot easier when I was cooking food for myself. When going to restaurants or eating at friends’ houses I needed to look at the options to find vegetable heavy meals. This is not completely different than what I normally do because I tend to love salads and other items that have large vegetable quantities. I also find that especially at school I eat a lot more vegetables then I do fruit. I think this is due to my grocery shopping based on the meals I am going to be making and fruits are not normally included in that therefore they tend to be an extra item. When looking at the additionally resources provided, one of the articles showed ten images with the amount of fruit and vegetables someone is supposed to eat in a day. It was honestly quite surprising. I tend to think I eat a lot of these things but after looking at the images I think I need to add even more!

This week’s challenges for myself were to turn off all of the lights when I leave a building and to exercise for forty-five minutes a day. As this was my first week, I tried to keep my challenges to things that I commonly do already. For example, I normally turn off all the lights but now I live in a home with three other people. I decided instead of just turning off the lights that I was using I would turn off the lights that they had left on after them as well. This was a small barrier in the way but adds to my ecological impact that I have. At the same time, this also saves us money so that we do not have to spend extra money on electricity that we aren’t actually using. I also work out Monday to Friday, so this challenge then forced me to complete extra workouts on Saturday and Sunday as well. I did slack and not complete a workout on Sunday because I was extremely tired but I will complete one this week. Barriers that I may face in making these permanent changes are not many. However, I truthfully do not think that I will be adding forty-five minutes of workout to my life seven days a week forever. While this is very good for you and I could make this change some weeks of my life. Sometimes, you just need a rest day. Also, some days you are not in the mood to work out and that needs to okay. Pushing yourself too hard can change into a negative aspect by changing your mindset and making working out a punishment rather than a helpful activity. I do not see a barrier in turning off the lights as you leave a room this seems as something that will always be positive. In one of the articles I read it discussed the positive impact of taking a walk outside for one’s mental health. “A 2013 British study found that simply walking in green spaces may out the brain into a state of meditation.”  This means by simply going outside your home and walking around for a short period of time, you are able to escape some of the stressors of everyday life. This may be a time when you can reflect on things going on in your day. This could also be a time to call people who you do not speak to on the daily basis, your family and loved ones. For my next week’s challenges, I selected a daily walk outside. This can add to my daily amount of exercise or if I am feeling motivated can do it in addition. My second article related more towards the benefits of turning of items that use electricity. It also spoke about going beyond just turning lights off but actually unplugging certain electronics to make sure they are not using energy by simply just being plugged in. Lastly it talked about simple switches to make that simply use less energy. These may be small things that incorporate into my life.