Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3

This past week was a little challenging for me time-wise.  With my SMART goal being to increase my vegetable intake by eating 4 servings daily, I ran into an issue with time management.  I still followed through with choosing more vegetables in my diet, but I had a few days where I simply did not have enough time to make anything for the entire week or time to get to the grocery store.  Luckily, I had lots of vegetables at home, but it made my week more challenging by only eating raw vegetables.  I ate lots of broccoli, carrots, celery, and I had an occasional salad with grape tomatoes and cucumbers.  All of these vegetables were even bought at Whole Foods (some were packaged, some not).  I still think I did a good job at keeping up with my goal, but I feel like this past week wasn't as "fun" as what it could have been like the previous week.

I think the one thing I learned this week is that I personally need to plan out how I will bring vegetables into my meals.  I feel like this week was a lot tougher to get through because I didn't have a set dish for the week.

I plan to find another fun and easy recipe for this week so I can keep the excitement in eating fruits and vegetables.

Eye Opener: CSPI

Here are my results from taking the Score Your Diet quiz:

My best numbers were from eating lots of vegetables and nuts, as well as eating lots of fruits.  I enjoy eating vegetables, especially fruits.  I like to eat a variety of nuts from Whole Foods as snacks while I'm at school.  I scored lowest on my cheese and beef/chicken intake.  I was surprised these lowered my grand total so much because I really didn't think I ate that much animal product.  I knew the cheese would lower my score because I LOVE cheese.  

I would say I need the most help in my health and animal welfare because of the dairy I eat.  Dairy should be consumed sparingly, but I do try and eat low fat or fat free options.  I will try and eat less cheese and try and not to eat so much animal product!

Overall, these quizzes and informational websites opened my eyes to what I consumer compared to what I should consume.  I think I am better with my choice in foods than some people, and I didn't think my scores would be so undermining.  I am still willing to take charge of my habits and try to strive to eat organic greens and fruits as much as possible to help me with my health and the environment.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2

A week has gone by since I started my Lifestyle Change, and I think I am slowly but surely making progress!  My SMART goal was to increase my vegetable intake by 4 servings daily and to try and choose vegetables that are organic and/or not prepackaged.

I achieved my SMART goal by simply adding bits of vegetables to the "normal" things I eat.  I kept my usual diet the same and didn't necessarily cut back on certain foods, but I figured out that I could integrate vegetables into my meals.  This way, I'm trying new things and having fun about it.. I'm not just eating plain old vegetables and nothing else!

One disadvantage to this goal is trying to always have a fresh and bountiful amount of different vegetables.  I am a very busy person, so I'm not usually home a lot to make meals.  This made it difficult to find ways to put vegetables in my diet and to keep my vegetables from going bad.  One thing I did to try and solve this problem was I made a large batch of a meal that I could take to school with me and eat.  I LOVE pasta salad and making homemade dressings, so I decided to make a large batch of it.  I usually always incorporate tomatoes, olives, and cucumbers into my dish.  I decided to use less pasta and added more vegetables like green peppers and broccoli to the pasta salad.  It's an easy dish to make (if you have patience to cut up the vegetables) and it tastes awesome.  Below is a picture of what my pasta salad kind of looked like, and you can find the recipe by clicking on the picture! (I don't usually follow the recipes for the salad because you can make it however you want!  If you like "italian" tasting dressing, follow this dressing recipe!)

So, I guess you can say I learned how to be creative with my Lifestyle Change.  I plan to keep up with finding more recipes that I can use to integrate my vegetables with meals I enjoy.  I think I want to try and vegetable stir fry soon!

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

After taking the Ecological Footprint Quiz, I was surprised at my results and how much I depend on services on a day-to-day basis.  Food was another large part of my dependency since I don't eat as many local grown and organic foods as I should. 

I also thought the analogy of "how many worlds" we would need if everyone lived like me was shocking.  It's a good way of showing just how much some of us depend on our world (a little too much dependency).

 I think if I can conserve more everyday (like not letting water or electricity run if I don't need it), that would help make a better impact on my ecological footprint.  As for other aspects of my ecological footprint, I would like to try and eat more locally grown foods and try to eat more fresh, unprocessed foods.  Even though mobility wasn't the largest impact I had, I would still like to keep up with carpooling as often as I can and riding the bus when possible.  It definitely saves on gas and helps with pollution, too!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1: My SMART Goal

When thinking of what I wanted to choose as my Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change, I was hoping to accomplish something that not only benefit the environment, but myself as well.  I decided that my goal will be the following:  I will increase my vegetable intake by having 4 servings (2 cups) a day, and I will choose vegetables that are not already packaged.This lifestyle change is Eco-Chic because I am benefitting the environment by choosing more foods that are unprocessed and unpackaged.  This is also beneficial to me because I am increasing the amounts of greens I eat.  I usually try to eat vegetables as often as I can, but I know I can improve.

I think this lifestyle change is so important to me because eating healthy can improve my health and wellness, which is what I strive to do everyday.  I like the thought of knowing what I consume is helping me be a stronger, healthier, and a happier person.  It's also important that I try and help our environment in any way that I can, which is why I chose to purchase vegetables that are unpackaged.

Here's to a new lifestyle change for the next 10 weeks, and let's hope I can stick with it!  Good luck to everyone else who will be doing the lifestyle change, too!

Welcome to Tropical Environments With Niki J!

My name is Niki, and I am currently a Junior at UMD.  I'm majoring in Community Health Education and am planning on graduating in the spring of 2013.  After I graduate UMD, I will be (hopefully) accepted into the Dental Hygiene program at Lake Superior College.  I am very eager to start the program there because I have wanted to be a dental hygienist for a long time!  I'm a very active person and am always doing something; I'm captain of the Dance Team, I work as a PCA and an instructor/choreographer at a local dance studio, and I have an awesome group of friends and family.  This blog began with the Environmental Health class I'm taking with Dr. Versnik Nowak.  I plan to use this blog as a means of gathering my thoughts, ideas, and opinions when it comes to anything that deals with the environment.  I love tropical environments, so I plan to post a few fun and interesting sites about cool places to visit, too.

There are 5 possible types of posts on my blog.  They include:

    1.  Advocacy Project
    2.  Eye Openers
    3.  Reflections
    4.  Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
    5.  Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels.  This post is has been labeled with all five kinds of posts.  (Use the "label actions" feature in the edit posts tab to add the labels.)  You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page.  (Place labels gadget below blog header but above blog text).  All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above.

The members of my web group are:

1. Dr. V. and Kristen@Enviro-Surfing With Amy and Kristen
2. Ruthanne @ Ruthanne's Raindrops
3. John @ To The Boundary Waters With John
4. Hannah @ Hannah's Eco Safari

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I hope you all will enjoy what I have to say!