Lifestyle Journal Week 1

So for my project I decided to do the waste and meat categories along with my own invented category of composting everything I can. The following are my experiences-the successes and failures--of the first week

Day 1

Trash
-I screwed up just 5 minutes after waking up. Having a runny nose, I went through three tissues before remembering I shouldn’t be throwing anything away. I realized this is going to be harder than I thought.
-I forgot to get a cloth napkin for the first day and decided I had to eat as neatly as possible so as not to throw away any paper napkins. I did well so far with breakfast, even when I was faced with the challenge of the French toast sticks and the sticky syrup that accompanies it.
-I realized I have a sort of unhealthy dependence on gum. For some reason, I have a really strong craving for it after every meal. The fact that resisting that my gum urge was one of the hardest parts of the day is a little concerning, I think.

Food
-Honestly, refraining from eating meat has been a lot easier than I thought. The cafeteria offers a lot of options without meat, and after thinking about it, I realized their meat courses are rarely as satisfying as the refried bean tacos, sweet potato fries, vegetable pizza or the other choices I really like. It’s quite a relief actually. I don’t think I’ll have to endure meat withdraws in the weeks ahead.

Compost
-I realized last minute that I shouldn’t throw away a grapefruit and decided to hold onto it until my next compost stop. It felt awkward walking across campus with nothing but a grapefruit in my hand.

Day 2

Trash
-I decided to go home this weekend to Austin, and the first day there was my last day for going wasteless for the week. It was definitely the harder of the two days. I went to UT to visit some of my high school friends and then we went to a mall to watch a movie. I guess I was never so conscious before about the waste around us, but I realized then that there’s practically nothing you can do at the mall or a movie theater that doesn’t produce waste besides just walking around with your hands in your pocket. My friends wanted to eat something at the food court, but I couldn't find anything there that didn’t come with some form of waste. Needless to say I sat through the movie a little hungrier than my friends.
-Resisting gum is so far not becoming any easier. It doesn’t help that I immediately picked up the habit again after my two wasteless days.
-I remembered to plunder my family’s cloth napkins before I left, which I know will come in handy.

Food
-The hardest part of resisting meat so far was refusing those chicken teriyaki samples at the mall food court. It's hard to turn down free food.
-Besides the teriyaki thing, staying away from meat has still not been a problem. My parents make a lot of vegetarian meals anyway. I hope it stays this easy.

Composting
- I think composting is still my weakest area. I forget to bring some sort of bag with me when I eat at the cafeteria and have no means to carry the degradable foods back to my dorm room. I’m going to need to find a strategy to remember to bring a bag in the future
- I carried another grapefruit back with me from the commons today (Monday) and I felt less uncomfortable.