Lifestyle Project Week 1

After thinking long and hard about what three categories to choose for my Lifestyle Project, I finally decided on garbage, electricity and water, and leaving the car at home. I chose these mostly because I believe they'll be the most challenging, and I figured this would be rewarding in itself. With that being said, and without going too much into detail, here are what my first two days looked like:

Day 1- Let's just say, I failed miserably at not producing garbage. Not only did I grab a to-go-box from the commons, but I also drank water from a bottle, and even worse I threw away a banana peel in the trash! It was really frustrating too because I felt the choice was between not making trash and not eating or drinking at all. I must admit though what happened was mostly just bad planning on my part, but I saw it as a lesson learned for day 2. However, I feel I did much better with consuming less electricity and water. I don't know what it is about the rooms in Kurth but they have at least five different lights that you can use? Anyway, during the day I kept them all off and opened up my window (which I've done before but not often enough). At night, I kept only my energy efficient lamp on while I was in the room and made sure to turn it off and unplug it if I left. This was a big step up for me considering I usually have every single light turned on in my room. As for my shower, it usually lasts for 20 minutes on average, and I've managed to cut it down to 15 minutes. And finally, instead of driving to H-E-B, I took your advice and walked. I'll have you know though this is a big feat for me because I hate walking long distances and love my car.

Day 2- I did everything the same from Day 1, except this time I didn't produce waste. It was still hard becaues I found myself not using a napkin, eating all of my food, and drinking tap water (which by the way isn't that bad). In addition to this, my electricity usage decreased further because I actually turned off my computer at night (something I hadn't thought of for the first day). And although my shower stayed about the same, I did try to take a cooler shower than usual. I think that's going to take some getting used to though. As for my car, on this particular day I forced myself to stay away from it, even when I really needed to go to the store.

As you can probably tell, I'm pretty much set in my ways. I like for my room to be well lit, I enjoy nice long, hot showers, I like driving if it means not walking, and I like being able to bring my lunch back to my room. It's what I do. But I believe change will come progressively the more further along I get into this project, and I'm excited to see what that exactly will come about because of it.