Lifestyle Project Week 2

Week Two of the Lifestyle Project proved to be a lot more challenging than I anticipated it being. First, I established in my first entry that I am extremely cold-natured. Changing the temperature by a mere three degrees was a challenge in itself last week, but this week was complete torture for me. The temperature was set at 68 degrees all week, which was not easy for me. I typically sleep with just one blanket, but this week I was covered up with literally three blankets! To some, this probably seems absurd because 68 degrees really isn’t that cold. But for me, it truly is because I just so happen to be one of the most cold-natured people in existence. Dramatic, I know. Anyway, even my suitemates were uncomfortable with our temperature setting. Last week, there was this tone of “We can do it! No big deal. Character development!” However, morale has seriously gone down. I honestly have my doubts about this upcoming week. It is going to be really hard to not adjust the temperature setting, but I really am going to try to deal with it. I will let you know how it goes next week…
On a more upbeat note, I am pretty impressed at how well I have been able to cut down on my shower time. I showered between six and seven minutes during every shower this week. I usually shower everyday, but in an attempt to conserve more water, I skipped one day this week. I didn’t feel like I had really done anything too strenuous that required that I shower, so it didn’t seem like a big deal to just not shower for one day. Plus, I figured it would be a good idea to not waste water if I really didn’t do much that day. I was pretty pleased with how well I did about showering, so I called my dad to brag about it. Like I said in the first journal, my dad has always given me a hard time about my excessive shower time. As you can imagine, he had a difficult time believing me when I said that I took a six minute shower. He said, “And this coming from the girl who considers 20 minutes a fast shower??” I am not surprised by his reaction because I truly am guilty of taking excessive showers. But strangely enough, I feel a sense of pride about how much I have decreased my shower length. Also, I have always been really good about turning the water off every time that I brush my teeth, so that really hasn’t been much of an adjustment for me. I didn’t wash laundry this week, but I have two loads to do next week…
Electrical conservation is going ok. I decided to unplug my computer at night. I don’t know why I never thought it was important to do that before, but I just realized it probably is a huge waste of electricity to leave it plugged in all night. Instead of relying on the lights so much, I have been opening the windows. I did that a lot last week and enjoyed it, so I kept that up this week. It is kind of nice to do your homework by the window. Distracting, but yet nice. I used the microwave twice this week. My mom sent me some food, so I warmed it up and enjoyed a nice home cooked meal. On to food!
Not eating meat for a few days isn’t easy, but I really am handling it well. I thought I would have a lot more problems last week, but I think I just was craving meat all last week. Really I think I have always eaten a relatively balanced diet, so it isn’t too difficult for me to sacrifice meat a few meals a week. I wish that I had a lot more dramatic information about food. I just really am doing fine. On my no meat days, I just ate salad, fruits, and cereal. I also had a bean taco one of those days. I love eating basically every type of fruit there is, so I feel like I have a lot of options despite the fact that I can’t eat meat.