Week One

I chose to work on garbage, electricity and water, and to eat efficiently for my lifestyle project. I spent a few months eating a vegetarian diet over the summer and at the start of this semester, but have since began eating meat again. I think that even just taking a few days each week to consciously not eat meat during this project will be more beneficial to me than the whole 4ish months I spent not eating meat. This sounds strange but I think more than before, now, I have more motivation to not eat meat. I have a reason that goes deeper than trying to be healthy. I'm more conscious about what I eat, even on the days that I am allowed to eat meat and have found myself choosing not to eat meat even when I'm allowed to. I wonder if with the combination of the project and watching peta videos I might just turn into an every-day vegetarian! The electricity and water part has been more difficult for me. I'm on the swim team and on days when we have double practices I take two showers a day. I've been trying to take quicker showers and I think I'm going to start timing them in the locker room...maybe get a little locker room competition going? But more than just thinking about cutting down shower time, I've started to think about water in general. It's almost depressing to me, now, when I walk into practice at 6am and find myself looking at such a large pool of chlorine-contaminated-undrinkable-unuseable water. There have to be better uses for all that water! The garbage part of the project has probably been the most difficult for me. Not only do I have prepackaged food (I live in McCombs so when I want to avoid the commons I'm limited to using a microwave), but I'm a really messy person. I never realized before how many napkins I use in the commons or the cove! Hopefully at the end of this project I'll not only reduce the amount of waste I produce but also gain some dinner manners!