Share and Voice: HP goes GREEN too

For health 4000 I had to buy a new printer to print off all of my papers.  I went to the school store, and really had no idea what to buy.  I was looking at the different options than something cool caught my eye.  I saw the HP box and on the side was a big section titled  "eco SOLUTIONS" I was very curious to see what this was.  On the box some of the information included:

• made with 30% percent recycled plastic
• you can recycle 100% of the packaging 
• includes a reusable to put it in
• printer cartridges contain up to 70% recycled materials

Also it seen that it was an energy star related product which I thought was really cool.

I checked out the website www.hp.com/ecosloutions and it included some really neat information.

• it included a carbon footprint calculator for your printer
• information about a HP Powers UN Climate Change Conference
• and information about HPs own recycling center. I found out that HP was the first computer company to have their own recycling center in 1997, and is on its way to recycling 2 billion pounds of products and materials

I think that its great that big companies are starting to do this.  And its definitely something to look for when shopping.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5: Weekly Update and Overview

What was your SMART goal? How did you do in achieving your SMART goal?
I will eat 2 servings of vegetables (serving= 1/2 cup) and 2 servings of fruit (servings= 1/2 cup) 4 days a week, for the next 4 weeks.
Address successes and challenges. What strategies helped you to be successful?
I had a lot of success this week. Each day last week I brought fruits and vegetables with me to school. I brought things that were easy to snack on in between class such as carrots and celery. I also brought apples and had bananas. It also helped when I set my food together before school. Then when I woke up.. No matter how late it was I had no excuse not to bring them.

What challenges did you face? How did you deal with them?
I didn’t face to many challenges this week. I almost think that I should have made my challenge a bit harder. My only challenge that I had was eating fruits and veggies on the weekend. For some reason its just so hard for me. I think I just need to treat it more like a weekday. Maybe if I went to the library that would help.

What feelings did you experience? When did you feel them?
I felt great this week after eating so healthy. I had a lot more energy until the weekend came around. I was also very proud of myself that I met my goal this week. However I was kind of upset how easy it was.

What did you learn this week?
This past week I learned that being more prepared makes attaining your goal very easy. I also learned that I would like to continue my goal, but be more creative when eating fruits and vegetables. I want to learn some new vegetarian recipes.

What are your plans for next week?
Next week I plan to continue my goal, but modify it just a bit. I want to try to start eating organic fruits and vegetables, and up my servings of them. Im not exactly sure to how much. I have to plan out my budget first.

What was your SMART goal?
I will eat 2 servings of vegetables (serving= 1/2 cup) and 2 servings of fruit (servings= 1/2 cup) 4 days a week, for the next 4 weeks.


Did it change at all during the project? 
I did not change my behavior at all during our time in class. However I do think that I am going to modify my behavior, when I continue it on my own. I want to increase the servings of fruits and vegetables that I eat daily.

What helped you be successful?
It helped me to be successful when I was more prepared the night before. Also it helped me to see how great me peers were doing in reaching their goals, and that motivated me to my best that I could.

What things got in your way? How can you address these in the future?
One of the biggest things that got in my way was Thanksgiving. Its important for me to remember that I cant stop being healthy just because it is a special occasion. Its ok to tweak things here and there, but not to totally forget about it. Also having low finances also created some issues for me. Some weeks I had more money than others. Buying expensive things when your broke is tough.

How did you benefit from this project? 
I benefited from this project because I am now eating much healthier than I was before. I feel alot better and I am doing great things for the environment.


What did you learn about yourself? 
I learned that I can achieve things that may seem hard to do with time constraints and low funds.  I am happy that I was able to follow through with this.

How did others and/or the environment benefit from you changing this behavior?
The environment and local economy benefited from me eating more fruits and veggies because it is more Eco friendly. It has lower impact on the earth because a lot less water is used to produce vegetables than is used to produce meet. Others may have benefited because I am in a much better mood when I am eating right.

Will you continue this behavior?
I plan to continue this behavior and hopefully keep using it throughout my life. I want to try to continually increase my fruit and vegetable intake.

What recommendations do you have for others about making a lifestyle change?
My biggest recommendation to anyone trying to make a lifestyle change is to remember just that. It is a lifestyle change. Its something that you have to do everyday, and it had to be become routine in your life. So many people just do things temporarily, that makes it important to remember that a lifestyle change is not just temporary. Also I think its very important for people to start small. You can always make your goal harder and tweak things here and there. It might seem to overwhelming if you start with a goal that is to large, and you may give up easier. I also suggest that everyone try to make a lifestyle change. It is very rewarding when you achieve it.

"Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5 hosted by Amy@Amy in the Rain."

Advocacy Project: Letter and Fact Sheet

Facts about Asthma and Allergies

According to the CDC asthma is a disease that affects your lungs and it affects both children and adults. And is a key component in the Healthy Peoples 2010 respiratory goals.


Asthma Prevalence Rates


17.5 million of U.S adults suffer from asthma


7.1 million children in the U.S have asthma


According to a study done by the CDC overall children born in the U.S have greater odds than children born outside of the U.S to develop asthma.


Number of visits to health care facilities in which asthma is the primary diagnosis is just over 13 million


Nearly 3,500 people in the U.S die annually from asthma


Some important triggers of asthma include:
• outdoor air pollution- caused by industry and automobile emissions, therefore it is important to pay attention to air quality.
• Dust mites
• second hand smoke- also called environmental smoke


American spend nearly 90 % of their time indoors therefore indoor allergens can be a big factor in asthma rates.


By 2012 it is the EPA’s goal to reduce indoor asthma triggers and has created a variety of educational activities to do so.


May has been designated as possible National Asthma awareness month, therefore it is important for our representatives to keep informed and vote Yes as on the issue.


All information found at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/asthma.htm


http://www.epa.gov/asthma/awm/index.html
Letter to representative:


December 3, 2010


James Oberstar
U.S Senate
2365 Rayburn HOB
Washington , D.C. 20515


VOTE YES ON H.RES. 407 Designate the month of May as National Allergy and Asthma Awareness Month


By allocating the month of May as National Allergy and Asthma Awareness Month we will be able to better educate the American people of the effects and problems that asthma creates. Designating a month toward awareness will create more educational programs in schools and in workplaces. As a college student pursing a degree in health education I feel that there is great need for such recognition towards the problem of asthma in our country. If people become more aware of it will be able to begin working on ways to reduce the number of people effected by eliminating the factors that cause it whether they be environmental, or not.


The educational programs created for the month of National asthma and awareness month will help to education the public on the following issues: causes of the diseases, disparities to the condition, and environmental factors that may contribute to it. Some of the most common factors that are linked to asthma are secondhand smoke, dust mites, and outdoor air pollutions. Industry is the main concern of outdoor air pollution. Some of these risk factors are very modifiable. Just over 20 million U.S citizens suffer from asthma and by becoming more aware of these issues people may take the steps necessary to help prevent themselves and their families from developing asthma. In turn if less people are getting sick this means that they will have lower health care costs and me more productive in our economy.


Industry and health care companies would be the biggest opponents of this bill. Industry that produces the harmful pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide, may not want to reduce their emissions of this. It may cost them more money and less productivity. Health care companies also may oppose such awareness, they like them money that they receive from all of peoples health care bills. Yet we should all know that health is more important than money.


I appreciate your past support on related issues. We hope that you vote Yes on bill H.RES. 407 Designate the month of May as National Allergy and Asthma Awareness Month.

Reflection of Weeks 9-12

I cannot believe that we are already in week 12.  Its scary how fast time goes by.  Its getting to the point now that we are all getting really busy and stressed out, but I also cannot wait until this semester is over.  Once again we have learned a lot on the last few weeks, but at first I did not even realize it.  I couldn't really remember what we had talked about, but when I looked back it all came back to me.

Advocacy
We probably learned one of the most important things this week.  I would assume that before this week most of us had heard of the word advocacy.  The problem is that I didn't know what it meant.  It can be defined according to wikipedia as aim to influence public policy and resource allocation  descions within political, economic, and social systems institutions; it may be motivated from the moral, ethical, or faith principals, or simply just to protect and asset of interest.

 Some other important things to remember include:

• advocacy is not a direct service
• does not need to involve conflict

I never really realized just how important this was expesially to our major. I also never realized that it was one of our seven responsibilities.  Im excited to see how the rest of it goes and hope to learn more because it definietely does not come naturally to me.

Another thing that I learned was more about my political represnetatives .  Being aware of who are leaders are is the first step in the advocacy process.  Also I was surprised at how much I didn't know, and doing the research really made me realize that I need to keep more up to date on that.  It was also really nice to see the different representatives from the different part of the states and the local governments.

Smart Goals:

We also learned about smart goals.  Most of us thought that we knew what they were exactly, but it turns out they were a lot harder than you think.  There are certain things that you need to remember when formulating one and they include:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Timely

I think its really great that we turned them into our eco-chic life style change.  I think that its a really good tool to use to motivate us.  I have been making concious efforts to try and meet my smart goal each week.  Its also great to see everybody else and how they are doing.  It makes you want to try out some of their smart goals too such as

• eating organic produce
• riding the bus
• taking shorter showers

One of my favorite activities that we did this quarters was showing our photo essays.  Im glad that we got to see everyones it was really great. I could not believe the neat stuff that some people just had laying around.  Its also really great to see the progress that people are making in being more environmentally friendly.

Overall I think that this class continues to have a great impact on all of us.  It has made us more aware of what we do and how we can change things that we don't like.  I look forward to the last couple of weeks.

Share and Voice: Go Green During the Holidays Too

Since the Holidays are coming up I thought I would do something Christmas themed. Did you ever wonder what to do with your old Christmas decorartions.  Im sure we have all gotten hand me downs from our parents, but what do you do with them after that.  After all that we have learned this year we all know what can happen if you throw them away.. bad things.  Any ways there is some exciting news out that I heard on WCCO 4 news in the cities. You can now recycle your Holidays too!  Recycling lights isn't really a new concept, they are just making it a lot more convient by getting ACE hardwear stores involved.  Not only are we recycling,  but we are now even producing LED christmas lights at Target.  This Christmas they are hoping to collect 200,000 pounds of lights!   I included an interactive map that gives you a list of locations to recycle your lights at. 

For more information in this article you can visit:
http://www.recycleminnesota.org/
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/tag/recycle-your-lights/

Here is a list of locations you can drop them off at:
http://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/community-projects/campaigns/recycle-holidays-2010#map

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4: Weekly Update

My smart goal is:

I will eat 2 servings of vegetables (serving= 1/2 cup) and 2 servings of fruit (servings= 1/2 cup) 4 days a week, for the next 4 weeks.


I have to admit, that I definitely did not meet my smart goal this past week. I really did try , but it was just to hard for me to do it when I was on the road so much. A lot of it was poor planning on my part. I should have thought ahead and went to the store and brought me own fruits and vegetables.


One of the biggest challenges this week was being tempted by all of the bad food that was offered to me this weekend. Also I went out to eat at restaurants a lot so I didn’t really have much of a choice. One good thing, was that I did eat a lot of veggies and fruit, but the bad thing was that they were not in their whole form. They were in pies or hot dishes, so they don't really count.


One thing that I noticed this week was how crappy that I felt over the weekend. Eating bad foods really does take a toll on my body. I noticed that I had much less energy, and got a lot of headaches. Its crazy how food can do that.


One of the biggest things that I learned this week is to remember to plan ahead, and that you cant rely that you will do it when you get there. Its hard when your in a new place to do that, but in the long run I think that it will really help out.


This week I will meet my goal, and I am going to try and surpass it by eating my goal all seven days this week. I know that I can do it, but I just have to get to the grocery store :) I am excited to see how the week turns out.


Blogged for the Eco-Chic lifestyle change Week 4 Hosted by Amy@Amy in the rain

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

Neat Things From Goodwill

 Since we talk about Goodwill in class, and the importance of buying used items when you can I thought it would be a good idea to show some of the things I have found at Goodwill since I have been in school.  They really do have some great stuff!

This is a picture that I have hanging in my room.  Its actually an old vinyl record that I found at Goodwill my freshman year.  Its a really fun was to decorate especially if you like music.  Its easy to change if you want to, and plus it was only around $2.00, so its a really cheap alternative to buying expensive new wall hangings.

There is a lot going on in this picture, but what I wanted you to see is the vase.  I got it for 50 cents, and they always seem to have a lot of them in a variety of shapes and colors.

This is pretty self explanatory.  My roommates and I got this table from Goodwill when we were going to move in,  Its a great place to find furniture.

The shoes and the scarf are also some items that I have found there and fell in love with.  The shoes were new with the tags on them even.  

You can usually find some fun glass wear there too!

Last, but not least my guitar.  I had always wanted a guitar, but wasn't serious enough about playing to be able to buy one.  So when I came across this I was so excited.  I bought it for $15.00 and needed to put one new string on it for $2.00, so it cost me under $20.  It is such a great find and its all thanks to Goodwill.  

Remember to that its important to remember to keep your eyes open there and don't be afraid to dig, because you never know what you might find.