Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change: Week 2 Update

My SMART goal is that everyday I will turn off the lights in my room whenever it is not being used. I must admit that I thought this was going to be easier then it has been. The first couple days went well but then I slipped a little bit. Whenever I left my house I had no problem turning my light off, but when I was downstairs or somewhere else in the house, thats when I noticed I would leave it on. I think I ran into this problem because when I would leave my room I had the thought that I would be back soon and I didn't have to turn it off. Well, one distraction turns into another and before I know it my light had been left on for an hour or so. I think this can be an easy fix. Whenever I leave my room I will think of it as if I am leaving and not coming back for hours. Since I am better at turning them off when I leave for the day, I am hoping this will help!

When I did turn off my light I felt successful and happy that I was reaching my goal. It was kind of like being a little kid and getting all excited. When I would come upstairs and see that I had left my light on I was mad at myself for forgetting to turn it off. I also had this annoyed feeling sometimes. If I was leaving and realized my light was still on, I felt annoyed that I had to walk a whole 5 steps to turn it off. It was a weird feeling, but also maybe a feeling that comes from my goal not quite being a habit yet. 

This simple, yet challenging change has helped me realize that it takes practice to make a lifestyle change and that you will have some failures at first. I thought it was going to come easily and become a habit right away. Patience and practice are two things that will help me reach my goal and do better this week. I wanted to add another part to me goal, but I will have to master this before I can challenge myself again. 

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

My foot size for a pair of shoes is a women's 9, but my ecological foot size is much bigger then I expected. I took an ecological quiz at the IUHPE Ecological Footprint website. I wasn't expecting such alarming results, but unfortunately thats what I got. According to this quiz, if everyone lived like me, it would take 6.5 earths to provide enough resources. My first reaction was to think that something must be wrong with the quiz, and there is no way my results would be that high. Then I started to think about the way I live, and I think there are many things I can improve upon.

Food resources is an area that I can improve the most. This is an area that I can make small changes with, one step at a time. Buying foods that are in season, or trying to buy a couple things a week that are local would help reduce my footprint! Mobility is another area that I need to improve upon. This is an area that I struggle to think of ways to improve. I travel a lot with hockey, and our rink is not located on campus, so we must drive down. We do car pool whenever we go to the rink, and other then that I bike to school, and many times we just walk to the grocery store because it is only a block away. Perhaps this is something I can improve more upon once I have graduate from University. Other areas I know I can improve upon are doing simple things around the house. Turning off the lights when they are not being used, using reusable bags instead of plastics bags, and recycling even more then I do now!

My ecological footprint is too big for my liking. There are little things I can do to shrink my footprint, and I am dedicated to doing it! Sometimes we don't realize how easily things can add up when discussing the size of our ecological footprints. If you have never taken an ecological quiz before, I strongly suggest you do because the results might surprise you. Small steps but big differences!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change: My SMART Goal

My Eco-Chic lifestyle change is going to focus on limiting my use of electricity. Being a college student we sometimes forget to turn things off, or don't realize how much energy some items use. There is also the  money issue that college students face, so why not save a few dollars while at the same time making the environment a cleaner place to live. 

My SMART goal is: Over the next ten weeks, everyday I will turn off all the lights in my bedroom whenever it is not being used.

This lifestyle change is eco-chic because turning off my lights can help save energy. When you leave your lights on when you are not in the room, energy is being wasted and this is harming our environment. The energy we use comes from somewhere like a power plant which releases large amounts of greenhouse gases. This small change can reduce your electric bill, energy usage, and shrink your carbon footprint! 

I chose this lifestyle change because I think it is something very attainable. When I started to think about what lifestyle change I was going to do, I realized I was sitting in my living room and almost every light in the house was on. It is a very small change and I think it can become a habit of mine... with some practice of course! If I can limit a small percentage of energy I use everyday, then I can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are released everyday into our environment. That reduction will brighten my day! 

Welcome to Adventures with Haley

Ryan's Falls in Switzerland

Hi, my name is Haley Irwin and I am a Community Health major at the University of Minnesota Duluth. I have created this blog to share some of the things I will learn in my environmental health class, but will also be focusing on saving energy! I will discuss different ways to save energy, lower your electric bill, and how this can affect our environment.

There are five possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
5. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post has been labeled with all five kinds of posts. You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above. 

Here are the members of my web group: 

1. Nicole@Exploring The Environment
2. Alex@The Geyser of Johnson
3. Dr.V/Kristen@Enviro-surfing with Amy and Kristen 
4. Alina@Splashing Along the Shores with Alina

You can also follow my blog my clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile."

I hope you will enjoy my blog and learn about eco-friendly ideas as we go on this adventure together. The environment is ours to take care of and we can make a difference one light at a time! 

This is my avatar!