Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

Part 1

Defined Terms:
Antique- An antique is an old collectable item that represents a previous period of time in society. The reason why it is considered to be a collectable item is because of its age, beauty, condition, or unique feature. Antiquing is the act of collecting these items and using them as a decorative/ art technique.

Junking- This is the retrieval of ordinarily discarded things and materials. It is a way of redefining the usage of things, and a way of cleaning up our polluted earth! Junk is something that one person throws away as something that they no longer want and junking is when someone else uses another person’s “junk”.

Flea market- is a place, indoors or outdoors, where inexpensive or second hand goods are sold. Many times this is where people will bargain the price down. Flea-market vendors might me families that are selling unwanted items or a commercial operation that include new or used merchandise.

Thrift Shop (may also be known as a charity shop)- is a retail establishment run by a charitable organization to raise money. They usually sell second-hand goods that have been donated by individuals in the public, and are staffed by volunteers. This is not a place that is trying to make money as a “business”. They use the money to pay for business costs (such as clothing racks, counters) and then the rest is used for the organization’s charitable purpose. 

Upcycling- is taking something that you would otherwise throw out and finding a way to make it into something else. It is taking waste and making it into something that has equal or greater use value; improving the quality of the material. An example could be taking an old sweater that can no longer be worn, and turning it into a purse.

Resale Shop- A place where they sell gently used goods. They buy their merchandize outright from individual owners. Sometimes a profit goes to a charity but it is different from a thrift shop as it differs in the percentage given (if any at all). Examples in Duluth would be Plato’s closet, Savers, or Goodwill.

What do the terms above have to do with environmental health?
At first the terms above might not seem like they have anything to do with environmental health, but they all do! They are all environmentally friendly ideas because they have to do with the concept of reusing items or materials. If antiquing or thrift stores didn't exist then our landfills would be filled with even more 'garbage'. All of the terms are our society's way or recycling items from one individual to another. One person's junk may be another person's art piece on their wall. If we can take the terms defined above and use them in our everyday decisions, we will be eliminating garbage that pollutes our earth!

Part 2
Identify at least one local resource for each of the terms above...provide name, location, contact information, and website or blog. 

• Antiques: Chester Creek Books and Antiques, 1333 East Superior St. Duluth, MN, 218-724-4427 or otabooks@gmail.com 
• Junking: Old Town Antiques and Books, 102 E Superior St. Duluth, MN, 218-722-5426
• Flea Market: Studebaker Drivers Club Swap Meet Flea Market & Classic Car Show, Lake Superior College 2101 Trinity Rd, Stude.one@usfamily.net
• Thrift Shop: Goodwill,  700 Garfield Av. Duluth, MN, 218-722-3050
• Upcycling: I could not find a specific location in duluth but anyone could do this in their own homes!
• Resale Shop: Plato's Closet, Tree Road, Suite 315C. Duluth, MN, 218-733-9455

Identify whether you do any or use any of these things. Why or Why not?

I can't say that I collect or use antiques or that I have ever tried junking at this point in my life. I have just never though about doing this before, but once I am done College and looking for my first real house, this is something I would love to do. I have never tried upcycling and maybe this has to do with my creative side not being so great. Maybe this is something I can try in my future. This summer I went to a flea market back home in Canada. It was my first experience and I had a lot of fun. You can find some great deals and the atmosphere was great. I bought some local fruit that day and it was delicious. I donate my old clothes on a regular basis. I usually do this in the summer when I am back home and have gone through all of my things. I give mine to the Diabetes Association and they even come pick it up at my house! I have been to Plato's closet a couple times but have not bought anything, only because I didn't find anything I needed. I love the idea of stores like Plato's closet and my roommates and I are planning a shopping trip there this week! 

Part 3

Get your Junk on! Visit JunkMarketStyle.com and find three projects that inspire you or that you simply find cool. 

1. Happy Father’s Day Eve- I chose this cool project because for many kids, this would be a fun and awesome gift to give their dads. Taking an old bottle and making it their own, by adding their picture and turning it into a vase to give on father’s day! Very cool!
2. My ‘White Trash’ Bedroom- I don’t know if I would ever have the guts to re-do my entire room with a budget of $0 and using the concept of junking. That is exactly what they did! Their entire bedroom is ‘junk’ but looking at the picture it looks really well done and like a really cool place to hang out! 
3. A Reel Bird Feeder- For the project, they took an old movie reel and put in on a stand to make a bird feeder. It looks really cool but when I saw it I thought I would use that as a serving tray for guests (humans not birds). I know it was made for the birds, but I thought of different ways I would use something like that! Creative! 

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5: Final Weekly Review & Overall Project Relfection

Weekly Review 

This week I was successful in achieving My SMART goal, which is turning off my lights every time I leave my bedroom.

I think I can safely say that my SMART goal has turned into a habit! I don't think about it as a chore, or an obstacle, instead it is something that I do on a regular basis. A piece of advice that was given to me a couple of weeks ago was to be patient as it takes 3 weeks for a change to become a habit. I took the advice of being patient, stuck with my goal, and I am now turning off my lights on a regular basis!

I am very excited and happy that over the last few weeks, what started out to be a challenge is now something that I have conquered and made a part of my daily routine. I never really thought that turning off my bedroom lights was going to be a challenge or that successfully completing the challenge was going to make me feel so good! What I learned this week is that if you stick to your goal and be patient, then changing a simple lifestyle can truly happen. 

A couple weeks ago, I added the challenge of turning off the power bar in my room whenever it is not being used. This week I did ok with the challenge but not great. I turned it off about 60% of the time. I noticed that when I leave for school and have to unplug something then I would remember to turn it off, but the challenge I faced was that I forgot to turn it off if I didn't need to unplug something from the power bar. Although I had a rough week with this challenge, I want to continue to challenge myself because power bars can really suck up energy.

Review of Entire Process 

My SMART goal remained the same over the last 5 weeks, but I did add a challenge as I was becoming more successful with my goal. I added this challenge at about the half way mark of this 5 week lifestyle change process. Although my SMART goal is something that I have successfully made a new habit, the challenge that I made for myself is not there yet. Turning off my power bar in my room whenever it is not being used is something that I will continue to try and make a habit, just like I did with my SMART goal of turning off my bedroom lights whenever I leave my room!!!!!

The challenges that I faced throughout this process was remembering to turn off my lights when I got busy or stressed. I noticed early on that whenever I was in a rush or my mind was preoccupied with who knows what, then that's when I would leave my lights on. Noticing the obstacle that got in my way of being successful allowed me to realize that I needed to slow down, think before leaving, and remind myself of what I was really supposed to be doing in that moment. Taking a few moments to just think and take a breath is a strategy that I will continue to use in the future.

Taking on a lifestyle challenge of turning off my bedroom lights had some rough patches along the way, but now reflecting back, I can see the benefits. The first benefit is that reducing the amount of electricity I use will help to lower our electricity bill. This is something that I can benefit from and so can my roommates, who I know love saving money anytime we can. Another benefit is that I have reduced my Ecological Footprint and have helped to make our world a better and cleaner place to live. This might not be something that I can literally see right now, but I know that these types of lifestyle changes can truly have a positive impact on our world. Behaviour change is not something that happens overnight, instead it takes practice and is something that can take up to 3 weeks to make a habit. Challenges can seem overwhelming at first, but I think that if you want to be successful you have to make a commitment to the challenge, be patient, and remember why you took the challenge in the first place.

My SMART goal has really turned into a new habit of mine, which is something I am absolutely going to keep on doing! It is something so simple, yet in the long run it is something that is huge when it comes to protecting our earth. We only have one beautiful earth and now seeing how I can make a lifestyle change, I want to challenge more behaviours of mine. One challenge at a time while taking steps towards a greener place to live!

Eye Opener:Environmental Working Group

After visiting the EWG website, I decided to look up  ChapStick Lip Balm (peppermint flavour). Now that winter is approaching I know my lips are going to feel the weather change and are going to want some of that lip balm.

The overall rating for the product is a 5, which is a moderate hazard. The first thing I did was look at the ingredients found in ChapStick, which are listed on the EWG website. To be honest I couldn't pronounce most of the ingredients, which made some red flags pop up in my head. What I also noticed is that there are a lot of different ingredients and I wondered if there is even a need for all those chemicals to be in my lip balm.

Next, I scrolled down and read through some of the major concerns with the ingredients and how they can affect humans. What stuck out the most to me was neurotoxicity. There is strong evidence of human neurotoxicity in two of the ingredients found in my lip balm. What this means is that exposure to these toxins can alter the normal activity of the nervous system in such a way to cause damage to nervous tissue. I could have stopped reading there because right then I made the decision to through away my ChapStick. However, I did decide to read on and another alarming concern is endocrine disrupters. There is strong evidence of this in two of the ingredients. These are disruptions that can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. YIKES!

As I continued to read on about the concerns, I was left in complete shock. I had no idea that all of those toxins could be in one little tube, and that there are some major health concerns related to those toxins/ingredients. The list is quite lengthy and I could go on about the different concerns but it was clear to me that this product is not one that I will continue to use. My sister, who is a nurse, has told me many times that I should read cosmetic labels and that I should really try to use more natural products or at least learn more about what is in my products. Well I can now say that she was right all along. I am definitely going to find a safer product for my lips and I am throwing away my ChapStick!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change: Week 4 Update

My SMART goal is to turn of the lights in my bedroom every time I leave the room. This week I was successful 90% of the time. On Wednesday I was trying to pack, do laundry, and make dinner so for the two hours I was downstairs doing that, I left my light on.

This week I rarely had to think about turning off my lights, which means it is more of a habit for me now! My strategy has always been to just think before I leave my room. I'm sure unconsciously I still think about turning my lights off but it's awesome that I'm not having to remind myself about it all the time. The challenge that I faced this week was that when I got really busy and stressed, I forgot to turn off my lights. I think its natural to forget to do things when your stressed or running around but I'm going to try and slow things down, take a breath, and I hope that will help me remember everything I am supposed to be doing.

I felt successful again this week and happy that I was achieving my goal. When I forgot to turn of my light it made me feel more stressed. It was a feeling of like great, what else am I forgetting to do. Other then that one mishap I am excited that this is really turning into a habit!

What I learned this week is that even though I felt like it was a habit, I'm not quite there yet. During times when I am rushed and busy I need to just stop and think. I learned that it's ok to remind myself about my lights. I need to look at reminding myself as a positive instead of thinking about it as taking a step back.

Last week I challenged myself to turn off the power bar in my room whenever it is not being used. I had success with this, but I think it might be partly due to the fact that I was away from Thursday  to Sunday. On Monday when I was back home I left it on all day. Once I realized it was on, I turned it off and I was successful again on Tuesday.

This week I am going to stick with my SMART goal and I am going to keep the same challenge. I will be home this weekend which will allow me to really see how I do with turning off my power bar.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change:Week 3 Update

This week I did a much better job with my Eco-Chic lifestyle change goal. YAA!! My SMART goal is that over the next ten weeks, everyday I will turn off all the lights in my bedroom whenever it is not being used. Last week, as you read I had a few challenges and bumps along the way. This week I was perfect! Every time I left my room, the lights were turned off. I even got into such a routine of turning them off that even when I just went to the bathroom, which is only 5 steps away, I still turned them off!

This week my success outweighs my challenges. Although I was "perfect" there were still times when I left my room only to realize I left my light on. This week I realized I left it on just shortly after leaving my room (literally like 5 steps)! I would then just turn around and simply turn it off before leaving my room for an extended period of time. I think what helped me be successful this week was making it a habit. I didn't really PRACTICE turning my light off but repeatedly turning it off every time I left my room helped me make turning my lights off a a new habit of mine!

Even though turning off your lights might seem like a small accomplishment, I still felt like I was achieving something and it made me feel good! Last week I felt a bit of anger when I forgot to turn my lights off, but this week the anger was gone and I felt successful and happy every time I pulled the cord to turn off my lights. I didn't think that every time I left my room I would feel like I was succeeding because I had turned off my lights, but I did!

What I have learned this week is that doing something over and over again can really help make a life-style change a new habit. I also realized that this is something that I don't just want to change over the next ten weeks, but I want to make it something that I do for the rest of my life. Something so simple yet it has such great rewards with both saving money on the electrical bill and becoming more environmentally friendly.

Looking at my SMART goal and the success I had this week I want to continue to work on this goal and hopefully one day I won't even think of turning off my light as achieving a goal and get to the point where I don't even have to think about it. I also want to challenge myself more this week. I have a power bar in my room where I plug in my computer, cell phone, and table light. This week I want to turn off my power bar whenever it is not being used! Although sometimes my light isn't on, computer or cell phone isn't charging, the power bar is still on and is therefore still using electricity. This week I will continue to turn off my light whenever I leave my room, but will also turn off my power bar when it is not being used!

Eye Opener: CSPI

I decided to vist the Tour the Food Supply website and found it very informative. This is a great website to learn quick facts about food, where it comes from, and how it impacts our environment. I want to make changes in my food choices because all the facts were very shocking to me!

The first stop on my tour, was the Animal Feed Facts. The part that stood out the most was the fact that there are far more antibiotics fed to healthy livestock then are used to treat sick people. To me that is something that I don’t even know how to begin to wrap my head around. The antibiotics that are fed to the animals is something that ends up being a part of our diet and to me that is scary. Along with this fact came another shocking piece of information. The methane released from livestock and their manure is equivalent to the annual release of carbon dioxide from 33 MILLION automobiles! I had no idea that the manure could have such a negative impact on our environment.

Another stop on my tour that left me shocked was the Irrigation facts. Irrigating feed-grain crops and raising livestock requires about 15 TRILLION GALLONS of water per year. Wow! I had no idea that the amount of water being used was so high. It is hard for me to even picture that amount of water being used for one aspect of our lives.

The last fact that I want to share is one that I found at the Hospital stop on the tour. I knew some of the facts about diet but once again it opened my eyes. The cost of drugs to treat high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure is about $30 BILLION a year and the overall cost of diet-realted diseases is about $90 billion annually. This was part of the tour because diets rich in meat and dairy products, and low in plant-based foods, increase the risk of obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and certain types of food. Choosing healthier options can decrease the health bills and health problems our world face.

This tour is one that I would recommend to everyone. It is quick and easy to navigate around, while at the same time learning about some pretty astonishing facts. For me this tour was very educational and learning about all aspects of our food will help me make better choices for my own personal health and for the environment.