Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5: Weekly Review and Final Reflection

Weekly Update: 

I must admit that I thought I did a really good job this past week on staying on track with my SMART goal which is: I will drink five or fewer bottled beverages (Gatorade, Vitamin Water, soda, etc.) per week and I will recycle all of them when finished drinking them. I stayed well under my target goal and only drank like one or two beverages from a plastic bottle this past week. The stainless steel water bottle that I bought has really helped me the past couple of weeks along with drinking a lot of things out of my coffee cup at home. I know you're all probably wondering what, coffee cup? Yes, I use my trusting old coffee cup to drink out of; I rinse it out of course after I drink my coffee, but I figure hey why not save on water and dirtying another dish and just re-use my cup and be more eco-friendly. So again like I stated above I felt I did a good job in following my SMART goal and to be honest it's almost becoming second nature now.

Review of Entire Process:

My SMART goal to start out with was as follows: I will drink three or fewer bottled beverages (Gatorade, Vitamin Water, soda, etc.) per week and I will recycle all of them when finished drinking them. My goal did change throughout the process. I tweaked my goal just a bit and changed it from three to five or fewer bottled beverages per week. By doing this it made my goal much more attainable. This goal was much harder than I first anticipated it to be simply because I never realized just how much I drink out of plastic bottles. Since I changed my goal from three to five I haven't gone over one time and I'm really proud of myself for doing so. I think it would have been much wiser to start out with five bottled beverages and scale it down from there because now I only drink like two or three bottled beverages per week. The things that helped me be successful in achieving my goal was the suggestions and advise from my fellow blog members along with some self-dedication and support from friends. My blog members gave me some really good suggestions which included purchasing Gatorade and Vitamin Water powdered packets and buying a water bottle. Some things that got in the way were: deer hunting season and I purchased two cases of Gatorade and Vitamin Water prior to starting my SMART goal. I say deer season because there's no running water or electricity where we hunt and we pretty much have to drink out of  plastic bottles which stinks, however I took all of the plastic bottles that accumulated over the weekends home with me and recycled them so there was a positive that came out of the situation. I can address these types of things in the future by being more aware and prepared of what's ahead and start early on possible goals to allow for miscues that may arise. 

I've benefited not only from this SMART goal process but also from this class in that I'm much more aware now of my environment and I'm being much more eco-friendly. I've learned a lot about myself during this process in that I now realize that I can in fact change my behavior if I really want to do so. I have the self-motivation and dedication inside me to change. I learned throughout this SMART goal process that behavior change is indeed not easy to accomplish due to various physical, mental, and environmental factors and temptations but is attainable if you put your mind and will power to it. Like Bear Grylls says, if you keep your psychological status clear, calm, and collected anything is possible and you can in fact do whatever it is you set out to do. The environment benefited from my behavior change in that I recycled all of my bottles and by not purchasing or using plastic bottles the less factories had to make them no matter how nominal just my change was. Others benefited in that my girlfriend is now much more eco-friendly and she has helped me follow my SMART goal along with partaking in other environmentally friendly things/changes with me. I will continue this behavior and will continue to be more eco-friendly in other various ways that I can. Recommendations that I have for others about making a behavior change is choose a behavior that is indeed attainable and fits for you along with self-motivation and dedication. This has been an awesome experience and has taught me a lot about myself.

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5 and Final Reflection         

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change: Week 4 Weekly Update

I have to admit that at first this SMART goal was a bit harder than I imagined, but after some resilience and dedication I am now able to follow my goal to a T. In case anyone forgot my goal is: I will drink five or fewer bottled beverages (Gatorade, Vitamin Water, Soda, etc.) a week and recycle all of them when finished drinking them. The hardest part of following my goal at first was that I purchased two cases of Gatorade and Vitamin Water prior to my SMART goal. I still did pretty well though I thought considering but still went over my quota. I recently tweaked my goal and added five beverages instead of three and found that to be much more manageable. Since I switched my goal a couple weeks ago I haven't gone over my goal. The holiday break didn't seem to hinder me at all in staying on track with my goal and I think it actually helped because I drank most of my beverages out of glasses. In fact, on black Friday I purchased a Bisphenol A free stainless steel water bottle to drink out of so I don't drink from plastic bottles. The best part of the purchase is that it was insanely cheap and good for the environment all at the same time! I don't plan on changing my goal and will stick to the five or fewer bottled beverages a week. Suggestions and advice are kindly offered and appreciated.

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4 hosted by Amy@Amy in the Rain  

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3: Weekly Update

This past week was the third week of my attempts to meet my SMART goal. I tweaked my goal just a bit the past week so that I would have a better chance of obtaining my goal. My new goal is as follows:

I will drink 5 or fewer bottled beverages beverages a week and I will recycle all of them when finished drinking them. This was a much more manageable goal just because like I've stated before I purchased two cases of Vitamin Water and Gatorade prior to making this goal. I've already begun to cut out drinking as much bottled beverages as possible and I did a much better job this past week in obtaining my SMART goal. I still drank some bottled beverages this past week but I didn't overdo my quota of five beverages, (Yay).  I want to thank my fellow blog members for offering some good suggestions and alternatives to drinking beverages that don't come from plastic bottles. Keep the suggestions and advice coming. I appreciate all suggestions and advice.

I will continue to use the same goal this coming week which is: I will drink 5 or fewer bottled beverages (Gatorade, Vitamin Water, soda, etc.) per week and I will recycle all of them when finished drinking them.

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3 Hosted by Amy@Amy in the Rain 

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2: Weekly Update

Last week was the first week of my SMART goal which is: I will drink no more than 3 bottled beverages (Gatorade, Vitamin Water, soda, etc.) a week and will recycle all of them when finished drinking them. I definitely slipped a few times this past week I'm not going to lie, only because I purchased a case of Vitamin Water and Gatorade prior to making my SMART goal choice and I was deer hunting and we don't have running water of electricity so I had to drink out of a bottle :( I didn't do to bad though considering my circumstances/environment and will definitely be able to follow my goal better this coming week. As of my feelings towards this goal; I actually felt guilty and ashamed for drinking out of a plastic bottle but on the positive side I took it upon myself to collect everyone's plastic bottles from the weekend and recycled them when I left. What I learned this week is that changing a behavior no matter how big or small can be very difficult and challenging but having the positive discipline and dedication to change will help immensely. I also learned that marketing schemes and advertisements are everywhere when considering a behavior change like mine because you can't get away from them and they can hinder your goals/change if you let them. My plans this week will be to continue with this goal but I may change it from three bottled beverages to five just because I purchased these products before we chose our SMART goals. Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated and encouraged.

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2 hosted by Amy@Amy in the Rain

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1: My Smart Goal

Okay, well I had a tough time coming up with an actual attainable smart goal but I think I finally found one that I can follow and want to follow based on the staggering information that I learned after watching the film Tapped. Anyway here's my smart goal.

I will drink no more than 3 bottled beverages, (Ex. water, soda, Gatorade, etc.) per week and will recycle all of them when finished drinking them.

I definitely consider this change to be eco-chic because of what I mentioned above after watching Tapped in that there is a ton of nasty chemicals that go into making the plastic bottles such as: Bisphenol-A and Toluene. Leeching is also a major concern in that some chemicals can get mixed into the water that we drink from bottles and cause major health problems. Another huge role is the factories that produce the bottles and all the chemicals that flow into the air along with getting disposed of into the rivers, lakes, and streams. By cutting down purchasing such bottles the less pollution the factories will be pouring out, therefore I'm doing a little part to cut back on environmental harm. 

I just don't see what the fascination is with bottled water today other than I guess it's more convenient for people to purchase and carry. According to the video Tapped, tap water is just as good for you if not better so why doesn't everyone just drink more tap water and purchase an eco-friendly water container? Also the video pointed out that most bottled water companies do in fact get their water from municipal water sources anyhow. Crazy isn't it how clever marketing and social norms play a vital role in how we choose to eat and drink things. 

The hardest thing for me with this smart goal will be to not drink Gatorade or Vitamin water because I love both of these drinks and will have to just stick to drinking tap water. It will be tough at first but I think I can do it.

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1 hosted by Amy@Amy in the Rain.

Welcome to Matt's Smoke Free Zone

 Hello everyone my name is Matt Koski and I'm a senior here at UMD. My major is health education w/ a community concentration and a psychology minor. I also plan on obtaining a license here at UMD to teach special education. I've been in college for quite some time now and want to be finished!; although I did take about 2 and a half years off from college to work full time. My interests include: hunting, fishing, sports (I played football, basketball, and baseball all through high school and played football and baseball in Junior College), fantasy football, walking, the outdoors, playing video games, going to movies, and just relaxing at home. My family has a lake cabin on Lake Vermillion and a hunting shack up by Canada which I really enjoy being at. I grew up in a very small town in which my graduating class was about 40 people. I also grew up in the country so that's probably a contributing factor as to why I love being outdoors. My blog is going to be about the outdoors/wilderness and why we should preserve/enjoy them more than we do as a society. I would also like to add things on the benefits of not smoking and the harms that second hand smoke causes.

Do NOT include text in ALL CAPS or text in between the () symbols.)

There are 6 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
5. Read 'n' Seed
6. Share and Voice

The members of my group are:

1. Brenda@Barefoot in the Backyard with Brenda
2. Dane@Dane's Trail of Health
3. JD@Earth and Me with JD
4. Sam@Sustainability with Sam
5. Alicia@Out and About with Alicia
6. Molly@Molly's Rico Eco

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

Well that about wraps it up for the introductory portion of the class. I hope my first blogging experiences are good ones and I hope to hear from all my fellow group members very soon. Talk to ya soon.