bethany

19th November 2011

Foodless Friday

Consumption:

I only drank a camelback water bottle filled with cranberry juice. I took a shower that lasted about 15 minutes. I ate 2 clementines, and chinese food for dinner. I was driven to and from school then I went to my younger cousins school because she was performing in a play. I used my phone and my gps today electricity wise.

Reduction:

I basically ate nothing today. To people in second and third world countries though, the food I ate today could last them a while. It made me realize just how lucky we are here in America to have the resources and money we have. I took a 15 minute shower which is still pretty long but compared to my other showers it is about 1/2 to 1/3 of the time I usually take, in the long run if I kept this up, it would make a big impact on my yearly water consumption.

Sustainability:

Today I mainly focused on food and I can honestly say it was extremely difficult. I couldnt imagine doing this for more than one day so I think cutting back on food was the worst day yet. My showers are still too long but I am making a serious effort to reduce my time in there and so far I think im doing a good job.

Following:

Many people have been impressed with how they are doing individually. The same goes for myself. Before this experiment I thought there was not a chance I could take a shower less than 30 minutes long and ever since tuesday when I took my first 10 minute shower, I realized it was possible. Everyones efforts are impressing me and I think everyone is impressed with themselves also.

19th November 2011

Day 5: Technology Thursday

sorry im super late…

1. Consumption

Water: a water bottle filled with cranberry juice and a can of iced tea

Food:a bagel, chicken tenders and mac and cheese

Electricity: my phone, the computer (for school work only though)

Gasoline: driven to and from school

Money: only bought my bagel today

2. Reduction

I really focused on only using the computer for school purposes today. I usually spend hours on facebook and twitter but I only checked them once today from my phone.

3. Sustainability

I think that it was hard to cut back on my technology mainly the computer but I could do it maybe 3 days a week and it would make a very big difference.

4. What did I learn?

Today was all about technology but mainly the technology we use are cell phones and computers so te see that everyone really focused on cutting back on their usage on both was awesome. I think everyone is putting in a lot of effort towards this and its nice to do this together.

16th November 2011

waterless wednesday

1. My Consumption

Water - no shower… yet but im planning on a 10 minute one before bed and i drank two glasses of water

Food - i had a bagel, salad and havent eaten dinner yet but im having steak and mashed potatos

Electricity- I havent really been home all day so the only electricity i used today was the light in my room when i woke up and later on when i charge my phone

Gasoline- Imy mom drove me to the doctors in natick and home after i was finished

Money- proud to say i spent zero dollars today

2. My main focus is with my showeres/water usage because everything else seems to be okay today. when i shower later im going to set a timer for 10 minutes so i know when to shut the water off because i really need to focus on shorter showers because that will decrease my water usage a lot.

3. I think that by cutting back on my showers and water consumption I feel like im making significant change. i know its a very small action but as we have learned and talked about, little changed can go a long way.

4. I’m basically the first person to do this so im gunna log back on later to see what people have been saying

16th November 2011

Day 3 - Try Harder Tuesday

I’m a day late but i was at the hospital last night so im gunna do try harder tuesday then waterless wednesday…

Consumption

Water - 2 bottles of water and a 15 minute shower (cutting back)

Food - I had a bagel for breakfast, a clementine and sandwich for lunch and i didnt have dinner oh and a few crackers

Electricy/Gas - i used my phone a little bit and my computer for about an hour

Fossil Fuels - i was driven to and from school…

Money - the only money i spent was on my bagel for breakfast

Reduction

My shower was significantly shorter than any shower i have ever taken. Usually i shower for 45 minutes to an hour so 15 minutes did feel like a breeze but i felt just as clean as I would taking an hour shower.

Sustainability

I think my water, food, electricity and gas consumption seems to be slowly decreasing. my gas consumption though could be cut down if i took the bus but my mom works down the street from school so she would be driving there anyways so in some way, our carpooling could be considered the same as me aking a bus.

Following

By reading the dashboard im learning that the main things people are focusing on is showers. After doing the activity in class and learning i use 645 gallons of water a week it was a real wake up call for me and made me realize that i really do need to significantly cut down on my water usage.

14th November 2011

MONEY MONDAY

CONSUMPTION:
water: so I took two showers but I can honestly say it was much shorter than my usual one shower. I had practice so I drank a lot of water there but throughout the day I cut back.

ELECTRICITY: I would definitely say that this is what I’m the worst at. I charged my phone, watched tv but I didn’t put music on while I wa in the shower and I think that’s why it was shorter.

FOOD: I didn’t have breakfast which cut back on that but I did have a snack right after school so I guess I made up for it there.

GAS: I was driven everywhere today… not a good day for gas. I was driven to school, driven to practice in canton, then driven home… Whoopsies

MONEY: I didn’t buy coffe and breakfast at Sami’s today. It’s something really small but legit a killer.

REDUCTION

The biggest thing I did to reduce today was not buying breakfast. I never realized how much the little things can add up. Breakfast and coffee are two things that are part of my daily routine.

SUSTAINABILITY:

Obviously I didn’t do the best job of this today… I’m aware that in third world countries people sometimes don’t even get to shower never mind twice in one day. So I’m ashamed I guess of that but focusing on money Monday, I think I did a pretty good job. Not buying breakfast did mean I only ate 2 meals but this is not umcommon for some third world countries.

EXTRA QUESTION:

By reading the posts on my board or whatever it’s called I was pretty surprised. I mean everyone could be making all if this up but it seemed like most people were making serious efforts. This surprised me because I thought everyone would just make up crazy stories and not actually follow through but I was wrong. Also after reading everyone’s pots and how hard they’re trying, I need to step my game up.