Reflection: Weeks 13-14 Combined with Overall Course Reflection

So now I write our very last reflection for the semester. As always I will say it, “Where has our time gone?!” Seriously tho, this semester flew by way too fast. I will briefly cover weeks 13 and 14 in this final reflection.

In week 13, we started off by visiting Goodwill. Here, we met with two representatives and toured the building while learning about their commitment to serving others. It was really cool to see how everything at Goodwill worked. We ended our day by doing a cool activity where we were assigned a destination wedding where we had to pick out an outfit, gift and something we couldn’t go there without. We drew Hawaii and had a lot of fun seeing everyone’s creative ideas!

Week 14 we had to bring in our Junk Projects. In this assignment we had to find an object and refurbish it into something we could use. After our Goodwill tour, I walked through the store to find my very own piece of “junk”. I discovered a cute little cookie jar so I purchased it for a whopping $.99! What a steal huh? So I brought it home and decorated it with a Christmas theme and filled it with my homemade peppermint fudge =) I then gave it to my internship supervisor as a Christmas gift. She loved it! This was a really cool experience for me because it allowed me to be creative and turn a regular piece of “junk” into something that I would use.

Overall, I have learned so much from taking this course. I was introduced to the blogging world and learned anything and everything about the Do’s and Don’t of proper blogging techniques. I have also been exposed to some very eye-opening documentaries that have changed my outlook on certain environmental issues in our society. We also learned how to advocate for health education. We were given the opportunity to research who represents us and also draft a letter of concern on an issue that we have found important to us. And we have learned that calling something "junk" doesn't always mean that it doesn't serve a purpose. After all they say "One man's junk is another man's treasure". Finally, we have challenged each other to become more environmentally friendly by incorporating small changes into our everyday lifestyles.

As you can see, I have learned A LOT from taking this Environmental Health class. It kind of makes me sad that I don't have to comment or post weekly on my blog anymore after this. Nor will I have as much excitement about finding a new topic for my Share & Voice! Oh well, it has been a good run. After this, I am definitely more confident about sharing my voice and opinions through a blog! Who knows, maybe I will keep up my daily blogging. Feel free to stop by and see what I'm up to!

It's been a good run.

Thank you for all who followed me and offered your thoughts and opinions on my daily posts.

Over and Out this is Through Green Eyes with Katie Signing Off for the last time.

Peace.

Eye Opener: Online Learning Activities

Ashley: Calculate your auto emissions

My 1996 Dodge Intrepid has a 3.5L, 6cyl. Automatic engine. I would say that I use the average miles that most Americans do which is 12,000. For this average I use 333.33 gallons of fuel in the city and 230.77 gallons of fuel on the highway, totaling 564.1 gallons yearly. My car uses up 10,887.13 lbs of CO2 and has a 4.94MT of CO2 MT Emissions. The total CO2 credit cost is $39.52. Check out my results.

My car is a bigger and older car so I guess my results make sense. Even though I used the average amount of miles for an American I do not think that I drive this much, which would reduce my overall emissions yearly. Still, to think that I use this much personally I can’t imagine how much we use globally!

Jamie: How fit are you?

I scored a 45 on the How Fit Are You? Test. According to the site I am “super fit and the envy of the rest of us mere mortals”. I kind of expected this because I am very involved in fitness and keeping my body in good shape. One thing I need to improve on however is my flexibility. I rated myself short of my age range because I could not make 19inches. This is pretty embarrassing, but for me stretching is so boring and it hurts! I guess I should put more effort into stretching out my muscles after I workout.

Elly: How big is your footprint

I was unable to complete this exercise because my car model wasn’t listed on the website’s drop-down list. I do however remember what my CO2 emission was from doing Ashley’s online activity. According to Ashley’s activity I used up 10,887.13lbs of CO2 a year. This was an astounding number to find out because I did not think it was even close to being that much. One thing I can do to change/improve this number is reduce the number of useless trips that I make during the week. Another easy thing to do is carpool with others to wherever I need to go. I personally have no thought about switching to a more fuel efficient car only because I cannot afford it right now. Due to my college budget, this just isn’t an option for me. Some changes that I would like to see are more people ridesharing with each other. I don’t think it’s necessary to people to make solo trips especially when others may be going the same place.

Kara: Energy Dustbin Game

The dustbin was a cool game to test our knowledge about renewable and nonrenewable energy sources. I scored a 36 on this activity, which I think is good but I am not sure. This was a neat activity to test our knowledge about the differences of nonrenewable and renewable sources. I really liked the source about the Ten Facts of Renewable Energy. I think it’s really cool that enough sunlight hits the earth in just one hour is enough to meet the world’s energy demands for a whole year. It doesn’t make sense that if this is true then why are we not utilizing the sun more! It’s free! Why wouldn’t we?! From this activity is makes me wonder why we aren’t using renewable sources more, it just seems that this would be the most logical thing to do.

Dani: Waste to Energy Crossword

Doing this crossword was a really creative way to test our knowledge. I kind of wish it would have been interactive tho! I thought the sources were a great addition to this activity because it made me more knowledgeable about the different waste to energy technologies. To tell you the truth I was clueless about how many there actually are, and what each of them comprises of. Another thing I thought was neat was the amount of Waste-to-Energy facilities there are in Minnesota. I would have never guessed that we have ten, which is more than the average state in the US! This was a great activity and I am glad I now know more about Waste-to-Energy facilities.

Lauren: Workout Plan

So the purpose of this activity was to incorporate physical activity into our life. I found this to be a cool way to test our abilities of our physical state. I thought the Fitness Quiz wasn't very credible. It states that I was only 30% fit and I don't believe that to be quite accurate. The assigned Burn-Fat-Fast Workout was pretty challenging. I used to do a lot of circuit training so I was very familiar with these moves. I would have liked to see more of a variety but it was still a challenging activity. The leapfrog move was pretty tough to do for a minute straight but I don’t think it was hard enough to limit it to only twice a week. Overall, I didn’t really learn much from this online activity but it was fun to work out as an assignment :)

As far as the Physical Assessment goes, here are my answers.

1. Walking fast, Dancing, Housework, Lifting, Turning, Carrying less than 50lbs
2. 6 days
3. 40 minutes
4. Running, Walking upstairs, Basketball
5. 5 days
6. 40 minutes
7. About the same
8. No
9. 30 minutes of moderate activity 5 or more days
10. I have been regularly physically active for the past 6 months or more
11. Teach my fam and friends the importance of physical activity, Lower my stress, Feel better
12. Yes
13. My friends, just by supporting me or joining me in working out.
14. Very confident

Advocacy Project:Obesity and Your Everyday Life

Hi Everyone! Today you are going to learn about Obesity and Your Everyday Life. This online activity will make you more knowledgeable about Obesity and how it can affect your health. You will also asses your everyday habits such as eating and physical activity to see how healthy you are! Just follow the instructions and answer the questions that follow. Enjoy!

Purpose:
This online activity is designed to increase the awareness of the obesity epidemic in our country. Through this activity you will review the literature and answer some questions concerning this topic.

Instructions:
This is a two-part assignment. First read through the sources in Part One, then complete the activities in Part Two.

Part One:

Visit WebMd and read through this article: Learn about Obesity.

You will then be familiar with Obesity, its causes and when to seek help if you are at risk.

Next, visit the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to view the possible health risks that go hand in hand with being obese or overweight.

Finally, check out Steps to a Healthier You!, to get the steps, tips and information about healthy eating and ways to be active every day of your life.

Part Two:

1. First Calculate Your BMI to see if you are or at risk of becoming obese/overweight.

• What is your BMI? Make sure to check over the chart to see where you are in your weight group.
• Do you think this is an accurate way to measure body fat? Why or why not?

2. Visit the MyPyramid Plan to find out the amount of each food group that you should be consuming on a daily basis. Type in your age, gender, height/weight and how active you are to receive a customized food guide.

• According to this food guide, are you currently taking in the adequate amount of calories each day?
• Are you making the recommended requirements for each food group? If not, how do you plan to increase/decrease your intake?

3. Finally, use the Calories Burned Estimator to calculate how many calories you burn doing your favorite activities. Just enter your weight and how many minutes you do an activity. Then click calculate.

• What is your favorite activity to do?
• Were you surprised on how many calories it burned? Why or why not?

Obesity is a rising problem in our society. By completing this online activity, I hope that you now have a better knowledge of what obesity is, what causes it and the health risks that go along with this problem. In addition, you will have also analyzed your daily intake and expenditure of calories to make sure you are on the right track to keeping your body healthy and fit.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about obesity and how it can affect you.

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

My SMART goal is: I will eat 1 serving (3oz) of unprocessed meat a day.

I am STILL reaching my goal but it has been a tough road for me. This week has been super crazy busy and I struggle with taking the time to prepare lunch and dinner. I only seem to struggle with lunch and dinner because I have eggs or oatmeal for breakfast (boring I know but I love it). Cutting back to only 1 serving of meat a day hasn't been too challenging for me, besides when I get fast food. I thought I would struggle more on this but I haven't been out to eat much this week, due to more time spent at home doing homework. I did however, make a subway run one night. Mind you, I had already consumed my 1 serving for the day during lunch. Keeping this goal in mind helped me make my decision to have a veggie sub. At first I thought this wouldn't be enough to keep me full all night, but when paired with a nice juicy apple and a big glass of milk I was able to keep my snacking at bay. This was a huge success because I always get the chicken breast or club and it was kind of fun to try the veggie sub.

So my original goal was the same: I will eat 1 serving (3oz) of unprocessed meat a day. I only modified this one week for the Thanksgiving Holiday. I was able to meet my goal almost every week and I am very very proud of myself. Coming from a meat and potatoes kind of family, this goal was challenging while I was home for the holidays. I learned that no matter where you are, it is your choice what you put into your mouth. It may take a little extra time and planning but you can always modify your food options. Simply ordering a veggie dish or something without meat is easy enough at any restaurant you eat at (and it'll more than likely save you money too!) Another big challenge was time. I found that when I was more rushed, I didn't have the time to think about my choices. So, I devised plans to wake up early or to prepare my dishes the night before to save on the "rush" feeling.

I do think I will try to keep this SMART goal alive in my life. I think it is important not only to me but to my environment to cut back my consumption of meat. Consuming processed foods are detrimental to our environment. They cause environmental problems like air and water pollution from manure, overuse of fertilizer, cattle belching and the unnecessary use of land to produce feed grains and soil erosion. By consuming less processed meat (deli turkey) I will not only reduce my sodium intake but I will also be one step closer to reducing my carbon footprint.

All in all, I thought this was a great experience and I loved that it challenged me to go out of my comfort zone. I would recommend incorporating an "Eco-Chic challenge" to anyone. It is a great way to push yourself to become more environmentally friendly while offering great motivation. My goal now is to keep my goal going, and possibly add more along the way! Thanks for following me and offering me helpful tips in this challenge! =)

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

Advocacy Project:Letter and Fact Sheet

Part One: Letter to Elected Official

December 6, 2010
Senator Amy Klobuchar
U.S. Senate
302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Klobuchar,

I am writing to encourage you to vote YES to the H.R. 3468 bill: Promoting Health and Preventing Chronic Disease through Prevention and Wellness Programs for Employees, Communities and Individuals Act of 2009. Obesity has become a rising crisis in our country and has risen 60% in the past 20 years according to the CDC. An even more shocking statistic is that the rates among children in the U.S have tripled in the past 30 years.

Obesity is not only linked with a plethora of health problems such as, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and type 2 diabetes, but also financial problems. In the year 2000, the estimated cost of obesity was $117 billion in the United States. In the workplace obesity is linked to the loss of productivity and working days due to the health problems of the employees associated with their weight. Obesity also exceeds health-care costs associated with smoking and problems drinking and accounts for 6-12% of national health care expenditures. In addition, the annual hospital costs for treating obesity-related diseases in children rose to $127 million.

Governmental action and community contribution is key in promoting a healthy lifestyle and reducing the obesity rates in our youth. The proposed bill, H.R. 3468, will bring about opportunities that teach the dietary guidelines, how to read food labels and identify patterns that can help educators tailor programs to manage weight and reduce threats of chronic illness. It would also ensure the implementation of policies and programs that emphasize healthy actions in youth. By offering health promotion and awareness services, together we can educate our society about the problems associated with obesity.

I appreciated the time you have given to hear my concern. Please agree to support this proposed bill to make an impact in the lives of the citizens you promised to serve. I have a firm belief that passing this bill will ensure the proper promotion of health and reduction of chronic disease associated with diet and weight in our suffering citizens.

Thank you for taking the time to read about the importance of voting YES to H.R. 3468.

Sincerely,


Katie Gruber
(contact information)

Part 2: Obesity Fact Sheet

What is obesity?

Obesity is defined as having a greater weight than the recommended number based on your height. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Overweight and obesity is having abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health.” They also classify obesity as having a BMI (Body Mass Index) as 30 or higher. BMI is designed to classify the standard of weight vs. height in the average adult.

Facts on Obesity

The WHO indicates that roughly 1.6 billion adults, ages 15 and older, were overweight. In addition, at least 400 million adults globally were categorized as being obese. “The WHO projects that by the year 2015, approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.” In 2005, the number of overweight children under 5 years of age was a minimum of 20 million.

What is the cause of obesity?

The WHO demes the main cause of obesity as an energy imbalance between the amount of calories being consumed and the amount of calories being used up. Several factors are believed to be connected to the increase of obesity. These include a shift in diet towards higher intake of foods that are high in fat and sugar and low in nutrients and lower physical activity levels due to the increase in inactive demands from work and transportation options.

What are the consequences?

Serious consequences come from obesity. The more overweight one is the higher their risk for developing certain chronic diseases is. These would include cardiovascular disease, which is the world’s number one cause of death adding up to 17 million deaths every year; diabetes, the next epidemic predicted to increase by 50% worldwide in the next 10 years; Musculoskeletal disorders; and some cancers such as endometrial, breast and colon.

How can you prevent obesity?

• Reduce the amount of time spent sitting and watching television.
• Add at least ½ hour of physical activity to your daily routine.
• Consume foods that are low in fat, calories and added sugars and replace them with high fiber, protein and nutritional foods.
• Promote healthy eating habits by consuming at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, while using proper portion sizes.
• Maintain a proper balance between the calories consumed and the calories expended each day.
• Create more chances for physical activities among your workplace and the surrounding communities.

Obesity IS a problem in our society.

Find out how you can become involved to stop this epidemic.

Contact Fit City Duluth (218) 722-3787 or at info@fitcityduluth.com

Information provided by the World Health Organization and the Center of Disease Control

Reflection: Weeks 9-12

Now starts the reflection of weeks 9-12. We have learned everything from advocacy to junking to making a lifestyle change and adding blog hops to our blogs. Below is my summary for all that we have done.

In week 9, we were introduced to Advocacy in Health Education. Our first project was to find out who our political representatives were. This was done by visiting the THOMAS Website and doing research to gather their contact information. We also learned how to write SMART goals and started our first week of our Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change. Mine was to eat 1 serving (3oz) of unprocessed meat a day. In addition to our Eco-Chic posts, we also learned how to join Linky Parties on Dr.V’s blog.

Week 10 started off with our Healthy People/THOMAS project. Here we have to chose 1 HealthyPeople 2010 goal that we were interested in. I chose to do mine on promoting health and reducing chronic disease associated with diet and weight. We had to list 1 objective and just give a short synopsis on the progress of that goal. We also had to include the disparities, opportunities & challenges and emerging issues from this goal. Finally we had to use the THOMAS website to find a bill related to our HealthyPeople 2010 goal. The one I found was H.R. 3468, which can be found on the THOMAS website. In class this week we also watched a documentary called Unnatural Causes. This was startling because it explored the racial and socioeconomic inequalities in health in our country.

In week 11 we watched “The Story of Stuff” which is a short film about how we use and use and use and how that affects our environment. We also did an in class activity where we were given a piece of “junk”. We then had to come up with ideas on how it would be used. Each item was different and everyone came up with some great ideas on how to use the junk pieces. This was a fun activity because it sparked a great classroom discussion on all the different opinions and ideas that we could use those hidden treasures for. That time was also spent with Dr.V to dicuss how our Eco-Chic Lifestyle Goal was going. It was nice to chat about our successes and challenges while being held accountable for our overall goals.

Week 12 was fun because we had the chance to view everyone’s photo essays. The photo essay assignment was to choose a topic and tell a story about it with pictures. I chose to do an organic thanksgiving, where I challenged my family to buy organic items (which never happen) for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was a challenge but I was able to use my excellent persuasive skills to convince my dad to agree to it. It was cool to see everyone’s story and how they expressed it through pictures. We also learned how to add Blog Hops to our photo essay assignment so that we could easily browse through everyone’s posts. Week 12 was also the 4th week of our Eco-Chic goal, which I didn’t stay completing true to over Thanksgiving break. I had a couple slip ups but I wasn’t discouraged about it.

Well, that is weeks 9-12 in a nutshell! We don’t have many weeks left in the semester so I am excited to take in whatever information Dr.V has left to share with us before it’s all over! I am also excited to change blog groups to get different views and opinions on my blog posts. Should be an interesting countdown to the end of the semester!

Eco Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4:Weekly Update

My SMART goal is: I will eat 1.5 servings (4.5oz) of unprocessed meat a day.

I actually did better than I thought I would over Thanksgiving Break. First and foremost, I succeeded in persuading my Dad to purchase an organic turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner. The picture above shows the one we bought from Larry Schultz Farms. This farm is located out of Owatonna, Minnesota and has been certified organic since 1997. This was my greatest success throughout break. I kept my SMART goal for most of the days but I did slip up too. On Thanksgiving day I had about 2 servings of turkey (which is .5 over my goal). I didn't overeat at the dinner but I did have an extra turkey sandwich that night. Also, on Sunday we always have Thanksgiving at our Grandma Gruber's house. Here, I had well over my SMART goal and had her homemade turkey, ham and her secret recipe stuffing (which I know contains meat). Even though I went over my goal on these days, I didn't feel too discouraged. I only get her one-of-a-kind meal once a year and decided that it was well worth it. Those days were the only challenges I encountered throughout the week, which is good. I was very keen on keeping track and meeting my goal on the other days which made me proud. I feel like I am doing a good job in meeting my SMART goal every week, even though I did slip up once or twice over break.

For next week I am going to reduce my SMART goal again to eating only 1 serving (3oz) of unprocessed meat a day. I am going to try new recipes this week in hopes of adding some variety to my weekly meals. I am excited to give the vegetarian dishes a shot! Wish me luck =)

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

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

For this Thanksgiving this year, I decided to put my family to the challenge. I challenged them to make this Thanksgiving an organic one by purchasing local and organic food at the grocery store. Above is a collage I made that shows all of the pictures I took while completing our list. The pictures are listed at random, but as you can see it was my dad and I that were the shoppers. We first hit up the produce section and bought our greens and spinach for the salad; tomatoes, celery, carrots and mushrooms for the appetizer plate; yams for the sweet potato casserole; green beans for the green bean casserole (classic dish!); and apples and bananas for the pies. Next was the turkey. We found a great one from the Larry Schultz organic farms. This turkey was cage free, never contained to cages and also hormone and pesticide free. The cost was a little more than we would have liked but my dad agreed to it. We also purchased Amy's organic cream of mushroom soup for the green bean casserole. Our final addition to the table was Fetzer Riesling. Fetzer's philosophy is to "strive everyday to ensure that the wines you enjoy are of exceptional quality and value, while managing our impact on the environment. Working in harmony with nature and with the utmost respect for human spirit, we are committed to the continous growth and development of our people, the quality of our wines, and the care of our planet." In addition to their earth friendly ways, the wine tasted amazing! According to my dad, it was the "best wine he's had in a long time" and that says a lot. All in all, this truly was a great experience. Not only did I have the chance to challenge my family to become eco-friendly for a day, but I also showed them that it is easy and affordable to incorporate it into their daily lives.

Share & Voice: Green Holiday Parties

We all know that Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Holiday Season. Here we embark on numerous parties and get-togethers with our family and friends. I recently found Earth Share's article: Green Your Holiday Gatherings. EarthShare was "founded by its member charities in 1988. It is an opportunity for caring employees and workplaces to support hundreds of environmental charities through workplace giving campaigns. This is an annual, employer-sponsored program that lets employees contribute a few dollars per paycheck as their charitable donation." Below are steps you can take before, during and after your holiday party to keep it an eco-friendly affair.

Before the event:

• Use safe cleaning products
• Follow this Guide to Non-Toxic Cleaning
• Ventilate your house by the use of fans and opening your windows
• Plan your meal according to local food available and buy foods that are in their peak season
• Check out more Holiday Food Tips
• Reuse your old decorations
• Keep in mind that pumpkins, squash and corn make the best decorations and can be used later in your favorite side dishes

During the event:

• Use your own dishes, not paper plates and plastic silverware
• Try replacing your lights with LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes)
• Designate your waste bins (trash, paper, plastic, etc)

After the event:

• Consider starting a food compost by combining all of your "veggie scraps, produce peels, coffee grounds, teabags and more with some of your autumn leaves you've raked up and you'll have an excellent foundation of nutrient-rich soil"
• Use your dishwasher (YES this is more environmentally-friendly!)
• Relax

Want more tips on How to Green Your Holidays? Check out their website. They offer great tips on how to Travel Green, Eat Green, Give Green and Party Green! I hope you find something that you can use in your holiday planning!

Eco Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3:Weekly Update

My SMART goal is: I will eat 1 serving (3oz) of unprocessed meat a day.

I did fairly well again this week. Every morning I ate either a bowl of oatmeal with bananas or an egg omelet. Then for my afternoon lunch, I packed either a cold chicken sandwich or a tuna sandwich. Then my suppers usually consisted of meatless pasta, fish or a salad. Some disadvantages that I came across was boredom. I tend to use the same things everyday (tuna, chicken, eggs, etc.) Most of the time the stuff that I prepared was easy and not really that time consuming. For instance, all I had to do was open the can of tuna and wah-la there was my sandwich. I think a little more research and planning is needed to add a little more variety to my diet. Something that I was proud of this week happened on my birthday, Saturday the 20th. We planned to go out to eat at Pizza Luche because I absolutely love their Hawaiian (Canadian bacon and pineapple) pizza . However, once we arrived there I knew that I had already had my one serving of meat that day at lunchtime. So instead of my FAVORITE pizza, I ordered their veggie pizza instead, which was delicious too! So in addition to staying true to my goal, I might have also added another favorite pizza to my list=)

I experienced a couple different feelings this week. One was boredom with my choices like I mentioned above. I plan to fix this by taking more time to brainstorm other creative options to include in my daily diet. Another feeling I had was accomplishment. I did indeed meet my goal once again this week. Although I had to bypass some of my favorite things (Hawaiian pizza) I felt proud of myself for staying true to my goal.

This week I learned that anything can get boring if you have it too much. I learned that there are plenty of meatless options out there and a little research for recipes can go a long way. I also learned that going out of your comfort zone to try something new is both scary and exhilarating at the same time, and totally worth it in the end.

My goal for Turkey Break (aka week 4) is to eat only 1.5 servings (4.5oz) of unprocessed meat a day. I decided to up my servings by a half serving because I want to make it a little more realistic for Thanksgiving reasons. I think this is going to be my toughest week yet because I LOVE turkey and I know there are going to be a ton of leftovers. We all know leftovers means turkey sandwiches, turkey chili, turkey salads and whatever else you can make with turkey! I know that this is attainable and I hope I come bearing good news next week.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! =)

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

Advocacy Project: Issue Overview

Goal: Promote health and reduce chronic disease associated with diet and weight.

What is the issue?
This issue addresses the increase of overweight Americans due to an increase of caloric intake and a lack of physical activity. Healthy People 2010 has been moving away from this target by 83% from 1988-1994, and from 1999-2002.

Listed below is a piece of legislation proposed to address the issue:
H.R.3468: Promoting Health and Preventing Chronic Disease through Prevention and Wellness Programs for Employees, Communities and Individuals Act of 2009.

Who is affected by the issue?
Minorities, children and low-income families are the ones that are most affected by this issue. Although all Americans in this country are affected by this rising trend, disparities within race and ethnicity and income are prevalent. Healthy People displayed data that shows that the highest increase in adult obesity was the highest in the black non-Hispanic population with a 30-39% increase and in the white non-Hispanic population with a 22-30% increase. Also, the percentage among Mexican Americans and black non-Hispanic Americans ages 6-19years was 50% higher than the white non-Hispanic population. I believe that we as a country are losing because of the increase of chronic health problems related to obesity. These would include diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke and other conditions. This is also causing a huge financial strain on our country due to the estimated cost of obesity being about $117 billion. The only people that I can think of that would gain from this issue would be the pharmaceutical and medical industries who are designed to “fix” this problem by offering surgeries, medications and other services to reduce the weight in Americans.

What are the consequences?
Consequences in not addressing this issue would be a decrease in years of life due to the increase of chronic health problems related to obesity. “Dietary factors are associated with 4 of the 10 leading causes of death-coronary heart disease, some types of cancer, stroke and type 2 diabetes. They are also linked to high blood pressure, osteoporosis, iron deficiency anemia and other conditions”. In addition to a decrease of overall wellness, we would also suffer a loss productivity in our society. This is because the unhealthier an individual is, the more sick days they will need to take, ending in a loss of productive workers in our country.

What is the economic/social impact of the issue?
As I mentioned before, “the estimated cost of obesity to the United States was $117 billion in 2000”. According to Wikipedia, “obesity exceeds health-care costs associated with smoking and problem drinking and accounts for 6-12% of national health care expenditures in the United States. In addition, annual hospital costs for treating obesity-related diseases in children rose to $127 million.” Obesity is linked to loss of productivity and working days due to their health problems associated with weight. Benefits to the increase of obese people would be the medical and insurance companies. They would increase their revenue because of the marketing of weight loss and supplements as well as the push to undergo surgery such as bypass, bariatric surgery, etc.

What are the barriers? How can they be overcome?
Like I stated above the main barrier to resolving this issue is increase of “newly developed pharmaceuticals and increased use of bariatric surgery to be used as treatment options”. There is no sufficient evidence that these options are healthy for overall weight management. They may be a one time fix but patients are more likely to gain their weight and more back after using these services. By promoting prevention is the key in overcoming this issue. By offering health promotion and awareness services we can educate our society about the problems associated with obesity.

What are the resources?
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) offers great resources on the prevention of obesity and promotion of healthy living. You can check out Obesity Prevention and Control to view interventions in both education and community settings. They also offer a Tools and Resources page that show a database of resources, Obesity Prevention Guidebook and some Statistical Information on the obesity rates.

What is the history of this issue?

This has been a huge issue for our society for many years. Obesity has been on the rise since the 1980s and each year it gets worse and worse. According to the CDC, obesity has risen 60% in the past 20 years and the rates have tripled children in the past 30 years. Below is a map of the obesity rates from 1985 and another in 2009. If we take a look at Minnesota alone (one of the healthier states) it went from having <10%>30% of their population being obese.

With the rise of fast food chains and the hustle and bustle of our everyday American lives, our society has moved from family dinners at home to grabbing take-out from the local McDonalds. Sure these places are convenient and cheap but they do no justice on our nutritional needs, and by the looks of it we are suffering dearly. With the rise of the obesity problem, also comes a growing interest from health educators and health professionals. There are plenty of programs out there that target the obesity rates in both children and adults. If you want to check out the Policy Resources you can view the Overweight and Obesity Policy Resources.

Allies and Opponents

Allies of this issue would be the health professionals, health organizations and others who are concerned with the growing rates of obesity. I think another allie would include company owners that are currently suffering from loss productivity of their employees due to conditions related to obesity. All in all, I think that whoever wants to be healthy and promote a healthy lifestyle would be in favor of this bill because they value that important factor of their life. On the other hand, there would also be some opponents. These would include the insurance companies, hospitals, pharmaceutical reps, and others who are in the health "treatment" industry. With the lowering of obesity, the need for weight-loss supplements and surgeries would decrease. This would also lead to a decrease in jobs in that field. Also, insurance companies would not have to cover these surgeries or treatment options, potentially putting their jobs at risk.

In order to please Allies and Opponents of this issue, it would be necessary to show how both can benefit. It is best to look at the long run and how these companies can benefit by increasing the productivity of our society. Sure, we would hope that it would decrease the need of health care in regards to weight related diseases but that doesn't mean that we wouldn't need their services in other areas. We could increase the use of health promotion programs that these companies can implement into their facilities and this would make up for the lost jobs.

My Recommendation:

Vote YES to the promotion of health and the reduction of chronic disease associated with diet and weight.

Share & Voice: The Daily Green

While searching on the internet, I stumbled across this really cool blog: The Daily Green. This is an eco-friendly blog that is designed to offer daily tips, news and other topics of interest that relate to going green in our community. Their mission is to "broaden the audience for earth-friendly living by showing how going green is relevant to everyone." Below is an article that I found to be not only interesting, but suitable to all you followers.

11 Ways to Go Green on a College Budget:

1. Be a re-user
   You can re-use other's textbooks and let them use yours for free on sites such as Chegg, PaperBackSwap and Bookins. All you have to pay is shipping fees.
2. Turn Off the Water
   Leaving the faucet running can waste up to 1.3-gallons of water! Instead of leaving the water run while brushing your teeth, just turn the water off.
   
3. Reuse Paper
   Don't throw away paper that can possible be made for scrap paper. Use this as your post-it notes to save on extra costs. Or just use it to take lecture notes during class.
4. Download a free energy-saving application for your computer
   To reduce the amount of energy your computer uses when you’re not on it, download an energy-saving application like Local Cooling or CO2 Saver. Or just simply turn it off.
5. Be Thrifty
   Shop at a thrift store. Thrift store shopping is another way to of recycle and regulate CO2 emissions.
6. Spend Less Time in the Shower
   Reducing your shower time by just 2 minutes, can save 1,000 pounds of CO2 emissions into the air. This will use less electricity to heat the water and conserve water.
7. Go Paperless
   Instead of wasting paper on bank statements, go online and switch to paperless. This can save a lot of trees!
8. Try Reusable Shopping Bags
   Ditch those plastic bags and purchase a couple reusable shopping bags instead. You can use them for groceries, clothes and to carry your books and laptop.
9. Recycle Your Old Cell Phone
   Recycle your old cell phones. You can find a cell phone recycling center either near your school or at a local cell phone distributor store.
10. Consolidate Your Hair Care Products
    Buy 2-in-1 shampoo plus conditioner and then throw away just one container. If you don't like that idea, then buy hair products that come in a recycled container.
11. Wash Clothes in Cold Water
    This causes less heat damage to your clothing (like fading and shrinking), uses less electricity and produces less CO2.

Well there you have it. A quick list you can follow to go green, while living on a tight college budget. Most of these are completely free or relatively cheap to incorporate into your daily life.
I hope that most of you can find a few on this list to fit your environmentally friendly lifestyle!

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/community-news/college-green-55100102#ixzz15VhqTIG6

Eco Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2:Weekly Update

Last week was the first week of my SMART goal: I will eat 1 serving (3oz) of unprocessed meat a day. I usually eat only one serving of meat a day anyway, but it tends to be the processed deli-meat. So this week I did very well. I substituted my deli-meat with fresh chicken, peanut butter and eggs. I found this to be challenging in the fact that I had to take more time to prepare my daily lunch, rather than just whip up a (processed) turkey sandwich. A strategy that I found to be the most useful was to cook my chicken and hard boil my eggs and just keep them in the refrigerator for when I needed them. This really helped me cut back on how much time it took for me to pack my lunch in the morning. I felt that by cutting out processed meat, I actually felt better. I believe that this was because I was significantly cutting my intake of sodium.

This week I learned that it is possible to cut small things out of your life (processed turkey) and have it actually make a difference for your body. I never thought that a week could be enough time for this to happen. I plan on sticking with this goal to see what more creative things that I can use in my daily lunches. Any suggestions are appreciated! =)

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

Advocacy Project:Healthy People/THOMAS

Goal: Promote health and reduce chronic disease associated with diet and weight.

Objective: 19-3 Reduce the proportion of children and adolescents who are overweight or obese. According to the Progress Quotient Chart for Focus Area 19: Nutrition and Overweight, there are three categories they measured: 6-11years, 12-19years and 6-19years. In all three of these categories -83% moved away from target of total targeted change achieved. “Between 1988–94 and 1999–2002, the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years (19-3c) increased from 11 percent to 16 percent, moving away from the target of 5 percent. Identical trends were observed among children aged 6 to 11 years (19-3a) and adolescents aged 12 to 19 years (19-3b).”

Progress: So far this objective is moving away from the HealthyPeople Targets.

Disparities: There were known disparities within the areas of race, ethnicity, gender, economic income and disability. Generally the white Caucasian had the best rates from 1999-2002.

Opportunities/Challenges/Emerging Issues: Essentially governmental action and community contribution is key in promoting a healthy lifestyle and reducing the obesity rates in our youth. Some opportunities that arise are teaching dietary guidelines, how to read food labels and identifying patterns that can help educators tailor programs to manage weight and reduce threats of chronic illness. Another key opportunity is to ensure the implementation of policies and programs that emphasize healthy actions in youth. A challenge is that most of these programs are mostly aimed at kids in afterschool programs or at the parents or guardians. The emerging issue is the trend of using medications as well as the increased use of bariatric surgery to take care of our obesity problem. These are perceived as the best treatment available when in reality prevention is the top priority in reducing the rise of obesity in our country.

H.R.3468: Promoting Health and Preventing Chronic Disease through Prevention and Wellness Programs for Employees, Communities and Individuals Act of 2009.

Title: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, the Public Health Service Act, and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to promote the use of prevention and wellness programs.

Sponsor: Rep Castle, Michael N. [DE] (Introduced 7/31/2009)
Cosponsors:
Rep Crenshaw, Ander [FL-4] (11/17/2009)
Rep Dent, Charles W. [PA-15] (9/16/2009)
Rep Gerlach, Jim [PA-6] (7/31/2009)
Rep Kirk, Mark Steven [IL-10] (9/16/2009)
Rep Lance, Leonard [NJ-7] (9/16/2009)
Rep Lee, Christopher J. [NY-26] (9/25/2009)
Rep LoBiondo, Frank A. [NJ-2] (7/31/2009)
Rep Platts, Todd Russel [PA-19] (9/16/2009)
Rep Tiberi, Patrick J. [OH-12] (9/16/2009)

Latest Major Action: 9/8/2009 Referred to House subcommittee. Status:Referred to the Subcommittee on Health

Recommendation: Yes for H.R.3468 Promoting Health and Preventing Chronic Disease through Prevention and Wellness Programs for Employees, Communities, and Individuals Act of 2009

My Political Respresentative(s): Senator Amy Klobuchar

Share & Voice: MiBra

This new product, known as the "MiBra" is a great addition to any woman's workout wardrobe. The newly designed sports bra is "eco-friendly, stylish, and comfortable. It also has a pocket to put your ipod and keys in while you work out." The creator, GirlHabits, made this bra out of 90% organic cotton and 10% spandex material. This bra is not only eco-friendly but it only costs $20.00! The best part about this key workout accessory? "Once it is ready to be discarded by the user, the MiBra can be sent back to the company. In return, the user can purchase a new one at a 25% discount and the old bra will be recycled or donated by the company."

They even have a Facebook page that you can check out! Just "Like" their page to receive updates and more on the MiBra.

Eco Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1:My SMART Goal

This week we are being challenged to come up with a SMART goal to try to become more eco-chic in our environment. Below I will state my goal, tell why it is eco-chic and also explain why I think it is important to me.

1. I will eat 1 serving (3oz) of unprocessed meat a day.

2.This lifestyle change is eco-chic because consuming processed foods are detrimental to our environment. They cause environmental problems like air and water pollution from manure, overuse of fertilizer, cattle belching and the unnecessary use of land to produce feed grains and soil erosion. By consuming less processed meat (deli turkey) I will not only reduce my sodium intake but I will also be one step closer to reducing my carbon footprint.

3. This is important to me because I care about the future of our planet and want to do anything possible to improve our surroundings, even if it means paying a few extra dollars to do so.

Wish me luck on this adventure!

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

Share & Voice: Green and More

Green and More is a website designed to offer eco-friendly customers a place to go to shop for environmentally safe products. These products "help them live a greener life at home and the workplace". The staff at Green and More "test and review all of their products to ensure that they are all natural, green and of the highest quality". They also value the support of U.S companies that meet their qualifications for reducing our carbon footprint on the environment while influencing positive change in our society.

They have a great selection of high-quality items to choose from. Some of their specialty catergories include:

• Eco-Entertaining
• Eco-Traveling
• Eco-Gardener
• Outdoorsman
• Energy Miser
• Go Eco-Dental
• Healthy Eco-Pet

And many more! Check out this website for some great eco-conscious products to use in your home!

Advocacy Project:My Political Representatives

President:
Barack Obama
Democrat
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500
(202)456-1111
Contact Him

U.S. Senators:
Al Franken
Democrat
St.Paul Office
60 East Plato Blvd Suite 220
Saint Paul, Mn 55107
(651)221-3244
Contact Him

Amy Klobuchar
Democrat
302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224-3244
Contact Her

U.S. House of Representatives:
Chip Cravaak
P.O. Box 951
North Branch, Mn 55056
Contact Him

Minnesota Governor:
Mark Dayton
Democrat
800 Minnehaha Ave East, Suite 201
St.Paul, Mn 55106
(651)797-3600
Contact Him

State Legislatures for District 14:
House of Representatives:
Dan Severson (R)
100 Rev.Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
261 State Office Building
St.Paul, Mn 55155
(651)296-7808
Contact Him

Senator:
Michelle Fischbach (R)
100 Rev. Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
State Office Building, Room 145
St.Paul, Mn 55155
(651)296-2084
Contact Her

Stearns County Commissioner:
Don Otte (Fifth District)
39298 County Road 185
Sauk Centre, Mn 56378
(320)352-1868
Contact Him

Mayor of Belgrade:
Dennis Braegelman
PO Box 237
Belgrade, Mn 56312
(320)254-3329

Clerk/Treasurer of Belgrade:
Corinne Bahe
417 Washburn Ave
PO Box 296
Belgrade, Mn 56312
(320)254-8220

Belgrade City Council Members:
Robert Mathison
PO Box 367
Belgrade, Mn 56312
(320)254-3277

Carrie Jo Richards
PO Box 751
Belgrade, Mn 56312
(320)254-1063

Richard Tschida
PO Box 377
Belgrade, Mn 56312
(320)254-3172

Daniel Struthers
PO Box 398
Belgrade, Mn 56312
(320)254-3457

Reflection: Weeks 5-8

Well I must say that the past couple weeks have flown by and here we are into the second round of reflections. In this reflection of weeks 5-8 I will be summarizing everything that we have learned.

In week 5, we completed an eye opener activity called Score Your Diet. This was a quick way to see how our diet scored on "nutrition, the environment and animal welfare". My score ended up as a 71, which is classified as excellent. After completing this eye opener, I realized that I consume more processed food than I thought I did.

Week 6, we learned how to create a graphical header for our blog. We were allowed class time to play around with Picnik to design our own creation. If you look above, you will see that I had some fun in editing a picture I took of my sunglasses taken on a rock at Gooseberry Falls. Also in weeks 5 and 6, we blogged about the third and fourth quarters of our Read 'n' Seed books. It was really cool to read my blog group's posts on each of their books. Everyone had such interesting books that I actually looked forward to hearing more about them each week.

In week 7, we were introduced to Junking. We also had to complete an eye opener on theEnvironmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database website. Here, we had to pick one piece of cosmetic or personal care product that we used daily and enter it into their database. I chose to use my Physician's Formula Mineral Foundation. It then showed us a full review on our product, including the hazards that can be caused by using it. It was a real eye opener for me because I found out that the products used to make my foundation were known to cause cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity and other contamination concerns. This was a great resource to use to find out which products really are safe for us to use on a daily basis. Week 7 also was our final post on the last quarter of our Read 'n' Seed. I think everyone got a great educational experience from their books and it was cool to hear their final recommendations on what they read.

In the final week 8, we watched a documentary called "Tapped". This showed us the global effect that bottled water/plastic products are having on our environment. It's so crazy to think about the power that some companies can have over us without even realizing it. It truly made me think about never wanting to purchase a bottled water again! In addition, we also had to complete an eye opener called, Junk on the Brain. We learned about several terms related to Junking and were able to research local vendors and second-hand stores. My favorite part of this assignment was to visit the Junk Market Style website. Here, we had the chance to explore the site and find three different junk projects that inspired us. It was really neat to see what everyone found and to read about why it had inspired them.

Well, there is weeks 5-8 all summed up! Each and every week is filled with a plethora of environmentally friendly information and I cannot wait to learn even more! We are now being arranged new group members so I am also excited to view some new blogs for these next couple weeks.

Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

Part 1:
Antique/Antiquing: "Antiquing" is shopping for antiques. An antique is defined as an "old collectible item."

Junk/junking: Junk is "discarded material and junking is defined as to discard as useless or sell to be reused as parts; scrap."

Flea market: This is a type of "bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered."

Thrift shop: Also known as a charity shop, this is a "retail establishment operated by a charitable organization for the purpose of fundraising. They usually sell mainly second-hand goods donated by members of the public".

Upcycling: This is the process of "converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value."

Resale shop: Identical to a thrift shop, it is defined as the "selling of something purchased".

Part 2:

The above terms have everything to do with environmental health. These terms define a new way to reuse what we consider “junk”. Instead of just throwing our old stuff into the garbage we can reconstruct new ways to get use out of it. Or we can donate it so that someone else has the opportunity to use it. This is a great way to “recycle” old things to create a new environmentally friendly object.

1. Antique Boutique: 357 Canal Park Dr, Duluth,Mn 55802 (218)529-7667
   
2. Old Town Antiques & Books: 102 E Superior St, Duluth, Mn 55802 (218)722-5426
   
3. General Trading CO: 420 NE 4th St, Grand Rapids, Mn 55744 (218)326-3451
   
4. Goodwill: 700 Garfield Avenue, Duluth, Mn 55802 (218)722-6351
   
5. Green Purse: 218 Orchard Rd., Kohler, WI 53044 (920)459-8518
   
6. Plato's Closet:5115 Burning Tree Road, Suite 315C, Duluth, Mn 55811 (218)733-9455
   

I have never been to an antique shop but I do use Plato's Closet. I love Plato's because it has gently used clothes for very reasonable prices. I like to buy my jeans there because I like the feel of "worn-in" jeans. I have also used Goodwill for halloween costumes and other occasions where I would need to dress up.

Part 3:

I thought this project was super creative! Kathy Stantz used an old window to make an organizer/bulletin board. This is something that I can actually see myself making and it's great to see steps on how to do it.

This project is a clock made out of an old gear. This inspired me because it looks authentic, is easy to do and only took 30 minutes to create. Sue Whitney did an awesome job in creating this gear-clock.

This one is my favorite. With the holiday season creeping right around the corner, what's better than making some antique ornaments! Sue Whitney creates these with old sugar bowl lids, how easy it that?! This is a project that I would love to create for a more traditional way to decorate for Christmas time.

I hope you enjoyed learning more about Junking! I look forward to hearing your comments on the projects I found that had inspired me.

Share & Voice: Green Halloween

For this weeks Share & Voice, I decided to find some ways to be Green on Halloween. I found this website called Green Halloween and decided I would share it with you. This website was created by Corey Colwell-Lipson, a martial and family therapist as well as a mother of two children ages seven and four. Green Halloween was developed to help "inspire fun, healthy, affordable, not-too-time consuming ideas that will support your goal of creating a Halloween that is happy and healthy for your kids and the planet we all share."

This month they are promoting a contest called: The Green Halloween Pledge.

Here is a description of the contest directly from their website:

Green Halloween wants to “help people commit to reducing the environmental impact of their Halloween celebration” by holding a contest called the Green Halloween Pledge! All they ask is for people who are planning to commit to the Green Halloween Pledge to do at least 5 actions from the following list:

•Swap costumes with someone rather than buying a new costume. This is a great idea and one of our favorite Green Halloween Tips.
•Purchase your costume, or its components from your local thrift shop.
•Use LED Halloween lights to decorate instead of incandescents.
•Collect candy in a reusable container rather than a disposable bag. Or better yet, make a fun project for your kids by having them make their own Halloween bag out of reusable or recyclable items you have around the house.
•When trick-or-treating, walk, instead of driving door to door.
•Carry a shakable or hand-crank LED flash light instead of one that is battery powered.
•Make your own Halloween face paints.
•Give away one piece of candy instead of handfuls.
•Purchase an organic pumpkin.
•Buy your pumpkin from a local farmer.
•Purchase an edible variety of pumpkin and paint, instead of carving the pumpkin. Then bake and eat the pumpkin when Halloween is done.
•Roast & eat your pumpkin seeds instead of tossing them.
•Use 100% beeswax or soy candles in your jack-o-lantern instead of paraffin candles.
•Give away healthier alternatives to conventional candy.
•Compost your leftover candy.
•Donate your leftover candy to troops overseas.
•Compost your pumpkin.
•Make crafts out of candy wrappers.
•Pack décor away carefully so that it can be reused next year.
•Text “Boo 5” to 27138 to donate $5 to support the Green Halloween® initiative.

"Participants of the Green Halloween Pledge will be entered in a random drawing. One participant will win a $150 gift certificate redeemable at HolidayLEDs."

"So what are you waiting for? If you haven’t taken the Green Halloween Pledge yet, do so now! Visit HolidayLEDs’ Green Halloween Pledge page for details and step-by-step instructions for entering the drawing! "

Hope Everyone has a Happy "Green" Halloween!

Read 'n' Seed: Fourth Quarter and Final Review of Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America

In the fourth and final quarter of "Don't Eat This Book" I am now finished and have read a total of 16 chapters. The summaries of these chapters include health care and dieting, his experiment wrap up, and how we can make a difference in the future generation of food.

In chapter 13, Morgan starts the debate on "dieting, America's favorite pastime". According to statistics in this book, Americans spend more than $40 billion a year on dieting and diet-related products. This happens to be twice as much as we spend on fitness and health-related products. What ever happened to losing weight the old fashioned way, exercising? Americans today are so worried about the latest "fad diets" when in reality 95% of all fad-diet followers regain their lost weight. The thing that sucks us in about these "miracle" products is the promise of immediate magical results. Well guess what, that just doesn't happen! We only see short term results because the weight that we do lose is strictly water weight and lean muscle mass, not fat.

Another interesting topic he brought up was the lack of "nutritionally literate" physicians. "Physicians in Western medicine (America) aren't taught wellness and preventative medicine; they're set up only to react to illness. In our medical schools, newly trained doctors aren't getting the essential nutritional training, therefore they tend to shy away from problems related to it (obesity). This lack of nutritional expertise is what leads to the overprescription of medication in our country.

Chapter 14 comes the final day of Morgan Spurlocks 30-day McDonald's experiment. When running through the final rounds of blood tests and check ups, his doctor reveals some astounding results. First his weight was up to 210 lbs from a beginning weight of 185.5 lbs, meaning that he gained a total of 24.5lbs...in one month. Yikes. Next, he went on to describe that during this "McDiet" he was averaging nearly double the calories, about 180% of carbs, 1 1/2 times the protein and twice the fat of the daily recommendations for his body. He was ingesting 450 grams of sugar everyday (one pound a day) and topping his fat total by over 200% in averaging 184 grams of fat (60 grams of saturated fat) daily. In addition to processing all of this sugar and fat, his cholesterol soared from 165 to a whopping 230 points. The average level is around 180. His blood tests revealed that he was suffering from early signs of liver disease, hyperuricemia and hypoglycemia. All of these conditions were non-existent in the beginning of his experiment. Scary to think what one month of fast food eating can do to your long term health! After 5 months of eating nutritionally and slowly incorporating exercise back into his daily routine, Morgan Spurlock had lost 20lbs. His last 4.5lbs, however, took him an extra 9 months to burn off, due to the increase of fat cells in his body. He hasn't been in a McDonald's since the experiment. "Not even to pee".

Chapter 15 and 16 discuss how we can make a difference to our future generations. First he states that the UK is moving in the right direction in making their customers more aware by introducing the "traffic light" system. This is a system that would mark fatty, sugary foods with a red label and nutritious foods with a green label. I think this would be a good way to wake up consumers in America. It would spark the government, who are just waking up to the health-care burdens of obesity-related illnesses that racks up $117 billion annually. And we wonder where all of our money goes?!

"Every time you eat, you vote with your fork", quoted from Marion Nestle, is a powerful statement that implies you make a stand about what kinds of food you put into your mouth. You are stating what you stand for, what you believe in and what you want to display as an example for those who look up to you (your family, kids, siblings, friends). "You are what you eat and if you continue to eat bad food, you will suffer from bad health. If you want things to change, remember that change starts with you. So get aware and get active". Be prepared to influence a healthy change in your life and advocate the same in others around you.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about this book, because it was a real eye opener for me. I never realized the impact that the fast-food chains had on our country and how they were disintegrating our lives. The 3 most important things I learned and my challenge to you: advocate for health and well being, don't support the "power" companies and start packing your own lunch, and be a good role model for those around you. This is important because I believe that you alone can make a difference. I highly recommend this book because it really opened my eyes to the fast-food industry and how it's destroying our world. I think that everyone should be aware of what they are consuming and how it affects their overall health.

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

At the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database website, I looked up a cosmetic product that I use daily. I chose to look up Physicians Formula Mineral Face Powder. I was suprised to find that this product was rated a 6 out of 10 on the Hazardous Scale. This would be classified as a Moderate Hazard, and there are 81% more of facial powders that have lower concerns available to me.
The products used to make this powder are known to cause cancer, developmental/reproctive toxicity, allergier/immunotoxicity, and other contamination concerns. This suprised me because I always thought this product was more of a natural product. When the ingredients were broken down there was an equal range of green (low-level) and yellow (moderate) ingredients. There was one high-level ingredient and that was silica. With this came concerns for cancer, allergies, organ system toxicity and biochemical or cellular level changes. In addition to the ranking of this product, there was a 81% data gap, which is the measure of how much is unknown about an ingredient. This basically helps to determine the difference between the ingredients and similar products that may have been studied.

Overall, I thought this was a cool website to check out. It made me aware that the products that I once thought were safe to use, may not be healthy for me afterall! I will have to do more research on this site to determine what is the best possible cosmetic product that I can use.

Read 'n' Seed: Third Quarter of Don't Eat This Book:Fast Food and the Supersizing of America

In the third quarter of "Don't Eat This Book" I am now 199 pages into the book and have completed up to 12 chapters. The summaries of these four chapters include the physical effects of consuming fast food, how adults influence the obesity rate in children, school lunch programs and vending machines in schools.

In chapter 9, Morgan Spurlock continues to talk about his month of eating nothing but McDonald's food. He explains that as he got further and further into his experiment he starts to notice changes in his body. First, he noticed zits on his face. Next, was a strange feeling in his chest. He stated that "it felt like someone had stacked weights on my chest". He also started to develop a weird pulsating feeling in his penis. He humorously refers this to "touching a cat's throat when it's purring" as to what it felt like. Other symptoms include, suffering massive headaches, feeling fuzzy, forgetful, tired, and scatterbrained. In fact, "South Carolina researchers say eating trans fat, the kind in many fast foods, impairs memory and learning".

Chapter 10 starts by describing the ploy that marketers use to lure kids into their fast food restaurants, through the use of toys. Genius right? I know it worked for me! What kid doesn't want to get a "Happy Meal" because it has a cool toy from your new favorite movie. "Today, corporations spend over $15 billion every year on marketing, advertising and promotions meant to program kids to consume, consume and consume some more". And the best part about it is that the parents are just letting it happen. Parents are suppose to be their children's role models, showing them healthy life habits. Instead, they are showing them how to eat crappy food and watch tv instead of exercising. "According to Marion Nestle, by the end of the 20th century, American children were getting half their calories from added fat (35%) and sugar (15%). And we wonder why American's children have been labeled as obese.

Chapter 10 also emphasizes the power that McDonald's has over endorsements. They have everybody from Justin Timberlake to Olympic Gold Medalists advertising their products. Now, you can't tell me that an Olympic athlete ever eats McDonald's, even though they claim that they eat their "all the time". Yeah right, we all know you wouldn't stand a chance at the Olympics if you consumed the food from fast food chains.

Chapter 11 and 12 start the debate on school lunch programs and vending machines in schools. School lunches are packed with A la' carte options that often include chips, candy bars, pizza and pop. In addition to offering these extra options, the main offerings are almost worse! From reheated rubber patties, known as hamburgers, to spaghetti from a can there is little to no nutritional value offered to our growing children. The lunch line is lined with artificially flavored mac and cheese, refined breads, nuggets and my favorite tacos (processed meat, full fat cheese, and slimy lettuce...yum). And the nationally known USDA is suppose to be regulating what goes into our kids mouths at lunchtime. It seem's that "The USDA's main job is promoting and supporting agribusinesses; feeding kids if just a convenient sideline".

In addition to horrendous school lunch programs, we offer the option to buy out of vending machines. Vending machines first made an appearance in the 1960s across high school campuses. "In 2003, a study conducted that 85% of vending machines were packed with snacks that were high in sugar and fat content and low in nutritional value. In addition to that only .26% offered a fruit or vegetable." That's not even 1%. Wow.

To wrap up this segment of my Read 'n' Seed, I want to share with you an idea from a college student mentioned in this book. He states, "I think that everyone should adopt the penny per calorie rule. If a calorie cost a penny, then would you really want to spend $3.60 on a candy bar? Or $11-12 on a fast food sandwich? Maybe that would be a way to get the obesity level in America down. Maybe then we could have a more healthy America". It's an interesting concept to think about. So my question to you, if a calorie cost a penny, would you spend $12.30 on an average meal for one at McDonald's? I know I wouldn't.

Share & Voice: Do It Green Minnesota

I found this website Do It Green! Minnesota and I thought it was super neat. Their motto is "Educating and motivating Minnesotans to live green, sustainably and to help build healthy communities".

There most recent update is about the 5th Annual Green Gifts Fair event on Saturday, November 20th from 10:00-5:00pm. This fair is located at the Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis. Here is a peek at the information that the website provided.

Do It Green! Minnesota offers our annual Green Gifts Fair right before Thanksgiving. The event is meant to introduce green gift options and low impact ideas to celebrate the holidays from Thanksgiving to Hanukkah to Kwanzaa to Winter Solstice, New Year's and everything in between! Come begin your holiday celebrations with us on November 20th!

• SHOP 70+ local retailers and artists for green, recycled, fair trade and organic gifts.
• LEARN about green holiday decorating, wrapping, food and party ideas, and homemade gifts.
• EAT lunch or dinner at many of the restaurants at the market and sample low carbon holiday foods with local chef demos.
• CELEBRATE the new 2011 Do It Green! Magazine focusing on Living Green and Simply (great gift idea!).
• ATTEND the eco fashion show, low carbon food cook off, or listen to local musicians on our main stage.
• REDUCE bring your own cloth shopping bags, reusable coffee mug for $1 coffee at Mapps Coffee & Tea in the market, and silverware and cloth napkins to reduce waste if you eat in the market (they only serve styrofoam and plastic!). Also consider biking, busing or carpooling to the event for a free gift.

I think this would be a great event to go to to learn more about buying and giving greener gift options. Check out the website for more ways they are promoting Minnesota to Do It Green!