Read 'n' Seed 3: Second quarter of "Don't Eat this Book, Fast Food and the Super Sizing of America"

Chapters and Pages

For the second quarter of Read 'n' Seed I read chapters 6-8, pages 75-129.

Topics

One topic covered was that Morgan Spurlock had three different doctors he saw over the course of the 30 day McDonald's only food period. The three doctors specialized in gastroenteritis and hematologist, cardiologist, and an . Morgan Spurlock had a physical before he started his McDonald's only diet and he weighed approximately 185.5 pounds, I am excited to read about what he weighed when he was done with the 30 McDonald's only diet.
I also read about the amount of calories in the salads that fast food places makes, in one McDonald's Fiesta Salad there is 450 calories. This does not seem that bad for a fast food place but of that 450 calories, 56% from fat and 26% from saturated fat. Now that is not very good for a salad that is supposed to be good for you. To put that into perspective it has a higher percentage of saturated fat than a Double Cheeseburger.
"Some scientists believe that those 10 teaspoons of sugar you slurp down in a 12 ounce soda may stimulate the same part of your brain, the reward circuits, that cocaine and nicotine do." This is really interesting. I am not much of a pop drinker but someone of my friends say they need a pop every morning or they just feel they have an off day.
I also found it interesting that even Monsanto could some how be brought into this book. Monsanto is the same company we saw from in The Future of Food, the movie we watched in class a few weeks ago. Monsanto was brought into the book because of their development of artificial sweeteners in the early 1900's.

Terminology 
Gastroenterologist is the study of the digestive system
Hematologist is the study of blood 
Internist is the medical specialty concerned with the diagnosis, management and nonsurgical 

Implications
I think it is important to understand the food that you are putting into your body. I like to get salads if I do go to a fast food place, for instance if I am traveling. I just assumed that they would be the best option but I learned this week that you really have to look into what you are eating and not just assume that because it is a salad that it is healthy. It is important for others to understand this too as it is pretty well known in society that salads are good for you, but you really have to take into account what is in the salad besides lettuce.

Share & Voice: UMD Smoking Ban Forum

On Tuesday October 27, I attended UMD's Smoking Ban Policy Forum. I was very surprised by the amount of people that showed up, there were much fewer people than I expected. There were representatives from student organizations, American Lung Association, UMD police department, health services, faculty, and the student body.

I am in favor of the current smoking ban on the UMD campus. I personally do not think shelters will help anything. I think that there needs to be some kind of fine set up for students caught smoking on campus grounds. I know it will cost money to implement this change but I would rather have my money (if it is going to come from tuition) go to paying a person to ticket people rather than to shelters for people to smoke.

It was brought up at the forum that it is peoples right to smoke, I agree with this but it is also my right not to smoke and not have to inhale second hand smoke every time I want to walk into a building. There were people at the forum who brought up interesting points like how it is becoming a social change, you can no longer smoke near hospitals, on airplanes, in MN in public establishments, and now moving to Universities. There were others there who clearly smoked and voiced their opinions, which at times did not make much sense and almost seemed to contradict what they were saying. It was also brought up that as incoming freshman see that you are not allowed to smoke on campus, it will help to change UMD to a smoke free campus (as long as people obey the rule and are not smoking on campus). I think this it is going to take a few years to see a change with this smoking ban. I hope that UMD moves forward in this ban and no backwards.

Oh and the American Lung Association handed out free t-shirts that said, "I am a designated no smoking area." Very clever.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4: Weekly Update

1. My SMART goal is to use a reusable water bottle instead of a plastic water bottle everyday for the rest of the semester and hopefully the rest of my life.I was able to achieve my smart goal because last week because I used my reusable water bottle every day of the week! My other goal was to get my mom to use a reusable water bottle. I was successful in this goal as we went to the store and got her a good reusable water bottle that she would use. We were able to find her one that was about equivalent to a standard plastic water bottle so she could fill it up with the easy to go flavoring water she likes.

2. I felt very successful in getting my mother a water bottle and getting her to use it. While I was home she used it for two days straight. It was however a bit of a challenge when she said she doesn't like the water bottle because it leaks a little bit. I am not sure if the cap was not on tight enough or if the water bottle is just not the best one out there. If so I plan to deal with this by going back and getting her a better water bottle that I have used and know will be a good product.


3. I felt very excited and proud that my mom was so willing to change to a reusable water bottle. I think a lot of people want to change they just don't have someone telling them why they should change. I also felt a bit frustrated when the water bottle was leaking but that is easily fixable with a new water bottle or making sure the cap is one tight enough.


4. I learned that some people just need that little extra push in telling them about the benefits of using a reusable water bottle and not using a plastic water bottle. For my mother she knew it was not making sense financially to buy plastic water bottles and only knew a little about the environmental effects it has, therefore I was able to inform her a little more.

5. My plans for next week are to continue using a reusable water bottle every day. I also plan to check in on my mother and make sure that she is using hers and that she is happy with the switch. If she is unhappy with her water bottle I want to go get her a new one so that she can stick to her goal too.  I also plan to talk with my brother and his wife to see what they use for water bottles while they are at work and while they workout.

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

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

This week it was assigned to go to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database and search one product that we use. I decided to search for the mascara I use, called Maybelline full n' soft mascara black. The mascara I use is rated at a six out of 10 on the scale, a six is indicated as moderate hazard. Research studies indicated that this mascara is not linked to cancer, but is linked to developmental/reproductive toxicity, violations, restrictions, and warnings, and allergies/immunotoxicity. The website also gave the ingredients, directions, and warnings from packaging.The ingredients were also listed and gave their hazardous rating. This is good to know because then you can look at the 10's and see which ingredients you should for sure stay away from and what they can do to be hazardous to your body.

This doesn't concern me because I feel this is very minimal, but it does make me wonder what other products have in them that are really dangerous that most don't know about. It is interesting how so much information is not given out to the public. There are a lot that people do not read about this and probably will never see this. It makes me wonder what else I do not know about that is potentially dangerous to me. It is important to think critically here and think about what the actual harm might be to your body. It may be that these products might not do a whole lot to your body or that these products can do a lot of damage. I think I might trust this information more if I knew a little bit more about who is putting up this information and how accurate the information is.

Reflection Post: Week 5 & 6

In the fifth week of Environmental Health we watched a movie called The Future of Food. I found this movie to be very interesting and eye opening. I could not believe how much is going on that I simply am unaware of. The main point of the movie was about a big company called Monsanto who was suing large land farmers for infringement on their patent. They were able to do this because it is a law that you can patent almost anything. I also was shocked how many of the people that worked for Monsanto went back and forth between Monsanto and The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Linda Fisher was one of these people and I think that she actually went from Monsanto to the EPA to Monsanto to the EPA, now who knows where she is working.
In the sixth week of Environmental Health we watched a movie called Diet for a New America. Although the movie was over 15 years old, many of the facts are still present today. Not a lot of people are changing their ways even though more of America is becoming obese. The movie was mainly given from a man who chose not to take his fathers famous ice cream business and set out to do other things like create more awareness of what is going on in America. I found this movie to be interesting. I don't think America will be doing much changing in regard to the weight issue because it has been 15 years since this movie and it seems we aren't any healthier, if anything may be a little more unhealthy. We also learned how to put a picture in the main box of our blog page. I took my picture when I was at Gooseberry Falls this Fall. It is fun to look at everyone's pictures they put up on their blog.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3: Weekly Update

1. My SMART goal is to use a reusable water bottle instead of a plastic water bottle everyday for the rest of the semester and hopefully the rest of my life.I was able to achieve my smart goal because last week, my plan was to finish the two water bottles I currently had. I successfully drank the last two water bottles and drank from my reusable water bottle the entire week!

2. It was again challenging to remember to grab my water bottle and fill it up before I left. I am thinking of leaving one of my water bottles at school in my locker so that if I do forget one I can always have one there and will not have to buy water. Then of course bring it home on weekends and switch out water bottles. I think it is also going to be a little bit challenging this weekend because I am going home. At home is where I got started on drinking from a plastic water bottle.


3. I felt very accomplished this week. I felt them as I was thinking about what I was going to write and realized that I was able to accomplish my goals for the week. I hope my goal continues to go well and that I am able to stick to it so I can continue to fell good about doing my part.

4. This week I learned that my goal might be a little easier than I expected it to be. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make it a little more challenging I am open to suggestions.I hope to get my mom to switch to reusable water bottles over the weekend.

5. Since I am going home this weekend my goal is to get my mom to switch to reusable water bottles instead of plastic water bottles. This is going to be hard because she likes the convenience of it and likes that she can just add her crystal light mix and take it to go. I hope that I can find her a reusable water bottle that is the same size that she can fill up with water and her crystal light. I hope over the weekend I am able to change my mom over to reusable water bottles and to think of a way to make my SMART goal a little more challenging.

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

Read 'n' Seed 2: First quarter of "Don't Eat this Book, Fast Food and the Super Sizing of America"

Chapters and Pages 

I started my book this week called, "Don't Eat this Book, Fast Food and the SUPER Sizing of America." I am extremely happy with the book I chose to read, so far it has been very interesting. I read chapters one through five (pages 1-74) for the first quarter of read 'n' seed.

Main Topics 

The main topics of my book were facts about most American's eating habits. Within this it was talked about the how 65% of American adults are overweight, while 30% are obese (See bellow for definition). Childhood obesity is also a huge issue in America, and causes growing health concerns. Type II diabetes is the kind you can develop through bad diet and excess weight. Type II diabetes is just one of the health issues children are likely to face if their weight is not within healthy averages. One fact that really stuck out at me was that in 1970 there were about 70,000 fast food establishments in America, 186,000 in 2001. McDonald's alone has 14,000 in America, and 31,000 worldwide. In 1986 in reaction to the opening of the first McDonald's in Rome, started the "Slow Food" movement. According to the book "Slow Food" means old-fashioned cooking,with real, fresh ingredients grown and raised in environmentally sound ways. This movement has surprisingly even moved in to the United States, among 45 other counties (when this book was wrote, now to 132 countries).

Terminology

I learned the difference between overweight and obesity. Overweight is when your weight is 10% over the healthy weight for your height. Obese is when you are 30% over the health weight for your height. I was unaware of the "Slow Food" movement before reading about it in my book, and found it to be very interesting.

Implications
I think that as long as a person cares about their health they should care about obesity in America and what they are putting into their mouth. I don't think obesity is anything new in America, most have known that if you don't exercise and eat well you will probably gain weight. To address this issue I think more can be done to teach children when they are younger about proper nutrition and forms of exercise. Yes we all had gym and recess in elementary school and were able to get out running around in then, but now some school are cutting these two things from their programs. Granted it is not many school but it is one way we are only going to dig ourselves in a deeper hole. The book also implied that people need to change no just for them but for their kids because more learn by watching. I agree with this idea, some kids simply follow in their families footsteps of eating habits.

Share & Voice: 10 ways to Go Green and Save Green

As part of Blog Action Day 2009, I am posting about 10 ways to Go Green and Save Green. Blog Action Day 2009 is all about climate change. People all over the world are blogging about food, travel, events, business, politics, among other topics. I think this is such a cool idea that every year on October 15th people blog about a topic that impacts everyone across the world.

10 ways to Go Green and Save Green:
1. Save energy to save money
2. Save water to save money
3. Less gas = more money (and better health!)
4. Eat smart
5. Skip the bottled water
6. Think before you buy
7. Borrow instead of buying
8. Buy smart
9. Keep electronics out of the trash
10. Make your own cleaning supplies (by using vinegar, baking soda, lemon, and soap)

It is so cool that a lot of these things we are already doing in class. I was so interested to read about making your own cleaning supplies! I think that is so awesome, I think I will have to try it myself. Another interesting fact I read was that you should wash clothes in cold water whenever possible, as much as 85% of the energy used to machine wash clothes goes to heating the water. There are a lot of things on this list that can help everyone save time and money for yourself and packaging and other wasteful components of new products. Hope everyone learned something new from my blog, I know I did.

Go Bulldogs!

Amanda

Share & Voice: Kill a Newspaper, Save a Tree?

This week a found an article from Business Week. The title of this article is Kill a Newspaper, Save a Tree? Not Quite, this caught my attention. This article talked a little bit about how there are less newspaper subscribers now. In 1984 there were 63.3 million subscribers, and in 2008 it was recorded there was only 48.6 million, and still it is decreasing. The article also states that it may not be that environmentally friendly to read newspapers online because they want you to take into account what it takes to make a computer. Who knows which choice is really best, I guess we will just have to wait and see whats in the news about newspapers.

At home we recently canceled our newspaper, not specifically to save money or a tree but simply because none of us read it enough to feel it was worth all that paper. I tend to read articles in the newspaper only occasionally and am a big fan of the Sunday advertisements. At first I was slightly disappointed because I do enjoy reading the newspaper and how would I know what was on sale. I soon was okay with it because it is free to subscribe to the newspaper online, by signing up you can go on the website and look at all your favorite articles. I also began to realize that most companies put their weekly advertisements on their web-site. Now every Sunday I simply go to my favorite web-site (Target and others) and look at their advertisement and sale items online. Whether or not this is actually saving on paper, I am not sure.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2: Weekly Update

1. My SMART goal is to use a reusable water bottle instead of a plastic water bottle everyday for the rest of the semester and hopefully the rest of my life.I was able to achieve my smart goal because last week my plan was to finish the 12 water bottles I currently had. I was able to get rid of all but two of those plastic water bottles. My plan with these water bottles was to drink them within the first week and to switch off between plastic and reusable water bottles to get use to the switch. I also stated that I wanted to give a few plastic water bottles away and encourage others to use a reusable water bottle. I was able to give away three plastic water bottles. One of my friends told me they currently leave a reusable water bottle at work and go to the drinking fountain and refill it when it gets low. I thought that was a great idea! I felt I was able to achieve my goals for last week.

2. I felt that I was successful in getting others to consider switching to reusable water bottles. I also felt that I was successful in using a reusable water bottle every other day. I decided that one reason I don't like to use a reusable water bottle was because I can't always leave it in the fridge like plastic water bottles. A struggle therefore is that I like it cold, and thus I try to remember to put my water bottle in the fridge every night before I go to bed. I felt a challenge one day when I forgot a water bottle at home and was forced to decide if I wanted to go to the vending machine and purchase and plastic water bottle or just use the drinking fountain. That decision was pretty much made for me when I realized I didn't have any cash, I could have gone to the store but I decided I would be alright until I got home. Sure enough I was.

3. I felt that I wasn't challenged as much this week as I only used a reusable for part of the week and was still phasing out plastic water bottles. I think this week will be a little more challenging to use only a reusable water bottle.


4. I learned that changes don't just happen over night and this is a goal that I will need to work on. I also learned about how much more water I seem to drink when I use a reusable water bottle. I am a typical eight glasses of water or more each day and I still feel I am drinking more water. I think I felt restricted because I only had so much water in a plastic water bottle. While in class I don't like to get up to refill my water bottle so by having a larger reusable water bottle I drink more water.I also learned by looking at my recycling bin how many water bottles I actually go through. Oh man am I glad I am switching.

5. For next week I want to have those last two water bottles gone and to be using a reusable water bottle everyday from now on. I would like to keep things with just using a reusable water bottle for this week. If I am able to do this, I want to think of some way to modify this challenge and to make it more difficult.
I hope that I am able to use my reusable water bottle every day for the next week, I really feel that I can make the switch full time!

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Eye Opener: CSPI

I chose to do the Score Your Diet test. I chose this one because I like to think that I eat healthy most of the time. I did not however have a very good environmental score, looks like I have a bit of work to do.
 1. My Health score was 46, environmental score of -27, animal welfare score of -19, and my grand total was 0. I scored in the "Uh-oh, you need help!" category.
2. I scored the highest on fruits and vegetables. I eat a lot of these types of foods to try to be healthy and because they taste good. I do not buy organic fruits or vegetables, I would be open to switching but I don't as I am use to non-organic fruits and vegetables.
3. I scored the lowest in milk and dairy. I tend to drink a glass of milk every other day but have milk everyday with my morning cereal. I had negative numbers across all categories of milk and dairy.
4. I need to improve in all categories. To do this I can make sure that I am more conscious about what I buy at the grocery store. Next time I go to the grocery store (which wont be for awhile considering I went right before I did this assignment) I want to buy a few organic fruits and see if I like them better or if they taste the same as non-organic fruits. I can also make sure that when I buy meat, I buy lean or extra lean as it is more healthy. I am good about buying some low-fat items like butter, yogurt, and crackers, but I should switch to low-fat cheese and a few other foods.
I don't think I would ever switch to eating no meat. One of my roommates is a vegan, I think it would be too hard for me considering how much I like meat. I respect that she does this because she eats really healthy and is inspiring to people and helps them make small changes in their life and diet. I know that I can improve in the things that I eat, as do most people but it is always the idea of changing, for me I always have to make change gradual.

Reflection Post: Week 3 & 4

      The third week of Environmental Health I met with Steve for 15 minutes to go over the progress of my blog and to make sure I was understanding how to use everything. During this session I was able to learn a lot more about blogging and even some short cuts. I learned how to schedule a posting so that if I choose to work on an assignment a few days ahead of time I don't have to submit it at that moment. I also learned how to view the people I am following in Google Reader. Google Reader makes posts much easier to find and read.
      The fourth week of Environmental Health the classed played a game quizzing everyone on what we had previously learned. This was a great way to get the class involved and to teach others, the best part was everyone got a prize when they answered the question correctly. From the quiz I learned more about navigating the course homepage. In class we also discussed what we plan to do for our lifestyle changes, I am excited to read about what everyone chooses to do. During the second portion of class we watched An Inconvenient Truth with Al Gore. One thing that I learned from the movie was that 10 out of the last 14 years have been the hottest recorded years. 2005 was the hottest year, this seems to be a trend and one that is not easily fixable. I also learned about how weasel words are used to get people to believe one thing when really it may not be completely true or accurate. This movie was a huge eye opener, especially with a person of political power like Al Gore. Al Gore went public with this information which it appeared the government didn't want people to know about.

Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy the changing colors!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1: My SMART Goal

My SMART lifestyle change for the next 10 weeks, is to use reusable water bottles and stop using plastic water bottles. To start out I am going to finish up the 12 plastic water bottles I currently have and not purchase anymore.

What does this look like to you?

My lifestyle change is eco-chic because I will be drinking water out of the facet and not spending money on water bottles that just end up in landfills. This change is also eco-chic because I will be saving on resources and not damaging the earth as much.

Can you tell now?

I chose this behavior because I drink a lot of water, not only is it unsafe for me to continue to refill plastic water bottles it is a waist of resources and money. I feel strongly about changing because this is a bad habit I have always wanted to change but never really took action, until now. I don't even want to add up how much I have spent on water bottles and how many have gone into landfills, it's very depressing how many I have used over the years.

Is this what you expected that sea looking picture  to be?

Today is the beginning of a new day for me! I am going to start today by using my reusable water bottle and slowly get rid of the 12 plastic water bottles I currently have. To do this I am going to drink out of one plastic water bottle per day and when that is gone switch to my reusable water bottle. Another approach I am going to take is when a person staying at my apartment asks for a plastic water bottle I am going to encourage them once they are finished it to get a reusable water bottle and use it. I hope to make this a great change in my life over the next 10 weeks, so much so that I am able to continue using reusable water bottles.



















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

Share & Voice: Submitting Assignments Online

This semester I have started submitting my papers and assignments online as often as I can. Although, it is not always possible to submit assignments online, I have made a point to ask my teachers if this would be okay when possible. Currently I am able to submit homework, papers, and assignments online in ALL of my classes. By doing this we would all save on paper, cutting down less trees.  I am not only saving myself money on printing and ink but helping the environment at the same time. I encourage everyone to ask at least one professor if it is okay to submit assignments online via email or web-vista. If you are doing so already, great job; now encourage a friend to do submit online too. I encourage everyone to leave a comment and let me know what their thoughts are and if teachers allow them to submit online too.

Eye Opener- Ecological Footprint

Ecological footprint is the demand humans put on the earth's ecosystem. Most of what I learned about ecological footprint comes from wikipedia.com. Quizzes to inform people on their ecological footprints was developed in 2002. I read about ecological footprint progress at the redefining progress website. This gave people a chance to look at their effect on the environment and what they can do to change their ways.

I took a quiz about my ecological footprints at the Ecological Footprints Calculator website. I was asked about transportation, foods I eat, living, and recycling habits. I was able to find out my ecological footprints breakdown was mostly used by services like transportation,electricity usage, etc. When I am at school I use the bus everyday instead of driving to school. It not only saves me money but it also is better for the pollution when less people are on the roads. The least percent of my ecological footprint was mobility. I found out that if everyone lived like me, we would need 4.4 planet earths to provide enough resources to accommodate. After finding this out it is rather disappointing on my part, I need to make a effort to make sure I am doing my part to keep the planet clean. If everyone lived like me, we would need 4.9 earths to sustain life (From Ecological footprints). The travel site seems to think I travel about average. However, I do not completely agree with this. I think I travel less when I am in Duluth rather than when I am at home in the cities.

A few small things I can do to change my behavior are buy items that do not have a lot of packaging,continue to search for a recycling can instead of throwing things in the garbage, and take public transportation more often.

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

I chose to read the book "Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America," by Morgan Spurlock. This book is about Spurlock's experiment in eating fast food everyday. He talks about the politics, power, and pounds in the fast food industry. Spurlock also talks about America's struggle with obesity and how it relates to fast food. Spurlock takes a look at how eating fast food affects a persons health and how eating unhealthy can cut years from your life. I chose this book because of my interest in nutrition and staying healthy and to see what people go through when they eat this way.
I was able to learn more about Morgan Spurlock and other books and movies by him, through the research (website below). I found this book on Amazon.com, where many consumer and editorial reviews were given. The consumer reviews really spiked my interest to read "Don't Eat this Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America."

More about "Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America:"

• Morgan Spurlock
• Consumer Reviews
• Editorial Reviews
  

This book is 320 pages long, over 16 chapters. My plan is to split up the reading so that it is roughly even throughout the semester. I plan to read chapters 1-5 as the first quarter of read 'n' seed, chapters 6-8 as the second quarter, chapters 9-12 as the third quarter, and chapters 13-16 as the fourth quarter of my book.
I hope as I read this book I am able to share a lot of tips to stay healthy and why it is important to avoid eating fast food all the time.

Share & Voice: Great Minnesota Beach Sweep 2009

On Sunday September 27, the Great Lakes Aquarium help their annual Great Minnesota Beach Sweep. I volunteered at this event to help clean up the Duluth parks, riverbanks, and streams. I chose to help clean up Chester Park, there was a great turn out; the rain didn't keep anyone away. It was really great to see so many people that care about their community out there cleaning up. As you clean up your garbage they ask you to keep a data sheet on what kind of garbage you pick up. It was interesting to see what kind of things people think it is okay to litter. The most frequent item I picked up was remains from cigarettes.
The event was even covered by channel 10/13 news. The news stated that the most found item was cigarette remains. This in fact was the most common piece of garbage that I picked up. The event was a great way to enjoy the outdoors while doing a little for your community. This was a really fun event and I hope more people are encouraged to pick up trash they find.
Thank you for taking a few minutes to read about this event!

Reflection Post: Weeks 1 & 2

Reflection: September 14, 2009 and September 21, 2009

             The first week of Environmental Health was a lot of fun. We first did an activity with the entire class, where we problem solved to fit everyone in a circle. It was a great activity to get to know people and work together. I was also able to learn a lot about how to set up a blog for myself. At first I was a little nervous and thought it might be hard to figure out. I have discovered the more I use blogger, the more I understand it. I learned that although I am not always that open to trying new things, once I put my mind to it, it’s not always as hard as I thought it would be.

                The second week of class we discussed a few quotes and what we thought they meant. My favorite quote from class was, “Where flowers bloom, so does hope,” -Lady Bird Johnson. I think this quote can have many different meanings. The first thing I think of is how flowers grow in living areas. Living plants are essential to our earth and contribute to the environment it so many ways. This quote makes me think more about littering and trash in out earth. If I start doing what I could to pick up trash, there would be more hope for flowers to bloom. I have learned that even though I am just one person my impact can make a difference and hopefully others will see what I am doing and follow. Other quotes were discussed in class and many students had really great comments. The second part of class I learned about how to set up my first blog post. It was really exciting and I think I am starting to get the hang of it.

              Have a great weekend everyone! 

Intro Post to Amanda's Water Bottle Watch

TITLE: Welcome to Amanda@Amanda'sWaterBottleWatch!

PHOTO:

PARAGRAPH 1:
Hi my name is Amanda, I am a health care management major. My blog is about plastic water bottles and reusable water bottles. Plastic water bottles are a big part of waste and could easily be reduced by using reusable water bottles. Above is a picture of a reusable water bottle in nature. My blog will be about my switch to reusable water bottles and how you can do your part to change to reusable water bottles also.

FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS:
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

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

1. Amanda@AmandasWaterBottleWatch
   
2. Kristin@KristinsGreenWorld
3. Jacob@GettingGreenWithJake
4. Keith@KeithsGreenBike

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."

LAST PARAGRAPH:
This was my first post, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for visiting, I hope you come back and learn more about water bottles!

Blogged for the Welcome Linky Party hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.