Hello fellow bloggers
Happy Earth Day!
I have decided to look at the top 10 actions I found googling earth day to see if I am doing enough green things and perhaps pick one or two new things I can do daily to help the environment.
The things I already do:
1- Replace incandescent light bulb with energy saving ones. Most of my lightbulbs are energy savers but I will check and if they aren't replace them for energy savers.
2- Walk, cycle, use public transportation daily.
3- Choose local organic foods that are in season and support local food producers. I try to do that as much as possible and in the summer I buy my fruits and veggies in the market from local producers.
4- Eat less meat, well I already don't eat much meat only occasionally chicken. I think I do my part.
5- wash full loads of clothes in cold water.
6- I usually close the water tap while brushing my teeth.
Two new things to do in the spirit of earth day:
1- Use the dryer a lot less and try and hang my clothes to air dry as much as possible.
2- Make simple natural non toxic cleaners out of vinegar baking soda and water. I googled and found this link on homemade cleaning products useful for cleaning, I had no idea. I think I will start doing this. http://www.eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm
On a related note, while bettering the environment is a great idea an dvery important, I also decided to start a self-betterment project as well. Which basically consist in taking better care of myself and my body in general, although I already do a lot but lately I have been a little lazy.
Things I will do or already do and will make sure I keep doing:
1- Drink green tea after every meal.
2- Eat more fruits and veggies. Eat at least one apple a day which is supposed to health speed up metabolism and therefore help in not gaining wait so fast.
3- Eat out less and start making more healthy recipes at home.
4- Keep eating at a slow pace to help the digestive system. And eat small portions.
5- Go to bed early to catch up on much needed sleep.
6- Do cardio exercise every morning (Wii boxing, Wii jogging, Wii steps, Wii hula hoop, etc.). Go rollerblading after work and walk home whenever the weather permits.
7- Do Yoga (on Wii) every night before I go to bed. To help relax and make sure I keep a good posture.
8- Drink more cold water to help in speeding my metabolism.
9- Finish reading all the books I have started. Hmmm this may be a lot but I am up for the challenge)
10- Get back to painting and drawing a lot more.
11- Grow my own herb garden. Or at least try again and make sure I don't end up killing it. I am bad with plants. lol
12- Practice guitar at least 10-20 minutes every day.
13- Try an just enjoy the little things in life each an every day.
14- Keep blogging after BEDA is over. I really do enjoy it.
15- Get back to writing some more Haikus.
WOW! I really do have a lot of hobbies and take on a lot of things at once. ;)
I think that is about it, that is a lot I think. I may add some more things if I have forgotten any.
On a related earth day news, I found this cool craft idea which goes with my growing an herb garden project.
It is basically recycling tin cans to make containers for my herbs. It is recycling and great for the environment and also a way to express creativity. I only wish I had seen this link yesterday before I threw out a whole bunch of diet pepsi cans (that my boyfriend drank while at my place), oh well I am sure I will get more than enough if I start to collect them from next weekend.
I can't wait to start my herb garden creative and environmentally sound project. I am excited!
Check out the link to make your own herb garden containers:
http://crafts.kaboose.com/earth-tin-can-herb-pots.html
Healthy tip of the day:
Eat several small meals each day instead of three big meals. Your metabolism will stay high and burn more fat.
Going to Yuk Yuk's comedy night at Alcatel tonight. I don't work for Alcatel but my boyfriend's sister does and she got us tickets, $10 with a meal included, greek food. Must remember to eat slow and just small amount though. I am excited I don't think I have ever had greek food aside from greek salad that is but I am sure everyone has tasted that at one point of another.
$10 with a meal included is way cheaper than if we actually went to the actual comedy club, I think it is more expensive. Usually the stand up acts are pretty good, though last time there was one girl who was terrible, hopefully she is not there tonight.
Well this wraps up day 22 of BEDA Have a Happy Earth Day everyone and remember to be green.
See you tomorrow.
BEDA 22: Happy Earth Day, self-betterment project and Yuk Yuk comedy night
BEDA, comedy, earth day, exercise, green, health, maureen johnson, nerimon, planet, self-betterment, VEDA 0BEDA 14: Speeding of metabolism and taking better care of myself
BEDA, blog every day april, exercising, fitness, health, maureen johnson, metabolism, nerimon, rollerblading, soccer, VEDA, vlog every day april, yoga 0Hello everyone
Today is back to work day. It is all right, can't always be on holidays.
I have been noticing lately that I tend to gain weight a lot faster these days. Perhaps due to lack of exercise which slowed down my metabolism. So I decided to do some research on what is best to eat and how to speed up one's metabolism.
I found that one of the best way is to make sure not to skip breakfast, after all it is the most important meal of the day. Lately I have been a lot more tired which also can slow down metabolism and keep hitting the snooze on my alarm and waking up later and rushing to get to work thus failing to eat a proper breakfast that can sustain me throughout the day. Sometimes I grabbed a muffin, mind you not the worst muffin of all, it had oats and chocolate chips of course not all that healthy.
I figured that the fact I have been tired has been going to bed too late as a result of chatting on msn.
I have decided first and foremost to stop it and go to bed at a reasonable hour (9pm 9:30pm) to try and catch up on the sleep that I have missed. It is good since I wake up really early to get to work at 8am.
Hopefully this will help give me back all the lost energy.
I also decided to make sure I set aside time to eat a proper breakfast.
A sample of the food that I found, from my research, are likely to help boost the metabolism and speed it up:
Spinach, plain yogurt, berries, beans (lima, kidney beans, lentils, quinoa, etc.), eggs (they say we should apparently eat some every day), and of course a lot of vegetables, chicken, turkey.
Drinking green tea at least five times a day, I have a little trouble scheduling a fifth cup though. breakfast, lunch, dinner, evening. When else can I drink another one? :) Apparently green tea, I already knew that, is great to help burn fat consumed and also speeds up the metabolism.
They also said coffee. Yuk. Sorry that is something I just won't commit to. I hate the taste. Plus it may have the speeding up the metabolism good point but has other negative aspects that I just don't like.
Drinking a lot of water! That is something I NEED to commit to. I always start to but then I find that it is just too much water, always need to go pee. That is good to get your kidneys functioning well but man is that a lot of water, eight glasses a day. They say really cold water helps speed up the metabolism, emphasis on COLD or REALLY COLD.
I am also going to get back to my morning Yoga and possibly running (on the Wii). Of course I have a 10 minute walk every morning to the bus stop and sometimes, when weather permits, an hour walk from work to home. Now that the weather is finally nice, I plan to hop on my rollerblades and go every day after work when weather permits of course. And soccer, possibly twice a week now that the weather is looing better.
I found a lot of speed your metabolism diet but I won't follow a specific diet. THEY DO NOT WORK. Instead I am just incorporating the list of food that are said to speed one's metabolism into my regular daily food intake.
That way there is no giving up of favourite food for a certain time that only makes people want to binge later on and gain the weight twice as fast.
Knowing what you are eating and eating proper food that are sure to sustain you for the entire day without making you crave the junk, is the way to go. It is easy, just incorporating more vegetables in your diet, some spinach, plain yogurt, nuts after workouts, etc.
Something from every food group, giving you the proteins and vitamins your body needs. And also doing simple exercise that you love and that are fun rather than forcing yourself to do an exercise for the sole purpose of exercising.
I choose rollerblading, soccer and walking simply because that is what I do anyway. Or rather what I used to do a lot more. It does not feel like exercising since it is all things I quite enjoy.
I know most people reading this will say that I have nothing to lose since I am 5'1" and 107lbs as of tonight.
But the thing is I used to keep my weight easily around a 100lbs. I found I had more energy and now if I exercise I am more out of breath than I used to be. And the fact that I gain faster than I used to whenever I ate something.
I think it is time to take better care of myself and get back to my healthy weight and therefore my more energetic self.
Some of the links I found with my research, might be of interests to others as well:
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/dietweightloss/a/12ways.htm
http://daytimetalk.com/2008/03/17/seven-ways-to-boost-metabolism-today/
Current weight: 107.8lbs
That is it for today's fourteenth day of BEDA. Off to dreamland.
See you tomorrow.
