Anna Wutte

Today is the last day of the Eco challenge and I am so happy I participated! I feel like I've developed a few great habits from the challenge, and now I can grow on those habits and build an even more sustainable lifestyle. This is a cute little picture of my dog and my adventures on our many walks/runs! 

I have exercised every day since I started this challenge, and all I have to say is my body is feeling great! Probably coupled with the meatless healthier eating, but I am so grateful for feeling this good! 

My dog very happy yesterday after our run! 

My challenge has really stabilized, and I feel like my they are becoming habits and part of my routine. It has been so fun doing this with my family and friends. That support and togetherness really makes a difference when you want to make changes in your life. I am feeling super healthy and proud of my changes. Also I enjoy the fact that I was able to reach my parents, and 3 of my friends to encourage to develop new more environmentally sustainable habits! 

I've reached the point in the challenge where I feel I've become very habitual with incorporating these new challenges into my routine and they are closer to becoming habits. I've decided I would like to (beyond this challenge for this class) take one action a month and add it into my routine. Something geared toward food, heat/cooling and water waste; to live a life thats less wasteful and harmful to the environment. I must say I feel I have more energy now eating vegetarian, and I don't get food energy  "slumps" like I used to after big meat meals. 

Today for lunch I made an amazing yellow curry with tofu, peanuts, raisons, sweet potatoes and mushrooms. Instead of putting it on rice I put it on a bed of spinach. I wish I would've remembered to take a picture because it was delicious!

Today my mom and I went running together with our two dogs for exercise. We went out on local trails really early and there were so many beautiful birds and sounds! Then we cooked our vegetarian breakfast together. Its fun to get your family and friends involved with this challenge and see how you are able to incorporate your family into your lifestyle changes! 

Today for lunch I have zucchini noodles and tomato sauce (both from our garden). It always feel so gratifying to eat a meal that is solely from your own garden. Tonight for dinner is tomato, mozzarella, and basil drizzled with balsamic and olive oil. I have been prepping meals that are favorites of my dad, considering he is against going meatless I have to do my best to get him enjoying the meals! Pictured is prep of tomatoes and mozzarella (I will add basil and oils before eating tonight!). 

I was thinking about this Eco Challenge and how my individual actions (daily challenges) felt so small and minuscule on a larger scale... Not that this really changes this idea too much, but I decided to challenge my family members and 3 local friends (not through any formal like this page, but just gave them a call and asked if they'd do it for 3 weeks). To my delight, both my friends and family members agreed. My friends are going to decide on their challenges, but my family (mom and dad) decided to mimic my choices so we could easily work together on our tasks. So right now we are a vegetarian household (with on vegan meal) and lets just say no one is going to be banging on the bathroom door in the morning waiting to use the shower. Both my mom and dad take efficient showers normally, so I don't see that one being a huge deal. We'll see how they do when the clock is on them. However, as far as meatless, my dad not only loves meat, but he disagrees that a vegetarian lifestyle could help end world hunger.... So not only is he annoyed about not eating meat, he doesn't even believe its for a good purpose. Also as far as sustainability goes, the meat we eat actually comes from our own farm mostly (cows, chickens) and the rest we buy local organic. So the main point I am fighting him on is damage a meat society does as far as a starving world! We will see how this goes, I've agreed to be the chef for this (essentially how I convinced him to do it at all...) so I am sure I will hear lots of critique.