Share & Voice: Get fit! Health & Fitness Information

The website I would like to share with you comes from the American Council on Exercise. On this website, you will find tons of fitness tips and information to further your fitness knowledge. Not only do they give facts about exercise, but they give some tips on how to make your workout more fun!

http://www.acefitness.org/getfit/default.aspx

Explore this site for a while, you might be surprised what you learn!

Reflection: Weeks 3 & 4

In week 3, we didn't actually have class time. I meet with Jayme and she went over the blog requirements with me. I seemed to be keeping up for the most part, I struggled a little bit with finding everyone's blog so I could follow them and also remembering to comment on all of my group member's posts. We also had to pick our book for Read 'n' Seed, explain what it was about, and decide how we were going to split up the reading. I am very excited to get started on this!

In week 4, we watched the video called 'An Inconvenient Truth', by Al Gore. I had read the book a long time ago, but this movie reminded me what I read. I covered a lot of aspects of global warming and climate change.

http://www.climatecrisis.net/aboutthefilm/

That is the official site for An Inconvenient Truth. Check it out!!

We also chose what we are going to do for our Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change. I chose to take shorter showers. We will see how that goes!!

In these couple of weeks, I learned there are a lot of things I can personally do that I am not doing already to make myself more eco-chic. Those ecological footprint quizzes we took were incredible eye-openers, I told a bunch of my friends to check them out!

The Al Gore movie really made me focus on the environment. We all definitely take our resources for granted and need to change the way we live immediately. This is something I want to become a walking advocate of.

Blogging is going well! I think I am starting to really get the hang of this!! :)

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1: My SMART Goal

My SMART lifestyle change is going to be to decrease my shower time to 5 minutes.

Specific: 5 minute shower time.
Measurable: I'm going to set an alarm on my phone, or find a five minute song so that I know when the time is up.
Attainable: This goal isn't unachievable, it will just require me to be faster in the shower.
Realistic: A shower time of 5 minutes is very realistic, you can even shave in that time.
Timely: I can change this part of my life immediately because I shower daily. :)

This lifestyle change is eco-chic because it is using less water. The more you shorten your shower, the less water you are wasting.

I chose this activity because it is something I really wish to improve on. It bothers me when people are in the shower for a half hour and they just stood there and wasted all that water. There are so many people that live day to day without clean drinking water and they just let clean water run down the drain like it's nothing.

This morning I actually started my change, but not by choice. Someone in the lower level of my house turned on the shower and made mine cold so it was all of two minutes long. Nice way to start out my goal!

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

I would have to say I'm a bit shocked after taking a few quizzes about my ecological footprint. I didn't necessarily think I was a very 'green' person, but I certainly didn't know I was this bad. According to The Center for Sustainable Economy it would take 6.26 earths for everyone to live my lifestyle and according to The Transport Impact Center my total annual pollution from road transport is worse than average. The average is 1.26 tonnes, and my average was 4.63 tonnes. That is around 3 times the average.

It sure makes me re-evaluate my lifestyle. It makes me want to unplug things when I'm not using them and take my bike to school. It makes me want to use an aluminum water bottle and air dry my clothes. Just those little things could improve my carbon footprint.

Another website, The EarthDay Footprint Calculator says it would take 5.8 earths for everyone to live my lifestyle. Many sites, but the results are similar. I need to change the way I live. My eyes are definitely opened.

Read 'n' Seed 1: Smashed

The book I chose for Read 'n' Seed is called Smashed. The book is written from the author's perspective and covers all her encounters with alcohol, from her first taste up to her now alcohol-free life. Along the way she tells the stories of situations she deals with and friends she goes through. It should be a good thing to read having been in college for a few years and seen people drink this much firsthand.

I chose this book because I am really interested in alcohol education, especially at the college level. I don't think some kids realize that drinking in college can lead to a lot bigger problems later on, even alcoholism. Here are some links to reviews about the book:

Curled up with a good book
New York Times
London Times

There are 13 chapters and 339 pages. The book is sort of divided into four parts, which I will divvy up among the quarters. The first quarter I will read Initiation. The second quarter I will read The Usual. The third quarter I will read Excess, and the fourth quarter I will read Abuse. I am looking forward to this eye-opening biography!

Reflection Post: Weeks 1 & 2

The first week in class I learned the basics of blogging. It was a very informational week. We spent time customizing them and doing our first post. I was very intrigued and wanted to learn more about this blogging phenomenon. My favorite part about blogging is that you can share your thoughts and feelings more than you can on facebook or other social networking sites.

The second week in class we watched a video about how much the government omits when it comes to our knowledge of global warming. It really makes me think about how much else is out there that our government feels is appropriate to keep from us. Makes it seem kind of scary we trust them with our money and laws. I am a little bit shaky on blogging but am starting to feel a little more comfortable with it and I am exciting for the book I chose!

Welcome to Mediterranean Melissa!

Hi, I am Melissa Herzig and my blog is going to be about environmental topics with focus on the Mediterranean area. I have a real interest in tropical areas, especially because these are some of the most beautiful places on our planet and we need to keep them green!


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 six 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. Melissa@MediterraneanMelissa
2. Ashley@Ashley's Green Lily Pad
3. Paige@Paige's E Health Blog
4. Mallory Johnson (I cannot access her blog?)


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."

I am looking forward to this course and all the fun things I can do to be eco-chic! This course is unlike any other course I have had here at UMD. Here I come blogger!

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

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