Reflections Week 3 and 4

Aside from being extremely ill the past week, I have been learning a lot in my Environmental Health Policy book by David Ball. It was the book I chose and ordered off of Amazon to read for "Read n' Seed." It resembles a text book and isn't exactly a story, but a lot of information! Week 3 we didn't meet for class, just set up an appointment with Steve to make sure we were on track with our blogs. He helped me out a ton, I was really grateful and felt good leaving! I felt a little stressed and behind about blogging, but he showed me a lot of things that I was able to retain for when I am home on my own! Week 4 for me consisted of sleeping with a pile of kleenexes next to me, as I still am having to do. I've never had such a bad flu! I whistle when I breathe so it may be bronchitis, I'll be finding out soon. I still caught up with the class as far as what was on the calendar, by creating my SMART goal! I chose to stop drinking things out of cans and water bottles, but i didn't realize that that means I can't have my Guava Rockstars anymore! It'll be for the better though, and quite a change since I usually have one every other day atleast. I also did the eco-footprint quiz, and found out that I'm even less eco-friendly than I had thought! Some changes need to be made, and I am making a conscious effort to try! My lifestyle consists of eating a lot, so i feel that I have tons of garbage all the time! I am ready for week 5 and excited to learn whatever Dr. V has to throw at us! I'm also excited for the snacks. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Eye Opener-Ecological Footprint

An Ecological footprint is a measurement of how many planet Earths are needed to meet the human demand. Its designed to calculate the Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate. It does this by measuring a variety of things such as house size, garbage usage, gas mileage, car pooling, use of processed goods and other things that make an impact on the environment. I took the quiz thinking I was not going to say I need more than one earth, but it surprised me when it told me that there would need to be 5.7 Earths if everyone lived a similar lifestyle to me. I use a lot of garbage, and I do buy quite a few processed foods. I also drive a lot, even if its not that far. I really want to make a change, and I think it can be done, I just need to work at it! I also need 25.2 acres of the Earth's productive area. My house at home has 40 acres surrounding it, and I haven't seen most of it so I was confused by this area. I am thinking it means that with my garbage and buying of processed foods makes me need that area. Changes need to be made in my lifestyle, I want the Earth to be a healthy happy atmosphere for everyone that follows.
Take the quiz yourself! Theres a lot of eye opening ones. Take the quiz here

My SMART goal

Being Smart by making a SMART goal

My SMART goal for this semester was a tought choice between Dr. V's SMART goal which is to eat clean foods, and the general goal of the class, to stop using plastic water bottles. I figured that I won't be able to not eat anything but clean foods, due to my love for pizza so I went with the water bottle hype.

Therefore, my SMART goal will be as follows:

"I will not drink any canned or bottled beverages 100% of the time for the next ten weeks."

This is an eco-chic kind of change because it will reduce the amount of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and less water bottles and pop cans will be buried in landfills. I simply will just have to wash out the same container and reuse it time and time again! I'll also save a deal of money, which can go towards that doesn't harm the environment! Its not a difficult thing to do, just requires conscious effort.

This behavior is important to me because I've always known that water bottle usage is not environmentally friendly. Its just as easy to fill up a container to bring to school, and it can be used time and time again. I want to help the environment in any way I can and I also am getting my roommates to not use water bottles either. We all went out and bought new water bottles!

Read 'n Seed 1

The title of my book is called Environmental Health Policy. Its about the always changing environment, and the policies that need to adjust and readjust for the well-being of our environment. It discusses key threats to human health from the physical environment and how policies can be put in place to decrease the risks. It discusses controversies and considers how health impact assessments can be carried out to measure the multitude of these risks.

I chose this book because I don't fully understand what environmental health covers and I don't know that much about health outside of the nutrition and fitness standpoint. It was one of the books that I thought seemed worthwhile to read, and should help me out for this class.

The book contains 296 pages, and 7 sections. I will read two sections per quarter, except for once I will only have to read one being that there is an odd number. I will base this on whatever chapter is the hardest, so that I can focus on it more and not have another one to read.

For more information, I have provided three links!

http://books.google.com/books?id=ERERUXpacHcC&dq=environmental+health+policy+reviews+book+david+ball&source=gbs_navlinks_s

http://browse.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?ath=David+Ball

http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335218431.html

Introductory Post

My name is Kayla Ann Magnuson. I'm from Braham, MN. I'm a junior this year at UMD and I'm currently majoring in health education with a community concentration.

There are 6 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:
Advocacy Project
Eye Openers
Reflections
Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
Read 'n' Seed
Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post is labeled with all six kinds of posts. You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget in the sidebar. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above.

The members of my group are:

http://carriesenviornment.blogspot.com/
http://ritasrealm.blogspot.com/
mailto:Danielle@%20Danielle's Dandy%20Environment
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. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile."

Blogged for the Welcome Linky Party hosted by http://ecochicwithamy.blogspot.com/ with Amy

Reflections Week 1 and 2

My new and improved look on the environment!

Environmental Health has been a very unique course so far. Its nothing like what I expected it to be. My idea of the class was that environmental health was referring to health concerns in the environment. I thought we'd be talking about ways to keep the environment clean and all the harm humans have caused. There has only been two classes, but yet I've been thinking about my lifestyle choices and how I can change them to be more eco-friendly. It really doesn't take that much effort, its just a matter of thinking before doing.  I started thinking about a lot of things I do in life that are not so environmentally friendly. I used to throw garbage out the window and I would be pretty wasteful with paper and things like that. I would leave the water running, leave lights on, and take long baths and showers. Its weird to think about all the little things that we could change that wouldn't even be that hard to fix. Bad habits are usually hard to break, but I think that talking about the things we do in class makes me more aware. I've been trying to use dish rags instead of paper towels, cups instead of water bottles, and lots of other small things that should hopefully add up!

In class we've been talking about different ways that health factors link with the environment. I never thought things such as eating disorders or weight loss had anything to do with the environment because when I think of the word environment, I just think of the outdoors. Now when I think about the word "environment," I think about a lot more factors such as the people your around, the location in which you live, your lifestyle, your family, and much more.

Another thing that I've learned in class is how to create this blog! I don't know how to do much of anything with it yet, being that I am very bad with computers and learning new things involving technology. I get really stressed out because I fall behind and I always feel like I'm the worst one in the class with computers. I didn't know going into the class that we were going to be doing so many things on the computer! This is stuff that I'll need to know and will be very helpful as a health educator though, so its something that I need to learn sooner or later. I just hope I can catch on fast, and make this blog look spectacular!