Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change 5: Final Weekly Review & Overall Project Reflection

Week 5:
My SMART goal was: I will eat three organic fruits vegetables each day.  Overall, I succeeded in my attempt to find more balance in my diet, although I didn't meet my goal exactly how I would have liked, I did learn a lot about new healthy eating habits for myself.

The biggest challenge for myself was time.  Over the last month, I think I am busier than I have ever been in school.  Having two high demand classes, as well as two internships, finding time to go home and eat was not easy.  I learned new ways to help fight against this by bringing a snack to work with me to help reach my goal.  The biggest success I have had was learning that there are foods and markets out there that have yet to be explored by me.  I have always enjoyed making sandwiches, but now I have started putting lettuce and tomatoes on them.  I think it is an acquired taste because I never really liked it before, but now find it enjoyable.

I felt really good whenever I made it to my goal, and even though some times I didn't make it, I didn't get too down on myself.  I was making a change in my life that is more likely to happen over a longer period of time.  I also felt better eating organic because I now know where my food was coming from, and felt a lot better about what I was putting back in to the environment.

This week I have learned that to be successful, you need to be meticulous in your preparation, and that goes for eating too.  The people who eat the healthiest are most likely the same people who will plan their meals out at least a day in advance, instead of waiting until hunger strikes and eating the easiest thing to make.

For the future, I plan on making this short term goal a life goal.  I have felt better about what I eat, as well as physically and mentally.  I really like the variety I have added over the last several weeks, and fully intend on keeping it a part of my day to day life.

Review:
My SMART goal was: I will eat three organic fruits or vegetables each day for 10 weeks.  Overall, I succeeded three of the of the weeks while falling short two of the weeks.  I was never that far off of my goal, so I never felt the need to amend it in any way.  I felt like it was realistic and practical, and would serve me well.  I was right on all of those thoughts.

The things that helped me be successful was at the beginning, when I had went and bought plenty of food.  The things that made it hard to be successful was having little or no time to eat during the day, or needing to go to the store to buy more.  For the future, I have decided I just need to plan my eating patterns a day or two in advance, rather than wait until I am hungry and then look for something to eat.

I benefited from this project with my body.  I feel like I am eating healthier than I ever have at any point in my life, and it is a lifestyle change that I intend to keep.  I learned that this is something I enjoy, and that will help me live healthier and more productive in the future, because I feel better than I have before.

I feel like the environment benefited from this goal because I am eating more organic and locally grown products, thus cutting down on the cost of transport for the product.  And although it is more expensive, I am happy to help make the environment healthier too due to less chemicals being used to produce food.

To conclude, I will definitely be keeping this goal as a lifestyle choice from now on.  It has made me feel better about what I eat, and about myself.  To me, there is no downside to this change.  There is a slight economic one, but as long as I am able to afford it, I will love to eat this way.  I would strongly encourage anyone else considering a change similar to this to do so.  You will not regret it.  You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.