Sustainability - June
June is here! It seems hard to believe that I’m halfway through 2020 already and my focus on sustainability. I know everyone has been saying it, but the last six months feel like a decade in and of themselves and just two weeks a the same time. But everyone is saying it because it’s true.
I’ve loved having sustainability to focus on over the last six months. It has given me something to think about and research and contemplate and to pull me out of the news. It really has provided me with a sense of direction, at least in some areas of my life.
In keeping with my plan, my focus in June was on the body.
Since I determined at the beginning of the year to try to make my life sustainable in all areas, this month my body focus centered around food and exercise.
Like I’ve shared in several other posts lately, since I moved I have been able to exercise every day. There is a great 2-mile loop by my house and I’ve been able to do it every day since I moved in. During the week I do it as part of my morning routine before work, and on the weekend I just fit it in whenever I’m in the mood.
Prior to my move (and quarantine since those happened at about the same time), I was working out about every other day. So the increase in frequency to every day literally doubled my efforts. In fact, in June I was able to hit 100 move goals in a row according to my Apple Watch - a new personal record.
The boost in exercise has given me more energy, motivation, and strength. I’ve always hated running but I’m pushing myself to turn more of the walk into a run every day and I’m making great progress.
I’ve noticed I’ve been feeling so much better physically lately and I attribute that largely to the increase in exercise but also to changes in my eating habits. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been eating much smaller meals and intermittent fasting.
I’m not one of those superhumans who only eat in a 4-hour window a day or anything, but I have been able to keep a pretty consistent daily fast between 8 pm and 11 am. It’s not perfect, but it is definitely longer than the 12-hour window I tried to stick with before. I’ve combined this with eating much smaller meals.
I typically have an orange or apple when my fasting window is over and a small lunch an hour or two later. Then, I’ve pretty much eliminated afternoon snacking and I have dinner in the early evening. I only have one serving at meals and sometimes even that is too much. I haven’t totally eliminated evening snacks, but that’s a choice I’ve made on purpose. Popcorn (and the occasional brownie) is something that I love and I’m not ready to give that up yet - I’m only 21 for goodness sake!
This combination of less food, eating less often, and doing more exercise were things I knew I needed to do and they have helped me to feel so much better in my body.
I also spent some time this month working on sustainability for my body as it relates to the environment.
The first way I focused on this was with my showers. Showering makes up almost 17% of residential water use in the United States every year. A lot of that is for good reason, I mean we all want to be clean, but I know that I sometimes stretch my showers longer than I should or need to. And wasting water is definitely not environmentally sustainable.
Luckily, I have a low-flow showerhead so I only use 1.75 gallons per minute - as opposed to the 2.5 gallons per minute (or more) of a normal showerhead. I started timing my showers and knew that I wanted to do a bit better than I was. I have been able to get my showers to a pretty consistent 10 minutes, and I’m going to keep trying to lower it even more. I definitely don’t need to use over 17 gallons during a shower.
I’ve utilized some of the “navy showers” technique by turning the water off when I shave and making sure that it doesn’t run very long before I get in. There are other things I can do to continue to cut back on my water usage that I’m experimenting with and things I plan to try in the future. A couple of gallons saved here and there may not seem like a lot, but in a lifetime of showers, they make a big difference.
I also purchased a LastSwab to help cut back on my “body” waste. I’d seen them on the internet for a while and finally took the plunge! I know the concept is kind of gross, but the importance of making a change is undeniable.
I also know that it is always recommended to never stick anything in your ear, but I also know that most people don’t listen and do so anyway. If you utilize LastSwab or any other product that you are putting in your ear, make sure you are doing it safely and gently - you assume all the risk.
But if we are going to keep using swabs in our ears, we definitely need to do so more sustainably. Of the 8 million metric tons of plastic that enter our oceans every year, anywhere between 1% and 6% of it comes from disposable swabs. You may have seen the photo of the seahorse holding the cotton swab. This is not how the world should be.
There is also the fossil fuel cost involved in producing disposable swabs - extracting, transporting, and refining fossil fuels just to create a product that we toss once we’ve used it. And some people I know use them every single day. Producing 1.5 million cotton swabs every day also has a large land-use cost. Cotton is something that has to be grown, and requires lots of land as well as water, nutrients, and nourishing. It takes 20,000 liters of water to produce one kilogram of cotton.
Continuing to use disposable swabs was really not an option - and luckily I ran out of them this month.
The LastSwab works really well and is very easy to clean after use with just soap and water. It is definitely harder than the soft cotton swabs I’m used to, but it’s not painful or uncomfortable. I’ve quickly gotten used to it. There is even a version of the LastSwab designed for use with makeup, and I’ve heard great things about it, although I haven’t gotten one for myself. It isn’t something I thought I would use enough to make it worth it - and one of the biggest rules in sustainability is to use what you have and only buy what you need.
I’m so glad I get to enjoy a beautiful summer with my (sustainably) healthier body and eco-friendly habits and tools.
Until next time,