For my final self-intervention, I wanted to not just focus on my personal goals to live healthier and be more productive, but also on adjusting my lifestyle to have less of a negative impact on our planet.
One of the lifestyle improvements I have been wanting to make for a long time is going to the gym every single night. So for this intervention, I created a weekly workout plan that involves going to the on campus recreation center every night. I followed this plan for three weeks and am glad to report that I am and will be continuing this for the foreseeable future. Another personal change I wanted to make is not having my phone with me while doing homework or studying, so that I can be more productive with my time and subsequently have more time to focus on my health. This worked great for me for two weeks, however I eventually realized that there are certain times when I absolutely need to have my phone on hand. Despite this, I plan on continuing to at least work without the distraction of my phone whenever possible. This allowed me to focus more on things like eating three meals a day, which is very important to getting enough nutrients on a regular basis.
When it comes to reducing my negative environmental impacts, I focused on driving less and eating less meat. I realized that the emissions of my gas-vehicle are significant and I often abuse the fact that I own a car by driving even for short distances and driving to school despite living under 20 minutes away by foot. Also, I know that the impact mass meat farming on the environment is alarmingly bad and I wanted to support that as little as possible. I made it a point to only drive for things that were more than a 20 minute walk away and to only walk to and from school. These changes were also beneficial for my health, as I became more active. I hope to minimize my unnecessary driving in the future as much as possible. In addition, I tried to incorporate as much plant-based food as I could into my diet to phase out things like beef and chicken. I hope to continue this by finding alternative sources of protein, as that is still very important for my body.