Wellness # 41 - Going Green Part 1

CARBON FOOTPRINT: I have thought that I have been doing my part in trying to live a greener life, but after taking a carbon footprint survey, I found I am not doing as much as I should.
The average family carbon footprint rating was 9.44 co2 a yr, and mine was 15.0. The interesting thing I found out is that I am living in too big of a house. My five bedroom house is too big for just 2 people. (I did not add my five cats as household members.) My home rated a 9.9. driving rated a - 3.4, and flying was only 1.8.

EATING GREEN: It is amazing the amount of pesticides used on our foods, and how much of it remains even after a thorough washing. The highest amount of pesticide residue is on peaches, apples, bell peppers, & celery. Imported grapes were rated high, domestic grapes were low on the list. I am thinking now instead of eating grapes out of hand I will just drink them (think wine)

LOCAL FARMERS MARKET: The farmers market at La Centera, is a joke. I live close enough to La Centera that I can walk there. This I thought this farmers market would be a good thing. Get some exercise, reduce driving, and buy organic produce. Ha! Every time I go I am always disappointed. I look forward to walking there, thinking I am going to get some great things, then leave empty handed. It would be nice if someone actually sold some produce, I realize this is Houston and not the produce growing fields like California, but still we do have some things that do grow here. All I have ever seen is way overpriced eggs, and organic dried meat. There are lots of vendors selling lots of other items, like artwork, oil, soap, candles to name a few. Not what I would call a farmers market. Still it's a nice morning walk, and I can keep hoping someday there will be vegetables for sale.

Wellness # 40 FITNESS

Exercise is something I need to do. I have to do. Sometimes I get lazy, or life gets too busy and I skip exercising. I try not to get to far off track for very long, because the longer I skip exercising the harder it is to get motivated again. I felt I really needed an exercise tune-up and on the Exercise Prescription site I found some helpful tips for my day to day workouts. I find that I do the same type of exercise routine over and over again. RX has animated weight training exercise that you can watch and learn. Also I liked that you could target a specific area of your body. I like to use hand weights, and now I know I can use the hand weights every day without causing muscle fatigue or injury if I do different routines. The video made suggestions and showed proper lift technique. This video was great, almost like having a personal trainer without the fee! This site will even program you a personal workout menu. I am hoping this will motivate me to work harder.

Now the diet part of the wellness module was a very had lessonto do. This required me to be honest about my health, weight and eating habits. I looked at the fitness calculator and checked my BMI which was good 18.9. But other areas not so good, and I am not willing to share those statistics. Basically I eat too many carbs and too little protein. I have learned if you want to build muscle mass and endurance plus have more energy I need to add more protein in my diet. I took the age questionaire and the results said I could live to the age of 93.4 years. My health age was 43.2. Oh boy! Now I just have remember to look both ways when I am out running the streets!