1. Consumption - What did you consume today?

• Water- 2 glasses of water, 5-minute shower, a few toilet flushes/hand washes, brushed teeth
• Food- Eggs Benedict for breakfast, steak and veggies for dinner
• Electricity- television, computer (for homework and club stuff)
• Gasoline (fossil fuels)- gas to go from Dorchester to Milton, heat at 68° for most of the day
• $$Money$$ - bought breakfast and medicine

2. Reduction - In what areas of your current lifestyle did you try to scale back the use of specific resources?

Today I took a much shorter shower. I usually take a 10-15 minute shower but today I took a 5-minute shower. I also drank less water. I usually have at least one 32 oz. bottle of water and drink continuously throughout the day but today I only drank two 12 oz. glasses. I didn’t use a lot of water to brush my teeth as well.

I usually go on Facebook a lot on Sundays but today I only went on it to send a message to a club. It’s nice not going on Facebook… I feel more relaxed. It also reduced my computer time. I didn’t go on Twitter at all but ended up tweeting via my cell phone once or twice, though.

I also tried to use less heat today by wearing a sweatshirt but I was still cold so we kept the heat on at its usual 68°.

On Sundays I usually go on a road trip with my family or to a sports game or somewhere at least 10 miles away but today I only went as far as Milton so I didn’t use as much gas.

I didn’t buy much today. I only bought breakfast this morning and that was all.

3. Sustainability - Are there any changes that you made to your daily routine that you could envision making for the long term?  Can you reduce your consumption permanently?  Why or why not? Please be specific, and provide examples.

I could definitely reduce my Facebook/Social Networking use and even my time on the interweb in general. It was easier to reduce my time on Twitter than Facebook because I use Facebook to communicate more but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. It also made me procrastinate less. I could also reduce my shower time for the long term. I always try to take a quick shower anyway. At first I didn’t think I could reduce my consumption of water and heat permanently. I usually drink a ton of water everyday and I’m always cold when I’m at home so this was very difficult. Thinking about it now, I know that I could drink one less glass of water or wear even more layers to stay warm.