I am looking forward to helping the environment by living a healthier lifestyle during this competition.

I learned that remembering to log in daily was a bigger challenge than actually doing many of my actual challenges.  That's mostly good news - many of these are now habits.  There's always room to improve, but part of life balance for me now means easing back from self-improvement and enjoying my life.

My challenge was  good.  I liked having specific goals and being able to check them off as I went.  I liked the broad array of choices that were available for me to choose from.  It is personally satisfying to be able to see what you've accomplished and knowing that in a small way, you are helping the environment while helping yourself.

I have told some friends about this challenge and I am happy to say they are making changes in their consumption habits.

It helped me to finish up some projects that had been sitting unfinished (water barrel, herbs in pots, food garbage bin under the sink). Just the little nudge that was needed to get me off of TDC (top dead center) and rotating again.

The challenge reinforced some of my good eating habitats and values. I was also reminded how easy it is to eat a meatless meal, and how easy it is to unconsciously eat processed foods when you're not intending to.

I did pretty well with avoiding disposable cups. I met this goal all days except one. The dashboard is a good reminder that this all adds up! Walking each day super fun! Although I wasn't able to do it midday as I had hoped. The challenge that I did not succeed at was the work-life balance. I need to re-double my efforts on this one, and I will continue beyond the challenge!

This last day of the challenge arrived with beautiful weather.  What a great sunrise to start the day!

My main goal for this eco-challenge was to have 3 meatless meals a day, not because I'm a huge meat eater, but recognizing that meat tends to be a component of many of my meals.  This was indeed a challenge...  Especially when my husband woke up on the weekends to fry up some really yummy smelling pepper bacon for the rest of the family and when those beautiful chicken liver pate appetizers traipsed past me at SOLVE's Green Gala event.  I was successful at meeting this three no-meat meals per day challenge.  It's a heart warming thought and perhaps an aspirational goal, but I'd be lying if I said that meat was now entirely gone from my life for good.  Another goal I set for myself was to do at least one action in each category (thank goodness for the one-time challenges).  In particular, it is unlikely I would have got around to mulching during these two weeks - even though I had the materials and tools on hand, and I wouldn't have sought out a new trail to hike in a nearby park (the weather has not been extra motivating either).   It was also a motivator to get off my duff and write some letters to manufacturers and grocers about producing/carrying products with palm oil and also to close the loop on some volunteer work. Thanks Lisa Appel for setting up the Port team, Port HR for tying the actions to internal wellness goals, and Northwest Earth Institute for putting on a fun event.

Well it is the end of the challenge.  A few changes with less screen time and more exercise has been pretty easy to do and not that big of deal to work into my routine.  Simplifying things is a worthy goal and it takes some thought to implement