{"id":19682,"date":"2014-02-25T23:40:15","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T04:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=19682"},"modified":"2014-02-26T20:55:14","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T01:55:14","slug":"being-healthy-and-sustainable-at-the-same-time-for-a-greeneruoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2014\/02\/25\/being-healthy-and-sustainable-at-the-same-time-for-a-greeneruoft\/","title":{"rendered":"Being healthy and sustainable at the same time for a #greenerUofT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\" align=\"center\">The<a href=\"http:\/\/sustainability.utoronto.ca\/greenerinhere.htm\"> Green Champions project<\/a>, hosted by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sustainability.utoronto.ca\/Page4.aspx\">It\u2019s Greener in Here campaign<\/a> of U of T St. George\u2019s Sustainability Office\u00a0challenges students and staff to take <a href=\"http:\/\/sustainability.utoronto.ca\/greenerinhere\/greenerinherepledge.htm\">pledges<\/a>\u00a0to live a greener lifestyle on campus and beyond. By taking the pledge, you\u2019re taking on a challenge to perform sustainable actions in one of 4 categories: Health, Waste, Water and Energy.<\/p>\r\nOur health is inextricably linked with our environment.\u00a0 For example, living in a highly polluted area can increase the chances of <a href=\"\/\/www.nrdc.org\/air\/diesel-exhaust\/files\/infographic-health-impacts.pdf\">developing asthma, respiratory illnesses and cardiovascular disease<\/a> \u2014yet often we have the power to contribute to the \u00a0reduction of pollution and structure our environment in a greener way, such as cycling or using public transit.\r\n\r\nSome suggested pledges in the Health category are:\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>be more active everyday<\/li>\r\n\t<li>stop smoking or reduce cigarette consumption by 75%,<\/li>\r\n\t<li>adopt a plant-based\/vegan\/vegetarian diet at least 1-4 times a week<\/li>\r\n\t<li>purchase eco-friendly cleaning and personal care products, or make your own<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2014\/02\/CROPPED.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-19687\" alt=\"CROPPED\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2014\/02\/CROPPED.jpg\" width=\"575\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2014\/02\/CROPPED.jpg 575w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2014\/02\/CROPPED-300x144.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2014\/02\/CROPPED-500x240.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px\" \/><\/a>\r\n\r\nThe featured Green Champions in the Health category have their own blog pages (link: http:\/\/sustainableuoft.wordpress.com\/health-champions\/) where they have been documenting \u00a0their \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0pledge journey -- \u00a0some interesting and humorous reads!\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/sustainableuoft.wordpress.com\/katy-francis\/\">Katy Francis<\/a> \u00a0bravely pledged to walk from Union Station to work 3 times a week during the extremely Canadian winter (read:\u00a0 freezing) we've been experiencing this year. By walking to work instead of taking the subway, Katy is reducing her carbon footprint even more while spending more time on physical activity. I really like how she documented her walk with numerous photos. It seems that her pledge not only helped her live a greener lifestyle, but it also took her on a walking adventure.\r\n\r\nAnother Green Champion in the Health category is <a href=\"http:\/\/sustainableuoft.wordpress.com\/meghan-sbrocchi\/\">Meghan Sbrocch<\/a>i \u00a0talks about the challenges of eating a vegan diet 3 times a week; for example, the temptation of non-vegan treats. A vegan diet, however, is more sustainable because a plant-based diet requires less energy, land and water resources to produce<a href=\"http:\/\/ajcn.nutrition.org\/content\/78\/3\/660S.full\"><sup>2<\/sup><\/a>. Adopting a plant based diet encourages consumption of more whole foods and less heavily processed foods. To support the featured Green Champions on their journeys, each category (Waste, Water, Health, Energy) has a student leader who acts as a motivator \u2013 checking in with them weekly and sending helpful tips and suggestions. During the ups and downs of Meghan\u2019s challenge, she looks to her leader for recipes and on-campus meal ideas!\r\n\r\nLearning about the \u201cIt\u2019s Greener in Here\u201d initiative and reading these blogs have not only made me realize how much personal and environmental health are interrelated, but also that living greener is such a small step away.\u00a0 Some of the changes related to health and sustainability that I have been inspired to make include drinking matcha green tea (powered green tea) instead of green tea from bags to reduce my carbon footprint resulting from packaging\u2014but also, matcha has 137 times more antioxidants than a cup of green tea!<a href=\"http:\/\/www.prweb.com\/releases\/2013\/1\/prweb10281956.htm\"><sup>3<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 I\u00a0have also decided to adhere to an 8 hour sleep rule per night so that I can reduce my energy use\u00a0(we\u2019ll see how this goes during midterms\u2026). By sleeping more (I\u2019m currently getting about 5-6 hours per night), I will be using less energy through restful inactivity, and increasing my own personal energy.\r\n\r\nWhat are your thoughts on the link between personal and environmental health? Are you inspired to take the pledge?\r\n\r\nTo find out more about \u201cIt\u2019s Greener in Here\u201d, go to their <a href=\"http:\/\/sustainableuoft.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/14\/its-greener-in-here\/\">blog<\/a>, find them on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sustainableuof\">Facebook<\/a>, or tweet at them @ SustainableUofT.\r\n<div>Gloria<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nThe Green Champions project, hosted by the It\u2019s Greener in Here campaign of U of T St. George\u2019s Sustainability Office\u00a0challenges students and staff to take pledges\u00a0to live a greener lifestyle on campus and beyond. By taking the pledge, you\u2019re taking&hellip;\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2014\/02\/25\/being-healthy-and-sustainable-at-the-same-time-for-a-greeneruoft\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Being healthy and sustainable at the same time for a #greenerUofT&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2014\/02\/25\/being-healthy-and-sustainable-at-the-same-time-for-a-greeneruoft\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Being healthy and sustainable at the same time for a #greenerUofT&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1758,7204,1,70,69,66,67],"tags":[2266,12434,1568,12433,88,2217,497,12432,1883],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19682"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19708,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19682\/revisions\/19708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}