For my 20 Time project, as detailed more extensively in my First 20 Time Blog Post, I wanted to work on self-improvement, as I am going to college next year and really need to start eating healthier. I decided to try eating healthier for a month to see how it could improve my mood and/or blood pressure. My initial goal for this project was to continue my normal diet for one month and then switch to a healthier diet with more regular meals for the second month. I decided to document my meals for both months and compare them at the end of the project. In addition, I jotted down how my mood was at the end of each week to see if the healthier diet improved my mood in any way.
The project went pretty well and smoothly. It was a fairly simple project outline - eat unhealthy for a month and then eat healthy for a month - so I didn't expect any road bumps; however, I definitely came across a couple. My first month of the project (detailed in my Second and Third Blog Posts), went pretty smoothly. The main problem I came across was the transition from the first month to the second month. It was pretty difficult to remember to grab breakfast in the morning (even if it was just a cup of yogurt) and it was also pretty difficult to remind my friends that I needed to go to Safeway or MOD during lunch to get a salad, as I discussed in my Fourth Blog Post. We generally grab food from Panda Express or Starbucks for lunch, so it was hard to resist that temptation and train myself to keep some healthy snacks with me in case we decided to go to one of those restaurants. Another bump in the road came when, mid-project, I decided to see how my blood pressure would be different during the two months. As I talked to the bariatrics doctor who advised me during the project, I realized that I wouldn't see a very big change in my blood pressure because the duration of my project was too short and it generally takes a couple months before a drastic change occurs. I would, however, still consider the project to be a success because I definitely did try very hard to start eating healthy and I learned a lot about how it can help me be more awake and productive throughout the day. It was a 2 month-long project, but I hope to use the lessons I learned from it throughout my life by eating healthier.
During this project, I learned how hard it is to start eating healthy, but how easy it becomes once you simply start. I also learned to be more disciplined and conscious about my eating. I'm really glad I had the opportunity to do this project because these are extremely important skills to have now that I'm going to college. If I had the opportunity to do this project over again, I would increase the length of each "treatment" by eating unhealthy for 4 months and then eating healthy for 4 months, so that the change in blood pressure would be more dramatic. Also, I would be much more strict with my diet, as I would occasionally accidentally eat something unhealthy when I went off campus for lunch with my friends or went somewhere for a birthday party. In addition, I would consistently measure my blood pressure throughout the experiment and graph it so that it would be easier to visualize how it was changing. I don't think I'm going to continue the experiment, per se; however, I'm definitely going to continue this habit of eating healthy into college because I definitely feel better (more awake and able to pay attention) when I eat healthier foods.
Given my initial project goals (which I had mapped out in my First 20 Time Blog Post), I would give myself full credit for this project, as I spent a lot of time talking to the bariatrics doctor who was advising me and doing research. Though the project seems simple, it was pretty hard to keep track of everything and completely change my diet for a month. I was also very conscientious about completing my blog posts in a timely manner and giving feedback to other students/commenting on others' blog posts. I was also pretty good about making sure I spent the class time that was allocated towards working on 20 Time to working on and researching for my project, and managed to finish this project on a very strong note. Though I didn't have a specific final product for this project, the graphs I used to keep track of my eating are attached below and what I learned throughout the process of the project is detailed in the Blog posts (links to which are scattered throughout this post). In conclusion, I would recommend other people to try keeping track of their diets for a month (or more if possible) and take the time to analyze what they want to change and then stick to those goals. It's pretty amazing how much better and more awake healthier diets can make you feel.
TED Talk Outline:
1. Talk about unhealthy eating habits and how it's a vicious cycle
2. Process of consciously keeping track of eating
3. Difficulty of eating healthy especially when I was stressed
4. Put reminders on phone for lunch and kept healthy snacks on me at all times
5. Growth and what I've learned
No comments:
Post a Comment