Tip of the Day - Be Conscious of Your Actions
Posted on March 5, 2008 by
I have a bad habit. I take vitamins and supplements from three different bottles at night before I go to bed. Instead of taking all of the bottles out of the fridge and closing the door, I grab a bottle, open it, shake out my dosage, cap the bottle and put it back, and so on and so on, with my knee propping open the refrigerator door.
I certainly know better. I’ve made tons of green changes over the past year, and this isn’t even one that would impact my lifestyle in any way, shape, or form. Even though I vowed to stop doing this, last night I was deep in thought about something other than vitamins and refrigerators. I was on auto pilot and caught myself, half way through opening bottle number three, knee propping the refrigerator door open.
Maybe you aren’t as spacey as I am. Maybe you don’t get lost in thought while your body is on autopilot, but if you do, make an effort to be more conscious of your actions.
Do you leave the front door open while you run out to get the mail, heating or cooling the outside (depending on the season) in the process? Do you chuck food containers in the trash instead of rinsing and recycling? Do you forget to turn off the light when you leave a room?
Pay attention, and instead of justifying your actions, (ie. the fridge is only open for a few seconds longer than it would be other wise) be honest with yourself and make the change.
I’ve decided that not only will I take my vitamins out of the fridge and close the door before I start uncapping and shaking out pills, but since they aren’t highly perishable, I will wait until I need to open the fridge for something else to put them away. And I’m going to pay attention to what I’m doing.
What un-green habit do you need to kick?
I so need to stop using the little electric cup warmer on my desk at work! Ok, that’s it. It’s unplugged and I’m done with it.
I am so bad about not turning down the heat/air before I leave for the day. I always live to regret it when that bill comes in the mail … and I know how wasteful it is, but I still forget. I need to leave myself a post-it note or something.
The first step is admitting you have a problem, right?
I’ve actually found that when I’ve admitted to something I need to change on the site, I just can’t let myself go back to my careless ways afterward. I feel WAY too guilty about it.
This may or may not help with your vitamin situation, but this is the first thing I thought of:
My husband has a host of standard medical conditions he takes pills for morning and night. Some days, he’d be all: “Did I take my pills this morning?”
Um. I dunno.
So, almost jokingly, I bought him one of those old people pill organizers. This way, he can fill it once a week and since there’s a AM and a PM slot, he can tell at a glance if he’s taken them.
If you put your vitamins together in one organizer, you’ll only have one item to grab out of the fridge at night. Less time in the fridge, less time spent opening all those bottles!
Wow, Regular Lady! That’s a great idea. I think I’ll even just put a week’s worth of pills in a jar and dole them out from there.