Weekly diary #84: I passed my thesis proposal defense!

Hi there! Welcome into my weekly diary. I try to live an eco-positive lifestyle. I want to do more good than bad in my life, preferably every single day. How I do this and what that actually looks like on a daily basis? That’s what I want to discuss in these weekly diaries. I am not claiming to be perfect, but I do want to show you that living with a positive impact is fun! The past week I attended a 21 dinner of a friend, picked up some trash and passed my thesis proposal defense! Want to read along?

Thursday
Today I first emptied my worm bin, I removed the fluid from the lowest bin (which is basically worm pee). I mixed it with water and put in the garden and some in-house plants. It feels so amazing to have this little worm bin! I put food scraps in there and what I get is fertilizer for my garden. Amazing and zero waste.  The past weeks I am really having a hard time making original dishes for dinner. So today, I ate homemade french fries, again. My mind is filled with other things right now and I can’t seem to eat healthy these days. I do workout about 5-6 times a week, so that’s going well. I also want to eat healthy and meditate every day. Let’s hope it’ll get better, because eating fries every day is not a good plan (even if they’re home made without oil and zero waste). After handball training today we as a team decided to have to drinks at a terrace in the city centre. We drank cocktails and I ordered mine without straw. Even though nobody else did, I do feel very good about it. I am making a difference here. I also did have a vegan, low waste (because of the wooden skewer) snack, olives. Again, making the difference (for the animals, people and the environment) and it feels amazing.

Friday
Today wasn’t so special. I worked out in the morning and worked at work in the evening. The weather is getting better these days and so I really try to sit in the sun (with suncream of course) and get some vitamin D.

Saturday
When I woke up today I wanted to work out but there were no nice classes in the gym so I gave myself a weekend off, since I worked out 5 times already this week. Me and my mom went into the city centre together. I recycled my old phone case at an electronics recycle station, since I had gotten a new one for free from Fairphone. I didn’t really know what to do with the old case and so I contacted Fairphone. Contacting a company is always a good thing, since it raises awareness and in some cases they have figured out how to recycle your old things already, like they did here. We had lunch at de Broodbode in Enschede. I forgot to ask them to serve my sandwich without a napkin, stupid. Then, I also forgot to take the napkin home to compost it. Ugggghh. Better luck next time, at least it was plastic free. Mom also has a lot of these little tattoo cards of insects they give away at Albert Heijn now. They’re temporarily and so cute. We did some grocery shopping and I got some things, in plastic. They’re all vegan and palm oil free. I wanted to try some things and they are just so good I don’t mind the plastic. Living vegan is more important to me than living plastic free. Meat replacers are just not available package free or plastic free. One of the few exceptions I make. I bought vegan Magnums, vegan sausage, a vegan celery and apple salad and some vegan chicken burgers (for the 21 dinner I have tonight, they asked me to bring something). At noon I booked the first tickets for my train trip to Albufeira this summer! I am ditching the plane, hell yes! I have to be honest, this is terrifying and exciting at the same time. At night I went to a 21 dinner from one of my dearest friend. We gave her a combined gift with three persons. For the package I bought three tiny plants. Not entirely zero waste, but the best gift I could think of. We wrapped the basket full of gifts in plastic. A long time ago I saved a roll of plastic wrap from the garbage and now it was time to make use of it. Zero waste! It was a lovely night, they cooked 5 courses all vegan for me, how sweet! After the dinner we went out and at around 4/5 am we went to get a snack. I got some fries in a paper bag, I always go tot the same store since I know they don’t serve it in plastic there and asked if I could get it without the plastic fork. The man behind the counter was fine with it and so, I got a plastic free night!

Sunday
Sunday, lazy day. I am working on a sign for my bike, for Loose, my package free webshop. Since it is a webshop, it’s not really visible, so with this sign I want to make people aware of this package free option. I watched a documentary (which I do a lot these days) at night. I love to keep myself educated, especially on problems in the world. I want to know and do as much as I can to solve them. I am always inspired by good documentaries.

Monday
Since I am preparing my thesis proposal defense for tomorrow, I didn’t do many other  big things today. I started the day in the gym, had a driving lesson (which went horrible, goodbye confidence), watched a documentary and worked on the sign for my bike. Being productive makes me feel very good and so I try to make the best of every day. My dad also booked a holiday today, to one of the Dutch islands (so we’ll travel there by car!) for a week. I am so exited! I love the Wadden Islands and I can’t wait to go. It’ll be a huge reward for passing my thesis, because we’ll go when I hand in my thesis. I am looking forward to it! The beach, walks, sun, books, games, rest, sleep, aaaahhh.

Tuesday
So, here goes nothing. I went to school for the test and I passed it with a 7! Oh my, I can’t really express how much confidence that gives me. A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders and now I’m eager to finish this thesis semester with a good mark and a good feeling. Let’s do this! After that, I walked the dog and wanted to pick up some trash while doing that. After a while I realized that the bag was broken and so things were falling out again, bummer. I made a planning for the rest of the week, since I can finally move on with my thesis project and the rest of the day I chilled. Celebrating, it’s important to me.

Wednesday
Starting the day in the gym again, yes! I did some chores and prepared dinner already, since I’ll be in the train during dinnertime. I worked after those things and then I went to my boyfriend. We don’t see each other a whole lot since I am doing my thesis and he works full time, so these nights are great.

Yours sincerely,
Romee