20 Time Final Recap

In order to showcase what we have done for our 20 time project in a more engaging way than a blog post, we decided to create the video that is shown above. We decided to do it in the style of a draw my life video, which was a popular trend on youtube, because we thought that it would be more interesting to watch than just a video of us explaining everything.

As far as self evaluation goes, we think that we worked hard enough to earn a grade in the “A” range. We set goals that were pretty much executed as originally planned. Along with the blog posts assigned, we posted daily/weekly recaps which amounted to a total of about 19 blog posts, not counting this one. Here are a few of our blog posts to refer to:

Intro

Vegetarian (2nd week) recap

Vegan Day 9

These were just a few examples of what we posted. We have many more blog posts that you can check out on this blog. If you want to check out another version of the video with a cool effect that makes it look a bit more professional at the top of the page click here

This being the 20th blog post, we are concluding our 20-Time project :)

Individual Reflections

Monica-
     My partner (Eman Ahmad) and I chose this topic because we wanted to do something that included us as much as possible. We haven't ever tried any diets because we didn't really think we needed to. So this was something different that I don't think I would ever do this if I didn't have the opportunity to do this project. We thought that this would be a cool way to see how we could improve the environment by not eating animal products.

     At first, we were planning on doing one different diet a week each week. We were going to do pescatarian for one week, vegetarian for the next week, and vegan for the last week. But, we thought that we wouldn't get realistic results. So we changed to be vegetarian for two weeks and two weeks for vegan. We were really tempted to take a cheat day but we stuck through it because we knew that some people do this diet for their lifetime. Also we just wanted to get the full experience. Our friends really helped us out with telling us what foods we could and couldn't eat.

     We learned that this is a pretty hard diet to maintain if you didn't do it for you whole life. If it's something new then it's a bit hard to get used to. I have learned that I need to eat meat because that's the majority of what my family has for dinner and this change was pretty hard for me. But I want to thank my friends for helping me resist the urges to cheat.

Individual Reflections

Eman-
    For my 20 time project, I worked with Monica, and we went vegetarian and vegan for a month. I did this because I wanted to see how different diets would affect my body, and to also test my discipline. I was also aware of the health benefits of these diets and I was also concerned about the amount of animals being tortured and killed for food. I was focused on self-improvement and acknowledging where our food comes from.

      Our initial plan was to go pescatarian for a week, vegetarian for a week, and then vegan for the last week. We decided that one week was not enough time to see the effects of the diets, so we cut out the pescatarian part and extended vegetarian and vegan for two weeks each. 

      I personally though that it went really well. It was very difficult to keep my discipline and avoid the foods that I wasn't supposed to eat, but I was able to do it. We were also able to regularly update our blog, and I was able to measure both of our blood pressures and heart rates every other day. 

      I learned how to come up and coordinate an organized schedule with my partner. My time management with projects is usually not exceptional with projects, but this time we worked efficiently and got done quick. The only exception was with the video, which we started a bit late, so it was slightly rushed. If I had the chance to do this project again, I would have extended the amount of time we did the diets for, so that way I could really test the extent of my discipline. I learned that I have a lot of self control when I am focused and willing.

      In the future I may try this again, specifically for a longer period of time, but I want to encourage other people to try it, as if one person cuts meat out of their diet, it won't make a huge difference on the amount of animals getting slaughtered, but if a lot of people do, there is a chance for change. 

Control Summary

Over the control week, we were not able to publish any other blog posts, but we were still able to record our blood pressures and heart rates.

Weights-

Eman- 89.5 lbs

Monica- 98.8 lbs

Eman	Blood Pressure	Heart Rate
4/24	92/60 mmHg	85 bpm
4/26	97/64 mmHg	90 bpm
4/28	101/69 mmHg	88 bpm

Monica	Blood Pressure	Heart Rate
4/24	99/73 mmHg	91 bpm
4/26	103/68 mmHg	87 bpm
4/28	108/75 mmHg	93 bpm

Overall our blood pressures and heart rates were higher than they were when we were on the diets, which helps show a correlation between our diets and our internal body conditions. Our weights pretty much stayed the same throughout, which we believe is due to the fact that we were on these diets for enough time to see a drastic change.