By: Linda S. Hollands
Colorado State University Global Campus
Module 5: Critical Thinking
Instructor: Dr. Daniel Hand
August 12, 2012
Centering
The items chosen for the assignment are a hair dryer, curling iron and soda (Coca-Cola Classic). All of these items have been a daily routine. To remove these items from a routine is not as easy as it sounds. The soda was a caffeine jump start to the day and then an afternoon enjoyment. Since this was a daily routine; it could be called a habit. Habits are hard to break!
The first couple of days were a little hard to do. Removing the Coca-Cola Classic containing 35 mg of caffeine and replacing it with water lowered stamina creating more drowsiness and lowered energy levels. After removing the caffeine in the daily routine it left sleepiness, headaches and lack of energy. Instead of drinking just water in the morning, I added a cup of coffee at 135 mg of caffeine which replaced the caffeine that was missing. Adding the cup of coffee also helped to ward off drowsiness and to restore alertness for the drive to work. For the afternoon, instead of drinking Coke, I replaced it with ice cold water allowing for better hydration.
It was easier with each passing day not to drink a Coca-Cola Classic. By the end of the week the desire to have a Coke was no longer present. There were a few benefits to removing Coke from my daily routine. Since the human body is made up of 60% water, a person should drink at least 64 oz. of water daily (McLeod, 2012). By drinking water which is healthier for the body, it increased hydration while lowering calorie intake. In addition, switching to coffee has its own benefits. According to Neil Osterweil (2012), coffee drinkers are less likely to have type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, and strokes. Another benefit for drinking coffee is less calories and still allows enough caffeine to get a great start to the day.
Everything has a purpose and one is defiantly the hair dryer and curling iron, even though continuous use of these items could cause damage to one’s hair. By taking out these items on a daily basis the hair is allowed to return to a natural state. The natural hair look does not have quit the professional look desired. It is not exactly a horrible look, just not the exact look a person always wants. However, a curling iron cost approximately 1.5 cents per hour in energy and a hair dryer 11.3 cents per hour in energy (NPPD, 2012). By removing these two items for the week allowed an energy cost savings of approximately 38.4 cents for the week.
The benefit of not using the hair dryer and the curling iron was a time savings of approximately 2.5 hours of time during the week. This allowed an extra thirty minutes per day for getting ready for work. Hair dryers cause weathering of the hair. This takes place from constant use where the cuticle of the hair shaft begins to wear away (eHow, 2012). Curling irons, if control is set to high or with continuous use, will damage the hair causing breakage and split ends.
With the removal of these items the natural hair did not