I’m not really sure what it means for No Impact Week to be over. It certainly doesn’t mean that we now have license to go back to our old consumer haze. I suppose we’re on our own to keep our impact in check. But I have to say that I’m truly impressed with the project’s ability to show me the ugly truth about my personal consumer behaviors in a meaningful—I’ll never be able to enjoy takeout with a clear conscience again—kind of way. Here’s a rundown of the many lessons learned this week:

1. I have too much stuff, and I should use the stuff I have before buying new stuff.
2. I can walk to the grocery store in ten minutes.
3. Getting rained on is not a big deal.
4. I haven’t been gaining weight because of stress, later dinners, or too many lattes, but because I have been very, very lazy.
5. When you cook for yourself, you can control the ingredients you use and can choose foods that are good for you and your community.
6. Yeast is indeed an important ingredient in bread making, and homemade bread is delicious.
7. I am never dirty enough to justify a ten-minute shower and 25 gallons of water.
8. Dogs are very calm in candlelit environments.
9. Life without TV, movies, web-browsing and video games is not miserable, but frees up time to accomplish goals I always talk about, read books I’ve been meaning to, spend more time with my family, and helps me go to bed before 1am.
10. Even though I am a green writer who has been working on more sustainable living for years, I will always have room for improvement, and it never hurts to check in.

But I think the most valuable lesson I learned this week is that most of the energy-intensive, gas-guzzling and water wasting things that I do are not things that I really need, or for that matter, things that make me much happier. They’re mostly just bad habits. I don’t know how far Greg and I will go to limit our impact in the future, but I’m confident that we’ll take this experience into our lives from here on out and use it help keep us conscious of what, and how much, we consume. I feel a bit like I just had an eco-mirror thrust in front of me that showed me what my consumer habits really look like—and they were kind of chunky. I’ve been consuming and wasting all over the place! I don’t really think I want to go out in public like that anymore.

Plus, I lost a pound and I’m pretty sure it’s because all my favorite deserts come with way too much packaging. For that reason, and so many others, I'm going to keep questioning my habits and looking for ways to be gentler on the planet. And Greg, well he feels that way too. Right, Greg? He nodded his head "yes."