Susan Zhang

I feel the same! While practicing mindful eating, I was also a lot more aware of what food I was consuming and how I was preparing it. Since you mentioned the issue of food waste and how you want to buy more vegetables that naturally last longer, I wanted to pass on some of the tips that I learned that make produce last longer.
 
When it comes to avocadoes, cut them horizontally so that it exposes less of the avocado to air. For asparagus, store them in a jar with an inch of water to keep it fresh for way longer. If you notice that your salad greens are wilted, submerging them in ice-cold water for 5 minutes can revive them. If you have stale bread, you can refresh it by rubbing ice cubes over the slices and putting them into the oven for a few minutes. For bananas, you can make them last longer by storing them hanging and by wrapping the stalk with leftover foil. I hope these small tips can help!

Hey Susan! I love that you've transitioned to using reusable grocery bags rather than the plastic bags! I've been using tote bags to do my groceries since I started living in my apartment in Westwood, and not only is the material more sturdy and durable, but it's also often times more comfortable to carry back to my apartment since they have thicker straps that eases the pain and bruising on my shoulder. The extra pricing on plastic bags has also been a huge deterrent in encouraging my use of tote bags anyway, as it just seems more financially smart to take my own bag grocery shopping than paying an extra 10 cents for a plastic bag that's also perpetuating the plastic reliance we have. The people in Westwood do a great job of bringing tote bags everywhere, and I find it odd that when I head back to my hometown in east Los Angeles, I don't see as many people carrying around tote bags for their groceries. It should be an action encouraged everywhere, and I hope grocery stores actually take out single-use plastic bags in general from their stores so reusable bags will further be encouraged. 

Hi Susan! I also just recently bought a reusable canvas tote bag from the UCLA store and find it to be so useful! I use it almost every time I go out now, whether it be to the grocery store, to hang out with friends, or to go volunteer. It's so universal and, especially on grocery store runs, saves a ton of bags. I think the switch in California from handing out plastic bags at the grocery store to reusable bags was a great change. I remember when I was younger, there was an empty area right next to my local Walmart that would always be filled with plastic bags and trash that flew from the store across the street, but now with reusable bags, that area is usually a lot cleaner! However, I do agree with you that cotton/canvas bags are much better for the environment. Not only do plastic bags take up to 1000 years to degrade, as you mentioned, but they're also extremely harmful to marine life. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, 1.9 million plastic bags were collected at the International Coastal Cleanup just in the year of 2018 alone. Also, researchers found that 34% of all deceased leatherback turtles ingested plastic material. In order to prevent such detriments to our marine life, I'm going to continue to use my canvas totebag and other reusable bags when I go out to the grocery store. My roommates and I even have a storage space under our sink where we've collected tons of reusable bags that we can grab before we go to the store! I really like your idea of attaching a command hook to the front door so that I don't ever forget my tote bag, so I'll be doing that right when I finish writing this post!