Preyasi Kumar

Being stuck at home these last couple of weeks, I've found myself cooking a little bit more than usual. While I've been challenging myself to reduce as much food waste as possible whenever I cooked this whole quarter, I've not been cooking frequently enough to have needed to be more innovative than just getting more convenient fruits/veggies/foods that I can use entirely already. Cooking more recently has required me to look up more recipes to try new things because I am unfortunately still a novice in the kitchen. I recently made some food with a bunch of vegetables, and was left with a lot of peels, and I was going to compost them when I decided to look up whether I can use my leftover garlic, onion, and potato peels. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that you can use them in soups and vegetable stocks! Honestly, reading that made me feel a bit stupid because that felt like such an obvious thing to do that I felt like I should have known that earlier or even thought to look up how to use that 'trash' earlier, but I was glad to learn that when I did! It just so happened that my boyfriend was feeling a bit under the weather the day before and I was planning to make soup for him, so that worked out so well! I saved those peels for when I made soup later that night, and it was great! I got to learn something new that I'll definitely use again in the future, and I got more use out of my food and reduced a little more of my food waste! In the process of learning that, I also found out that you can use slightly sour milk (not spoiled/rancid milk!! no no NO!!) for recipes that involve baking or frying (and also for some soups!), mango seeds and peels for syrups and jams, fruit that's starting to go bad for fruit leather snacks, banana peels for teas, and eggshells and avocado pits for smoothies! I was definitely skeptical at first and found those unusual as I am so conditioned to see seeds and peels and spoiling food as waste, but if so many sources are telling me that these can help me reduce waste and add some nutrition and/or flavor to my foods, why not! I'll definitely try these out at some point.

As I've been lowkey "crippled" these past two weeks thanks to my sprained ankle, I've been forced to be pretty much inactive most of the time and stay on my bed making sure I "RICE" my foot in order to help it heal as quickly and smoothly as possible. I've not walked to campus or to Westwood since my injury because the pain has just been really inconvenient, the crutches are too tiring to use for long periods of time on these hilly routes, and I don't have a car, but mainly because I thankfully have not needed to come to campus for my classes these last few weeks, so I've been focusing on trying to heal as quickly as possible and getting my assignments done at home. However, that means that I've started missing the walks to and from campus that I would dread so much. It's over a 30 minute walk from my apartment to campus, which itself is not bad at all, but when I'm in a rush and stressed about classes and unprepared for the weather and walking alone (all of which happens more often than I care to admit), I tend to not really enjoy making the treks to and from and around campus. Of course, now that I've not been able to, I really appreciate those walks so much more. I love the flowers blooming in front of some of the apartments I walk by, I love the random cat or even seagull I sometimes see by the apartments and frats, I love seeing the fat squirrels harrass some students for food, I love unexpectedly running into my friends, I love seeing the dance groups practice outside of Pauley or in the parking lot, I love stopping by tables on BruinWalk to buy food and support the clubs fundraising, and so much more! I also realized how much I miss all that when I've sometimes needed to take the bus in order to make it to class on time as well. I take those walks and all the benefits I get from them for granted - not only do those walks keep me a bit active and energized, and help me do my part to reduce my own carbon footprint a little bit everyday by not taking a car or public transportation when I don't need to, but being outside and having those interactions with others boosts my mood so much more than I recognized. It's so interesting how such a seemingly small thing can make such a big difference both personally for my physical and mental health, and also externally through social interactions as well as reducing carbon emissions from unnecessary transportation. My time at UCLA has made me appreciate walking so much more, and this class has made me more aware of habits of mine that negatively impact the environment and climate, that I hope to continue to walk more and appreciate the outdoors whenever I can and whenever I don’t absolutely need to take a car or public transportation anywhere.

Eating and serving smaller portions can help us with mindful eating as well. In a society where food is abundantly available, it isn't hard to overeat and go beyond satiety without even realizing it. Research has shown that when offered larger portions, people regularly eat more food than they need. From a biological standpoint, it helps with controlling blood sugar levels and unwanted weight gain. Of course, not eating enough fruits and vegetables can cause you to be undernourished, so eating smaller portions requires you to mindfully choose healthier foods in order to maintain your health. Eating smaller plates also helps prevent unnecessary food waste!

My a cappella group held a few leadership meetings via Zoom recently, as these did not require us to be in person (we weren't singing and rehearsing at these meetings). To ensure that my virtual meetings honor my values and our company culture, we set agendas and shared specific topics with everyone attending that we wanted to cover, and we made sure to try to stick to our set time as much as possible. We all check in with each other to ensure that we're doing alright, and to facilitate communication and team bonding. We try to be productive and not go overtime and waste each other's time.

I really enjoy the farmer's market that's in Westwood every Thursday, and I have been trying to get fresh produce, bread, cakes, hummus and kefir, and more from there whenever I can. I also try to take some compost and food scraps to the community compost hub there since my apartment does not have a compost bin/chute as they have for landfill and recycling. Recently, I'm not always able to personally attend the farmer's market in Westwood every Thursday since quite a few of my classes fall during the farmer's market hours. However, even when I'm not able to go myself, my boyfriend goes there and gets some things for the both of us, so I'm still able to somewhat support the local farmers and enjoy the fresh products. The dependable fresh food is an advantage of the farmer's market that motivates me, as I love the great quality of fresh foods that I can readily get every Thursday, which are healthier and tastier than many foods in the grocery stores. It can be a bit pricier, but I appreciate the quality and feel better about where my money is going since it supports local farmers who care more about their products and the customers than the bigger grocery establishments do. It also prevents me from stopping by the grocery store as often, where I would buy snacks and less healthy foods as well, so I make healthier choices by supporting the local farmers at the farmer's market.

The past few Mondays I have been carpooling with a fellow UCLA student to Cedars-Sinai, ever since I learned that we both happen to volunteer there at the same time! I used to take the bus, which would usually be a 45min-1hr commute, but now I'm not only saving ~30 minutes, but I'm also luckily saving a few bucks from bus fares (and the occasional Lyft fares when I was running late). This has also given me some extra time to sleep in a little more, get ready, and have a better breakfast in the morning. I feel quite glad that I am able to contribute slightly less to some carbon emissions and also help myself a little bit.