Ecochallenge.org

Drawdown Ecochallenge

LILY ZHOU

Sustainable Bruins

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
208 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

60

minutes

spent exercising
UP TO

55

minutes

being mindful
UP TO

1.0

meatless or vegan meal

consumed
UP TO

1.0

plastic containers

not sent to the landfill

LILY's actions

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Learn the Truth About Expiration Dates

Reduced Food Waste

I will spend at least 60 minutes learning how to differentiate between sell by, use by, and best by dates.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Action Track: Healing & Renewal

Eat Mindfully

I will eat all of my meals without distractions, e.g., phone, computer, TV, or newspaper.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Reduce Animal Products

Plant-Rich Diets

I will enjoy 1 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Action Track: Healing & Renewal

Tend A Garden

I will tend to a garden, or prepare for one, each day using sustainable gardening practices.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Industry

Reduce Single-Use Disposables

Bioplastics

I will avoid buying and using 5 single-use plastics and instead replace them with durable options.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Industry

Practice the 5 R's

Recycling

I will Practice the "5 Rs" — refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle — to reduce my waste more than I can with just recycling alone.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Healing & Renewal

Go for a Daily Walk

Walkable Cities

I will take a walk for 60 minutes each day and take note of the infrastructure that makes walking more or less enjoyable, accessible, and possible.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Transportation

Try Carpooling

Carpooling

I will commute by carpool 10 mile(s) per day and avoid sending up to (___) lbs of CO2 into Earth's atmosphere.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Transportation

Test Drive an Electric Bike

Electric Bicycles

I will test drive an electric bike at a local distributor to see if it makes sense to use one in place of my car, or to extend the area I can cover by bike.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Use Muscle Power

Multiple Transportation Solutions

I will cut my car trip mileage by only taking necessary trips, and I will only use muscle-powered transportation for all other trips.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

LILY ZHOU 2/28/2022 1:58 PM
I tried zero-waste cooking today and it tasted amazing, so I want to share the recipe with the team. Here is the step-by-step recipe for crispy spiced potatoes.

Ingredient:
A bag of small potatoes
2 tsp Paprika
2 tsp Cumin
2 Garlic cloves
5-6 tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt (regular salt is fine)

Instructions:
1. Wash potatoes (we don't need to peel it) and boil in salted water until they are soft.

2. While waiting for potatoes to cook, we mix the spice mix in a small bowl. Mix 2tsp of paprika, 2 tsp of cumin, 2 minced garlic cloves, 5 to 6 tablespoon olive oil, and some salt to taste.

3. Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them into a large bowl.

4. Preheat oven to 424 Fahrenheit.

5. In the large bowl, pour spice mix on the potatoes and toss them around so they are all nicely coated.

6. Place potatoes on a greased oven tray, making sure there is space between each.

7. Using a mug, press down on each potato so that they flatten down. We just need enough pressure to smash them down so they expand but not mash them.

8. Using any leftover spice mix, we brush the remaining on top of the potatoes.

9. Place into the oven and cook for 45 to 60 minutes or until golden brown with a crispy outer layer. (the skin is the crispy part!!)

10. Serve on a plate as your side or snack!

This recipe is so good and makes the potatoes so crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It is also zero-waste because we use the whole potato.

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LILY ZHOU 2/18/2022 6:06 PM
Recently, I was feeling sick because of the drastic change in weather, so my tastebud can not handle strong flavors. I decided to eat more vegetables and fruits than meat because it is easier to digest and less harsh on my stomach. After a week of eating mainly vegetables and grains, I believe I feel better about my body. Usually, when I eat meat products, I can feel my stomach being bloated and weird, but ever since I start to eat more vegetables, I can tell that I get bloated less. I also feel a change in my energy level from low energy at the time to having consistent energy throughout the day. Before, every time I finish my meal, I would have a very hard time focusing and need to rest for a while to the point that I would call it a food coma. However, when I switch my diet to focus more on vegetables and fruits, I don't have the drop in energy level, instead, I feel the consistency which made me feel better throughout the day. Because of the consistent energy level, I don't drink caffeine as much as before and have a better sleeping schedule. Overall, I think adding more vegetables and fruit to my meal has given me a very positive experience that I will continue in the future.

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LILY ZHOU 2/10/2022 8:00 PM
Yesterday, my sister came down to LA to visit me, and of course, we have to go food. As someone who heavily relied on her car, my sister is the type to never take a walk somewhere if she didn't need to. I remember there was a time when I was still in high school and I told my sister that I need to go to Starbucks to get a cup of coffee for the day. Our closest Starbucks is 15 minutes away, but she choose to drive there because she didn't want to walk. At that time, I have no reason to argue with her because I thought driving such a short distance doesn't really matter. But after learning the invertible effect of vehicles, I am more mindful about driving somewhere. So then, I convince her to take a walk with me to the restaurant. We ate at Northern Cafe, and it was around a 20-minute walk from my apartment to the restaurant. She wasn't happy about it at first, but her mind changed to it was ok to take a walk once in a while. During our walk, I introduced her to the neighborhood of Westwood and pointed out places I would go regularly, whether it be Alfred's coffee or the bagel shop. We also caught up on everything that was happening in our lives since I haven't seen her in a month. We talked about work, school, stress, and gossiped about our mutual friends. This little talk made the walk seem shorter than it was, and we were surprised that we arrived at the restaurant very easily. Then her mind of walking changed from ok to "thank god we walked" when she saw the cost of parking there. The parking structure was $10 for the first hour and $2 after every hour or the free parking on the street. There was no parking on the street because we went during rush hour so the only option was the parking structure. But thankfully, we decided to walk to the restaurant and avoid the $10+ parking fee. I am glad that I can convince my sister how easily it is to walk over the normal way of transporting.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Transportation

How do your transportation choices affect your engagement in your community? Does your experience or enjoyment differ while walking, riding transit, biking or driving?
LILY ZHOU 2/10/2022 7:24 PM
Ever since the beginning of this school year, I have been taking the Bruin Bus to campus since I live 30 minutes away from school walking. At first, it was confusing as I don't ride the bus prior to this year and I didn't know where to get off the bus. But after a couple of rides, I find the bus very easy and convenient to take and became my main transportation method, especially to campus. There are times when I am annoyed at riding the bus because I need to wake up a little earlier than usual to make sure I don't miss the bus I need to take or else I will be waiting at the bus stop for 15+ minutes for the next one which will make me late for class. Safety-wise, I am not too sure about the safety level of other buses, but as for Bruin Bus, I find it very safe to ride on. I remember there was a time when I had to attend a career fair starting at 6 and ending around 8:30 pm, I took the U5 back to my apartment and I didn't find the journey scary. In fact, I feel safer because my fellow peers and the bus driver are with me.

Compared to driving, especially in LA, I find the bus more convenient and relaxing because of less traffic and I can focus on other things during my bus ride rather than on the road. When I am driving, I need to pay full attention to what's ahead of me, and sometimes driving brings the worst anger issue out of me where I get road rage when traffic is really bad. But when it comes to the bus, I can relax on the bus and sometimes do last-minute studying because I don't need to pay attention to the road. I also realized that I am saving a lot of gas money when taking the bus since the gas price is stupidly high here in Westwood. Bruin Bus is free while the Big Blue Bus is only $1 per ride. I can take the Big Blue Bus all the way to Santa Monica, and take the bus back with the fee of $2. However, if I decide to drive to Santa Monica, I have to pay for gas money and the crazily overpriced parking that costs around $25. That is way I enjoy bus and will continue to take more whenever I can in the future.

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- Trisha Mukherjee 2/14/2022 3:31 PM
  I have a car at UCLA, so for a large portion of last year I would drive everywhere. I live in Westwood, but I would drive to the store to get my groceries. I would drive to get Chipotle or Cava from Westwood. I would drive to the gym that I go to in Santa Monica. I would drive everywhere. I even own a Jeep (a gas guzzler), which makes it a bit worse. Honestly, last year, living in Westwood, and with Covid having a very large impact on everyone’s lives, I honestly changed a lot of my behaviors. The year before last year, even though I did have my car, I would walk everywhere. I would love bumping into people that I know and having little conversations. I did notice that with Covid and everything, there were not as many people out and about which made walking around a little less fun. There was no one out and about and Westwood seemed very dead. I think this is one of the reasons I did start driving everywhere last year.
  
  Now, going into this year, with fall quarter being in person, way more people living in Westwood than the year before, and just overall more activities happening at UCLA, I have been walking a lot more, and I love it! I only use my car to get to the gym and that is it, which I think is a huge improvement from the car use from the year before. Walking to campus, to go visit friends, to get groceries, or to just clear my head has been so great to add back into my way of life. I bump into friends way more than I did before! Given that all of my classes this quarter are online, I love having this additional form of socialization, that I am missing from walking to class multiple times a day.
  
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LILY ZHOU 2/06/2022 3:47 PM
Last week, I was scrolling on my tik tok page and I came across a clothing haul that features a leather jacket. The jacket was so cute and I thought it had to be mine, but I remember that buying leather goods is bad for the environment due to the unethical process of that industry and how industry cow is not good for the environment. So I ended up not buying the leather jacket. But then, I kept thinking about a leather jacket and want to find the best way and least harmful way to get my hands on one.

After doing some research, I came across the idea of buying a second-handed one. Since it is second handed, it means someone uses to love it and wear it, but then doesn't anymore because it either doesn't fit them or they don't like the style anymore. Not only is the second-hand industry repurposing old clothes, but it also lessens the land pollution from fast fashion. I resort to buying a leather jacket second-handed. I pack up the old clothes that don't fit me anymore and walked to my local thrift store, Savers, and made a donation. After dropping off a bag of my old clothes, I walked into Savers with the goal of finding the leather jacket of my dream. I know that thrift store is always a hit or miss on whether I can find something good or not, and luckily, I was able to find a leather jacket in my size. The condition of the jacket is very good but it had a grandma smell. However, I still bought it and just washed it in my laundry and added a leather conditioner to add back the mosituzer. After some cleaning and moisturizing, the leather jacket is good as new. I wore it to a dinner with my friends and got some compliments on it. They all ask where did I buy the jacket because it is so cute, and I told them about thrift stores. They were shocked that my leather jacket was second handed because it even look better than their brand new one. From there, they will call me and ask me if I was interested in going to a thrift store to find some new clothes with them, and of course, I gladly said "YAS".

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Industry

What single-use items (e.g. straws, coffee cups, vegetable bags, plastic bags) do you regularly use? What could be substituted instead?
LILY ZHOU 2/06/2022 3:28 PM
When I was at the mall yesterday, I came across the sale section in home goods. I saw the hydro flask on sale and thought it would be better for me to use a hydro flask to carry water than regular plastic water bottles, so I bought it. After one day of use, I am a big fan of it. Not only does it help the environment by saving plastic, but it also keeps my drinks warm/ cold. When I put ice water in the bottle, the water stays cold for the whole day. And when I put warm water, the water stays warm for a long time. There is also a handle on the lid that makes it very easy to carry. I love my purchase.

Some single-use items I regularly used before this class are straws, plastic bags, plates, and zip lock bags. However, as I learn more about the different factors that can contribute to climate change, I really want to start a change in my own lifestyle. So instead of plastic and paper straws, I bought metal straws from amazon. An issue about these metal straws is that it gets dirty easily inside and are difficult to clean. But that is an easy fix as I easily just bought a straw cleaner from amazon and clean my straw regularly. Another big change is the use of plastic bags, especially from grocery shopping. Now, I bought a reusable grocery bag that is canvas and brings those with me every time I go grocery shopping so I don't have to get plastic bags. This might seem expensive, but in the long run, I don't have to pay 10 cents for every plastic bag used in one grocery run. For plastic plates, I fix my lazy habit and use ceramic plates and just wash them after. For zip lock bags, I use them regularly to store prep groceries in the fridge to organize them and throw them away once I cook those ingredients. Now, I replace zip lock bags with glass containers, so I can use wash and reuse them again. These are my baby steps to live a more sustainable life and I can't wait to take bigger steps.

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- Alicia Cheng 2/06/2022 5:54 PM
  Hi Lily, so glad to see you sharing about how you managed to substitute single-use items with more environmental-friendly ones!
  I personally use many items that you mentioned, including plastic bags for grocery and zip lock bags. However, I'm reusing them instead of getting the substitutions. I have some plastic bags I got when I went to the grocery store, and I didn't throw them away. I clean, fold, and store them every time I come back from the store, and I bring them with me the next time I shop. I might even choose to go to the grocery store the other day if I forget to bring them (which is quite often lol). And when they finally wear out, I will use them to collect trash. Similarly, I clean and reuse the zip bags all the time. This is not the ultimate nor ideal solution to single-use items, but I think these are great first steps. Single-use and plastic items are everywhere in our lives, it's quite hard to get rid of them suddenly. By reusing them, we can gradually change to the new living style without the extra cost of getting substitutions. Nonetheless, using canvas and glass containers is a great move! Thanks to your sharing, I will transition into those substitutions when the plastics that I have right now are worn out!
  
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LILY ZHOU 1/24/2022 11:49 PM
Today, I made one of my all-time favorite dishes: braised tofu. This is a quick and easy dish for me to make when I don't know what to eat. I usually eat this dish along with steamed white rice and some types of vegetables. I make this at least once a week because it is very cheap to make and the taste is addicting. I learned the recipe of the tofu dish from my mom before I got into college and now it has become my to-go meal. I will always have firm tofu in my fridge just so I can make this dish. What's makes this dish better is that I know it doesn't harm any animal because it is VEGAN! I want to share the recipe with you guys so you guys can try it out.

Ingredients:
- 1 block of firm tofu
- sugar
- soy sauce
- garlic
- green onion
- oil
- chili (optional)
Recipe:
1. Cut the tofu into small pieces.
2. Mince 1 garlic clove and chop the green onion and chili pepper.
3. For the sauce, mix 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and equal part of water.
4. Add a few tablespoons of oil to a nonstick pan. Lay out the tofu on the pan and let it fry on both sides until golden brown.
5. Then add the garlic and the sauce to the pan and cover for a few minutes until the sauce thickens.
6. Then add the green onion and chili for garnish.
Below is a picture of how it should look like.
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Action Track: Healing & Renewal

Mindful eating is healthier for us than eating with distractions. How does your eating experience differ when practicing mindfulness?
LILY ZHOU 1/15/2022 11:38 PM
Mindful eating is a practice that I thought I would never enjoy as I am someone who has the habit of watching something on my laptop/tv/phone everytime I eat unless I am at a restaurant. Before the challenge, I would always spend the first ten minutes or more trying to find a good show to watch while I eat. By the time I found a good show, I realized that my food had turned cold. I also don’t really look at what I am eating because my full attention is on the show causing me to always eat more than I can, resulting in me being too full by the end of the meal.

However, I tried mindful eating today and it was honestly a really big challenge for me as I thought it was kind of boring to eat a meal alone without any shows. But besides the boredness, I realized I finished my meal faster than usual and paid more attention to what I was eating, and appreciated the food more. I thought of stuff that I would not think about before while eating such as “the tofu is seasoned perfectly” and “the kale was not chopped enough for my liking today.” I also know when to stop eating when I am full and save the leftovers for later when I get hungry again. Overall, today’s experience made me appreciate the flavors of food more and forced me to think about what I like or don’t like in my meal. At my next mindful eating experience, I would love to eat with friends or family without distractions to see if there is any difference.

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