August 31, 2011

Unveiling: Challenge 2

I'll be starting my second challenge September 4th. It's not quite on the dot in terms of the month but that's because that's when I get back to school. I figured I might as well start the challenge along with my move in date back to campus right? Challenge 2 is to work out everyday for a minimum of 30 minutes!

I've been struggling with working out for so long. I went from being one of the most active people in high school to not doing any type of physically demanding activity in college. It was mostly because I was focused on my coursework but that's not a big excuse. Another reason why I've struggled with working out is because I get bored easily. In high school, I spent five days a week doing a sport. I got all my exercise of the day by performing these sports. Since I'm not doing a sport in college, it was easy to lose the physical activities.

So I devised a plan to get myself from getting bored. My plans? Everyday, I'm going to wake up early to take a full ten minute run. Three days a week, I'll be hitting the gym and lifting weights. Two days of that week I'll be doing something like Pilates or swimming [my favorite!]. One day of that week is kind of a freebie, where I can chose what kind of activity to do: pilates, swimming, cardio kickboxing, yoga, etc.

A few FAQ:

Why working out?

We all know, from our doctor's appointments to news articles, that working out for a minimum of 30 minutes is healthy for your body. Yet, who really does this? A lot of people, as it seems to me, work out because they either want to lose weight or gain muscle. If I hear someone wanting to work out because they want to be healthy, it's typically linked to either wanting to maintain their weight or lose the weight. I'm doing this challenge solely to stay active, in hopes that this challenge transcends past a month and into my daily life. Who knows? Maybe I'll get addicted!

Why's it a challenge?

Anyone who goes to school or goes to work everyday should know that it's hard to find time to eat or sleep or run necessary errands. Who has time to work out?! That's why it's a challenge: making time to work out!

Why did you chose the plan you did?

Mostly to continue to cycle through things. I despise going to the gym and simply lifting weights. That's so boring for me! However, I know that lifting weights is a great exercise that we don't get enough of, so I'm doing it three times a week! I didn't want to get bored and I didn't want to leave things so vague. You know those people whose New Year's resolution is to work out at the gym and yet they never manage to fulfill it? It's because their plan is too vague. By targeting something, you'll be more likely to be able to focus! So if you're interested in losing weight, gaining muscle, or just being active: make a game plan! You can build it up too, step by step.

Are you going to be going on a diet as well?

Most likely not. I'm pretty healthy in terms of eating. I don't feel that changing my diet would mean that I'm not meeting my challenge. I could change my mind though, who knows!

Wish me luck!

Now I have to go start packing away and be prepared to be shipped off! =D

August 29, 2011

Recycling!

In case you can't see the text:

  • The average family throws away 6 trees worth of paper
  • It takes the same amount of energy to make one new can as it does to make 20 recycled cans
  • From the diagram: Mexico and Turkey are the countries who disposes of their waste primarily through landfills! Japan is the country that does the most composting
  • The most common type of waste: 
    • Paper and cardboard
    • Organic material
    • Textiles
    • Plastic
    • Metals
    • Glass
  •  Every ton of paper recycled saves:
    • 7 trees
    • 276 pounds of sulfur
    • 350 pounds of limestone
    • 9,000 pounds of steam
    • 60,000 gallons of water
    • 3.3 cubic yard of landfill space
  • In the United States, the amount of trash produced is at a rate of 1.609 pounds per person per year
  • If all our newspapers were recycled, we could save about 250 million trees each year!!!
  • How long does it take to decompose?
    • Aluminum can- 80 years
    • Glass bottle- 500 years
    • Soda bottle- 700 years
    • Styrofoam- NEVER
  • The amount of aluminum Americans throw away each year is enough to provide the auto industry with all the material it needs to build a year's worth of new cars!
  • The energy saved from recycling one bottle will power a 60 watt light bulb for 6 hours!
  • Steel cans are recycled in just 6 weeks, aluminum cans in only one month!
  • The average household wastes enough energy weekly to power a TV for 2 years!
  • Used plastic dumped into the sea kills and destroys sea life at an estimated 1,000,000 sea creatures per year!
  • Recyclign creates 4 jobs for every 1 job created in the waste management and disposal industries
  • Recycling creates 1.1 million US jobs:
    • $238 billion in gross annual sales
    • $37 billion in annual payrolls
This speaks for itself. I learned a few things myself.

Tracking Carbon Footprints

I was reading an article that talks about businesses using a program developed by a PhD student at MIT to track the carbon footprint of products. This program is called Sourcemap. Essentially, this tells you where your product is coming from and how much carbon it has consumed in its travel.

You wanna know a typical iPhone 4 production Sourcemap? Here it is:

A laptop and all its components? Pretty cool right? It's being advertised to big scale companies [Office Depot is a company that participates in Sourcemap] to promote transparency. It's also a social project, anyone can submit their own Sourcemap. This made me really think of how a single product is affecting the environment. This company is also hoping to track water consumption and etc in order to create these products. So check it out!

August 26, 2011

Minimizing Mainstream Shopping

I’ve decided to minimize mainstream shopping. What this means is that for the most part, I’ll only buy things new that are completely necessary. Otherwise, it is thrifting for everything else for me. It’s environmentally friendly and I love the euphoria I get when I’m looking around. It’s like hoping to find buried treasure. It’s cheap and I never feel guilty for what I purchased. So cheers for thrifting!!!!

August 25, 2011

Vegan Chocolate-Chocolate Pancakes!

I reblogged a recipe about vegan pancakes! It's perfect for those chocolate lovers! And it's rather easy to make too. Delicious!

August 23, 2011

Decision Making Fatigue?



We've all felt it: the moment when our brain just can't make choices anymore. The green or the blue? Pencil or pen? To go out or not to go out? You wouldn't think that these small moments where you are indecisive would be a big deal. Apparently all types of moments where you feel indecisive can add up to a biological toll! What's this biological toll you ask?

In summary, a person is always resisting desire. This type of control over your desire is part of your brain, where a section regulates such things. These desires are really anything such as snacking or slacking off at work. Well, both small and big moments of indecisiveness means your willpower [as the article calls it] or your brain's "ego" trying to control your "id" [oh Sigmund Freud] weakening. You're tiring out your brain's ego from trying to figure out which is the more realistic step. For instance, you're trying to figure out whether or not you should call or text so and so. Your ego is trying to figure out which would be better, faster, less likely to get you in trouble at work, etc. This makes your ego tired, trying to figure out which works for these criteria. This means since your ego is tired, your id desire to...shop gets unleashed unchecked! This concept means, as the researchers call it, you're feeling "decision fatigue".

At the end of the article, the researcher comment on why this is important to society. They say, if a judge spent all day making decisions on people's lives or money, they're brains must get tired too! Imagine all kind of mistakes they might make! You can read the article to find where it talks about how the judge gives prisoners parole more often after he had lunch [he gave into his id desire to eat!!!!!].

That's so interesting right?!  More  information can be found in the article. It's pretty long because it's done in standard psychology article format, which details how the experiment got started and how this theory came about.  Check the NY TIMES article here!

August 21, 2011

How Much is YOUR Clothes Costing the PLANET!?


This link is designed to show you how much your personal closet is taking up the space of the planet. It really gives you a look at where your clothes end up.This link also shows where home supplies go, such as your bath towels.

Just to give you some perspective, I put in decent numbers in the categories of what I owned. No number above 11 for categories, I wash my clothes in cold water, and I typically hang dry all my clothes. I came out to be 834 EDUs, which is fashionably average.
This link is SCARY!

DUK...Sweatshops?

I haven't done a DUK post in a while, sorry about that! I decided that this DUK post would be about sweatshops since I posted up that picture here.

The term sweatshop is defined as: A factory or workshop, esp. in the clothing industry, where manual workers are employed at very low wages for long hours and under poor conditions.

The history of sweatshops in a nutshell?

It begins between the 1830-1850s in England. The concept of sweatshops was very appealing, cheap labor for very little cost. Often, the people who worked at sweatshops were immigrants or those who come from a background of being poorly educated. There are reports of several beatings of the workers if, for instance, they didn't maintain their quota of how many garments or products they must produce. Sweatshops started to exist wherever there was an industry for clothing in all countries. This was during a time when labor laws didn't exist to govern minimum wage and maximum hours. Eventually, government came to recognize the poor conditions and passed several laws. Later, companies moved their production factories overseas, to avoid these laws which required them to pay certain wages and limit hours in order to maximize profits. Nike, whom has the poorest record of sweatshop history, sell their shoes for an average price of $116 while the cost of actually making that shoe is under $5.

What you can do to help?

Be active. I'm not saying you have to start riots or write petitions, but what you can do is look at the labels you find in your garments. You know those labels that tell you what materials are in the garment and how to wash them? They also say where they're made from. The ever present "Made in China" and other countries give you a big clue that there was sweatshop labor involved. Try to buy "Made in USA" items, they will be more expensive. Since I, myself, am on a college budget, I won't always have the money to shell out for a simple T shirt that may cost up to $20 because it's made in the US. What I do instead is thrift. Logically, since I'm not buying items from the mainstream market, I personally am not creating a demand for such garments to be made. Items that exist in thrift are second hand and not only am I preventing them from going to landfills, I'm also avoiding sweatshops. So try these things! =D






Note: I keep DUK posts short and simple because they're supposed to be fast. They're meant to get you to think and research on your own. Solutions are from what I personally think and may or may not work.

August 18, 2011

DUK...Trash?

I know it's a strange title but the original title I was thinking of was too long to sound attractive! This DUK post is really about how long it takes for your trash to decompose.


I went to the beach last Friday as part of my birthday celebration. The beach I went to has always been nice but it started to re-invent itself. It also started to post up signs to educate their customers about how to keep the beach clean and healthy as well. The one that I came upon really inspired me to write this DUK post.

So the scenario is really this: You walk along the beach and you find plastic bottles and trash lining the waves that is lapping at your feet. You take a path to get to wherever you might've put your towel down to get a tan and see the trash a person might've left. You don't really think much of it and you keep on walking.

Here's the truth about the trash you leave on the beach [as told by the sign posted]:

Glass bottles takes 1 million years to decompose. 

An aluminum can can take 80-200 years, plastic bottles 450 years, and plastic bags 10-20 years. You know those cigarette butts you think that you can just bury away in the sand and it won't harm anything or anyone? Well a single cigarette butt takes 4-5 years to decompose. Imagine all of that on a large scale! How many years it might take for a single summer's day worth of trash left behind to decompose so the beach might return to its original condition prior to that day!

We also shouldn't forget other life that is disrupted by the trash carelessly thrown. In the ocean, fish might eat the small plastic parts or get caught in the plastic rings. These man-made creations can be toxic to the life forms!

Here are a few tips for your next trip to the beach to help:

-Bring your own trash bag or plastic bag. I know that trash disposals are so far and in between on the beach or it's a pain to go all the way to the sidewalk in order to find a trash barrel. By bringing your own, you can just dump out that bag in the trash when you leave the beach.

-Use re-usable containers. Every bottle of water you might bring and throw away takes years to decompose in a land fill! Even the plastic you might use to wrap your food in harms the environment.

-Do a good deed. Help volunteer to pick up the trash at the beach or do it out of your own initiative. The last time I went, I picked up a plastic wrapper for crackers from the ocean out to throw out.
Of course these tips can transcend the beach and into your daily life. You can use these tips at the park or even a walk around the city!

August 16, 2011

About My Next Challenge

After my first challenge, which was eating vegan for a month, I was excited to do another. Originally, I had planned on doing a challenge every other month but once I started to do one, I loved the challenges. However, as I thought about my next challenges, I couldn't find one fitting to do for August. So I decided to skip on doing a challenge for August and do challenge consecutively when school starts.

My next challenge starts September! Challenge 2 is all about being healthy. It'll be about working out every day and eating healthy. I'm actually not a big fan of doing diets. I stay healthy by eating right as much as I can. This means I typically avoid junk food and I eat balanced meals.

So my next monthly challenge is about actively being healthy. We all know that we're supposed to do intense physical activity for at least 30 minutes a day. However between classes and work, finding time to eat and sleep is difficult. Who has time to work out?! We also know we should eat balanced meals, avoid junk food, stop eating after a certain time. Despite these warnings, we all stay up late and are guilty of cracking open a bag of potato chips or making some ramen noodles. My next month's goal is to challenge myself into becoming committed to this goal of living an active and healthy lifestyle.
This goal is particularly very important to me. I've been trying but often slack off. I hope that by doing this challenge, it'll change my habits by making me WANT to do these things. I'd also like if I get accustomed to being active everyday, it'll become part of my daily routine that I will keep intact long after this challenge is over.

Right now, I'm going on about researching workout ideas and nutrition. So far, my work out plan is relatively simple. I get bored easily with working out because I hate going to the gym and simply being there. I rather be playing a sport and getting my exercise that way. Currently I plan on lifting weights 3-4 times a week, run every morning for 10 minutes, swim or do pilates twice a week, and a "free" day where I can choose something to do [like cardio kickboxing or yoga]. This vague workout plan is to prevent me from getting bored and to change things up from the typical "go to the gym, do this for this many minutes, done".

Stay tuned!

August 15, 2011

Student Loan Debt Could Cause the Next Financial Crisis

Talking about the national debt, I read up on this article posted up by tumblr. Check it out here.

August 13, 2011

Happy 21!

Since it's personal blog, I decided to add something personal to it x]. It's my 21st birthday today and so to celebrate, I decided to add two lists. One list is 21 things I want to do before I die and the other list is 21 facts about me.
21 Things I Wanna Do Before I Die
  1. Jump off a cliff/top of waterfall into an ocean/waterfall. 
  2. Learn to pilot a plane
  3. Own a personal library
  4. Watch a bright meteor shower
  5. Live on my own [or with a roommate] in a townhouse/apartment with an indoor pool
  6. Drive a manual car
  7. Write an original novel
  8. Contribute big money to charity
  9. Make the perfect tiramisu
  10. Make mango sorbet at home
  11. Travel to Europe, Egypt, Morocco, and Hong Kong
  12. Learn Chinese medicine
  13. Learn to be a carpenter
  14. Learn to be a mechanic
  15. Learn to do a back hand spring
  16. Learn a type or two of martial arts.
  17. Take a road trip with friends
  18. Read 20 classical literature books.
  19. Learn to play a song on the piano.
  20. Swim with dolphins
  21. Cook as well as my mother because good food is worth learning for.
 21 Facts About ME!


  1. My favorite color is red.
  2. I have a lot of deja-vu dreams.
  3. I laugh a lot. My friend once revealed to me that from the moment he met me and saw my face, he just knew I was a "go lucky" type, and we became close friends because both our personalities are like that!
  4. I'm a proud lefty!
  5. I have approximately 15 younger cousins!
  6. I love salsa dancing, particularly New York style salsa though because it's more dynamic and every couple gets their own "space".
  7. I also love tango. I wanted to learn how to tango the moment I saw this dancing scene from a movie. It looked so graceful and passionate.
  8. And Viennese waltz. I'm part of my school's Ballroom Dance Team and when I first learned Viennese Waltz, it was so much fun that I got so dizzy from the spinning. It was fast paced, elegant, and beautiful.
  9. My favorite type of music would be R&B
  10. And speaking about music, I never really connected to music until high school.
  11. My name shows off my multicultural background.
  12. I love to read!!!!!
  13. On books: My all time favorite book is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
  14. When the mood hits me, I write poems or I draw.
  15. I have a major sweet tooth
  16. I taught myself how to ice skate by watching Michelle Kwan on TV at age seven!
  17. My favorite athletic thing to do is swim. I've been swimming since I was also seven!
  18. I have this strange thing where I dislike odd numbers in groups of people. For instance, I don't like to hang out with a group of 5 because one person will always be out.
  19. I babysit three of my baby cousins on a daily basis from morning until late afternoon.
  20. I rarely watch anime and the only manga I've ever read was Gundam Wing.
  21. I believe that you get everything you want out of life through hard work. Only that way, you can be happy.

August 09, 2011

Thrifting 2

I went on a huge shopping spree today with my friends. I first heard about Goodwill Outlets through some articles and I instantly wanted to try it. So I found one in my area, surprise surprise, and pulled on some gloves and dug with my friends. Other Goodwill Outlets price things by pound, at least from the articles and the research I read up on. However the one in my area does it at reduced prices than typical Goodwill stores. It was still very cheap.

I felt like I could've spent the whole day at the outlet. They change stock very frequently. While I was there for my two hour shopping experience, they changed an aisle of bins three times! It gets very competitive though. Some people who do shop there frequently ARE there all day. I don't bother getting competitive with them though so I typically let them tackle the new items they bring in before I tackle it myself. I also grabbed two boxes for my friends and I to share to put everything we were considering. Don't let the boxes get away from you, people will try to grab your box and sift through it for stuff they want!

I found a few things but when we got to the register, I sifted things out. I ended up only purchasing 3 shirts, which is in the picture post here. My friends bought a nice amount of stuff. My one friend found 7 beautiful sweaters! Almost everyone walked away with brands like Express, Abercrombie, and American Eagle. Not big brands like Calvin Klein or DKNY, but we DID find those while shopping, just nothing to our liking.

We went next door to an actual Goodwill store. This is was where I purchased the Express dress and the brand new skirt. Those were my best finds of the day! It was very strange after, to get back into the mindset that these prices at typical Goodwill stores were cheap. However, after picking up my dress and realizing that in store it could cost up to $100, I quickly re-assimilated. I wanted the skirt but wasn't sure if I should get it. It was on the higher end so it was priced differently. In the end, I got it because it was BRAND NEW and because I really did like it. I'm in love with the dress too. I like simple colors and simple clothing. That's just my style.

Quick tips for Goodwill Outlet shopping:
1. Bring gloves.
2. Dig to the bottom.
3. Don't spend too long in one bin!
4. Anything, and I mean anything, that catches your eye, hold onto it. If you let it go, you're not going to find it again. I promise you it. Sometimes, when you put things down, someone else will grab it.
5. ALWAYS double check over things before buying it. All sales are final at an outlet.

Pictures:
Close up of the shirts I got.

The skirt I purchased is below. The image doesn't really capture the reality of it. The pink is the silken layer. The lace is shimmery gold and there's a black elastic waistband. At the back is a black and gold zipper too. Again this was brand new and for only $8!

And then, my favorite purchase of the day, my beautiful Express dress. I can't believe I fit into a XXS! Priced at $7!

August 08, 2011

Thrifting Haul


Thrifting haul of today, part of a huge shopping trip:

An Express XXS black dress
Abercrombie&Fitch red sweater and white blouse
H81, I think it's American Eagle, white long sleeve.
Namless, but it was NEW, pink and gold lace skirt.

Detailed post later!

August 06, 2011

I remember in high school for U.S. history, we had to write a paper on sweatshop and all their injustices. I found this picture and made it my cover because it spoke levels of what my paper and others were trying to say.