Mindful Eating Part 2

 Another part of my goal to mindful eating is to weigh and record the food waste that was deposited into our garbage.  Why would waste be a part of mindful eating?  Well.....let me tell you the ways....

1) Being mindful of how we are disposing of items.  It is easier to throw items in the garbage than to compost or take them to the chickens, etc.  Easier is not better for our environment.  By having the entire family be involved it starts everyone thinking "can this be composted, does this need to be weighed before it is thrown out" and this thought alone stopped waste going from the garbage and went into the ice cream pail for composting.  We also had a big discussion on the bones from the steak we had for supper.  I was asked by one of my children "How do you prevent that waste?  You can't compost them and they would always be there anyways."  My response was "Vegetarians would not have that waste so it needs to be weighed." We talked about our meat which was from a local farmer, grass fed and hormone free.  Just having these conversations with your family starts people thinking about what they are putting into their bodies.

2) Being mindful of what we are buying and using it before it goes to waste.  Its okay to compost but if you are wasting, it's not only your money that is being wasted.  All the energy that went into growing it, harvesting it, delivering it and storing it was wasted as well.  I was going to clean everything out of my fridge and then start this challenge but being a procrastinator actually helped show the real side because there were 2 rotten peppers and cilantro that were added to the compost bin and that made me feel bad.  I was able to salvage a few overripe tomatoes and freeze them for the next spaghetti sauce. There were a number of other items that I needed to add to my menu plan for early this week and the zucchini went into a chocolate cake for supper and everyone enjoyed that.  

Day 1 had our family discarding 700 gm that consisted mainly of meat.  Outdated lunch meat, a moldy hotdog and the bones and gristle from the steaks.  Hmmm....wonder if this will be a trend.

I challenge you to join me in logging your waste and see if it changes how you are looking at your food consumption.  As this challenge comes right after earth day,  it's a great way to continue to support our environment in a number of ways.  

See you on the mats!