Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Throwing Food Out

First, wanted to ask if anyone else is having problems with blogspot's "reader"? I just go to my blogspot main page usually to see the list of updated blogs that I follow - but it has shown for weeks that I don't follow any, won't let me add any, etc. So it's just irritating and I was wondering if it is just me or if others are having that problem?

But onto my thought of the day - throwing food out. Specifically, throwing out perfectly edible "food" that isn't on plan.

I was thinking about this because it has happened several times this past month (a month where you know I have been struggling with my eating... but this goes to show you that I am still TRYING to make better decisions!).

We had several occasions (such as hosting a party or receiving gifts) that left us with junk in the house (chips, cake, fudge, etc) that we would normally never buy. If you've been reading me for a while, you know that I really like to keep my house stocked with only paleo foods, no grains, no processed stuff, etc. Since we eat the majority of our meals from the house stock, that really helps us stick to the template. Even when I am TEMPTED to eat a cookie, there is never a cookie IN the house, so I would have to get in the car and drive somewhere to get one. All that effort really derails any momentary craving I had, I get over it and eat a banana or something instead, haha.

But with the social events, gifts, and such, we kept winding up with junk in the house. But edible junk.

We found ourselves nibbling on it.

I realized what was happening and made a quick choice - in the trash it goes.

Now, I felt weird doing this. Throwing food out when there are people in this world who don't have food (but I couldn't have donated open, half eaten food to them anyway). I also felt weird because we aren't exactly rocking it out financially and free food is always tempting to reduce the grocery bill.

One item was really easy to throw out. Someone had brought over a chocolate cake they were making for their kid's birthday, but it had fallen, so it was a crumbly mess in a bowl. After everyone left, I looked at Chris, laughed and just tossed it.

Other things, mostly full bags of chips or the fudge that my cousin had given me, it was harder. I felt... guilty? Wasteful? Weird?

Eh.

It WAS the right decision for me and for us. Everything I threw out had almost no nutrition, was packed with sugars or chemicals and would have hurt us in the long run. So it was worth feeling a little weird throwing out food in order to keep us just a bit healthier. We had been having a hard enough month making good choices as it was!

But it goes to show that things are usually a little grayer than black and white. I got rid of junk food and stayed really active in January, but ate socially/emotionally too much. Some months I am perfectly on track, some I falter. Usually in between, somewhere :) But, I think, with a good base of healthy habits and good choices, things even out in the end. I think that's where I find my maintenance to be (I have been in the 120s since 2012!).

And I am down to 125.7 today, so a lot of the inflammation/bloat did decrease after only two days of lots of water, good food (tons of veggies, of course), and sleep :)

Namaste, my friends, make a few good choices today ;)

11 comments:

  1. You weren't throwing out food. You were throwing out Franken'food.' You did the right/wise thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. p.s. I use feedly to keep track of the blogs I follow. Not sure how I lived in the blogging world before it. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was getting that same problem with blogger...i logged out and back in and that seemed to fix it.

    As for throwing out the bad food, I have had to do this as well. I have low willpower. I know this so I just can't have the tempting food in the house. I had to do a purge after the holidays and I'm glad I did.

    ReplyDelete
  4. For me, how the food came to be in my house makes a difference in how I dispose of it. If my husband bought it because he likes it, I don't touch it. If it was something brought to my house for a party and abandoned as leftovers, I throw it out. If it was a item given specifically as a gift, I take it to work. I work in a small office and none of my coworkers have serious health problems, so I don't feel guilty about that - as far as I can tell they are much better at moderation than I am. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Usually I'm jealous of you because you and Chris are totally on the same page with your diet whereas my boyfriend lives on junk food. But in this case I am grateful for Jason because anytime my students give me candy I can't eat or my mom bakes me something I don't want, he happily accepts it. I also feel weird throwing food out, but I have done it when Jason wasn't around.

    Good job getting back on track, hope you are starting to feel better as well!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I too use Feedly - I didn't even know blogspot had a reader :) Feedly is free and works well.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Blogger: sometimes my "reader" is empty... but it comes back if I refresh or re-login.

    I keep a "clean" house too. I just can't have temptation or trigger foods under my nose because they will end up in my mouth. When guests bring food over and I know I will not be eating it, depending on what it is, I'll either give it away to my neighbours like a nice box of chocolates, or take it to work if it's an open bag of chips, cookies or crackers. The rest I put into the organic waste recycling bin, which goes to the municipal compost heap.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I know this isn't popular opinion because of rabies and the such, but when I want to "throw out" food, I just toss it out the window for the opossums and crows! They sure do appreciate it and I don't feel like I 'wasted' anything per say, since a poor little critter got to eat it. I once asked for a little box at a breakfast restaurant to bring my toast home and the waitress (a friend, sort of) asked why. I told her and she proceeded to lecture me on the danger of feeding wild animals. So to each their own. Just a suggestion to ease any guilty feelings on throwing out food. Love reading your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Blogger does that to me all the time. I thought it was just me!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yup, blogger has been doing that to me for weeks! About throwing stuff out - oh yes, I have to do that. I can't have trigger foods in the house because I know myself too well. And I don't feel a shred of guilt about doing so.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Throwing that food out makes perfect sense. Since eating it would have had a negative effect, throwing it out instead isn't a waste.

    ReplyDelete