I rolled out our big, green garbage bin today and something felt different. The bin was much lighter. I opened the lid and noticed that my garbage for the week filled up less than half of the bin. We’re still a family of 5 and we weren’t on vacation so what could be going on? I asked my husband, Eric, and he told me it’s been like that for a few months now and traced it back to some changes we made to our household that center around food.
We decided last May to make a commitment to eat less processed food and less sugar for a variety of reasons. I was not feeling energetic despite my commitment to exercise and after reading several books on the subject, I decided it couldn’t hurt to try to change my diet to see if it helped. I also found that it was so easy to pick a box or a can off the shelf or a Trader Joes meal and tell myself that my kids were eating healthfully. I just didn’t have the time and that’s what everyone else was doing, right? Forever a rebel, I decided to take the plunge to commit to cooking more things from scratch and buying less pre-packaged and pre-made food.
The change has taken some getting used to but I will never go back. I’ve been cooking a lot and cleaning and shopping and working, but we continue to be awed at the results. One such result is less garbage. It never really occurred to me before how much garbage we were producing eating that way. The average American produces 4.4 lbs of garbage a day or 29 lbs per week and 1,600 lbs a year. I hope to bring that number down for our household. Gone are the countless packages of food that seemed to fill my bin to the brim almost daily. Gone are the food scraps that now go to my composter and then to my garden.
My entire family’s energy level has improved tremendously, my husband and I have lost weight without counting calories, and my children are sitting at the dinner table eating what I fixed for the family. They still won’t eat Brussel sprouts, but my rule is you have to try something 14 times to decide if you like it or not. To that, my four year old just gives me a thumbs up or thumbs down. I say, “OK, thanks for trying.”
So what’s the harm in trying? Less processed food and more real food might be a great resolution for your new year.
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