In 2018 one of my goals is to reduce food waste in my household. Today I am discussing some of the techniques I plan to use in efforts to achieve this goal. + sharing some highlights from 2017.
Hi Friends!
Happy New Year! With the start of the new year, I am making a list of several goals (not resolutions) I hope to achieve throughout 2018. As a Registered Dietitian, I don’t promote New Year Resolutions because they are typically not well designed and thus not well acheived. In fact, some statistics suggest nearly 80% of Americans break their resolutions before the end of January. With that said I do support setting a few health and lifestyle goals at the start of each year that are well structured and achievable. Helpful tricks to follow when setting goals include being as specific as possible, keeping things realistic, setting a time frame, and making them measurable.
One of my goals for 2017 was working to achieve more BALANCE in my life. Finding just the right balance in life with work, family, social events, diet and exercise, and even social media usages is not easy. I am a registered dietitian with a “day job” who is also trying to build a personal business, which largely includes social media. Finding a balance between my family and work life is quite a challenge. Over the past few years, I yearned to spend more time with my family each day (even if it was another 30 minutes to an hour).
Part of understanding and achieving balance meant a lot of self-discovery. Learning more about myself and better understanding why I made the decisions I did helped me build a specific plan to achieve better balance. While I certainly did not master a balance between my family and work life in 2017, I did learn how to say “no” to certain opportunities and set an “end time” for work each day/night. I didn’t pressure myself to post a certain number of social media posts and just let it happen. I also tried to make sure the work and projects I committed to were something I was passionate about. Every night I aimed to have at least 30-60 minutes for downtown watching television or reading a book. Lastly, weekends were for breaks, and I tried to only spend an hour or so working.
In 2018 I plan to continue and work on finding and creating balance in my life. I understand it will be an ongoing life process, but as I learn more about myself, I anticipate continued changes. Part of my self-discovery over the past year helped me to realize my family is wasting A LOT of food each week, which likely corresponds to a time and money loss. In trying to find a better balance in my life, any spare time in my life is valuable. I may be able to gain some spare time but cutting down on food shopping and preparing fewer meals by using more of the foods I already have prepared.
So in 2018, I resolve to focus on how I can reduce food waste and ultimately save money and time on food expenses. Below are some of the techniques I plan to implement to achieve this goal.
- Keep a journal of current food waste. Understanding your baseline is important when implementing any change. However, the journal will also serve as a monitoring device to determine if my goal of reducing my family’s food waste by fifty percent at the end of 2018
- Pack my lunch. It is not uncommon for forgotten leftovers (now spoiled food) to be thrown away in my household. To ensure these leftovers are taken for lunch, I plan to pack them up in smaller lunch ready containers immediately following a meal.
- Make a weekly plan. Planning meals with a corresponding grocery list will help reduce impulse food purchases at the grocery store. I am the queen of stocking up foods for “what if” moments. What if friends and family stop by and I don’t have any snacks to offer them? What if our electricity goes out and we need non-perishable foods items? The problem with my “what if” stashes is that we then don’t end up eating the food before it expires.
- Take a weekly inventory. Each week before making a plan and heading off to the grocery store I plan to take a quick inventory of what we already have in the refrigerator and pantry. I can make a note of food that is near to expiring and try to include that food in the upcoming days’ plans.
- Follow the FIFO rule. I am guilty of just throwing foods into the pantry or refrigerator with no real organizational plan -especially when it comes to expiration dates. My plan is to put newer foods towards the back of pantry or fridge shelves so I can make sure to use the food closer to expiration first. That doesn’t mean I am going to hide the newly purchased food, but just won’t make it front and center.
- Freeze food that is about to expire. A majority of food can be frozen to extend its life, which allows you to enjoy it at your convenience rather than forcing it to be cooked and eaten before the best expiration date. I have already been trying to freeze more foods, but need to do it more often In fact, right now in my freezer, you will find fresh fruit, leftover beans, a few slices of birthday cake (from my birthday), and leftover enchiladas.
- Designate a “leftover night.” As a child, once a week we had a night designated “grub night”, which meant that we were expected to eat leftovers for dinner. With a family of four all eating leftovers (and often different leftovers) we typically did a good job cleaning out the leftovers from the week. I plan to reignite this tradition with my family on either Thursday or Friday night.
- Make more grain bowls. Grains bowls are an easy and delicious way to unload extra leftovers because the ingredients you can include can be so versatile. The sky is the limit when it comes to what you add to grain bowls. They key is to add at least one whole grain, vegetable, lean protein (dressing is optional).
- Share expiring food. Sometimes when I purchase more of a produce item than what I need or am cleaning out the refrigerator before going out of town, I will offer the food to my surrounding neighbors – but I certainly need to be more consistent with this with all types of foods. Donating to a local food shelter is also always an option too.
There you have it friends – my tips and tricks on how I plan to reduce food waste in our household. I hope to check back in a few months and let you know how this working. If you have any suggestions or ideas, don’t hesitate to send them my way! And this is not my only 2018 goal – better executing certain aspects of self-care is also on that list.
I am going to leave you with some of my 2017 Highlights!
Your Famiy’s Dietitian,