My 600 lb life and Just Eat It Documentary

ciacyrus29

Just my observation.
Last night I watched two great programs - My 600 lb life and Just Eat It: A food waste story.

First, My 600 lb life always makes me rethink about what I eat and how much I eat. I am more aware of the excuses we make to justify what and why we eat the things we do. Some of them are very sad and others make you just want to stand up and cheer. I had mixed emotions about a Joe Wexler who I think uses MFP. I was so happy to see that he was able to get down to 650 so that he could have his weight loss surgery but it took him a year to do that. It was such a struggle for him and some was just changing his mindset. But I was so happy for him. I wish they had of showed another year in his life to see if he lost down to 200 or not. Any comments on if this program inspires you to do better or you just don't like it at all?

Then watching the documentary of Just Eat It: a food waste story - it talked about how we waste food and how good food is being thrown out. It asked what can we do to keep from wasting food. I thought about CPC - the clean plate club because so many of us grew up being told to clean our plates and when we have gained weight - we are told not to eat everything on our plate. Yet we are subjected to larger portions and food that is processed.

We place 50% of the blame on ourselves and 50% of the blame on the restaurants and manufacturers and when we have gained so much weight we place all the blame on the other side. Saying it's not our fault.

But if we are wasting so much food and farmers don't mind if we glean - a process in which volunteers can go out into the field and pick up what the machines and workers discarded - why do we have malnutrition in the world and in this country.

Something is clearly wrong with our society. You can't say things were better in the depression because people made a meal stretch when there were still poor and hungry people.
It was very enlightening and again made me think of my own household and how much do I actually waste and how much food gets wasted at events that we have where I work.

How much food do you waste and is there a way you think we could stop being so wasteful? Did you see the documentary? It was on MSNBC.

Love to hear your feedback. Again, this is just my observation and comments.

LAWoman72

There's a 600-Lb. Life thread floating around here somewhere and I commented on it quite a bit, so I won't add here, but as for the other documentary you mentioned, it sounds interesting. As for "wasted" food, if I'm overeating it so as not to waste it, then working like heck to get rid of the effects of it, then it was wasted anyway. I was a Clean Plate Club kid too (70s and 80s) and even then it didn't make sense that if I didn't force the food in I was "wasting" it.

As for not being legitimately wasteful, I don't cook gigantic amounts any more. If I do cook too much, where possible, I freeze the leftovers (or eat them the next day). I have taken to ordering children's portions (which are huge all by themselves) wherever possible in restaurants, or sides, or a la carte.

usmcmp

ciacyrus29 wrote: »

How much food do you waste and is there a way you think we could stop being so wasteful? Did you see the documentary? It was on MSNBC.

I don't waste much if any food. Fruits and vegetables get put in the freezer right before going bad for smoothies. Dinner leftovers are lunches during the week. I plan ahead on what I am going to buy before going to the store. My freezer is filled with all sorts of things we didn't eat right away that I can pull out and heat on busy nights.

ncboiler89

I'm all for not wasting food but I don't think that the hungry people of the world are a result of a lack of available world food supply. Meh...I could be wrong but best not to talk politics around here.

wkwebby

Am am part of the CPC too! Immigrant parents and being born in the 70's didn't help this mindset. The way I combat it is to eat smaller portions on a smaller plate so that I can still clean my plate and make a conscious decision to get more or not. The leftovers are also kept for my lunches at work (saves more money, cha ching!)

I don't watch my 600 lb life on a regular basis, but I can't help but to feel lucky that I don't have the mindset that they do on the show. The common theme is the feeling sorry for themselves (or other emotional eating), but always they have someone else to be their crutch or enabler. You can't keep that kind of weight on unless you have someone helping to feed you and give you more of what you don't need. Our bodies just aren't meant to be that large. It is sad in my eyes, so I don't like to watch the show.

As to why we have hunger still is an easy answer. The areas that have this excess food is not where it is needed. Someone would have to get it to the people that need the excess food. Not much of the US is used as arable land (I think low double digits, perhaps in the 20's) and it makes up only a slight percentage of the whole. We import a lot of the rest of the stuff we put into our mouths.

crazyjerseygirl

ciacyrus29 wrote: »

Just my observation.
Last night I watched two great programs - My 600 lb life and Just Eat It: A food waste story.

First, My 600 lb life always makes me rethink about what I eat and how much I eat. I am more aware of the excuses we make to justify what and why we eat the things we do. Some of them are very sad and others make you just want to stand up and cheer. I had mixed emotions about a Joe Wexler who I think uses MFP. I was so happy to see that he was able to get down to 650 so that he could have his weight loss surgery but it took him a year to do that. It was such a struggle for him and some was just changing his mindset. But I was so happy for him. I wish they had of showed another year in his life to see if he lost down to 200 or not. Any comments on if this program inspires you to do better or you just don't like it at all?

Then watching the documentary of Just Eat It: a food waste story - it talked about how we waste food and how good food is being thrown out. It asked what can we do to keep from wasting food. I thought about CPC - the clean plate club because so many of us grew up being told to clean our plates and when we have gained weight - we are told not to eat everything on our plate. Yet we are subjected to larger portions and food that is processed.

We place 50% of the blame on ourselves and 50% of the blame on the restaurants and manufacturers and when we have gained so much weight we place all the blame on the other side. Saying it's not our fault.

But if we are wasting so much food and farmers don't mind if we glean - a process in which volunteers can go out into the field and pick up what the machines and workers discarded - why do we have malnutrition in the world and in this country.

Something is clearly wrong with our society. You can't say things were better in the depression because people made a meal stretch when there were still poor and hungry people.
It was very enlightening and again made me think of my own household and how much do I actually waste and how much food gets wasted at events that we have where I work.

How much food do you waste and is there a way you think we could stop being so wasteful? Did you see the documentary? It was on MSNBC.

Love to hear your feedback. Again, this is just my observation and comments.

The food waste idea is interesting. I tend to have a saying "this is America, throwing out food is a virtue" (mind I know my privlage in this statement).
What food I properly don't use is donated if it's possible (canned goods, noodles, etc) but other stuff I will happily toss rather than force myself to eat it.

We recently had a party, there was half a cake left for my husband and I. We chucked it, because in the light of morbid obesity I'd rather toss the cake than eat it. I've done the same with other foods leftover as well.

My current issue is becoming used to eating less. I'm realizing that I can buy, say, less fruit or pasta because meals just last longer now that I'm eating less. I figure this will sort itself out.

So I guess I'm saying, I try my best not to be wasteful with food I purchase, but I don't feel obligated to eat food leftover from parties etc.

peachyfuzzle

ncboiler89 wrote: »

I'm all for not wasting food but I don't think that the hungry people of the world are a result of a lack of available world food supply. Meh...I could be wrong but best not to talk politics around here.

So... SO. Much. This.

itsmeGennie

Most of the food waste wasn't on the individual level but on the corporate level. ie, supermarkets throwing out 100lbs of hummus to make shelf space for new items.

ritchiehl

ciacyrus29 wrote: »

Just my observation.
Last night I watched two great programs - My 600 lb life and Just Eat It: A food waste story.

First, My 600 lb life always makes me rethink about what I eat and how much I eat. I am more aware of the excuses we make to justify what and why we eat the things we do. Some of them are very sad and others make you just want to stand up and cheer. I had mixed emotions about a Joe Wexler who I think uses MFP. I was so happy to see that he was able to get down to 650 so that he could have his weight loss surgery but it took him a year to do that. It was such a struggle for him and some was just changing his mindset. But I was so happy for him. I wish they had of showed another year in his life to see if he lost down to 200 or not. Any comments on if this program inspires you to do better or you just don't like it at all?

Then watching the documentary of Just Eat It: a food waste story - it talked about how we waste food and how good food is being thrown out. It asked what can we do to keep from wasting food. I thought about CPC - the clean plate club because so many of us grew up being told to clean our plates and when we have gained weight - we are told not to eat everything on our plate. Yet we are subjected to larger portions and food that is processed.

We place 50% of the blame on ourselves and 50% of the blame on the restaurants and manufacturers and when we have gained so much weight we place all the blame on the other side. Saying it's not our fault.

But if we are wasting so much food and farmers don't mind if we glean - a process in which volunteers can go out into the field and pick up what the machines and workers discarded - why do we have malnutrition in the world and in this country.

Something is clearly wrong with our society. You can't say things were better in the depression because people made a meal stretch when there were still poor and hungry people.
It was very enlightening and again made me think of my own household and how much do I actually waste and how much food gets wasted at events that we have where I work.

How much food do you waste and is there a way you think we could stop being so wasteful? Did you see the documentary? It was on MSNBC.

Love to hear your feedback. Again, this is just my observation and comments.

I watched Joe's story last night too! and the woman that was on before him (can't think of her name but she lost a TON). I enjoy these types of shows because I like to see people take charge of their lives once again and making changes. It's also kind of scary to see how their lives are prior to them going through their weight loss.

As for the other show, Just Eat It, I have not seen it yet but I do agree food waste is an issue. And it has been something I have been guilty of in the past. Now we plan out what meals we're going to have during the week so food isn't wasted. Leftovers become lunches until it's been consumed.

PiSquared

I don't watch my 600 pound life on any kind of a regular basis. I have caught a few episodes here and there while flipping through channels in a hotel. I remember one particular night where I got sucked into some kind of My 600 Pound Life marathon or something. Like Hoarders and other reality TV like this, I know it's a mess, and yet I can't look away (I may be a terrible person).

I haven't seen the Wasted Food documentary. It sounds interesting. I grew up as a member of the clean plate club as well. And because I spent my childhood and early adult life being poor, I still have a lot of that mentality leftover. These days, I do my best to be frugal, not over-buy food (and have to throw it out when it goes bad) and not cook too much food.

I pride myself on my kitchen frugality. Left overs are generally packed up for lunches the next day. That's the easy part. Larger leftovers get reused in other meals. For example, our Easter ham leftovers (after being eaten as another ham dinner) became three separate meals. I did a homemade mac and cheese with some of the leftover ham, some more ham is going into baked potatoes stuffed with ham and spinach, and the bone was made into stock to make split pea soup. If I roast a whole chicken, I'll often make stock from the bones.

I've now taken to keeping my vegetable scraps in a large bag in the freezer. I just toss the scraps in the bag, and when the bag is full, I'll put it in the crock pot with some water, salt, and pepper and make a vegetable broth. I do the same thing with shrimp shells. I love shrimp. I start my recipes with raw shrimp, and usually the first thing I need to do is shell them. Instead of throwing the shells in the garbage, they go in another bag in the freezer. When I have the shells of 5-6 pounds of shrimp, I toss that in the crock pot with some water to make shrimp stock. I've used it as a base for seafood risotto, and also want to attempt some of the Thai soups

I am sure that there are all kinds of little food/money saving techniques that I don't know. I firmly believe that I need to be able to realistically use the results to make the trick worthwhile. Otherwise, I'm not really gaining anything. I feel the same way about coupons, where I'm not going to buy a product just because I have a coupon.