How do you make peace with throwing food away?
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I've struggled with this too! At my current job everyone eats in the cafeteria where the workers always want to dump lots on my tray despite me asking for less. I didn't want to throw anything away so I always ate everything and gained 10 lbs in a matter of months.
I started forcing myself to eat less and throwing away what I didn't need, and finally I shed all the weight that I gained.
It's important to remind yourself that you are eating to fuel your body, not to make the food go away. Once you have accomplished the former, you're good to go. Considering the latter is utterly pointless once you think about it lol.0 -
I usually repurpose my leftovers. Make them into soup, burritos, or anything I can freeze easily in a single portion for another day.0
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Figure out how much food you want, based on your caloric/nutritional needs and experience with appetite, cook that much, and eat it. Problem solved.0
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Definitely serve yourself smaller portions and wait a while to see if you really are still hungry. Then eat more if you decide you are.
The food you don't eat doesn't sit around somewhere in the world in a giant unusable mass like the great plastic garbage reef in the Pacific Ocean. It doesn't disappear into a black food hole, either. It changes form as it's processed and something else eats it, like bacteria, which get hungry too and most of them really aren't hostile. Other creatures don't worry about what happens to their leftovers - something else is always going to use it - so relax and try to see it that way.
Don't worry about taking care of your food.0 -
turquoisefish wrote: »I often eat more food than I want or need in a sitting. I will be noticeably full and satisfied, but there's still some food left and I always feel so guilty throwing food away, so I'll eat just that little bit more, but then end up very uncomfortable (and eating unnecessary calories). What I have left and end up eating isn't enough to make a portion to eat another time, if it were, fine, I have no problems with leftovers. How can I learn to be at peace with throwing food away. I'm the anti hoarder and love to throw pretty much everything else away with no problem. How can I overcome this issue? Anyone deal with this?
I have not done this since I started with MFP.
Before I started here, I would eat all the food. I would make an amount at random, and if it happened to be too much, I'd eat it anyway.
But since I started here, I've weighed and measured everything so that I make and eat precisely what I plan to make and eat. There are no leftovers, but neither do I go over my calorie goal.
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Compost, or get some pets that can eat the leftover food. Chickens can eat about everything.
YES! I keep 3 laying hens, and they LOVE leftovers.
I give them everything/anything except chicken, (meat or broth) somehow feeding chickens chicken meat is just wrong!
They love warmed up leftover soup or stew in the winter.0 -
I don't like throwing food away. I think it's wasteful and, given the massive environmental impact of food production, I generally try to avoid it all costs.
Our family pre-plans our weekly menu with an eye towards eliminating waste; dishes later in the week tend to incorporate ingredients from earlier meals. We often have meals entirely comprised of leftovers. We do a big shopping trip on weekends and then buy meat and produce fresh on the day we're eating it to avoid spoilage.
At a restaurant, my wife and I will split an entree since we're virtually guaranteed a serving size big enough for two people ('Murica). If not, we'll take leftovers home and turn it into a lunch.
At home, I weigh the food going on my plate and eat all of it. It's pre-logged, so I know the whole plate fits my calorie goal and I know I have to eat it all to reach my macros/micros.
I've found that preparation is key. A good meal plan, efficient shopping, and pre-logging have really helped us cut down on the wasted food.0 -
HappyCampr1 wrote: »starling01 wrote: »
The food you don't eat doesn't sit around somewhere in the world in a giant unusable mass like the great plastic garbage reef in the Pacific Ocean. It doesn't disappear into a black food hole, either. It changes form as it's processed and something else eats it, like bacteria, which get hungry too and most of them really aren't hostile. Other creatures don't worry about what happens to their leftovers - something else is always going to use it - so relax and try to see it that way.
good point ^^^. This is one of the reasons I actually throw away my leftovers instead of using the sink disposal. I tend to think it helps the landfills break down better when there's some organic matter in them. Of course, that's just my own thoughts. I've never researched it.
As far as feeling the need to keep eating, I just remind myself that I am not a garbage can. If the food is extra, it's waste. How did I end up being the waste disposal unit? I'm not...so I don't feel bad throwing it away.
OP, I'm with the ones saying take a smaller portion to begin with. Then, if you're still hungry, go back for a bit more. If it's not a full portion, it can be a snack later, as has also been mentioned. I also completely agree with Tincan.
Unfortunately, as far as something else using the leftovers, our landfills are not designed for organic material to decompose very well, or to be used by something else in a beneficial way. Since the material is usually in a plastic bag, and those are piled on top of each other, and then often covered over, there's no air circulation. So, the organic material doesn't decompose in a way that helps anything else decompose in a landfill [also, I don't think decomposing organic matter helps anything else break down - like plastic - anyway.]. As others have mentioned, composting is a good way to get rid of a lot, though not all, of food waste.0 -
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Just tell it "it's not you, it's me... but maybe we can still be friends"
No seriously reducing portions, I am a full plate eater and I've had to cut the sizes because I'm simply not the eater I was, I know there are studies about how your stomach doesn't really grow or shrink but I am MISERABLE if I eat too much now.0 -
I don't throw food away unless it's inedible. I just don't make more food than I need.0
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I don't throw much away at all. I only put what I will eat in my plate or when I cook I only make enough for one serving. I don't make huge portions because I'd rather save calories for a snack later if needed...
So I guess I don't really have that problem. I mean, maybe occasionally I could leave some veggies in my plate, but really, 20 extra calories of veggies could keep me full for an extra 30 minutes, so I fail to see the problem with that.
And if there's 200g of chicken left and I only want 150g, it's not a huge deal at all... I'll just have 50g of chicken in a taco or something with some beans later.0 -
Queenmunchy wrote: »I usually repurpose my leftovers. Make them into soup, burritos, or anything I can freeze easily in a single portion for another day.
Another vote for this. Little bits go well in scrambled eggs or soup. I also compost.
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turquoisefish wrote: »I often eat more food than I want or need in a sitting. I will be noticeably full and satisfied, but there's still some food left and I always feel so guilty throwing food away, so I'll eat just that little bit more, but then end up very uncomfortable (and eating unnecessary calories). What I have left and end up eating isn't enough to make a portion to eat another time, if it were, fine, I have no problems with leftovers. How can I learn to be at peace with throwing food away. I'm the anti hoarder and love to throw pretty much everything else away with no problem. How can I overcome this issue? Anyone deal with this?
Restaurant entrees are consistently double what I need. As soon as the food comes I cut it in half and plan to bring half home. Otherwise, I will keep going and eat 3/4 of an entree, and will be uncomfortably full shortly thereafter.
Another benefit to bringing half home is that I can then weigh it and get a more accurate tally of what I ate.
When B and I have dinner before a movie, we split an entree and salad so that there are no leftovers.
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...you guys all have big enough portions to have leftovers from? Just cook or order less!
Truly, I think that is your solution right there! I know how much I can eat and I know how much my partner can eat. That I cook, not a morsel more. If it turns out not to be enough, there are lots of snacks in our home to top off our caloric intake for the day. In a restaurant, we have our main course, and dessert if we can fit it in.0 -
Faithful_Chosen wrote: »...you guys all have big enough portions to have leftovers from? Just cook or order less!
Truly, I think that is your solution right there! I know how much I can eat and I know how much my partner can eat. That I cook, not a morsel more. If it turns out not to be enough, there are lots of snacks in our home to top off our caloric intake for the day. In a restaurant, we have our main course, and dessert if we can fit it in.
Basically you order an item from the restaurant menu and it comes out double what you need. You're not gonna micromanage the chef while you order, saying cook exactly 6oz of steak or chicken etc. If you want that much control, you pretty much have to cook it yourself.
I buy my lunches a lot, and even when asking for a small serving of fries, it's still a lot. I don't love throwing out like half of it before settling down to eat, but I want the damn fries, and like 47Jacqueline said, I'd rather throw out the food than be fat
My problem with the extremely sensible suggestion of keeping it for later is ill probably eat it along with whatever else I'm supposed to consume the rest of the day.
As for making peace with trashing food that's not even enough to be part of a portion - the excess isn't doing the world any more good sat on my heine than it would in the trash can, so
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I must be weird, I can't remember ever having too much food at the restaurant ever since I started this... but I guess I don't order high calorie stuff anyway.0
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this is so great.OsricTheKnight wrote: »"Trash that fat"
If I offered you a deal where you could safely and painlessly dump 1 lb of fat in the garbage each day, would you feel guilty for wasting it?
That's all the food is going to be. So just "trash that fat!"
This logic brought to you from some diet book that I can't even remember the title of, but it stuck with me.
Osric
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i don't throw food away...i put appropriate and measured portions on my plate and i eat it. unless i'm making a stew or casserole or something, i don't really have leftovers...i make pretty much exactly what my wife and I will eat. as for stews and casseroles, I know what appropriate portions are...i like taking leftovers for lunch and/or will freeze them.
there's absolutely no reason to throw away food and it's very wasteful...and expensive.0 -
drivenbonkers wrote: »Compost, or get some pets that can eat the leftover food. Chickens can eat about everything.
YES! I keep 3 laying hens, and they LOVE leftovers.
I give them everything/anything except chicken, (meat or broth) somehow feeding chickens chicken meat is just wrong!
They love warmed up leftover soup or stew in the winter.
Mine love oatmeal in the winter.0
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