Resolutions for a simpler lifestyle
January 2, 2010 – 12:04 pm
As I walked around the house this morning cleaning up after our holiday and putting things away, I couldn’t help but think about the mantra: Reduce, reuse, recycle. We see it everywhere. We say it as though it were second nature. But for some reason, this day I broke it down into three distinct concepts.
Don't waste money buying suet - Reuse your rendered bacon grease into healthy bird cakes
Let’s face it; recycling is easy. When you get tired of something, you toss it into the bin or take it to the GoodWill store nearest you. But what about the reduce and reuse concepts? Americans are not very good at these. But with the convergence of a negative economy and a warming climatology perhaps now is a good time to add these concepts to our repertoire. (This will be an ongoing article so today, I’ll just focus on the number one American resolution: dieting.)
Reduce – New year, new diet, right? Less carbs, less sugar, less calories. But research has proven that the most successful long-term dietary changes include less input and more processing. In other words, eat less, chew more. Our stomachs grow to the size we train them to be. The more food we consume the larger they become. That’s why the rings and the reduction surgeries work for a while and then fail in the long run. If we don’t change our habits, we just retrain our stomachs to grow back to the size of the largest meals we consume. Perhaps a better idea would be to switch to smaller meals enjoyed over longer periods of time. It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain it’s had enough. If you slow down your consumption, savoring the flavors and chewing longer, you actually eat less and get full without getting overfull. Want to try it? Count to ten each time you chew. If you like to cook, try to guess all of the ingredients that went into the dish. You’ll be amazed at how much more you will enjoy the meal and how much quicker you will feel full.
Old grapes, oil & breadcrumbs make a tasty lunch for birds
Reuse – How can you reuse food without sounding disgusting? One way I do it is by finding clever ways not to waste any part of the foods I eat. For example, every scrap of vegetable that does not go into the meal (or get tossed to the dogs or the birds) goes into a pot for broth. That includes onion and garlic skins, carrot tops, parsley stalks, celery leaves, etc. About once a week or so, I throw everything into a pot and boil it all down. The broth then gets strained and placed into a jar in the fridge. Any time I need liquid for a savory recipe, it’s right there. Not only is it chock full of vitamins, it contains no preservatives, additives, MSG or sodium.
The same thing goes for vegetable oils and animal fats. Every time there’s grease in the pan, it gets mixed with old bread crumbs, cornmeal or oatmeal and given to the birds. A win for the birds and for the environment since it doesn’t go down the drain.
Another clever way to recycle veggies is to save the seeds for next year's gardening.
Recycling – Recycling food is perhaps the easiest of all things. It’s call composting. Next to my sink is a small container. Everything except dairy products, grease and bones goes into it, including: old coffee and coffee grounds, coffee filters, empty splenda packets, tea bags, used paper towels, shredded paper plates, as well as the leftovers from the broth making. I’ve made it a daily chore to take out the trash, the recycling and the compost. Since there are as many ways to compost as there are people on the planet so I will let you decide what’s easiest for you.
These ideas are not new. If anything, they are a return to the ways of our ancestors. We like to wax on about how things were simpler back in the day but we often forget our part in why they are not simpler now. Once again, it’s simply a matter of our choices.
Do you have good ideas for the 3 R’s? Send them on for future publication.
