Jan 09 2021 - Parenting styles, Detoxing, and Food Waste, Oh my!
“It’s shocking how much food we waste to be honest.. “
“It’s shocking how much food we waste to be honest.. “
We’re all in this together, little by little, growing each day to be better than the next, and to benefit not just ourselves but the collective whole of humanity. That’s the mission I’m on, are you? Here’s what we are learning and exploring and deciding to take action on this week… parenting styles, detoxing, and food waste – quite the diverse crowd this week.
Meal Planning in 2021?
Looking for a meal plan, ways to eat healthy with specific tools to your nutrition and dietary needs… look no further! I’m sharing some info about my friends at Cook Smarts!
OH! And if you’re looking for an awesome meal planning service this new year, which I have heard many of you are… I can’t recommend anything better than what my friends over at Cook Smarts (LOVE them!) offer for their clients. It’s an incredible service built by an incredible team of moms and nutrition advocates, championing family meals, healthy eating, and making all of that so much easier for all of us.
If I had the time to create such a program, this is exactly what I would be looking for! Check them out here and use code NEWHABITS to save 20% when you sign up! Don’t worry, you can try them for free and decide later if you like it, but I’m quite sure you will, just check out the reviews.
Okay, jumping in this week… Here we go!
Mind and Soul: Parenting
This week I’m listening to an amazing discussion about diffusing hostile situations, how to reach and teach little ones a little bit better using a technique called mirroring. It’s actually quite fascinating what can happen once we approach a situation with love and leave our agendas behind to soothe and show our concern for the struggle that someone is going through. That’s called Empathy people…. Mhmmmm, what a deep and lovely word not to be overlooked. Love and Empathy are what connect us. Without them, we’re left cold, lonely and separate. No wonder why they say Love is warm.
Broken Brain Podcast – Episode #150: Mirror Neurons, Empathy and Connected Parenting with Jennifer Kolari
Listen in to this one with pen and pad along with your heart in your hand cause it gets deep and grows incredibly inspiring. I have no doubt this will change the way you see your kids, your family, your friends and your coworkers.
Body and Mind: Detox
“what goes in must come out…”
Is DETOX a whimsical word for advertising or something more legitimate? BOTH.
The body has several ways to detox itself. It has it’s own filtering and purification systems, when our cells, tissues, and organ systems are working properly!
What are they? A great teacher and practitioner I’ve followed for a loooong time recently made a quick video discussing the details, Josh Gitalis is great!
Poo (Bowel Movements through the Gut) – we should be aiming to poop at least once a day! Get regular with regular bowel movements can help move along bacteria or contaminants
Pee (Urination through Kidneys) – drink water! Poo can help filter out any fat-soluble concerns, but the kidneys, liver, and other organs do a lot of the heavy lifting for water-soluble detoxing
Sweat & BodyOdor aka BO (Perspiration through the skin) – Sweat is good, don’t sweat your sweat! Believe it or not, but your skin is a first line defense to filter your environment from your internal organs (just like how we can convert light to energy) and its even used to help remove things from the inside out!
Breath – (via the Lungs) – yes, there really is something restorative about getting a “breath of fresh air!” the lungs naturally filter air in and air out for our metabolism. We need good, clean air to maintain healthy lung function and a set of healthy lungs for healthy air filtering for the rest of our body’s needs!
Perception & Mindset (Words, Thoughts, Feelings) – All those thoughts and emotions you chew on all day… those can be toxic, destroying your heart, soul, and body… release and detox yourself from the extra stress and worry…“let go..” – sometimes we have to let go of toxic thoughts or feelings towards others (and many more about ourselves usually) in order to live our happiest healthiest lives. What would a mental / emotional detox look like to you?
Body: Food in a Busy World
How often do you shop?
How often do you scope the supermarket shelves for your favorite flavorful fruits and veggies?
Do you have fun with shopping or does it stress you out?
Personally, I LOVE GOING TO THE GROCERY! Take me with you next time you go!
Recent research by (call me biased) the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics reported that healthier eating was associated with frequency of shopping. This makes a lot of sense, right? If you only go shopping once a month, it’s probably going to difficult to keep up your consumption of fresh, healthy foods like fruits and vegetables.
Maybe you have a membership at a big box store like Costco, Sam’s Club, or GFS. When you shop there, how often do you go, and what percentage of your shopping bill is focused on healthful, whole foods, plants, fruits and vegetables that your body will be better suited for than a car full of pre-packaged convenience foods?
And trust me, I get it!
I understand that living life in our modern days with our busy lifestyles can be difficult. There are many barriers for us whenever we try to take control of our health and eat healthy fresh foods all the time. But I’ve also heard a funny discussion with quotes about how the original fast food was just picking an apple or pear from the tree in your backyard. Now, how glorious would it be if we could all grow our own foods, right?
Maybe you have a windowsill, a hanging plant or you do have some space in your own backyard, that’s great! Enjoy it all you can!! Now, just imagine if that big-box store was lined with garden rows of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, legumes that you could pick yourself. Now, that would be amazing if you ask me.
One thing I am sure of is that living a healthy life is quite complicated and difficult if we are not able to prioritize our time in our attention with intentional decisions about our food and what we put into our bodies. This week I want to encourage you to take a close look at your recent shopping lists, your recent receipts, and see what you can do to allocate your funds a little bit more generously on the fresh foods and less on the prepackaged convenience foods.
Sidenote,
I LOVE going on grocery shopping tours with folks to help them learn how to navigate the grocery store isles, with focus and freedom saving a few dollars and saving their health in the process. There’s nothing wrong with using coupons, paying attention to local sales, looking at clearance isles in reduced pricing, and many other strategies that I like to use to reduce costs and take advantage of healthy food on a budget. The amount of beautiful produce we leave with is always inspiring to my clients as we’ve talked and walked together to answer the questions:
“What is this?”
“How do I use this?”
“What is this good for?”
“How long will this last?”
There are many ways you can reduce food waste if you were concerned about food going bad before you were able to use it. For instance most fruits freeze really well for use in smoothies or baked goods in the future. Simply rinse and dry, place them in a freezer safe container or bag for later. Wallah! Vegetables can be canned, pickled and brined. If you’d like some additional help learning how this works, check out a couple resources I’ve picked out for you to watch and learn all about it!
Quick Pickling any Vegetable LINK
The Real OG, Farmer’s Almanac Guide to Pickling LINK
New to Pickling? Get all your questions answered with this sweet and spicy writing by Bon Appetit LINK
We can all do our part to fight the good fight and reduce food waste in our homes and households. Here’s an extra dose of 20 ways you can reduce food waste in your home and kitchen! If you need more inspiration, here’s just a few benefits from food waste reduction that the EPA (envornmental protection agency) cites:
Saves money from buying less food.
Reduces methane emissions from landfills and lowers your carbon footprint.
Conserves energy and resources, preventing pollution involved in the growing, manufacturing, transporting, and selling food (not to mention hauling the food waste and then landfilling it).
Supports your community by providing donated untouched food that would have otherwise gone to waste to those who might not have a steady food supply.
And yes, you can enjoy all the beautiful fruits, as well as the ugly ones too! #UglyFruitMovement
NEED HELP!?
Have a food you think you’re always wasting more than you should or one you’re just not too sure how to salvage or worried about going bad too soon, drop me a line (phone emoji) (reply to this email of message me on social) and I’ll get back with you with a feature video to answer your questions with a few tips on what you can do to help improve your food waste habits, financial health of your wallet, and of course enjoy a nutritious and delicious recipe along the way. So let me ask you this, what are you buying this week, what foods and flavors are you trying next!? Let me know in the comments below!
BEST, Jonathan!
I’m a proud fan and so I have developed an affiliate relationship with Cook Smarts. This means if you do decide to sign up for this healthy meal planning service or any of their other products, please consider using the link included here as it provides no change in cost to you, but offers me the chance to receive a small financial compensation for sharing all this great info and resources with you each week.
Okay, in health and happiness go have a great rest of your weekend and get your meal prep on! Looking to make those healthy habits STICK this year? Start small, be smart, and trust the process :)
