How is it already February? I don't know, but it is! That means it's time for another month of One Small Change.
Our January Small Change was a big success around here. We managed to get back to regularly putting all compostable material in a bowl on the counter, and it made it out to our compost pile every so often, although it admittedly sat on the counter for a while first.
For February, my change is pretty personal. I am committing to eating less. I am very sensitive to the amount of food we consume and the amount of food we waste. I am aware of both the rising obesity rates of the United States and the 925 million people in chronic hunger worldwide. As a culture, we are over-consumers of everything from stuff to food. A culture of over-consumers creates an excess of waste from the packaging of products alone, not to mention the amount of stuff that ends up in our landfills. As we over-consume food, we tax our food production system and ignore the issues of hunger in our world. Furthermore, the excess consumption of food leads to obesity.
Obesity is responsible for a variety of health issues which prevent individuals from living healthy, active lifestyles (often lessening their time in and connection to nature) and which call for a plethora of medical procedures and medications which eat up more resources and create more waste. Obesity increases our carbon footprint. We rely on technology more. We drive more, we walk less. It's a vicious cycle. Obesity feeds the habits that cause obesity.
I am overweight, although I am on a journey to reach a health weight for my body. I overeat. I eat for reasons other than hunger. I eat more than my body requires, and that is wasteful of both our food supply as well as my health. It is naive of me to focus so much on what my family consumes by way of the things in our home and the products we use but to ignore the sheer amount of food we waste whether by eating in excess or throwing out good food. So this month, I will make conscious decisions to eat less, not based on any vain desire to be thin, not on a crash diet, but in an attempt to be aware of what I am consuming and the effects of it on my carbon footprint as well as my body.
Our January Small Change was a big success around here. We managed to get back to regularly putting all compostable material in a bowl on the counter, and it made it out to our compost pile every so often, although it admittedly sat on the counter for a while first.
For February, my change is pretty personal. I am committing to eating less. I am very sensitive to the amount of food we consume and the amount of food we waste. I am aware of both the rising obesity rates of the United States and the 925 million people in chronic hunger worldwide. As a culture, we are over-consumers of everything from stuff to food. A culture of over-consumers creates an excess of waste from the packaging of products alone, not to mention the amount of stuff that ends up in our landfills. As we over-consume food, we tax our food production system and ignore the issues of hunger in our world. Furthermore, the excess consumption of food leads to obesity.
Obesity is responsible for a variety of health issues which prevent individuals from living healthy, active lifestyles (often lessening their time in and connection to nature) and which call for a plethora of medical procedures and medications which eat up more resources and create more waste. Obesity increases our carbon footprint. We rely on technology more. We drive more, we walk less. It's a vicious cycle. Obesity feeds the habits that cause obesity.
I am overweight, although I am on a journey to reach a health weight for my body. I overeat. I eat for reasons other than hunger. I eat more than my body requires, and that is wasteful of both our food supply as well as my health. It is naive of me to focus so much on what my family consumes by way of the things in our home and the products we use but to ignore the sheer amount of food we waste whether by eating in excess or throwing out good food. So this month, I will make conscious decisions to eat less, not based on any vain desire to be thin, not on a crash diet, but in an attempt to be aware of what I am consuming and the effects of it on my carbon footprint as well as my body.
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