Originally posted on Sconeday in 2010
Last year, I lost weight by eating.
You heard that right.
I lost weight by eating. I never set out to lose weight, and didn’t care that much, as I wasn’t terribly overweight for someone of my age (BMI 29, now down to 26). But in March of last year, because of this very blog (before I joined the team!), I started eating SLOW- seasonal, local, organic, whole. I actually increased the percentage of animal fat in my diet, without increasing the amount of animal products I eat. So- whole milk and whole milk products, grass-fed beef, sustainably farmed chicken, with !gasp! the skin on, and free range, organic eggs. I stopped buying food with ingredients, and started making my own everything: crackers, salad dressing, bread, jam, mayonnaise, you name it. I have not been eating any less.
By eating SLOW and other efforts (walking a lot more, expanding my garden) I reduced my family’s carbon footprint by an entire planet.
When I tell people this story, the responses are predictable– too expensive, don’t have time, don’t know how to cook, my kids won’t eat like that (why, do they have an independent income for their own food?) and on and on. So here is MY challenge– change your eating one day a week. Just one day.
Do you eat out all the time? Start cooking from scratch one day. I’ll let you buy pasta, but make your own tomato sauce, and buy your lettuce in a head instead of a bag. Use oil and vinegar instead of additive-rich purchased dressing. Just for one day a week.
Do you already cook from scratch? Pick another day, and eat only seasonal, whole foods that day. I’ll let you go to Whole Foods (if you must) or another aware market, and buy strawberry preserves in March, as long as they’re organic. I’ll let you buy pasta, but read the label and make sure it says “semolina flour, water” and nothing else.
Already doing that too? Make bread. Or jam. Or crackers (they’re ridiculously easy, look for my recipes over on the Mahlzeit blog). Go to a U-Pick-It and get enough fruit to make preserves. Don’t worry how it turns out the first couple of times, you’re only doing this once a week, remember?
Do you bake a lot? One day, don’t use the mixer-save the electricity and do it by hand. How often do you go to the grocery store? One day a week, right? Go to the local, organic market instead, or the nearest farmers’ market. Too expensive? It’s only one day a week!
Or are you like me, and way into this already? You can change yourself, and your family, and your planet one day a week as well. Eat vegetarian one day a week. Already doing that? Eat vegan one day a week (that’s where I’ve gotten). Already doing that? Eat raw one day a week.
If you’ve taken your food as far as you’re comfortable, then take your one day a week and walk everywhere. Use your day to donate time to a community or school garden, or a political action group. Plant a tomato- that’s way less effort than one day a week, and then use your day at harvest time to preserve the bounty. Use your day to write your elected officials and demand recycling, the end of Big Ag subsidies and work arounds, and fair rules for small family farms. If I can lose 25 pounds with literally no effort toward that goal, then we can save the planet.
After all, it only takes one day a week.
What will you do one day a week?
AMEN.
I am on the “Make your own bread, jam, crackers” portion. And LOVING it. Also, my slogan is “I don’t gain weight – I maintain it.” Heehee!
What an inspiring, EMPOWERING (hear me roar) post, thank you! All so true, too. I had not thought of going raw for a day–great idea. You can give these new ideas out aytime–much appreciated.
This is very true of what happened here as well. As Mr Chiots and I transitioned to a REAL food diet we slowly lost weight along the way. Not that I needed to lose weight necessarily, but I’m down about 10 lbs since switching to raw milk & eating way more fat in my diet – focusing on saturated animals fats from healthy pastured cows/poultry/pork.
And I have to challenge anyone that says it’s too expensive. When you’re eating REAL food your body feels nourished and cravings for snacks in between meals goes away. You also don’t feel the need to eat as much because REAL food with healthy fats is more filling than processed food. Not buying “snack” food (even “healthy” snack food) saves a ton of cash on the grocery bill. We actually spend the same amount on groceries that we were spending 5 years ago when we were eating a processed diet and now our meals are filled with raw milk cheese, pastured eggs & meat, raw milk, etc.
You’ll also save money on all kinds of other things. I haven’t been sick in 3 years (neither has Mr Chiots) so we don’t need: medical care, prescriptions, etc. I also hardly have any headaches, no cavities, etc. The good thing is that this trend will continue and we’ll save lots of money throughout our lifetime on health costs. Also consider the cost of not needing to buy new clothes from gaining weight, being able to actually wear out clothing saves a bundle as well.
Not to mention you certainly can’t put a price on the satisfaction you get from supporting small local farms and keeping your local economy vibrant and healthy. And on the way you feel: energetic, healthy and resilient. Those really are priceless!
What an inspirational post! It is so easy to become complacent when you feel like you are already doing good things (we are vegetarian, shop at farmers markets maybe once a month and make a LOT of stuff from scratch) – so thank you for the reminder that there is so much more we can be doing to improve our health and our life. I plan to get to the farmers markets much more frequently, and to stop being lazy with simple things I can make myself. I cannot wait to have a proper veggie garden to potter around in! (at the moment I have potted herbs and I love love love being able to pop outside and grab basil/parsley/sage/rosemary/lemongrass!).
I love being able to “shop” on my way from the garage to the house! Half the time I’ll start picking and then realize hmmmm, should have grabbed a basket off the porch first. I’ll be stuffing beans in pockets and trying balance too many raspberries in my cupped hands while pulling an onion.