Jonathan Steedman (00:01.687)

Hey food groupies, we're gonna talk about food wastage today. Not really the big socioeconomic or production impacts on it, but more how your views on food wastage might be impacting your weight loss goals. Because it's a conversation I've actually had quite a lot, particularly recently, these sort of things happen. just get, the same conversation lots in a short period of time. It makes me go, huh, I should talk about this on the podcast or I should.

post about this on social media or write a newsletter or something. that's what I've done. And this topic has come up a lot. And particularly people finishing their kids meals, finishing off the scraps, finishing off the dinner, finishing off maybe their partner's dinner, doing these things in the name of reducing food wastage, because if your kid leaves a quarter of their toast and you throw that in the bin, obviously that can feel quite wasteful. And so...

What I wanted to do is go through firstly, how that can unfortunately impact your weight loss goals. And then also a few tips to reduce that food wastage and then also a different kind of mindset or a different way of framing what is and isn't food wastage that will hopefully help as well. I know I've just said what I'm going to go through, no promises that I'll go through it in that order, because as always, I'm just kind of making this up as I go. the first thing is all of those little bits and pieces throughout the day can absolutely add up to be

enough of an increase in food that it stops you from losing weight. So if you have a goal of weight loss and you have calculated or are following a meal plan or doing some kind of, you've made some changes to your diet that cause your total food intake to come, to go from what is enough food to maintain your weight. And you have reduced that down to enough food to lose weight. Right? Cool. Great. We're going to run that for a few weeks. You'll probably see some weight loss. However, if on top of that planned,

those planned meals and snacks and your actual structured plan. You have a quarter of your kids toast at lunch. You finish off half their cheese stick at afternoon tea and at dinner, you know, they leave like a quarter of a bowl of spaghetti. So you finish that off. All of those additional things throughout the day. Firstly, they're tricky because often we don't even notice, right? They can be so subconscious that if I were to ask you like the next day, hey, what did you eat yesterday?

Jonathan Steedman (02:29.965)

you wouldn't reference those because you would have forgotten that you've done it, right? It's really, really common, really, really easy to do. You've probably got more important things on your mind than remembering that at lunch yesterday, I ate a quarter of my son's toast. But unfortunately, the calories still count, right? That food still went in, your body is still utilizing that energy. And so what those additional little bits and pieces can do is they can add up to enough of an increase in food that it gets you out of that

weight loss range of food and back up to that weight maintenance range of food and that sucks, right? Because that's the worst place to be because You're you're eating too much to lose weight, but it's also mostly coming from scraps, right? Like at least if you were having a bit more fun food or you're having bigger dinners You'd feel more satisfied and like you wouldn't be losing weight, but you'd be feeling good, right? so I find that this is a really important thing to try and be mindful of in combat because it

It's the kind of the best of neither world. You're not gaining that. You're not getting those results of the weight loss, but you're also not overly enjoying the extra food that you're eating because it's scraps, right? And I try and remind people like you're better than your kid's right? However, I know for a lot of people that eating that food is to reduce food wastage. Like that's the goal. You feel like scraping that toast into the bin is a waste. You feel like giving that spaghetti to the dog is a waste. And so you have that food.

And what I want to challenge you with is I want you to maybe redefine or reframe how we think of food wastage. the way that I think of it is once it's on the plate, it's done. It's wasted. Whether it goes in the bin or in your mouth, it's basically wasted. And I don't mean all of the food, but I guess what I would, what my question to you is, why is you eating more

calories or extra calories, extra food than you need, less wasteful than it going in the bin. In my mind, it's the exact same thing. That extra bit of stuff that you don't need, you you've had a balanced meal, you've had plenty, you know, you're full, you're satisfied, you're nourished, then eating an additional piece of toast on top of that just because your kid didn't eat it. I think that's a waste as well.

Jonathan Steedman (04:48.042)

Right? And yeah, we do want to go, we do want to try and reduce our food wastages as much as we can. I got a couple of tips I'll go through in a second. But I think if you can redefine, if my son has left that quarter of a piece of his toast, that food is wasted. Whether I eat it or not, it is wasted. And so that makes it more comfortable for me to be like, cool, well, I guess I'll, well, I won't give it to the dog. We've got a lab. She's also trying to lose weight. She doesn't know it, but she needs to for her hips. So I wouldn't give it to the lab either. I'd put it in the bin. And I would make a mental note.

to maybe change what I serve my son next time to try and reduce that food wastage, which like I said, I'll touch on in a second, but I wouldn't eat it and I wouldn't feel guilty about it going in the bin because that food was wasted the second I put it on his plate because he was never gonna eat that quarter and so it's done. Me eating that extra food, me stalling or stopping my weight loss goals is not saving the planet. It's just gonna frustrate me.

change when you think or how you think food is wasted and try and think that once it's out on the plate, it's gone. It's gone, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm gonna eat what I need and what I would like. I'm not gonna eat beyond that just because I feel like I'm saving the environment because it's not the food has been processed, the food is out, the food is wasted. My two quick tips to try and reduce food wastage, because please don't, actually no, I think I've got three. Please don't think I'm...

saying like, it's not that big a deal, food wastage isn't like it is, it's a really, really big deal. Like, yeah, to be honest, as with most of these things, changes at the kind of policy level in terms of, you know, the produce that supermarkets are rejecting. There's all of these things that are going to have a much bigger impact on food wastage than what we as the individual can do. But at home, the things we can do are firstly, feed your kids less.

And I don't mean starve them. What I mean is not feed them. I should have said serve up less. Normalize asking for more. Okay, this was a big, took a long time for me to realize, but virtually my kids never just eat. Well, obviously there's those meals, there's those times where they do, but most of the time they ask for more because I intentionally give them a little bit less than I think they're gonna eat. And with their complete and utter understanding, yeah, dad will put another piece of toast in the toaster or I'll chop up another thing or I'll...

Jonathan Steedman (07:07.763)

I'll microwave another bit. I'm not limiting what they have access to, but I'm limiting what I'm preparing that I can't put a piece of toast back in the bag. So I will do one piece of toast and oftentimes if my kids want a second piece of toast at breakfast, I'll actually cook a half because I know that's probably more likely what they're to have. And then if they finish that and want more, I'll cook the other half. That sort of staged approach has allowed me to significantly reduce the food wastage, which is

been really great. You can kind of take that to a restaurant as well, know, order a little bit less than you think you need. You can always order more, like the kitchen isn't gonna run out of food. And so that's another way because you know, I'm sure at a restaurant, I mean, I do it all. Well, we don't go out for food anymore. I have two small kids. But when we do go out, I have course finished my plate, I'm not gonna leave a quarter of my spaghetti. I'm not gonna order spaghetti, but a quarter of my my meal, I'm gonna eat all of it. So I should

on the front end when I am ordering make that decision of, can I try and reduce that size? Can I eat a little bit less? And then if I finish that and I wait little bit and I'm like, no, I'm still really hungry. Great, order something else. No problem there at all. The last tip that will significantly reduce your food wastage is to try and get into a rhythm of meal planning and therefore building a shopping list around that. Going to the shops and just buying a bunch of things that you think will turn into a meal is a really good way to...

end up wasting a bunch of ingredients because you end up not using them because you're not working to a plan. So if you don't do some kind of meal planning in there and shopping, know, shop listing preparation, that kind of stuff, it's it's it's a, like, it's a bore, a chore. It's both. But you're an adult, you got to do adult things sometimes. And I think that that kind of meal planning, it's going to do wonders for your health and nutrition just in general, it's going to save you money as well. But it's also if those aren't enough.

gonna help reduce that food wastage. I'm not saying food wastage isn't important or a significant problem, it absolutely is. Like I said, at home, I would encourage you to maybe reframe what is wastage and what isn't wastage. You eating excess calories from your kids' scraps is just as wasteful as putting it in the bin, except that first scenario also slows down your weight loss results. So don't do that. Serve your kids up a little bit less.

Jonathan Steedman (09:28.49)

order a little bit less than you think you need with complete understanding that you can order more if you need to and get into the habit of meal planning and building a bit of a shopping list and we can maybe change the way that your views on food wastage are impacting your weight loss goals and we can also hopefully reduce your food wastage. Awesome. Thanks, team. I'll chat to you next time.