Wasted Food?

[sassypants 674]

Has anyone else found they have a lot of wasted food?

Not like MASSIVE amounts but because I can eat such a little amount right now I end up throwing things out.

Like I can do some fish so thinking I was smart I got the handy tinned ones (well my mum picked them up hehe) not realizing how big a tin of kippers was I wasted 1 and half whole kippers because I couldn’t eat enough or keep it long enough to have.

Some stuff I can manage can’t be frozen or I have a bad day and puke absolutely everything I try up so by the time I am feeling ok again its iffy or off and i have to chuck it out.

What do other people do to help with this?

I mean I have about 30 tiny little plastic pots that has things in it from bits of deli chicken to stewed fruit I made but I still end up wasting stuff which bugs me badly, not the fact I can’t eat it but it’s a expense and I hate paying for things I chuck half away of then rebuy to do the exact same thing!

[sassypants 674]

Someone I know who had the VSG done would actually start taking the food down to local homeless shelters after explaining what was going on and why they had the food. Not sure if it's an option where you are, but it may help offset the guilt trip we have now from this situation.

I won't order when I go out now - I just pilfer off of my SO's entree, or my friends give me their extras (like their Soup at chinese restaurants, etc)

It's definitely a trip getting the portions down - and it's hard to cook good stuff in small portions - some of those foods only do well if you throw them into a big pan/pot/crockpot to make, so I feel for you!

Oh I don’t mean like I do a household shop and I toss half of it I mean things like say cream cheese I buy a pack of cream cheese for and over half of it has to be tossed out, or I buy good yogurts low cal/fat/sugar but it only comes in like a pint pot so over half of it gets thrown out that kind of thing.

Although my mother when she makes dinner and tries to give me some has no idea of what I am saying when I say 2 bits of the chicken instead of 2 cubes of chicken I get a bowl full with veg and I look at her and say you need to get it in your head I can’t eat that much food your wasting it!

Because I am lactose intolerant no one else but me will eat that cheese so that’s always getting thrown out, I just find a lot of waste even in the small amounts I am personally throwing out just wondered if anyone had ideas I haven’t thought of to curb this.

[AliveAgain 283]

Do you have the option to use the specialty sections of your grocery rather than the pre-packaged? Here in the states I can go to a fish monger and ask for 2-4oz cut of fish, 6 prawns, 3 scallops; or to the cheese counter where they have all the fancy cheeses, and ask for just 2oz of what you like. That's what I do to keep waste down, plus eating the same thing multiple times in a week. It's not ideal, but I figure it's better than not wasting food and staying unhealthy! Sometimes I'm paying a little more by not buying pre-package or bulk, but then I'm not wasting on the back end. I rotate that one week I will have Greek yogurt, the next week cottage cheese -- but I won't buy both in the same week since my husband eats neither.

[Katie713 423]

It takes some getting used to for sure, gosh I remember the earliest days looking in the fridge and seeing nothing but containers of leftover food! Most regular servings make two meals or more for us sleevers...I try to be aware and minimize spoilage or waste by getting right to it the next day. dinner leftovers are lunch the next day! I used to cook for a whole family and now I have my empty nest, so its all connected...little meals whenever possible. If I buy bulk, I break it down in ziplock bags for one serving...it helps.

[clk 3,519]

Yes, it took me a while to figure it out, too. Now I portion out when I purchase things and if I open things like a can of tuna or a container of yogurt I make a note to myself that I'm going to eat that food item until it's gone, even if that means dinner is tomorrow's lunch, too. You'll get past this fairly quickly. Your ability to eat will increase to a more normal amount over the next few months and you'll find you waste less and less.

If I'm not mindful when ordering when we eat out, I can still wind up with quite a bit of wasted food. It takes careful planning.

~Cheri

[Lissa 2,631]

I almost don't eat food in restaurants anymore because I got tired of having 40 leftover containers in my fridge at all times. I do portion things up and freeze them as soon as I bring them home these days. If I buy steak or a roast, I'll cut it into manageable pieces for me and then cook one piece at a time.

I've also found lots of frozen foods (chicken and steak fajita meat) that I can eat a little from at a time, which helps me a lot.

[sassypants 674]

I personally haven’t gone to eat out yet, I never ate out much to start with before the op I had bad ibs without too many details it was an unpleasant time to go eat out so I got out of the habit a long time ago.

The cheese thing could work I really do like cheese and ate it once in a while and never linked the pain I would feel a couple of hours later as lactose intolerance but the pre op diet of just milk which I never drank ever really kicked up the lactose intolerance so bad I was taken off the milk diet after a week and checked for a appendicitis because I was in so much pain like mum was telling me for 2 days even if its 3am you want to go to ER I will take you.

So now dairy is like being punched in the gut so I limit the cheese though I do like it lol

You can get a block and soft lactose free cheese but its kinda flavourless.

I’m on a very tight income so waste annoys me I can’t section things off small enough it seems I have 1inch x 1inch square pots and even that can’t be eaten in time sometimes.

But I am still in the early stages and not eating a heck of a lot its just mad seeing s many little pots in the freezer kinda running out of room lol

I think waste has always annoyed be if I am honest that comes from my mother who always moans about wasted food lol

[Chimera 644]

We have really had to adjust to get used to this as well - I had my first restaurant meal last week - a 7 oz. sirloin that I worked on for days - was eating it each meal and I still couldnt finish it before I couldnt stand how 'leftover' it had become lol.

The first few weeks I feel like I threw out tons of food - now I am using the freezer more and realizing my husband and I just cant eat that much - it helps having a 16 year old who has dubbed herself "The Black Hole" because she is happy to eat our meal leftovers - she is not overweight but has lost a few lbs. herself with no carbs or sugar in the house - well, except for low fat tortillas, we don't eat those and she likes them.

I think it takes a little bit for our brains to catch up to the fact we won't be able to eat that much - it is such an ingrained habit to cook a mountain of volume - even cooking normal portions is too much - just gotta keep practicing