Happy anniversary Rubbish Diet! Five years old today

Distracted by the snow,  todays school closure and the prospect of sledging with the 8 year old, it almost passed me by that today is the fifth anniversary of when I launched The Rubbish Diet blog. 

So forgive my momentary lapse of celebration as well as my now very loud whoop-whoop!

5 years!  Blimmin eck!

Back then, I didnt think Id still be blogging about rubbish even a few months later, let alone five years on.  And as for the amount of rubbish Ive avoided and the money saved, thats worth celebrating in itself. 

So, thank you to ALL who have inspired me and to everyone who has taken steps to make a positive difference to help reduce the amount of waste our society generates.

I hope this is going to be a very exciting year in the world of bin-slimming and as I turned over the calendar this year, I realised that for the first year ever The Rubbish Diet is actually now bigger than this blog, developing a life of its own out there in the big wide world, like a small child that you wave off to school for the very first time.

Following hot on the heels of the first Rubbish Diet Shropshire trial, which took place last year,  it feels appropriate that today, of all days, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust launches its own Rubbish Diet challenge, engaging 15 households in the process of slimming their bins over an eight week period, following the very same method that I took back in 2008.

I cant wait to find out how they all get on and I look forward to heading down to Wiltshire to help celebrate during their finale, a Zero Waste Week, which takes place in March.

And March will indeed be a hectic month in more ways than one.  Not only is there a fair chance that you could see Yours Truly making an appearance on The One Show, but I am also looking forward to representing the Zero Waste Alliance UK at an International Zero Waste Symposium, which takes place in San Francisco.  I am, as you can probably guess, both nervous and excited!

And thats just March.  Gawd knows what will happen during the rest of the year.... well, I have an inkling, but for now will just cross my fingers and wait, and burst into song only when necessary.

So, thank you all again for your inspiration, support and engagement.  Its you that keeps me going as well as that HUGE pile of unnecessary waste!

Im now looking forward to the next five years and encouraging even more people to join in and help tackle it together. 

So good luck to everyone who takes up the challenge this year.  I hope it goes well for all involved.  Its really great to have even more people on board and I believe we can make a huge difference.

THANK YOU!!!

Now, Im off to celebrate by dodging some snowballs and enjoying that sledge before the opportunity disappears...  ah, such imagery!

____________________________________

For more information about the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust Rubbish Diet challenge, follow their project blog, which will feature all their latest updates. Also Wiltshire blogger, Jen, is joining the WWT challenge and you can follow her progress at Make Do and Mend Year. More news on Rubbish Diet Shropshires project will be announced soon.

Read More..

Its exactly three years since

...I started blogging about rubbish.

Three blimmin years! 

That sounds like a bit of a confession, especially since this blog was intended to last for eight weeks,  but Ill save you the pain of too much personal reminiscing.  If you really want a bit of that, check out this post from last year and this special celebratory number from 2009. 


Instead of looking back, I want to take this opportunity to cast our minds to the future and how the subject of waste is going to remain a hot and relevant topic.

For instance it wont be long until April, when the cost of throwing rubbish into landfill will suddenly rise to £56 per tonne, and if you think thats steep, by 2014 well be looking at a cost of £80 tonne.  When you consider that landfill tax was just £24 per tonne when I started this blog, its easy to see the financial incentives for councils to stop burying our rubbish and encourage householders to divert it to recycling instead.

In fact, our local paper published today news that if Suffolk councils did nothing about the amount of waste going to landfill, the countys tax bill would rise from £8,253,739 in 2010 to £13,756,232 in 2014.  Woah - that would be some burden on us taxpayers!   So, its a good job our council is pretty progressive with its recycling streams (Suffolk is 5th in the league table, recycling 50.6% of our municipal waste). There are plans in place locally, within councils and at grassroots level to meet even higher targets by 2015.

What really concerns me though, is that across the UK, the public sector is hitting a time of real uncertainty, with severe budget cuts, council reorganisations and redundancies. Frontline services are being hit as well as a range of services across the board, so it will be no surprise if some recycling facilities are reassessed in accordance with efficiencies.  However, I remain hopeful that core services will remain unaffected.

But its a reminder that the emphasis must also focus on the concept of pre-cycling and REDUCING the amount of unnecessary materials that end up in our bins in the first place.  As consumers, we have the power to make a personal switch from a disposable culture to reusable products, which can bring personal economic benefits as well as environmental gains.   Its also a good reason to bolster the "recycled market", by heightening our support for products that contain recycled materials and encourage companies and brands to switch to recycled components if they dont do so already.

A lot of progress has been made within the waste sector in the last few years and I still think there are many more exciting developments to come.  When I first started The Rubbish Diet, the standard statistic regarding food waste issued by the campaign site LoveFoodHateWaste was that the average household threw away one-third of its food.  In recent times Ive seen communications that claim that this has now reduced to a quarter. At the same time, food waste collections have been introduced in many parts of the country, using anaerobic digestion to divert such material from landfill. In time, these facilities will become even more widespread.

Elsewhere, the mixed plastics recycling market has received a further boost from WRAP to develop processing facilities in the UK and there are even real opportunities to manage previously hard-to-recycle items such as toothpaste tubes and other laminated packaging.   With regard to municipal waste, this really takes us one step closer to the goals of a zero waste society  and if youre as excited about this as me, then you should really check out Enval, the technology business behind the process.  Using pyrolysis, the company can demonstrate a proven commercial application for recovering 100% aluminium from packaging such as food pouches and other products.  The solution is also carbon neutral, using energy and fuel derived from the recycling process.

I may not blog about waste as much as I used to, but one things for certain,  raising awareness of waste reduction is still high on my agenda and is still a huge part of my many commitments.  And I can only thank all those who still take time out to read this blog, my random TwitterFacebook updates as well as those who come to my talks.  Id especially like to thank the members of the Ipswich Oddfellows group who invited me to talk at their meeting this week, offering me the opportunity to reminisce over those first few months of 2008 and how I tackled St Edmundsburys Zero Waste Week.  It was an appropriate way to celebrate this years anniversary.

So as we look forward to another year ahead, this might be an appropriate time to remind you that if youre looking for a challenge to do something about your rubbish, then please consider taking up The Rubbish Diet Challenge, which can help you tackle your rubbish in just 8 weeks.  Youll find the links to the FREE online guide at the top of this blog, as well as a few anecdotes to keep you entertained.  And if you need extra motivation, why not get friends and family to sponsor your challenge and do it for charity.

Just eight weeks.  Thats all it takes to make a huge difference.

Yes, just EIGHT WEEKS, to slim down your bin.

But be careful.  Once you delve into your rubbish, you could very well be hooked.... and you might just end up be talking about it for years!

Dont say I didnt warn you.

______________________________________________________________

For other updates, check out my recently revamped website at www.karencannard.co.uk, which includes a range of links to current blogs, columns and much more.

Read More..

New Years Update

Happy 2011 folks! 

Well, apart form my attempt to do it solo in December, the diet didnt yield much.  The Walmart Vitamin B Complex or Vit B6/12 pills do squat.  Cant say it any more plain language than that.

So, on January 14th I returned to the clinic to do it the right way.

Of course, within 2 days I was burning ++ (yahoo!) and within 1 week Im down 8 lbs.  Ah, it feels great to be eating cleanly again and the pants are already loosening up.

I was worried that I wouldnt have the willpower like I did the first time, but its there.  I can easily resist the goodies and temptations around me, so Im back on track to losing the 15 lbs that crept on and get back to my BMI.

I am traveling again this week, so Im just going to be strong and grin and bear the ridiculous buffet prices to get the breakfast I need

BREAKFAST
6 egg white omelette - Pam spray only - with tomatoes, green pepper, mushroom and onion; 5 oz cantaloupe; decaf coffee with Splenda and a little milk)

and take it again in the wallet at lunch at the hotel buffet for

LUNCH
A little bit of lettuce, 3-4 slices of the turkey cold cuts and 7 oz of tomatoes, cucumber, broccoli, etc.... Ill see if they have a simple balsamic dressing, otherwise its too-bad, so-sad and sprinked with pepper.

I usually bring melba toast or breadsticks in my purse, in case they only have baguette bread, so Im not tempted by the carb villains.

Im lucky at least, that where I stay when I travel, theres a Bernstein clinic only a few minutes away. 

So, Im on the road again, and Ill report back shortly on my next weeks progress!

Adios.

Read More..

I found it! It only took two years but I found it!

Vegeta, that is. 

The seemingly elusive special ingredient that seems to be a staple in 90% of the recipes in the Bernstein recipe book.

I couldnt find it for the life of me over the past two years here in the National Capital Region.  Ive scoured every grocery store and specialty store trying to find the stuff.

Finally, whilst on my latest work travel jaunt to London, I found the creature.

As I picked up some staples for my hotel room, I found it tucked in the soup section.  Eureka!

I made my first vegetable soup with it from "the book" and it was good.  Of course, its a sodium salt lick, but Ive made a few of the soups in the book, and they are just too bland for words.  Stripping them recipe of Vegeta makes the Cheddar Cauliflower soup pretty gross.

Vegeta has saved the day - though will retain the water.

Ive used it in the big pot of homemade chicken soup though that Ive made for the family.  The kids are raving about the soup, so thats comforting.

Read More..

Dont let food waste be next years shock headline my two penneth

Well Happy New Year everyone.  I can see its kicked off in fine style!

Having just got used to my back-to-school routine and having my first day at the laptop, this morning I found my Twitter stream awash with the topic of food waste and the medias shock that statistics published by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers reveal that 30%-50% of the worlds food never gets eaten.

These are huge figures to contemplate, whichever way you look at it, with growers, manufacturers, retailers and consumers all playing a key part or being affected.

But this isnt the first time that the headlines have been full to the brim with the horror of food waste.  Heres a random sample, taking us back to 2007, when I first became aware of the issue.

2012 - Unilever calls on companies to tackle food waste mountain

2011 - UK families are wasting less food but are told to do more

2010 - UK Restaurants waste 600,000 tons of food a year

2009 - Elimination of food waste could lift 1billion out of hunger, say campaigners

2008 - Brown urges Britons to cut food waste

2007 - Call to use leftovers and food waste

Despite making inroads into the waste mountain, I am very much concerned that each spell of outrage even when followed by best intentions, dwindles back towards stunted action, as we move on - for whatever reason - to other competing issues in our lives and organisations.

However, with austerity biting at politics, retailers as well as the householder, 2013 could very well be the year that we look back on as being a watershed period in all our efforts to tackle this huge issue.  There is certainly enough expertise around us to help, with WRAP offering a bank of resources for the hospitality and retail sectors as well as its Love Food Hate Waste website for consumers.  And saving money is a bloody good carrot to wave in front of our noses.

But even so, it can be very easy to slip into old routines when hit by everyday pressures, and that, especially for the householder, is one of the greatest problems in tackling food waste.

If that sounds like you, there are simple steps to help you grab the problem by the balls, and which will help to ensure that youre not contributing to next years food waste horror story.


1. Make yourself accountable.   Tell your family, friends, Facebook pals, Tweeters or blog readers that you are determined to tackle food waste.  If you think itll help to keep you motivated, get them to sponsor you for a good cause.

2. Set a deadline to help give you a focus.   For example, trying to reduce it over the next couple of months.  It takes a while for new habits to form, so commit to going the distance rather than the novelty of a short sprint.

3. Start a food waste diary, to identify what type of food goes to waste and why.  This will help uncover regular waste habits.  And remember, throwing that mouldy fruit into the compost bin is still a waste, even if you think youre going to get some free compost out of it.

4. Use a separate bin to monitor your food waste.   Then rejoice when you see it reduce.

5. Stop buying things that you regularly throw away.  If you reduce the problem at source, youll have pounds in your pocket and less food in the landfill heap.  Check out my ornamental melons story as a very good example.  If you have regular leftovers when buying takeaways, just buy less next time.

6. Freeze it!  Food labels now advise that you can freeze certain products up until the use-by date.

7. Visiting www.lovefoodhatewaste.com is a must!  Youll get top advice on portions, recipes for leftovers and food storage.


Of course, if youve got fire in your belly and want to do more to either understand or tackle the wider issues of food waste, there are various avenues available, including

• Join food waste campaigner Tristram Stuart and his Feeding the 5000 campaign to help bring an end to food waste in the retail and supply chain.

• Follow Kerry McCarthy MP and her work commitment to drive change through parliament.  See last years blogpost about her Food Waste Bill.  And of course, you can always lobby your local MP to get behind the issue.

• Contribute to the WI Great Food Debate, the NFWIs series of debates about Food Security, which reaches at the very heart of the organisation.

And last but not least, if you live in Wiltshire, Shropshire or Suffolk and want to get involved in slimming your waste-line either on your own or as part of a community project, keep your eyes peeled for some fantastic Rubbish Diet initiatives coming up.

For instance Wiltshire Wildlife Trust is kicking off the new year with a county-wide Rubbish Diet, which will mentor householders through slimming their bins over a period of 8 weeks. If we get through to the next round of the Nesta Waste Reduction Challenge competition, Rubbish Diet Shropshire will be hot on their heels in the springtime, with a choir, school and football club all joining in with the bin slimming antics.  And in Suffolk, my own neck of the woods, therell be a lot of fun and games involving local well-known personalities who will be leading the way too.   Tackling waste will be a key topic for each of these projects.

Even if youre not a resident of any of these counties, hopefully youll be inspired to take action from a distance and come together in National Zero Waste Week, which will be held in September, where therell be another chance to work together to focus on reducing the amount of food waste, and other superfluous stuff that ends up in our bins.

Hopefully, this should all make for a great 2013, especially if we can pull together to ensure there are no shock food waste headlines this time next year.

And on that note... Im off to have another word with my 8 year old, whos busy listening to BBC Newsround about this very topic.  Time to remind him about his bad habit of abandoning bread crusts!

Read More..

So how did I fare after 2 years

Well, the ultimate test of my willpower and ability to stay away from those pitfall foods and manage stress shows is evidenced in the photos.  Im at my heaviest - 214 - and am rejoining my Ottawa clinic on January 5th.

Enough is enough!

While I have tried to restart a few times, the last two years were very stressful and active.  I left my job to start my own consulting business, and also work in a very emotionally charged field of anti-human trafficking.  Suffice to say, having the luxury to spend a large amount of time for myself and on my personal health needs was not front and centre.

However, enough is enough.

I had to bag up all of my beautiful clothes that I purchased when I reached my previous goal weight of 140 lbs/Size 8/10, give them away and over the last 2 years, replenish my closet with 12, 14, 16, 18 and the odd size 20 items.  It was heart breaking.  I was just elated when I bought gorgeous clothes from JCrew - received compliments from friend, family and colleagues - but it vanquished as quickly as it came.  Within 8 months I went from a 140 to 155.  Within 10 months to 165.  Within 12 months to 180.  And now, two years later, 214.  Holy s%&^*!

No - this is not me...

Even more depressing was trying to find a dress and look that is true to me for my nieces recent wedding.  My dress was a comfortable Size 20, but as I am my own biggest critic, it looked like a Macys moomoo with glitz and glam to deflect attention from my 40DD bust and wide-load butt.

In true form, the clinic made a courtesy call prior to Christmas to let me know that I still had a 2-week credit in my file.  I told them Id be in on Monday, January 5th at 9:00 a.m..

As my children are now 14 and 9 years old, my eldest is joining me for 3x weekly exercise and fitness activities as he is a fitness enthusiast, and my 9-year old aspiring Cordon Bleu chef will be helping me prepare and stay on track with my meals.

I learned a lot of tips and tricks the last go-round, so I know what works for me in the loss department.  Now, once I regain my goal weight, I will need to stop thinking that I can be left to my own devices and get serious about that slippery slope of sugar, carbs, alcohol and portion sizes for my metabolism.

Ive lost 2.5 decades to obesity and regret.  I think this year, for every pound I need to lose, Ill need some physical and ceremonial activity to free the fat back to their home - and not feel this sense of ownership to weight, obesity and regret.

This will be a real test of mental and lifestyle shift.

Heres to 2015.  By May 13th (my 47th birthday) I WILL be back to my 140 amazing weight.  A body remembers - I remember - so this is my personal pledge and resolution.

So here we go.

Do I regret having to be back here, starting from scratch again to relive (and reinvest) in losing unwanted pounds and reclaiming my healthy natural frame?  Yes - Im also chagrined.  However, thats life and my lessons learned.

H.

Read More..