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Health & Fitness

5 Food Resolutions You Can Actually Accomplish

Around this time every year, we resolve to “be healthier” or “eat better” during the following year—oftentimes without fully considering the effort it will take to form new habits. Inevitably, by Groundhog Day many of us are back on our couches, scarfing down Dunkin’ Donut Munchkins, and wondering if our “gently-used” running shoes can be exchanged for a pair of sweatpants.

This year we’ve got a few resolutions that you can actually accomplish so you can enjoy the feeling of new, fuzzy sweatpants and without the throbbing pangs of guilt.

1.  Learn Where Your Food Comes From

“You are what you eat,” is not only one of the most quoted sayings about food; it’s also one of the truest. The sugars, salts, amino acids, and vitamins that you ingest literally become part of your body’s cells—don’t you want to know where they’re coming from?

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At Boston Organics, we try to make that as easy as possible for our customers. Visit our website any time to see pictures and read about our amazing growers and suppliers. Our weekly newsletter tells you where your fruits and vegetables are coming from and brings you news straight from the farmer’s mouth. We stay in close contact with our local farmers so if you have any questions or comments for them, or just want to meet one, let us know!

2.  Cook & Eat Together More

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This resolution is inspired by Michael Pollan’s general rule to “enjoy meals with the people you love.” There’s nothing quite like breaking bread with a friend or family member— slowing down, sharing stories, and appreciating the multi-sensory experience that is eating. This year, make an effort to share a meal with people from different generations or with someone who has a different cultural background than your own.

Preparing a meal for friends and family doesn’t have to be stressful, and we have a few tools to help make it even easier. Our free Boston Organics Coloring Book is a great way to get your family excited to eat fresh food. A few of our customers have told us that they have their children help them open their Boston Organics box every week so they can bond over the shared experience.

Our free Weekly Meal Planner helps you plan ahead and the extensive recipe section of our website grows bigger every week so you’re bound to find something you’ll want to try!

3.  Be Less Wasteful

Every year, about 40% of all food grown or raised in the United States is not consumed. That’s $165 billion of freshwater, land, fertilizer, and hard work that goes to waste. You probably already know how to “reduce, reuse, and recycle,” but maybe this will be the year that you finally learn how to compost.

Don’t have the time or space?  Check out our good friends and Charlestown neighbors, Bootstrap Compost—they’ll haul away your kitchen scraps and bring you wonderfully luscious compost for your garden!

If you find that you’re regularly throwing away a lot of extra food, remember that you can change the size of your delivery at any time to fit the needs of you and your family. Out of town for half of the week? You can switch to the $24 box. Extended family visiting from out of town? Upgrade to a larger size and impress them with your bounty of organic produce!

4.  Pickle or Ferment Something

Pickling and fermentation are part culinary creativity, part environmental consciousness, part economic thriftiness, and part science experiment. You can pickle anything from apples to watermelon rinds; creating new flavor profiles that are sour, sweet, or tangy. Preserving these fruits and vegetables allows you to eat locally in New England without missing the crunch of a good cucumber in December. Homemade fermentation has been practiced for generations and can cut down waste while saving you money. Plus, the chemistry behind it all is really kind of cool!

5.  Go Meatless One More Meal per Week

The “Meatless Monday” train is leaving the station. If you haven’t heard about it by now, it’s time you jumped on board. According to the official website, “Going meatless once a week may reduce your risk of chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. It can also help reduce your carbon footprint and save precious resources like fresh water and fossil fuel.”

For all those reasons and more, we encourage you to try eating one fewer serving of meat each week than you currently do. This baby-step resolution sounds simple enough, especially when you consider the fact that we provide you with 3-4 new vegetarian recipes each week in your weekly newsletter!

 

We’d like to wish all of our customers, farmers, and employees a joyous and prosperous year! Let us know if you choose to adopt one of these resolutions, or if you have any others to add to the list. You can share them with us through email, Facebook, or Twitter.


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