Getting Rid of Plastics

What would we do without plastics? There is plastic in just about everything we touch and use on a daily basis. I have a playroom FULL of plastic - which my father is always complaining about saying that he hopes I have stock in plastics. He complains because he's the one who takes care of our household recycling and trash (we have an in-law apartment).   

Two years ago or so when the whole issue of BPA being found in baby bottles first became a hot topic, I went ahead and threw away all my older son's bottles which I was saving for use for our second child and purchased all new BPA Free plastic bottles. I didn't give it a second though.t Mainly because I didn't want to have to deal with heavy glass baby bottles, and the thought of dropping one to have it shatter scared me.  And I honestly thought that by going BPA Free, I was going to safe.  Now I am realizing that I went with a safer option - but the best is glass!

Why would I ever think that plastic is a safe thing to put my food on or in?  I mean, just the smell of new plastic is enough to turn on the alarms!  So why do I continue to use plastic containers that stink to high Heaven when I first purchase them? Do I really think that by giving them a quick wash, I've removed all the toxins?  I guess somewhere in my mind I want to believe that plastics are OK. I want to believe that "big brother" is watching out for us to make sure that we have safe products.  And yet I know that that isn't so!  So why do I continue to turn a blind eye?  The answer is because it's just easier.

What does all this have to do with weight loss?  Well, in reading Jillian Michael's book, she speaks of the chemicals in plastics and in our food and how they release Endocrine Disruptors. Hrm? Could this be why my Thyroid is slightly out of whack? Could this be one of the reasons why every time I try to lose weight, I struggle and struggle and ultimately give up? Maybe. So here I am thinking it might be best to say good-bye to my friend, plastic.

So, I have gone through my kitchen and have removed all the BAD plastics. Here's a link to which plastics are safe to use.  There is still much debate about some of the options that are listed as "safe". All I know is that I am getting rid of all the plastics that I know are on the BAD list. 

Along with the bad plastics, I'm opting to remove melamine plates from our cabinets.  Again, I am not sure why I haven't thought about it up until now. I mean was I under a rock when melamine was reported in baby formula in China or when animals where getting sick from it being in their food?  No.  I simply turned a blind eye. I was probably thinking that the melamine I use for my plates is safe because it isn't in "powdered" form, I'm not eating IT - I am eating OFF of it. Big difference, right? How wrong I was!  Turns out that melamine can also leach chemicals onto our foods, thus now we'd be ingesting harmful chemicals. And for what?  So we don't have a broken dish?  Seriously. It's all starting to seem absurd to me.

Without further ado, here is my pile o'plastic and melamine. My kids are going to have to take one for the team and eat off of adult plates from now on and if they break, they break.  I would rather have a broken dish on my hands than potential illnesses that could potentially come from harmful chemicals we've ingested.

Stack O'plastic