Amanda Keating
Local Food Values Dialogue Session 2: Justice Values
Get to know the Food Values Dialogue series Last Thursday, March 16th was the second dialogue in the Local Food Values Dialogue series. This session was titled ‘Justice Values’. (learn more about the first dialogue – Sustainability Values – here) This dialogue series – a hybrid event virtual/in-person event held in the Institute for Community-Engaged … Read more
Local Food Values Dialogue Session 1: Sustainability Values
Get to know the Food Values Dialogue series On March 9, the first dialogue in the Local Food Values series took place, focusing on Sustainability Values. This dialogue series – a hybrid event virtual/in-person event held in the Institute for Community-Engaged Research (ICER) meeting room, is part of a course instructed by Dr. Mary Stockdale: … Read more
Principle 9: Movement – Feel the difference
How many of us exercise just to make our bodies look a certain way? What if we shifted our focus to how it FEELS to move our bodies? Just like intuitive eating helps you to rediscover the satisfaction in eating, it also helps you to rediscover the satisfaction (and even joy!) in movement. When you … Read more
Principle 7: Be Kind with Your Emotions
Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness (without using food) Regardless of our size or shape, food usually has emotional associations (1). The comfort of a cookie after a scraped knee, ice cream to celebrate your team’s win, Sunday night dinner at Grandma’s house. Food is comfort, love, reward and connection – but the problem starts when … Read more
Principle 6: Feel Your Fullness
Fullness is a process controlled by hormones and your brain When you are hungry, your brain signals the release of hormones that trigger the desire for food. When you are full, the brain releases hormones that tell you that you can stop eating (1). It takes practice to identify signals from your body that send … Read more
Principle 5: Discover the Satisfaction Factor
Eating should bring pleasure and satisfaction! Diet culture shifts the focus away from positive feelings and instead teaches us to fixate on guilt when we choose foods that don’t fit the “good”, “healthy” or “clean” labels. Enjoying the eating experience means choosing the foods that you are craving in that moment … and by doing … Read more
Principle 4: Challenge the Food Police
What (or who?) is Food Police? Food police refers to the beliefs or concepts – driven by diet culture – that say we need to place a value on the foods we eat (1). They label foods as “good”, “bad”, “clean”, etc. The food police can come in many forms including media, friends and family – … Read more
Principle 3: Make Peace with Food
Making peace with food The goal of this principle is to give yourself unconditional permission to eat all foods, whenever you’re hungry, and without feeling like you have to make adjustments or sacrifices if you “screw up” (1). Take a minute right now, and think about foods that diet culture has taught you are “good”, … Read more
Principle 2: Honour Your Hunger
Keep your body well fed What does this even mean? We need enough calories and carbohydrates to function and thrive, but counting calories is not the answer. From the time we are born, we are hard-wired to eat when we are hungry and stop when we are full. These cues are controlled by our brain and … Read more