​When someone comes to me with low iron, one of the first foods I think of is liver. 

Yes, I know. Gross. But hear me out...
 
Liver is a true superfood – and you know how much I loathe using that word, so inundated is the health food marketing world with claims of it. So when I use it you know I really mean it.
 
And you know I really, REALLY mean it because for the decade that I was vegetarian, the very thought of eating cooked, blended organ meat would have made me hurl. Even once I started eating meat again a few years ago, the idea of liver still grossed me out.
 
That is, until I finally worked up the courage to buy some liver and cook the dreaded thing. I was heavily pregnant and iron deficient, despite having started to eat muscle meat – mostly fish - for a year or so already.
 
I remember frying the small amount of liver I had purchased, and making a batch of liver pâté. I carefully placed it into a jar. I was nervous and grossed out, but curious. Finally, I tentatively tasted it. The next thing I remember I was crouched over the kitchen sink with an empty jar in one hand, and a cleanly licked spoon in the other. I had devoured the whole jar of pâté in one sitting – or should I say, in one standing.

Body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, confusion around diet, and obsession with weight are a relatively modern phenomenon, born of our "everything, all the time", quick-fix, image-focussed culture. They are a symptom of disconnection from our selves, from our communities, and from the natural world - both the internal world of our bodies and the external natural environment and its cycles.

​We can learn a great deal from observing nature, and from ancient traditions. Being aware of the 13 moon cycles can teach us about food, health, culture, ancient wisdom, and intuitive eating.

Mermaids. Unicorns. Goddesses. Walk into a yoga studio these days and you'll probably spot a few of them.

You may even find yourself swamped in a glittery sea of them, depending on where you are. Self-proclaimed mythical creatures with an incredible yoga practice that makes a beginner want to give up then and there.

Fully grown, fully bendy women, doused in designer mala beads and describing themselves in fairy tale rhetoric. 

I was one of them.

​Sans rhetoric. But the intent to be a rockstar yogi? That glitter-coated ego? That was there all right.