Category: Autumn

Moon of Underground Treasure

23/5/2017

You may no longer be dieting (or at least, you think you are no longer dieting.)

You may look in the mirror and recite your body positive affirmations every morning, religiously.

You may have read all the non-dieting books, listen to all the ED / disordered eating recovery and HAES podcasts, and subscribe to all the body positivity facebook groups.

You may have thrown out the scales and awful women's magazines. You may have unfollowed the social media accounts that silently suffocate you with hundreds of snaps of slender white yoginis drinking green juice on beaches whilst effortlessly doing handstands.

You've shunned diet culture because you know that diets don't work.

"So why," you may be wondering, "do I still obsess about food?"

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labneh: hung yoghurt cheese

3/5/2017

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Fresh labneh marinading in olive oil, herbs and spices

Autumn is traditionally a time to make fermented foods, jams and preserves for winter. Around this time of year we begin to enjoy warming, comforting autumn meals like soups, stews, and any slow cooked foods with seasonal root vegetables.

Labneh is a wonderful addition to any autumn meal, or just as a moreish snack with crackers and veggie sticks to keep you powering through a chilly afternoon. It's irresistably deliciously creamy, salty and tangy. It also makes a beautiful gift for friends and family, and as you make it you can infuse it with your loving energy!

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'Blood moon' - slaying the diet mentality

25/4/2017

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'The Way Of The Sword' by Ric Nagualero

Do you watch what you eat?

Do you spend all day thinking about and planning your meals?
Are you "careful" with your food choices?
Do you have rules and judgement around food?
Do you try to make the "best" or "healthiest" decision every time you eat something?
Do you struggle with weight concern, emotional eating, binging, and/or food obsession?

If so, you might want to take a look at your personal diet mentality.

Diet mentality, or diet thinking, leads to dieting behaviours. And dieting behaviours build a cage around a person that places serious limits on their capacity to live and enjoy a rich, full, and meaningful life.

If there was ever an opportune time for us as individuals to slay our own private diet mentalities and weight biases - and for us to collectively dismantle the very diet culture that it stands upon - NOW is the time.

The next new moon falls on Wednesday, April 26th. This mid-autumn moon cycle is known in many parts of the world as the Blood Moon or Hunter's Moon. And it is the perfect time for you to put this diet thing to bed, for good.

Read on for 7 hard-core (but realistic) ways to slay that MF beast that is the diet mentality!

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'Shallow water moon' - hitting diet rock bottom

24/3/2017

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'Barramundi Moon' by Michael Jones

The new moon this Tuesday, March 28th marks a special lunar cycle. This lunar cycle could be known as the Moon When Barramundi Enter Shallow Waters in the traditional calendar of a number of northern Australian aboriginal tribes. We could shorten it to Shallow Water Moon.

It's a time when members of the tribe can seize the annual chance to catch these incredibly adaptable and nutritious fish in abundance while the waters are low, ensuring the health and survival of the tribes people. They literally seek the valuable and life-sustaining gifts that the receding waters brings.

It's also an analogy for the times in our lives when the tide is out and everything at the bottom of the river is there for us to see - all the challenges we have ignored, pushed down, and not addressed in favour of keeping the status quo.

In terms of making peace with food and our bodies, it relates to hitting diet rock bottom, as Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch describe it in Intuitive Eating. For those who are suffering with a poor relationship with food and their bodies, this time is an opportunity to acknowledge that our ways of feeding ourselves, whilst functional, aren't working for us and may be harming us physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Will you seize the chance to make change while the tide is low? Will you take the road less travelled, to finally catch yourself - and diet culture - out?

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11 Essential tips for Autumn health

17/2/2017

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At this time of year, as the sap of the trees and flowers returns to their root systems, we too are preparing to turn inward. In virtually every ancient medicine system, this season of harvest was seen as the time of the year to pull inward and gather together on all levels; a time to plan for the approaching darkness and stillness of winter.

In TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), autumn is associated with wind and dryness. It’s also the season associated with the lungs and large intestine, which are responsible for releasing carbon dioxide and food wastes, respectively. It follows that the energy of both these organs is ‘letting go’. Elimination problems like chronic constipation can be exacerbated at this time of year. Emotionally, it’s the time of year to look at things we are hanging onto that are no longer serving us, and to let them go for good.

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Immune-boosting Shiitake & Veg Stir Fry

11/3/2016

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Corresponding to my piece on 11 tips for a healthy autumn, here's one of my favourite autumn recipes, using the principles of traditional Chinese medicine, and based on a recipe from my Chinese-malay mum! It's quick, easy, and most importantly, delicious. And it's vegan so everyone can enjoy this one!

Shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes) were a favourite ingredient in my mum's Chinese cooking while I was growing up, and I still love them today. They're packed with flavour, have a great chewy texture and make an incredible meat alternative.

Their powerful immune-modulating and anti-tumour actions make them ideal as an adjunct therapy in cancer, for fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Other medicinal mushrooms include maitake, reishi, and chaga. I often wonder how different our collective state of health would be if we routinely offered our kids traditional foods like these? I also chucked a little Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng) in for extra mum-staying power!

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Casey's blog

Moon of Underground Treasure

labneh: hung yoghurt cheese

'Blood moon' - slaying the diet mentality

'Shallow water moon' - hitting diet rock bottom

11 Essential tips for Autumn health

Immune-boosting Shiitake & Veg Stir Fry

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