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Food Matters + Mindful Eating

Jan. 17, 2019

You know those days when everything comes together in a cohesive, integrated way and you begin to trust that there are no coincidences in life, simply events that align, once we open up to the possibility of alignment?

Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about food recently, about how much I think about sourcing food, preparing and cooking it, sharing and eating it.  About how food that we take in becomes part of our consciousness, literally in our cells. And how we have to become more connected to the source of our food, i.e. nature, natural cycles in order to allow the food we eat to intuitively and positively feed our health.

So I thought I would write a post on how we can eat in a way that creates more joy and less anxiety around food, using some insights from Yoga and Ayurveda.

I had just begun writing this post, when I turned on the radio to hear a summary of a new report released by the global medical journal Lancet which calls for a radical change in food production — or, as one of the authors put it: “Nothing less than a new global agricultural revolution.”

The goal of the report is huge.  To achieve planetary health diets for 10 billion people by 2050 and it emphasizes that the futures of the climate and human health are deeply intertwined. In order to meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stabilize the climate, the world needs a “comprehensive shift” in its diet, the authors say.

Specifically, “the transformation to healthy diets by 2050 will require substantial dietary shifts. Global consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes will have to double, and consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar will have to be reduced by more than 50%. A diet rich in plant-based foods and with fewer animal source foods confers both improved health and environmental benefits.”

I am so excited to read the entire report from start to finish. I love that the authors – nutritionists and researchers from around the planet – are connecting what we eat to the health of our planet. I love that they are extolling the benefits of eating more plants, not only plants, but more plants while reducing the consumption of meat and animal foods significantly, because my issue with western diets in general, outside the bubble of our yoga community is that people over consume meat, dairy and sugar to a degree that we don’t need especially in our more sedentary and comfort filled modern lives.

In a sense they are finally getting what the ancient wisdom science of Ayurveda has known for thousands of years – that if we recognize that our food comes from Nature, that Nature is the source of it all, then we have to harmonize that connection in order to live harmoniously and in connection with our environment.

It is so simple, yet we complicate things so much and get so so heady around food.  

I remember when I first spent a year in a small town in the midwest. I had never eaten anything that emerged out of a box or that was frozen (I grew up in India, in a home where my mother made everything from scratch, including our daily flat bread and yoghurt). I was offered a fillet of white fish that I knew had come out of a box in the freezer and no doubt it was shipped or flown across miles to get here. I remember politely eating it, but it didn’t taste like fish from the ocean. It tasted like cardboard to me.  That year prompted my decade long dive into eating more plants and in search of real tasting (organic foods).

If we don’t know that what we eat is directly connected to our local environment we should.

One of the tests in our family is to check how much food we dump into our compost bin each week.  Our goal is always to up the amount of compost and minimize all recycling and garbage. And each time we fill the compost bin I love knowing that the scraps of all our veggies and fruits will soon turn into the topsoil that we and others in our city can use in our gardens.

I’m not sure what the far reaching impact of this report will be. But I am so glad that what we eat, and how we source it and distribute it is finally being seen as an essential key to our health, behavior and wellbeing. 

For today, simply do this.  

  • Bless your food.
  • Light a candle before you eat.
  • Eat slowly and without distractions. (no smart phones at the table).
  • Taste what you are eating.
  • Enjoy it fully.

More on food, mindfulness and joy soon.

Until then, check out that report.  Peace.

Insiya

 

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Category: Wellness, Blog Tags: ayurveda, bali, blissology, blog, food, global health, plant based diets, yoga food, yogalife, yogue

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About Insiya Rasiwala-Finn

Yogini + Ayurvedic Coach, Writer and Conscious Mama. Believes in regenerative, slow living, holistic design and living mindfully every day.

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Comments

  1. Alex says

    January 17, 2019 at 10:57 pm

    I LOVE this, and find it fascinating. I’ve been veg, vegan, and now, due to medical reasons, may be integrating fish back into my diet. This all happened recently, and then I heard the CBC talking about the Lancet article. For someone who feels like she’s moving in the opposite direction of what’s suggested by the Lancet (bringing animal products back in), I’m trying to find my place in it all… I guess it is a Michale Pollan thing- “eat food, mostly plants, not too much!”

    Reply
    • yogue says

      January 17, 2019 at 11:00 pm

      I hear you!!! Yes. And I love that michael pollan quote – I live by it – to me it is about moderation and living and eating to your truth – we don’t all
      need to be vegan, for some of us it may work whereas for others we may feel depleted, yet can most of us eat more plants? Yes. Absolutely. Can we be more connected to where our food comes from? Yes. I heard that CBC show too. So many differing reactions and yet it can be so simple!

      Reply

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ABOUT YOGUE  Hi, I'm Insiya. Journey with me as we live slow, scatter beauty and tread lightly on the planet.

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insiyafinn

Yesterday was so life affirming and heart filling! Yesterday was so life affirming and heart filling!!! 

We got out on a hike in sooke and I’m so proud of my mama for traversing some steep climbs and even more steep and rocky downhill paths. I felt energized and so happy to be outside in a forest that smelled cool and fresh and pine-resin-y… @theblissologist and lion even got into the icy cold glacial streams and then we picked up grandma @carolefinnartist and enjoyed some delicious pizza on the deck @stokedpizzeria near sombrio…

My family kept cautioning me to not push myself - but honestly and truly I think I was just high on feeling alive and being amidst the waterfalls and green of what has turned into a very hot spring (climate change is real friends…)…

Yesterday was such an affirmation of how much we all need to be outside to reconnect within to what really matters…

Thanks ananda lion for making me a mama 12 years ago and thanks to my mom @sararasiwala for your love always… also it made me so happy that eoin got to see his mama too! Life is short. Keep those you love close and fill it with beauty and kindness.

Ps. I did wear a dress hiking (just because) and I am very tired today but was it worth it? YES ❤️

#yogue #mothersday #family #familymatters #healing #healinsiya #healcancer #cancerthriver
Photo sprinkles… Stepping out into spring. L- Photo sprinkles… 

Stepping out into spring.

L-R: A Saturday picnic w @yogalink + Carole + dingo the bali dog and my mom. Thanks for the chai @sararasiwala 😁 and the pic @theblissologist ✨
Blossoms on the hill.
Blossoms inside :)
Homemade spinach and mushroom quiche.. so good 💫
Pakoras by mom… aka delish chickpea fritters 
Daisies :)
And
Apricot nectar and strawberries yesterday… 
/ shadows and sunshine :) 
Heart shaped flowers…

Feeling all this golden light and springtime goodness. :) 

🌺💕☀️

#healingjourney #wholefoods #growth #changes #shift #insiyafinn #healinsiya #healcancer
So I decided to share this picture here because fi So I decided to share this picture here because firstly today was so special. I got to see a dear dear friend who I haven’t seen since before the pandemic and we got to finally connect a few steps away from home. Yes this is currently Victoria (or it was this morning when the sun was bright and warm)…

And yet this morning was hard won. Yesterday after weeks of things going relatively well I had what is called a partical blockage with my ileostomy. I think it was caused by my not chewing my lunch as slowly as I normally do…(I will blame this on both being v hungry and that my dear mom’s cooking is dangerously delicious) 😁 when my girlfriend came to see me yesterday, I had low energy and a strange cramping sensation in the stomach and lower rib area. This progressively got worse and worse until my body with all its wisdom tried to push my lunch out of me. In other words I threw up. Consistently and continuously.

Meanwhile life at home continued on. My son arrived home after a canoeing weekend. I needed back rubs w tiger balm or whatever would help in the moment; and tried to help organize dinner. And my friend later that evening shared how she felt the privilege of being here to help and to witness the rough stuff. Which just felt so dear and real and loving.

And this is why I want to share this story today. It feels scary to put all of this out into the world but I have been thinking that when we hide the hard things behind walls of fear or worry about what others will think, I think we curtail our capacity to be loving, compassionate humans. After all at our core we want the same things. To live and love well. I feel like I share a lot here but I have found it hard to write about the really gnarly moments. There have been so many. What I will say I am so thankful for however is that because I have experienced so much with the ileostomy, I knew I had to ride the waves of pain out until they stopped. And they did and I finally slept last night and stayed out of emerg at the hospital.

And awoke to a new day. And a new opportunity to make the most of this precious moment.

Thanks for being here!

#healcancer #healinsiya #viclife #oakbay #friendship
It’s three weeks post my big surgery. The last f It’s three weeks post my big surgery. The last fortnight has been a wave of highs and lows. It felt like every time I felt a little better something new would happen again that I needed to understand and navigate. 

Meanwhile my inner mind has been a whirling w so so much. I have so many thoughts and so many ideas every day. And having to still be quite still has forced me to pay attention to them. 

The word that keeps coming up is reclamation - reclaiming who I am and how I want to live my life moving forward… life seems a little less like I’m on the edge of a precipice - except in the middle of the night - but things still feel urgent - like I will run out of time before I get to do all the things I would like to. And I have been trying to stay true and listen to the emotions that come up as I continue to navigate the journey beyond - which as yet is a big unknown! 

Today was an easy day to reclaim how much living in harmony with our seasons means to me. How much I love being outside. This afternoon mom and I went for a glorious walk in the sunshine and then lion, our pup and I had some weeding fun in the garden. 

A friend asked me how I am feeling earlier today. I guess the answer today is so happy and grateful to be here and to live in such a beautiful place to call home close to the ocean and sea lions and the meadows and flowers and forests. I am cherishing these little moments. They feel big these days.

Thanks for being here. Xo 

#healing #gratitude #gardening #healinsiya #healcancer #coloncancercanada

📷 @sararasiwala 💖
Today is a reminder for myself and possibly you as Today is a reminder for myself and possibly you as well to not get discouraged… 

Recovery takes time.

there are moments of feeling on top of the world and there are others where I feel flat and tired. 

There is my mind trying to propel me forward beyond the constraints of my body; and my body then signaling with a sharp outcry - you cannot do X, please rest. 

There is life with all its chaos and wants and needs coming at you, because you don’t live in a bubble, the ones you are in relationship with also have needs… 

And so you remind yourself that all you can do is keep showing up now, in this moment, in the best way possible… don’t do more, it’s not necessary- especially right now…

Be gentle today. Happy Sunday.

🙏🏼❤️✨

#journal #healing #recovery #cancer #healcancer #healinsiya #slowlife #yogalife #mentalhealth
Home again. Short - very short and slow - walks do Home again.
Short - very short and slow - walks down our street.
Strawberries at breakfast.
So many Hugs from my son.
Back rubs from my husband
My mom’s continuous kindnesses that keep the day humming.
Friends saying hello and bringing food and tinctures.
And flowers that I cut from our wild garden tonight which is coming alive with all sorts of surprises.

I had tulips in my hospital room the entire 11 days and I can tell you how much they inspired me. As their petals opened up slowly I grew stronger and more able every day after surgery. I saw the colors shining against the dull hues of the room when I awoke each morning and in the sunshine they glistened.

Flowers have healing powers say researchers, apparently patients who can see trees and flowers from their hospital windows vs those who cannot, take less pain medication and have shorter hospital stays… and yes they both relax and uplift us. 

I’ve always loved flowers. Only now I understand why.

Happy weekend!
#grateful #flowers #healingpowerofflowers #healcancer #healinsiya #natureheals #holisticwellness
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