A Happy Thought for your Thursday :)

Eat Food.

This pretty much sums it up.

Dieting vs. Intuitive Eating

Intuitive eating is another way of saying mindful eating. It's about eating what and when your body needs - not when you are bored or angry or frustrated or anxious.

This is a helpful and very powerful infographic that sums up the difference between the two. And I'd just like to say: you have one life. Would you rather spend it in the left or the right column?

This is a big deal, because it puts the agency back into you and, especially your BODY. You have a living, breathing body, and you must treat it as such. Abusing it isn't fair.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness has become an overused buzzword lately that makes some people annoyed just upon hearing it. It conjures up images of insane amounts of yoga, crunchy granola and "being present." The point is, it's a specific type of person that normally practices mindfulness. But I'm here to make mindfulness a more accessible topic, because, once cultivated, it really is quite amazing.

Mindfulness requires really knowing yourself, and being mindful is a great way to know yourself better. The process of becoming more mindful begets deep self discovery. You will learn about yourself when you practice mindfulness, and learn invaluable information about how to make yourself vibrant and be happy - like, deeply happy and satisfied with your life.

The cool thing about mindful eating is it allows you to eat less without sacrificing satisfaction.

Youth Food Bill of Rights

The Youth Food Bill of Rights (YFBR) is an organization that is raising awareness about young people's ability to create change in the current food systems that shape our lives. The industrial food system induces much suffering - of animals, workers, farmers, and the people consuming it. In creating a new town, as is happening with Kalu Yala, it is vitally important to be aware of this movement and make sure that these principles are embedded in every initiative that is undertaken.

"In order to reshape our food system, we the youth have come together to name our rights:

1. We have the right to culturally affirming food. We demand the preservation, protection and reconstruction of traditional
   farming, cultural history and significance of food and agriculture. We demand that indigenous peoples have the right to establish their own autonomous food systems should they choose.
2. We have the right to sustainable food. We demand an end to the mistreatment of animals and the environment, that is caused by our current food system.
3. We have the right to nutritional education. We demand government funding to educate and inform youth and parents about nutrition.
   a. Education on things such as seasonal eating, organic farming,
   sustainability, and diet related illness should be provided so that people can make better informed decisions.
   b. We recommend that schools recognize youth lead fitness programs as tools for success.
4. We have the right to healthy food at school. We the youth demand more healthy food choices in our schools, and in schools all over the world. We want vending machines out of schools unless they have healthy choices. We need healthier school lunches that are implemented by schools with the ingredients decided on by the Youth. We demand composting in schools and in our neighborhoods.
5. We have the right to genetic diversity and GMO-free food.  We the youth, call for the Labeling of Genetically Modified seeds, plants, and produce. We demand a policy from the government that labels all GMO’s..
6. We have the right to poison-free food. We the youth absolutely don’t want any chemical pesticides in our food!
7. We have the right to beverages and foods that don't harm us. We the Youth demand a ban on High Fructose Corn Syrup and other additives, and preservatives that are a detriment to our communities’ health. This must be implemented by our government, and governments around the world.
8. We have the right to local food. We demand food to be grown and consumed by region to cut the use of fossil fuels and reduce the globalization of our food system.
9. We have the right to fair food. We the youth demand that everyone working in the food system must be treated
   with respect, treated fairly, and earn at the minimum, a just living wage. For all those that are working in the food system we demand a model like the Domestic Fair Trade Association to be implemented.
10. We have the right to good food subsidies. We demand an end to the subsidy of cash crops, including corn and soy beans. Rather than our tax dollars going to subsidies for industrial farming, we demand financial support for small organic farmers.
11. We have the right to organic food and organic farmers. We demand a restructuring of the process of being certified organic and fair trade to improve the thoroughness and accessibility of of these programs.
12. We have the right to cultivate unused land. We demand that a policy be enacted allowing for unused land to be made available for communities to farm and garden organically and sustainably.
13. We have the right to save our seed. We believe farmers and all people should have the freedom to save their seed. Any law that prevents this should be reversed; no law shall ever be made to
    prevent seed saving.
14. We have the right to an ozone layer. We the youth demand a 20% decrease of industrial farms every 5 years, to decrease the high levels of greenhouse gas emissions associated with industrial
    farming.
15. We have the right to support our farmers through direct market transactions. We demand that the number of farmer’s markets be increased every year until there are more farmers’ markets than corporate super markets.
16. We have the right to convenient food that is healthy. We want healthy options in corner stores while empowering the community to make better food choices. We demand more jobs for youth to work with our communities to make this happen and help them control their food systems.
17. We have the right to leadership education. We the youth demand that there be more school assemblies to inform and empower more youth with the knowledge of food justice. The continuation of the movement for Food Justice, Food Sovereignty and cultivation of future
    leaders is necessary for feeding our youth, our nation and our world.

This is only the beginning step in many to come to make our visions, our dreams, and this bill a reality."  

Source: youthfoodbillofrights.com

Mealtime

3x a day, everyday, the conch shell blows and it is time to eat at Kalu Yala. Upon hearing the conch, people run from all over town to get the amazing food that has been made lovingly for us. We eat absolutely delicious, seriously amazing food. To give you an idea of what a typical meal looks like, here is: chayote, red peppers, green peppers, broccoli, and patacones (smashed fried plantains) with a green garlic dressing. :)

Understanding the Banana Tree

Part of the pull of coming to this amazing community in the jungles of Panama, for me, was to experience a food system working well for the people it was feeding. In other words, I wanted to see eating healthily be the most natural option; not a burden, an expense, or a hardship, as it is in many of the communities I have been in in the United States and other parts of the world. In my first week here, I wandered around the food forest, where pineapple plants, lemon trees, katuk (ka-TUK, an unbelievably delicious leafy green that's somewhat similar to spinach), arugula, aloe, mangosteen, okra, kale, and many, many more amazing foods are growing in harmony alongside each other. What stood out most was learning, by the farm manager that the  banana and plantain trees (female and male versions of the same plant, respectively) each grow a bunch of bananas/plantains once a year, and that's it. I kind of stopped in my tracks. Thinking about how many bananas we always see stacked high in the grocery store, and knowing that, naturally, a banana tree only produces about twenty bananas each year, and requires a good amount of labor, was eye-opening. When we eat a banana or plantain, we should stop and realize how incredible it is that we are able to enjoy it - how thankful to the plant we are, how thankful to the water, and how thankful to the farmer.
Understanding the labor that goes into our food is an important part of eating mindfully.

Six Food Contemplations for Young People

These contemplations are not only for young people, of course - they are only specified as for young people because they are more accessible to children, in their simplicity.

This food is the gift of the whole universe: the Earth, the sky, the rain, and the sun.

We thank the people who have made this food, especially the farmers and the cooks.

We only put on our plate as much food as we can eat.

We want to chew the food slowly so that we can enjoy it.

This food gives us energy to practice being more loving and understanding.

We eat this food in order to be healthy and happy, and to love each other as a family.

Peas in a local family's home in San Miguel, Colon, Panama. PC: Vineta Gleba

The Five Contemplations

The Five Contemplations are used in Buddhist and zen thinking to conjure up mindfulness when eating. They are:

This food is a gift of the Earth, the sky, numerous living beings, and much hard and loving work.

May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude so as to be worthy to receive this food.

May we recognize and transform unwholesome mental formations, especially our greed, and learn to eat with moderation.

May we keep our compassion alive by eating in such a way that reduces the suffering of living beings, stops contributing to climate change, and heals and preserves our precious planet.

We accept this food so that we may nurture our brotherhood and sisterhood, build our community, and nourish our ideal of serving all living beings.