Kali Gray on body positivity, mindful eating and living counter-culturally - Summer Series

Hello, and welcome to our 2020 Summer Series!

Every Thursday in January we’ll be revisiting some of our favourite podcast episodes while we walk the slow living walk over the summer break. Also it turns out podcasts, just like fine wine, really do get better with age, so whether you missed them the first time around, or are having another listen, we hope you enjoy these poggies as much as we did!

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Is there a link between the rise in consumerism, the endless advertising messages that assault us thousands of times a day and the increase in body image issues? According to today’s guest, the answer is a resounding yes.

I'm so excited to bring you today's episode because it brings yet another perspective to this season's conversations on what it is to live a slower life and the myriad ways we can apply the ideas of slow.

Today I chat with Kali Gray, a body confidence expert and a “non diet” dietician who focuses her work on helping people heal their relationship with their bodies and their food.

In this episode we discuss the the relationship between food security and body image issues, while also looking at the crossover between my work in slow living and Kali's work in reframing our perspective on food, self-care, self-worth and the food we eat.

So much of what Kali teaches is centred on self-compassion and self-care, and how those things can help us to heal those relationships, which is where I think it most closely links with slow living. In order to learn self-compassion and self-care (particularly in a world that profits from our self-loathing) we first need to slow down and pay attention.

Pay attention to the stories we tell ourselves about our bodies and the role food has in our lives, pay attention to the way media messaging, advertising and social media are keeping us in a negative relationship with ourselves, and pay attention to how we feel when we start making changes to our thoughts, habits and actions.

Kali also turns the interview tables around on me towards the end of the episode, which sparks a conversation on how all of these changes take time, and no matter how well-versed we are in consumerism, health, wellness, body image and food, there’s always going to be part of us that requires a little extra love and empathy.

Questions featured in this episode:

1. Why do youthink so many of us have a broken relationship with food and our bodies?
2. Capitalismand consumerism are both linked to our dissatisfaction with ourselves and ourbodies. How do you encourage people to recognise that and make changes so thatwe get to decide what is good and right for us individually?
3. It’scounter-cultural to teach and encourage people to love themselves and acceptthemselves as they are, particularly in the face of a society that teaches usto find fault in our bodies from a very young age. Is that something that comesnaturally to you?
4. We both encouragepeople to ask the question WHY? Why do we do what we do? Why do we buy what webuy? Why do we eat what we eat? Do you find that once we begin to uncover thatwhy, it becomes simpler to start making changes?
5. As aprocess, this asking why and digging deep is uncomfortable. How do youencourage people to accept that this is outside their comfort zone and movethrough regardless?
6. You highlight mindful eating as a way to begin toheal our relationship with food, but what actually is it to eat more mindfully?
7. How can webegin to eat more mindfully? What’s the first step?
8. There isthis beautiful undercurrent of awe in all you do, and that means you frame yourwork in the idea that every body, right now, as it is, is a miracle. What isthe reaction from people when you ask them to pay attention to the miracle oftheir body? Particularly if they have grown up not knowing how to like theirbodies?
9. Young kidshave no issues with accepting their bodies as they are, but as they get closerto puberty this changes, and suddenly they’re seeing all that’s wrong withthem. Why do you think this happens?
10. What canwe do to help ourselves and our kids move through that?

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Head over to iTunes to subscribe to the show and play the episode.

Or you can listen to the show directly, simply by hitting the Play button above. Enjoy!

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Things to Check Out After Today’s Episode:

• Kali's website: My Food Culture
• Kali's new book: Body Confidence
• Connect with Kali on Instagram

As always, thank you for listening!