Pretty Politico

Soul Food: GREAT Internship Available!

Please check out this amazing internship opportunity and pass it on to your friends who might be interested.  This would be a wonderful professional and personal opportunity to make an impact in your life and the lives of others.

Greetings everyone,
I am the founder of Tender Shoots Wellness, a boutique holistic lifestyle practice that focuses on women's well-being, particularly those preparing for pregnancy and labor. We offer culinary services, nutrition counseling, and yoga as part of a comprehensive wellness program. 

I am interested in taking on an intern or 2 who have a deep interest in holistic healing/wellness. You should be someone bubbly and social with awesome communication and social skills, genuinely interested in wellness and believes in the TSW mission. Please visit my website to get familiar with my work. 

I am seeking an intern  for the following position(s)

Communications/outreach

• answering emails, creating /updating facebook fan page, promoting events
• Seeking/liaising with partners for events
• managing money/guest list at events
• Attending social/networking events with me
• 10-12 hours weekly and mostly remote/virtual work

Kitchen Assistant

• assist in prepping/clean-up for cooking classes
• printing handouts
• hours TBD

Please send along your resume and a letter of interest, telling me a bit about you and what you believe you can bring to the company.

Send all info and correspondence to: info@tendershootswellness.com
In exchange for your efforts and love I can provide the following:

• Letter of Recommendation/College credit
• Vegan home cooked meals
• Nutrition counseling
• Yoga Classes

"You Ain't It Miss Thang!"

I am so annoyed that as Sir Mix A Lot would say, the "beanpole dames from the magazines" are freaking out about the hot curvy girls working the runway for Fast in the UK. Props to Mark Fast for challenging the beauty myth and putting some healthy beautiful models in the spotlight. I hope to see more of this from the fashion world-- and not in a tokenizing or condescending way--but in a gesture toward promoting more natural and healthy images of what is beautiful.

Body Police-- Check yourself!

One of my pet peeves are people who annoint themselves as the body police. I experienced two people coming up to me yesterday mentioning that they thought I lost weight over the past year. I tried not to show my irritation because it wouldn't have been worth it to engage these people in a discussion about how my body is my body and its really NEVER ok for others to be policing it against my will. Bodily autonomy is something I feel strongly about. I can eat what I want, do what I want, have a child or not have a child, work for pay instead of none at all, and dress my body in whatever I please. It is outrageous how much people believe they are authorities about things that are not their business. I weigh exactly the same thing I did during this time last year. I am no longer taking a medication that caused inflammation, and this is the only thing that has altered.

It really bothers me that people are constantly on critical attack in order to feel good about themselves. The part that really irritates me is that I am seven sizes smaller than the average American woman. I can imagine the policing would be even worse if I was a larger woman. What if I had experienced an eating disorder in my youth? What if I had thyroid issues? Luckily for me, these things are not the reason why I am upset about these encounters. I have simply had enough of others projecting their conditioning onto my sacred temple. Yes, I love my body, and it is what it is. Thanks for being pressed and checking out its every fluctuation, however its none of your business unless you fear for my health and safety... and even then, your input has limits.

I found this humorous and helpful guide about how to deal with the body police. I thought I would share. After years of having some friends, strangers, co-workers, and family members track every nuance of my body and being annoyed about it, I'm dragging it out and saying ENOUGH.

 Many people respond to my negative reactions when they do this by trying to shame me about "sensitivity". It is less about sensitivity and more about calling out  larger social and political issues that permeate our cultural landscape. In the spirit of Susy Orbach, "Fat is STILL a feminist issue". The beauty myth and the body shaming we all participate in produce nothing but pain and suffering instead of healthy empowerment. Just because we are conditioned to be well-adjusted to this sort of madness does not mean that we don't have the power to transform ourselves and the world through our actions and words.

Changing Tastes

In the aftermath of the controversial school lunch ad campaign, I am reflecting about the political nature of school lunches and the potential for something as quotidian as lunchtime to be a transformative space.

Through my experiences working with youth, I have learned that one surefire way to win a student's heart is through their stomach. When I plan programs, I try to offer foods that captivate the interest of students because of its gastronomic quality and the (social, cultural, historical, and even political) narrative related to the food. It works every time, and helps us to lure students to educational events in droves. 

I was reminded of the importance of food when I noticed that my friend Sonal blogged on Change.org today about an innovative, sustainable and progressive culinary and lifestyle program offered at Aveson Global Leadership Academy in Los Angeles, CA. Aveson Academy's cutting-edge approach  is refreshing and important because it serves as a positive and successful example for other schools across the country.

Food is political. What we consume, where we buy our food, and the laborers who harvest/package/and dispose of our food are all connected to our larger socio -political landscape. It is important that young people learn at an early age about the meaning of food in our lives beyond its nutritional content. I'm excited aboutAveson 's model, and hope that other institutions find ways to use food to drive discourse about cultural and racial diversity, the environment, labor, and beyond. We are what we eat, after all. [Shameless use of a cliche, but oh-so-true!]