Joy with Food
An immersive group experience to reclaim your joy, confidence, and embodied connection in your relationship with food.
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We’re told family food just is stressful.
We’re bombarded by picture-perfect lunch boxes.
We’re overwhelmed by picky eating.
We observe food behaviors that concern us.
We’ve resigned ourselves to eating the scraps.
We’ve decided food takes too much time.
We’re inundated by every food rule, guideline, and should.
We’ve been so turned off by everything family food.
It’s time for you to be turned on!
It’s time to create a food culture of pleasure, connection, and trust in your home.
“Deena is an expert river guide (on the metaphorical food relationship river). She can help you go from swimming against rapids with unpredictable swoops and slams, like conflicting health trends and food rules, to discovering the way down that invigorates your body.
And it’s no surprise her final objective is for you to be your own expert guide.”
-Jenny Taylor, Gentle Parenting Educator/Advocate
When I became a mother:
I’d already known 20 years of food restriction, binge eating, and bulimia.
I’d known 30 years of digestive distress, health struggles, hormone imbalance, and a body that felt awful most of the time.
I knew food mattered. I knew from my integrative nutrition education and from years of client work that food played an important role in supporting and healing the body.
I struggled to know where diet and/or wellness culture ended and where I, and my unique body, began.
I felt immense pressure to get it right for my kid. Nursing or bottle feeding? On-demand or on a schedule? First foods? How? When? Pizza and cupcakes at every birthday party? What about Halloween candy? Food at friends’ houses?
I wanted desperately to land in a peaceful spot where I could nourish myself well, feel grounded and joyful in my relationship with food, and have confidence that I could pave the way for my children.
But I felt lost.
And I wasn’t alone.
Why? Because most food guidance is not driven by the goal of fostering a positive, embodied, and confident relationship with food.
We always say parenting doesn’t come with a manual, but these days it does! It’s just in the form of quick memes, reels, photos of compartmentalized plates, and tips for getting your kids to eat more red or purple foods.
All these well-meaning tips will keep you running in circles until you better understand why this area of parenting feels challenging for you. Once you have this clarity, you will feel secure in a system that serves now and in the long term.
“In Costa Rica, Deena and I got to create in the kitchen together, shop at local fruit & veggie stands, and learn everything there is to possibly know about coconuts!
Watching Deena, as she embodied joy in all of these practices, was inspiring! To me there is nothing more sacred than nourishing our bodies and bellies (and those of our families). Yet we often treat it like a chore or just another thing on our to-do list.
I absolutely love Deena's approach to Family Food... there's no sneaky tricks to get your kid to eat vegetables, no hiding healthy foods, no fear based rules...
She gets to the heart of it and gives you simple practices you can bring into your days that completely changes how you and your family experience food. She’s all about giving us the lifelong gift of a positive connection with food (even for the picky eaters!).”
-Heather Woodruff , Nutritionist
Joy With Food is a gift for you right now.
It’s a gift for your family, for your younger self, for the generations who came before you, and for those who come after you.
What you can expect:
You’ll let go of the rules and shoulds about your body as you learn more about how your unique body functions.
You’ll go from feeling bored, stuck, or uninspired by cooking to feeling excited and turned on!
You’ll move from beating yourself up about your food cravings to having loving compassion for yourself with full knowledge about why they happen.
You’ll go from scurrying to get dinner on the table every night to settling into a system that works for you and is adaptable.
You’ll move from reacting to the next food problem in front of you to having a simple and grounding plan of action.
You’ll let go of the belief that your body betrays you and embrace trusting your body.
You’ll move from experiencing your kitchen as purely a place of work to a sacred space that ignites creativity and fun.
You do all of this in a community who sees you and can hold space for you.
You can't model what you don't know.
Your kid/s and those around you will feel the ripple effect of the work you do now.
Five Important Truths:
You will be in a relationship with food everyday for the rest of your life.
Food is the perfect tool to practice communication between you and your body. A positive relationship with food (thoughts, habits, feelings, and decisions) will support every other area of your life.
WHAT you eat changes countless times in your life. It’s the context around food (the WHY, HOW, WHEN, WHERE) that we need to look at first in order to lay a strong foundation.
Your energy is felt. Your children will remember your energy around food and the kitchen.
We are wired for connection. When we feel connected to something, we have greater interest, passion, and enjoyment around it. We all have the capacity for deep connection and joy around food.
Our work in Joy With Food is grounded in these principles and then we flow with all the elements that are uniquely you.
I didn’t fully heal my tumultuous relationship with food until the mirror was held up in parenthood.
At a certain point, I realized it was a choice.
I could put in the energy to look deeper into my patterns, trust my son’s innate bodily wisdom, and create a loving and confidence-building environment when it came to food, OR I could continue pushing a boulder up a hill, feeling overwhelmed, confused, and annoyed by family food every day.
