Fit Fare

As much as we are more likely to crack open the champagne and celebrate a new year on January 1st, for most of us, September is really the start of “the new year”. The kids go back to school, activities such as volunteering, evening classes and theatre seasons start again, and up here in Canuckistan, we all optimistically dig out our hockey jerseys and vow to ourselves that this year will be the one that the big shiny trophy comes home to Toronto. (You just hush, you folks in Calgary!)

As such, September is a time of new beginnings, and of bittersweet endings. A few days ago, I watched the monarch butterflies begin their trip southwest to Mexico, knowing full well that it marked the end of summer. For me, it marks the end of my time here at WellFed, as I hand over my writing and editing responsibilities and move on to other things.

Big thanks go out to Kate Hopkins and the original WellFed team, both for creating the network in the first place and for giving me a chance to write about food in a way that allowed both myself and the FitFare writers free reign. Thanks also to new owner Cate O’Malley for allowing that free reign to continue unencumbered. And finally thanks to all of the FitFare writers who have made my time as editor here one of the most interesting periods of my life. You guys made me laugh and cry and pull my hair out, but it was a blast and a fabulous learning experience. I send good editorial vibes to new FitFare editor, Sarah Caron – may all your writers have their work in on time and may it all be completely typo-free!

To our readers I want to offer one final reminder. The original intention of FitFare was to provide information and guidance about healthy eating. We started out with a strict “no weight-loss diets!!” mandate and the intention to cover every aspect of healthy eating, from food allergies to special diets for illnesses to environmental factors that might affect our food and in turn, our well-being.

Although we have often unintentionally strayed from that plan and have covered stories that didn’t really seem to jibe with our original intentions, the mandate we started out with is still my personal mandate when it comes to FitFare. That is:

– diets don’t work (none of them - not the free ones, not the ones that let you snack, not the ones that deny you specific food groups, not the ones that cheer you on), please stop wasting your time and money!
– Try new things - new ways of cooking, new ways of eating – experiment!
– Always, always, always, think about where your food comes from and if you could be making healthier choices – for you, and for the planet.
– 99.99% of packaged food is crap – stay out of those centre aisles and eat as low on the food chain as possible.
– Question everything you read, and everything you know, constantly.
– Remember that food should nourish the soul as well as the body – take the time to savour it, both during the cooking and the eating.

It is my greatest hope that somewhere along the line, something that we wrote at FitFare inspired someone out there to try something new, to pitch the junk food, to ditch the diet books and to choose a healthier way of eating. It is also my hope that FitFare will continue to provoke and inspire and enlighten readers for a long time to come.