Keynote on Developing a Healthy Relationship with Food

Introduction

• Speaker's Context: Speaks before lunch, addressing common thoughts: "What's for lunch?" and "Where's the nearest bathroom?"
• Main Theme: Challenges the unnatural relationship we have with hunger and food.

Personal Story of Struggle

• Background: Speaker was a student at UCLA, focused on weight and food rather than academics.
• Dieting Struggles: Engaged in diets, cleanses, intense workouts, and restrictive eating, which led to binging.
• Lifestyle Impact: Avoided social events, vacations, and romantic relationships due to body image issues.

Turning Point

• Education: Pursued a master’s in nutrition, hoping to find better ways to control eating.
• Realization: Dieting failed; decided to stop dieting entirely, which necessitated relearning how to eat.

Key Learnings and Insights

1. Reconnecting with Hunger

• Concept: People often eat for reasons other than hunger (boredom, stress, availability).
• Hunger Fullness Scale: A tool to gauge when to eat (3 or 4 on the scale) and when to stop (6 or 7).
  • Extremes: 0-1 (famished), 9-10 (stuffed).
• Benefits: Eating mindfully when hungry leads to better satisfaction and healthier cravings.

2. Understanding What to Eat

• Intuitive Eating: Stopped following diet rules, tuned into body’s cravings without guilt.
• Craving for Nourishing Foods: Body naturally desires nutritious foods when not restricted.

3. Handling Overeating

• Approach: Stopped punishing self for overeating, embraced a loving approach to eating.
• Freedom: Achieved comfort around any food, without using food as punishment or reward.

Broader Impact on Life

• Personal Growth: Improved empathy, trust, and self-love.
• Professional Development: Became who she wanted to be, personally and professionally.
• Philosophy: "The way we do anything is the same way we do everything."
  • Listening to and trusting oneself impacts relationships, community, and beyond.

Conclusion

• Vision: Encourages listeners to imagine life beyond others’ judgments, fostering self-trust and kindness.
• Outcome: Envisions a world where people are at peace with food and this peace extends to other life areas.
• Final Thought: Emphasizes that it's possible to "have your cake and eat it too".