Mindful Eating with Mayo | Karen Mayo | TEDxWilmington

Transcript

hello this morning I would like to share with you what I've learned um while my nephew was coming to stay with me during his sixth grade school year my sister a single mom uh she enrolled into the army she wanted to have a better life for her son Scott couldn't go with her to boot camp so she asked if he could come stay with me and I said of course prior to Scott coming to stay with me he was eating everything from fast food to TV dinners and his favorite snack was in a bag with food coloring red yellow five and six and um a habit like this he was diagnosed with ADHD and was on medication so we established a new routine I um made him a healthy breakfast I packed his lunch almost every day and um we had a healthy nutritious dinner everything was going well and uh I get a call from the school one of the teachers called me and she was telling me that her and the other teachers would like to set up a meeting with me and uh I had no idea why um I thought maybe Scott really did need his ADHD medication since he never came to my house with it so I go to the school the day of the meeting and um I walk through the doorway and I said to myself oh my God I'm in big trouble there was this big table and there was the prin principal the vice principal and there was a set of teachers Scott's teachers and then when you're diagnosed with the ADHD you also have a special set of teachers and there was a person from the school district and I'm Q the teacher who called me she was like Karen don't worry you're not in trouble go ahead and have a seat and I said thank you very much that's big relief so I sat there and I listened to the teachers tell me how pleased they are with him that he is actually on the honor and straight days in math go get a little emotional and um he apparently is in the top 10% of the kids Nationwide um on with online math Pro problems I just sat there and I stared and I was they were telling me his math teacher was telling me how she was in awe of him she would watch him multiply three numbers by three numbers without using scratch paper and arriving at the correct answer answer and they asked the question what did you do with him and I said you know this was my first time taking care of a teenager so I I um I only did what my mom did with me and my sister was growing up and that was you know eating healthy nutritious food and they actually finding it hard to understand how he could be a c student at best and then you know become an a student Straight A's in math I thought to myself if I can do this with a sixth grader then I need to get out and talk to people so my journey led me to the largest nutrition School per graduating class powerful teachers who are the leading doctors nutritionists and authorities in nutrition and Healthcare today and I've learned over aund different dietary theories and a couple of them you know struck me and I wanted to learn more so I did a lot more research have you ever heard of checking the pH levels in your body I know that I had to check the fish tank's pH or the fish would die right I know that the soil's pH has to be checked or the fruits and vegetables that you planted aren't going to grow properly and I also know the swimming pool's pH has to be checked so why aren't we checking our pH so the symbol of pH stands for the potential or power of hydrogen I get so since the body is made up of water and hydrogen there's 2/3 hydrogen atom and 1/3 oxygen that makes up water having a balanced pH is um a profound effect on our bodies as you can see the lungs are 90% water the the blood is 82% and the brain and Bones you know everyone they're all water so checking your pH is uh very very important having um a balanced pH and you can check it by using litmus paper first thing in the morning um using it to check with urine or saliva and you can also um have a blood test from your health professional using the 820 rule by using um having 80% of alkaline foods to 20% um AIC Foods on your plate is a great way to help you um you know balance your pH so and this would be your 20% so which leads me to my next dietary Theory which is mindful eating mindful eating is eating with awareness um it's you know mind everyone kind of mindlessly stuffs their face with food in front of the TV in front of the computer um while we're driving or even you know while we're running out of the house so there are many elements to mindful eating um just pick one and um the next time you're eating pick the second until you're completely conscious about what you're eating so with sight you know really check out your food look at it um does it have you know Sun can you see the sunlight within your food and then smell you know bring the food up to your mouth really um smell it the aroma of the food the the spices and the herbs our next is um taste so can you actually feel the saliva starting to produce in your mouth as you're getting ready to eat so notice where the food is going on which side of the mouth your food is going on pay attention to chewing chew 20 to 30 times while you're eating almost to like an applesauce consistency your digestive system will have a better time breaking your food down um the next is being silent so it's easy to just turn off your cell phones um you know in the car you can turn off the music also um when you're home just turning off the television um being silent is another um element to mindful eating so it's really easy just to be silent if you're just too busy or too much stress um just you know um sit silently and our last and fifth is feel mindful eating is being um aware of how the food is making you feel um so hypocrates said uh let food by be thy medicine and Medicine be thy food I say it's not about dieting it's about living thank you [Applause]