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Preface If you kept changing the way people see the world, you ended up changing the way you saw yourself.1 About Me Too many people have a broken relationship with food, and it is ruining their lives. This fact is dreadful, heartbreaking, and totally unnecessary. It is a situation that can be changed, and I am committed to doing what I can to change it. The path that led me to this place, personally and professionally, started with William Bennett and Joel Gurin’s The Dieter’s Dilemma in 1985.2 I grew up skinny in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the accepted standard of beauty was curvy and voluptuous. Cleavage, of which I had none, was highly valued. I had my fair share of body discontent and unhap- piness, but I was oblivious to anti-fat stigma that was already being internal- ized by my larger-bodied friends. Weight Watchers was just getting started, sugar-free soda tasted nasty and was only for people with diabetes, and meal- time always included dessert. I had no idea how much I was benefiting from “thin privilege.” It certainly never occurred to me that it was something I could lose. My body did not instantly revert to its prepregnancy weight after my first child was born, but by then I knew better than to go on a diet. When my waistline disappeared shortly after my 40th birthday (as it does for many women), I knew better than to go on a diet. When menopause added more curves, I knew better than to go on a diet. I knew that dieting would make things worse. The Dieter’s Dilemma saved me from decades of dieting, weight cycling, and body dissatisfaction. I have been able to tolerate the changes that age has made to my body without trying to interfere. I consider it a great blessing that I knew better.