Episode #93 Leah Shutkever on eating your flaws on the way to success

Today’s guest is Leah Shutkever. Leah is Europes No.1 female competitive eater, multiple official Guinness World Record Title holder, proud non-conformist and all-round good woman.

In this deep dive interview, we discuss her story, her struggles with her body image, her relationship with food, how she learnt to be herself which brought about her amazing confidence, her rugby playing days, and how a sibling rivalry helped her to start her very successful YouTube channel. 

Leah is phenomenal and deserves her amazing success. However, it is not just her channel that is awe inspiring, it is how Leah is so open and honest about her struggles with confidence and bullying when younger and the impact it had on her. She is very vulnerable and honest throughout, and shows how successful people are just people in the end, with their own worries and insecurities about themselves just like normal people. It is Leah's frank discussion on how she learnt to accept herself as she was, to realise the things she disliked actually made her unique, attractive and someone that people loved to watch ... and it helped create a juggernaut of a YouTube channel and career, that is a brilliant take-way message for listeners - she did it, so why can't you? This is a great interview to list to for people who are struggling with their confidence and self-esteem, those who have a goal or dream and don't believe in themselves to try as much as it is for those who love Leah's channel and her brilliant food challenges. 

 

In this interview, we discuss gems like:

• Who they are
• How did her upbringing influence her diet 
• The importance of food in your family, culture and the affect it can have on you
• Her experiences with yo-yo dieting and how societal pressures affect our confidence as much as our look
• Her Rugby career and why she was known as the Chiropractor! 
• How food can be an emotional fix and why it is important to teach and educate kids on the virtues of food but more importantly to have a healthy relationship with food. 
• How she overcame the bullying she experienced when she was younger 
• The realisation she had about our place in this world and the motivation to make an impact on the world
• Her goals for and the achievements she wants to make her mark on the world
• How her entry into competitive eating was done to annoy her brother
• What does she feel is the appeal of her channel
•  The joy of food and how a little experimentation can open up a whole new world of tastes 
• How her physique reacts to the different challenges 
• How does she deal with large quantities of food consumption
• How she has made fitness a priority and a habit, that centers her and keeps her motivation
• Dealing with negative comments, trolls and the 'interesting' extremes on social media
• How has she been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak
• How she can reverse engineer her diet to accommodate for the vast quantities and calories she consumes while filming 
• Content creation and being an inspiration to others
• Has she got a favourite type of challenge
• The importance of attitude in what you can achieve in life
• How she has learnt to deal with interviews and PR 
• How you can connect with them