I remember my dietitian once telling me that there is more to life than rules about what you are and aren’t allowed to eat, that there are preferences if you give yourself permission to accept them. What the heck are food preferences, I thought. I only knew the world of strict, punishing food rules, thanks to the eating disorder. Here I share how I came to loosen my grip on food rules and began to explore what I actually, truly, deep down enjoy and dislike to eat—and in so doing, opened an unexpected pathway to self-acceptance.

Years ago, when dropping my daughters off at daycare, I encountered a most unexpected trigger that set off a spiral of old thoughts and food rules in my mind. Here I get honest about that moment of struggle and the aftermath of feeling ashamed and then finding a way to release the “old” stuff that came up for me at the school. I hope this blog is reminder that healing isn’t linear, and it’s OK if you are ebbing and flowing on your journey.

How can we tell the difference between our food rules and preferences? Here I share my take on food preferences and rules and offer a yoga-inspired practice to help you discern the difference.