When I went to college I kept up my care free eating habits and due to my more sedentary college lifestyle noticed a small weight gain. I started applying seemingly innocent food rules, like skipping the donut I wanted at breakfast or opting for a salad over a wrap at lunch. These quickly spiraled out of control and I started to think about food 24/7. My rules started to steadily become more extreme. It got to the point where I couldn’t concentrate when I was in class or when I was out on date night with my then boyfriend (now husband), Joe. It was like I was trapped in a cage of food obsession and this felt frustrating, scary and out of control.

For the next six years, I was stuck in this cage, following strict, obsessive food rules that I had created in order to control my weight and my life. I felt like I was constantly playing Tetris with my food; how I would “fit” my friday night ice cream date into the calorie limit I set for myself, what my next snack would be based on the previous meal. I. Could. Not. Stop. I was beyond obsessed. I knew that I couldn’t keep living my life this way. There HAD to be another, better way to have a relationship with food. I felt utterly lost, but hopeful that I could find that better way. I knew that if I wanted to be the wife, and some day mother, that I wanted to be I needed to change.

One day Joe and I had “the talk” about getting married someday. As I looked into the future, all I saw was me still obsessing over how many calories my last snack was, or how many miles I needed to run to burn off dinner. I could NOT keep living this way. This was my turning point, I knew I needed to change. 

The journey I committed to taking after that first marriage talk with Joe took me SIX years to actually overcome. It felt long, frustrating and exhausting. Six years to improve my relationship with food and learn to love and respect my body. Six years to be able to eat a cupcake and NOT worry about how many calories were in it. To be able to trust myself not to binge when I have a jar of peanut butter in one hand and a spoon in the other. To be able to go out to dinner with my husband and not have to study the menu beforehand or always choose the salad because it’s “healthy.” Those six years were filled with trial-and-error, taking two steps forward and one step back. But, throughout those six years I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t.

Those six years have allowed me to identify the three key pieces to living a life free from food rules and obsession: mindset, challenging food rules, and body image. These three pieces have come to form the three pillars of living a life of No Food Rules, what I teach thousands of women today.