If you haven’t subscribed to my Substack, it’s where I share more personal reflections on wellness, motherhood, and the little shifts that make a big difference in everyday life. Today, I’m sharing an excerpt from a recent post about my evolving relationship with food—and how letting go of certain rules has helped me find more freedom and joy in the way I eat.
When I scroll through my Kindle library, there’s a noticeable shift between what I was reading a few years ago and what I’m reading now.
My current lineup: memoirs, novels, and a sprinkling of books on spirituality (fun!). Keep scrolling further back, and you’ll start seeing book after book on nutrition, gut health, hormones, and various diets meant to solve a long list of digestive issues (not the most riveting nighttime reading, but at the time… I couldn’t get enough).
That version of me from a few years ago was constantly searching for answers—the right diet that would finally unlock the secret to making me feel good, look good, and fix the chronic abdominal pain, constipation, and bloating that followed every meal, no matter how “healthy” it was. And trust me, I tried everything: probiotics, fasting, food combining, SIBO testing, colonics, hypnotherapy (not kidding), and every elimination diet under the sun. And still, no clear answers.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with reading about nutrition, and if you’re in that season of searching for answers, I’ve so been there. It’s incredibly frustrating to feel like you’re doing everything “right” and still feel consistently awful. For years, I was doing everything I could to eat “clean,” stay lean, hit my protein goals, avoid blood-sugar spikes, fast the appropriate number of hours, limit carbs, and keep up with an ever-changing stream of hormone advice. At the time, it felt like I was simply doing what I needed to do to stay healthy.
But wow, all the researching, tweaking, removing foods, adding supplements, and worrying about what to eat took up a lot of brain space—and I still didn’t feel good. Even when I was doing everything “right,” I would look five months pregnant after eating a salad, feel exhausted after just about any meal, and still find myself standing in the kitchen at 9 p.m. looking for something that would finally make me feel satisfied.
Fast forward to now, and it honestly still surprises me how completely different my relationship with food is today. I love to cook, go out to dinner, and look forward to delicious meals. But I no longer overthink whether I’m making the “right” choice or negotiate with myself over what to eat. I’m simply not searching for answers anymore. Food feels pleasurable and nourishing—I can eat, and then move on with my life.
So, here’s where we’re going in today’s post:
- The rules I had to unlearn, from “clean” eating to counting protein.
- What actually helped: a peptide microdose, breakfast every day, and carbs back on my plate.
- The shift from restriction to abundance, and how I finally stopped overthinking every meal.
Unlock the full post on Substack—and learn why food feels so much simpler when you stop searching for answers.
