About Me

After 29 years of struggling as an extremely picky eater with a severely limited diet, I did what felt impossible and overcame my picky eating. Not only was I able to start trying new foods for the first time in my life, but I went on to become a complete "foodie" -- now able to eat anything, even chocolate covered crickets and beef tongue!

I was an extremely picky eater ever since I was 13 months old according to my parents.  When I say extremely picky eater, I mean EXTREMELY.  The first question I usually heard from people when I mentioned I had a limited diet was, "What do you eat?"

My diet mostly consisted of cheerios, grilled cheese, french fries, PB&J sandwiches, popcorn and crackers for the majority of my life.

Next I'd usually hear a series of questions starting with, "Well what about...(fill in the blank), do you eat that?

The answer almost always was, "No."

No vegetables, no pasta, no eggs, no seafood, no meat (no chicken, no bacon no burgers), no rice, no soup, no salads, no beans, and no pizza.....yes I did just say no pizza!

Logically, I could see no reason why I shouldn't be able to try what everyone else was eating but every time I'd sit down to try a food I would have intense anxiety, nervousness and fear.  It was a very frustrating internal battle.  I don't even know the number of times I told myself, "Look everyone else is eating it and they are completely fine.  Just eat it already!  It won't kill you!"  But I just couldn't.

My parents tried every trick in the book to "cure" me of my picky eating.  They tried making food fun to eat, hiding new foods, disguising new foods, ignoring it, or simply having the food available on the table or on my plate.  Coming from a very food-centric family there was a lot of pressure on both me and my parents to be more strict with comments such as "just make her eat it" and after a while my parents tried that too.  I had to at least try what was being served or I couldn't have anything but that didn't work either.  They even tried taking me to several psychologists, pediatricians, and therapists all of which responded along the lines of, "She's healthy so don't worry, she'll grow out of it."   Except, I never grew out of it.

Instead I overcame my picky eating on my own after experimenting for years and years on what worked and what didn't.  I started my blog as a personal goal to expand my diet with the hope that if you are a picky eater or a parent, spouse or loved one of a picky eater my adventures with trying new foods will be inspiring and helpful to you.  After going through it on my own I've done extensive research to figure out how I could help others apply the same process I did which resulted in publishing my book 'Picky Eater'.  It has been and continues to be a wonderful adventure and I'd love to have you join me as we explore food, cooking, health, and psychology together!

All the best,

Jessica