My Sonoma Diet email today was about eggplant.  My first reaction was “Eggplant?  Yuck.”  Then I realized I was using an old behavior pattern.  I have never had eggplant before.  How in the world could I know if I like it or not?  When I was young, I would very quickly say ‘no’ to new foods since I did not like change.  My parents would eventually give in after I tasted one bite.  This tasting usually consisted of a small nibble with my face squnched up and a predetermination of hating the food.  As a result, if people offered me a taste of their food, I would automatically say, “No thanks.”

When we were dating in college, my husband took me out to a restaurant one night and offered me a bite of his salad.  I declined and said I didn’t like salad.  He asked if I had ever had this type of salad before.  At that point, I realized that I had never even had salad before.  I was in college and had never tasted salad!  Why?  Because I had instictively declined each time because this is something I had always done.  I tried his bite of salad and found to my surprise that it tasted very good and was healthy for me.  I’m happy to report that I now enjoy all types of salad.
I’m still working on not saying “no” or “yuck” to new foods, but to give them a try.  I’ve found so many more options to include in my diet and found things that I really do not like.  I feel like I’m taking more control by consciously making a decision instead of a knee-jerk reaction.