Six Pillars for Weight Loss after Age 50

“You might as well lose the weight now,” my mom often told me when I was a tween, “It gets much harder when you’re older.”

Okay, a) it’s normal for many of us to go through the puppy-years of carrying extra weight before sprouting to a full height.

And b) my mom’s common thought about losing weight is not how it worked for me. I needed to mature — oh, did I need to mature — to figure out how to navigate my emotions versus eating when I experienced any feeling: good or bad.

As a kid, I didn’t know certain truisms like, fast food is designed to not fill us up. And that I didn’t have the ability (or the bucks) to find a good therapist to help me manage my emotional world. And I was way, way too young to use – what I call – the six superpowers, or pillars, of weight loss after age 50.

At about the age of 32 I finally began to connect my abysmal eating habits with the health problems I was having.

One time? (Omg, this is embarrassing.) I was running in my garage to grab a ringing telephone and fell. On my foot. Putting myself in a cast and on crutches for weeks. I was at my heaviest at the time and I’ve always wondered if being lighter would have changed the equation.

Dropping on my foot along with other not-fun situations motivated me to make real change. But please don’t think I’m espousing willpower. I never used it to lose fifty-five.

These six pillars are what I leaned on.

The Six Pillars of Weight Loss after Age 50

I think of weight loss after 50 – and forever maintenance – as having six superpowers or pillars. I’ll touch on each here, and write more on them in the coming weeks.

One – Eating Plan

I call it an eating plan. Some say protocol. You might call it a structure. Whatever its name, it’s creating boundaries for ourselves is critical for long term success. The idea is to pick one eating plan that you can live with forever.

According to the U.S. News & World Report in the article, “Best Diets Overall,” they include these top winners.

• Mediterranean diet
• DASH diet
• Flexitarian diet
• MIND diet
• Mayo Clinic diet
• TLC diet
• Volumetric diet
• WW diet

Choose an eating plan with your doctor, and pick one that you can live with for a lifetime. The diet industry presents a new diet of some kind of every three or fours years. It doesn’t help you or me to change how we engage with our food. Pick one plan and commit.

Two – Planning

The role of planning in our lives is like having a Rachel or Monica with us daily, it’s that good of a friend. If my antennae pick up an eating-moment challenge, my planning skills go into action.

Before eating in a restaurant, I check out the online menu for dishes that won’t completely obliterate my smart eating. (People can say this is an obsessive behavior, but those with allergies, or are vegan check menus before dining out all the time.)

If it’s a BBQ in the backyard, I might bring a whole wheat bun. Bottom line: I plan for every event and I never arrive hungry. That’s what apples with peanut butter are for.

Three – Exceptional Habits

Someone wise once said, “We’re not human beings, we’re habit beings.” Have you ever tried to go to bed without brushing your teeth? Can’t be done.

Habits come to my rescue every day of the year. Last month I was in a meeting that went way over time and I was hungry. Did I stop on the way home for an order of fries? Never, I always carry healthy tide-me-overs in my purse or a cold-tote bag.

Another example, recently we had a minor family emergency that decimated the quiet breakfast I’d planned. So I grabbed a handful of mixed nuts and a banana, and was good for the morning.

If you haven’t yet read these two books on habits, read these two books. They’re the gold standard for incorporating rock star habits into our lives.

• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
• Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Four – Offensive Living

We can agree that losing after age 50 is so incredibly rigorous as to often feel impossible (thankfully it’s not).

But good news, living offensively is one of the pillars that I developed to give myself every advantage. If you played a sport you know that being on the offensive means engaging an opposing team with a solid plan.

Living on the offensive is knowing that:

• Grocery stores are constructed to manipulate us into buying endless food-porn.
• Restaurant food is super delicious because they use ingredients that you and I wouldn’t cook with in a million years. Plus portions are mammoth and nutrition is largely AWAL.
• Always remembering to stay ahead of the fact that our health and our weights are being impacted by a culture that’s gone completely off the rails re: food.

Ultimately offensive-living is about feeling confident in our ability to impact the food scene and not allow the food scene to impact us.

Five – Journal-Writing

Exploring our inner world through journal-writing is like having a magical portal to our own wisdom. As a young person I only used journals to vent. Sadly it didn’t dawn on me to ask myself quality questions, and encourage myself to write the answers.

Today, I journal-write daily. The jewels that spill forth never cease to wow me. Commit to daily journal-writing for a week.

You’ll see.

Six – Self-Talk

Had I talked cruelly to myself over the years, I never would have lost weight and maintained. I’d likely still be on the yo-yo plan.

Let’s say you regularly tell yourself: I was a heavy kid, a heavy teen, and heavy young adult, and I’m headed towards a heavy old age. It’s hopeless.

Chilling our inner-Eeyore is not easy, so begin by journal-writing about what’s called a bridge-thought.

In this case, a great bridge-thought would be, sure I was heavy in my past, but I’m forging a new future for myself. I don’t exactly see the light yet, but I see glimmers. (Whittle the thought down to “forging” and “glimmers.”)

Then when you’re ready, your new thought can morph to: I am engaging with food in a healthy new way. Sometimes I slip, but I’m cool because that’s just part of this game. I’ve got this. (Whittle to “I’ve got this.”)

And if you’re wondering where reframing fits in, I put it in self-talk. More on great reframing in future posts.

In conclusion, I encourage you to pick one superpower and really work it into the fabric of your being before moving onto the next.

Have a wonderful week everyone! Please comment below: which superpower will be your first?

And remember it’s not your imagination. Health is hard.

♥ Wendy

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