The OMG Ice Cream Hack & the Poison of Perfectionism

Roses don’t bloom in a day.

Hello Trippers,

Are you new to the Inspired Eater? Welcome!! This blog won’t make much sense until you read the Aunt Bea post (you’ll find her to the right under my short bio). After you enter your email address, Aunt Bea will be sent to your inbox. If it didn’t arrive, you might check the spam folder. And always feel free to email me at Wendy@TheInspiredEater.com and I’ll get Aunt Bea right to you! ♥

Pearl One

Last week my techie husband and I were driving to a new locale. At one point the GPS stopped talking, and my hub said, “Give it a second, it’s trying to get a satellite connection.”

I responded in a princess voice, “But I want my satellite connection nnnnowwww.”

As a culture we’re a bunch of speed-freaks. We love a good ‘overnight success’ story. We want our cars fast, and the car’s a/c to be even faster. We don’t want to wait long in the drive-thru, or if we do we’re likely to pull out of line — in a huff — to find a shorter drive-thru wait.

We like our light ‘at the speed of’ and we all carry a small computer in our hand bag that allows us to talk with anyone, anywhere, anytime with a lightning fast connection.

So it comes as no surprise that when diet-headlines and diet books have long promised, “Lose Belly Fat in Ten Days” we’ve had a tendency to believe them.

But if we’re to get down to bare-bones reality: cool, awesome and spectacular don’t arrive with Amazon speed. Nobody learns piano or a foreign language with a few months of practice. We don’t create a successful business in twelve months. And we definitely won’t lose anywhere near what the headlines have long promised.

And that’s okay because wrapped into the ‘lose belly fat in 10 days” is the message from the company: you need weight loss to be easy, and we need your money. Their underlying message: if it’s not easy, you can’t do it. Seriously condescending.

Don’t be swayed by ‘easy.’ Keep your cash, expect losing after 50 to be hard, and get annoyed at those proclaiming losing after 50 is effortless.

Because inherent in my message: We’re smart, we’re resilient, and you and I can do super hard things. ♥

Pearl Two

I turned a corner the moment I realized I had to make smart eating one of my life’s highest priorities.

I couldn’t just ‘hope for the best.’ I needed to make the decision that my food-life was taking a drastic turn.

There’s magic behind making the decision. One moment you’re you, and in a blink you’re walking into the next chapter of your life.

Turn your corner. Don’t hope. Decide. ♥

Pearl Three

In June, I’m using this slot for talking about the poison of perfectionism. It’s a funny thought that no matter how often the idea of perfectionism is trounced, the very notion of perfectionism continues to live on in our world.

Albeit quietly.

Meaning: are you a closet-perfectionist? You know, someone who – in public — professes to disdain the idea of reaching for perfect, but is always attempting perfection in private?

Here’s my take on shooting for perfect: we assume that others are better than we are. Deep down we worry that quite possibly we’re a defective human being so therefore have to be perfect to fit in. Apparently God made a huge mistake when He made our model. Everyone else has their lives ‘together,’ but not us.

Fabulous news: nobody has their lives ‘together.’ Everybody is moving through life like bumper cars.

In attempting to be perfect when we’re losing after 50, we’re setting the bar insanely high. Let’s be real. We’re human beings.

Of course we’ll slip-up on smart eating. Slips are merely part of being human. Expect losing after 50 to be tremendously difficult because with the right mindset we’ll tackle the trek with the best tools, habits, and planning. ♥

Pearl Four

If your sweet-tooth tends to run wild, do I have a smart eating hack for you. I found it on about a zillion different food blogs:

I give you: Banana — they call it — nice Cream.

Take a ripe banana, slice into coins, and freeze them flat for two hours. (Or freeze banana halves overnight.) Then whir frozen banana in blender to make soft-serve texture (I also add a splash of almond milk).

At one time I made frozen banana ‘ice cream’ regularly. You can be creative: add strawberries, coffee, peppermint, vanila and more to make different flavors.

So awesome that you won’t ‘need’ ice cream all summer! ♥

Pearl Five

“Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.” ♥

Have a beautiful start to June. See you on Tuesday!

♥, Wendy