Step away from the pizza and wine, and nobody’s Smart Eating Lifestyle gets hurt.
Pearl One
I listen often to the Two Disabled Dude’s podcast that’s tagline reads, we believe life is how we react.
Viktor Frankl, a survivor of Auschwitz, would completely agree.
You may already know is story, but before Frankl and his family were arrested by the Nazis, he was a successful psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna. In the death camp, it came to Frankl that while the Nazis could take everything from him, they couldn’t take his thoughts, or his responses. The Nazis had no say over his mind.
Frankl left us with so many lessons on life, but this is one of my favorites.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ― Viktor E. Frankl
I love this quote. Between stimulus and response there is a space, and human beings have the ability to choose the thought that goes into that space.
An example.
Stimulus: you make it home after a long, tiring day to a hot, huge cheesy pizza in your kitchen. Next to the pizza sits a bottle of Merlot.
Response: You say to your partner, “give me five seconds to put on jammies and I’ll be right back!”
But slow your roll for a second.
Frankl tells us that there’s a space between seeing the pizza, and racing to get into our jams.
The space Frankl talks about is the moment when we have the ability – to slow everything down – and choose our thought, rather than reacting from a cave woman’s point of view (pizza, grunt, grunt, mine! grunt, grunt).
Instead the scene could go like this.
You walk into the house after a long, tiring day. You see the pizza. You think, major-yum. But you take a moment to chill and gather your thoughts. At that, you ask yourself the best question ever, do I want to be a size 8 or do I want to eat the pizza?
You also remind yourself that you can have the pizza in the morning. It’ll be tasty! (Having saved food for breakfast in the past, you know this is a fun move.)
You say to your partner, “You go ahead without me. I’ll eat my pizza in the morning.” At that, you grab a fast shower, relax into your jams, and return feeling much better. You eat a small dinner – that you prepared in advance — of brown rice, roasted sweet potatoes, and broccoli (your favorite).
As Loki tells Thor, “If it were easy, everyone would do it.” ♥
Pearl Two
Readers have asked what I think about intuitive eating. I can tell you that it’s an outstanding way to engage with food once you’ve lost the weight, and have maintained the loss for ten years.
At that point I say, go for it!
Living in our food-porn world, an intuitive eating lifestyle won’t produce the results you’re looking for when losing after age 50 (but I think you intuitively already knew that).
As you know I’m 16 years into maintenance and 50% of the time I eat intuitively. Here’s how I do it: First, I have to feel hungry because if I don’t feel ready to eat, I won’t eat. (I know this sounds obvious, but you and I can easily eat with others when we’re not exactly hungry.)
Second, I give careful thought to what kind of food sounds good to me at that moment.
I ask myself:
- Do I want to prepare food? Or grab something quickly?
- Do I want cold or hot?
- Sweet or savory? (Sweet would be my oatmeal-fruit bowl. Savory would be brown rice with veggies.)
But – in a million years – there’s no way I could’ve had this conversation with myself in the past if I hadn’t already maintained a loss for 16 years.
Which is why I say that intuitive eating is awesome, but only after ten years of maintenance. ♥
Pearl Three
We’re keeping this slot in October for what we once called “cheating,” “screwing up” or even “goofing.” Today we call “relaxing our standards a bit.” 🙂
Here’s how my eating went south these last seven days.
Turns out, I never tossed the donuts I talked about last week. And I never threw out the marshmallows. In my defense, my husband kept buying the marshmallows, so I had to eat them.
I finally put my foot down, “no more marshmallows!” He said, “I thought you liked marshmallows.” And I said, “what does that have to do with anything? No more!”
It’s funny how “just four marshmallows” becomes eight, becomes ten, becomes handfuls. But at this typing the kitchen is definitely marshmallow-free. Because I ate them all. (And, yes, I kindly requested that he not buy more this week. I have to nip it in the bud so that my mini-addiction doesn’t turn into a tough habit to break.)
Okay, now we come to the donuts. They really are fun to have with morning coffee, but they fill me up to such a degree that I’m not ready for lunch. And that has always been the deal that I’ve had with myself, that I have to be somewhat hungry to eat lunch at noon(ish).
Plus one of my sons love cinnamon and sugar donuts, so I tend to leave treats alone if they’re someone’s favorite. (I just keep the food out of sight.)
So, that’s how I relaxed my standards a bit this week. Next month we’ll focus on how I crushed it too. I want you to know that I have both not-so-fun and fantastic days. One of the most damaging thoughts I once held was thinking that I had to be perfect for weight loss to happen. I couldn’t make even one error or all was lost.
I didn’t understand that in real life, the successful folks stumble and get back up.
Over, and over, and over again ♥
Pearl Four
Let’s talk avocados. For years I didn’t eat avocados because I thought that they were too high in calories. They are, but check out their amazing nutrition content:
A whole medium avocado contains about 240 calories, 13 grams carbohydrate, 3 grams protein, 22 grams fat (15 grams monounsaturated, 4 grams polyunsaturated, 3 grams saturated), 10 grams fiber, and 11 milligrams sodium. Along with their low sodium levels, avocados contain no cholesterol. – Harvard, School of Public Health.
I’ve always been a huge fan of avocados, and because I strongly believe that when we eat is as important as what we eat, so I have my avocado sandwich for lunch.
I mash a plain avocado with a light sprinkle of salt and add it to whole-wheat bread. I also grab a bowl of cherry tomatoes, and pop one in my mouth as I take each bite of my avocado sandwich.
Awesome lunch. ♥
Pearl Five
What is the secret of success? Right decisions. How do you make right decisions? Experience. How do you gain experience? Wrong decisions.” – Abdul Kalam ♥
Our Holiday Health Challenge!! Just 41 days until the U.S. Thanksgiving and we’ve got this. I don’t care how many times you’ve started and stopped because it’s okay! Starting and stopping is part of how habits develop!
If you need to journal about why you chose the original goal in the first place, journal-away. I sure am. I’ll be journaling about why the goal I set in late August matters so much to me, and how I will begin the new year with this habit locked into place. (Not “I hope to,” but “I will.”)
Have a wonderful October everyone!
♥, Wendy
P.S. Are you new to the Inspired Eater? Welcome!! This blog won’t make much sense until you first read the Aunt Bea post (and you’ll find Aunt Bea on this page to the right under my short bio). On your cell you’ll see it immediately following the first post. After you enter your email address, the Aunt Bea article will be sent to your email’s inbox. If it’s not there, 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!
You know the scoop: I am an Amazon affiliate so if you buy something through a link at this site, I may receive a small commission that won’t impact your price at all.
I am not an expert, a doctor, a surgeon, a nurse or a nutritionist: the information within TheInspiredEater.com is based solely on my personal experience and is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. ♥
20 Comments
This post has been very timely. Yesterday and today my eating has not been good. It hasn’t been nearly as bad as it could be (win!), I have continued to drink plenty of water (win!), but! it is super important that tomorrow I jump back on my smart eating habits. While I could make excuses as to why things went sideways these 2 days, they would be just that, excuses. Had I practiced the skills you posted about today, I could have saved myself 2 rotten eating days. So I am confessing my mess ups here and will make wiser/better/smarter decisions tomorrow. Thank you Wendy! (side note: i want the pjs and socks that the lady is wearing in the picture!)
I want the pajamas too!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Wendy
Re: Avocados. I love guacamole tacos. I will put some guacamole in a warm corn tortilla and sprinkle some lime juice on top. Yum!
Oh, Briana, that sounds amazing! Yum-city. I’ll make one this week. 🙂
Wendy
Another excellent post! When I was younger I had the all or nothing mindset. One mistake and all was lost. I know better now.
Michelle
https://mybijoulifeonline.com
Exactly. It’s huge to realize, getting back on the horse is everything.
Hope you’re doing well and kisses the little guy!
Wendy
Aunt Bea post?
Sent! Thanks for asking!
Wendy
This is such great advice. I really appreciated the quote by Viktor E. Frankl. I hope I can remember that as I try so hard to lose weight. Thank you for sharing. You have a lovely blog. I am visiting from Linda’s link-up. Many blessings to you this autumn season!
Hi Cheryl,
Seriously. Stick with me. I can help to make a hard trek a little easier.
Thank you for your kind words. ♥♥♥
Wendy
Oh yes, I definitely have those great days and those not so great days! I just try and make sure my great days far outweigh my not so great days.
Smart!!
Great advice as always. I’ve resolved not to buy the tempting treats when I go shopping, because if they’re not there, I can’t eat them. I find it impossible not to eat the whole bag of crisps (I think you call them chips) and if I do that I then deny myself a nutritious meal. Thanks for linking!
You know what you’re doing. I call it “keeping a clean cart” so that we can then “keep a clean kitchen.”
Thank you for writing Gail! I love your blog, especially all the color!!
Wendy
Thanks for this advice and recommendations for how we can turn things around to make proactive food choices instead of giving in to negative and reactionary habits.
Carol
http://www.scribblingboomer.com
You said it — that’s the crux of it, making proactive choices.
Thank you for writing, Carol!
Wendy
Hi, Me again — just popping by to say:
Thank you for sharing this post in the Talent-Sharing Tuesdays Link-Up 38.
Carol
http://www.scribblingboomer.com
Hi You Again!
Thank you for doing such a nice link party!
Wendy
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Thank you Joy!!
Wendy