How Stacking your Successes Puts You in the Driver’s Seat

Chart your growth, pretend that you’re teaching others about how you’ve done it because one day they’ll ask.

Pearl One

You and I aren’t 22.

And though we’ve never sipped wine talking late into the night, I know something profound about you.

You’re a problem solver. It’s like Marie Forleo’s book title says, Everything is Figureoutable.

That’s you.

You figure it out, solve the problem, and get onto the next thing.

Unfortunately, our school system left many of us confused about our abilities and talents. Those of us over “a certain age” know that while we might not have pulled wondrous grades in school, we hold PhDs in not only surviving, but thriving in life.

School never taught us how to deal with the incessant red-tape of our world, babies with colic, moms with Alzheimer’s.

We didn’t have classes like “Intro to Varicose Veins”, the “Fundamentals of Leaving a Narcissist” or “Colonoscopy 101.”

A friend, diagnosed with breast cancer, handled chemo and radiation, and returned to her world homeschooling her teen. She’s happily in remission now. Falling apart was never part of her job description. 

What are Your Triumphs?

Get to the heart of the matter quickly by journaling about the following:

• In your journal list three times in your life when you blew your own mind.
• What did you learn from each win? (Write at least five lessons for each success.)
• Now apply those lessons-learned to trekking the Smart Eating Matterhorn.

I say it often – and I can’t be more serious – take regular notes as you lose and maintain, so that one day you can teach others. Because it’s a habit that pays double: you become a stronger trekker and, trust me, the people willl be asking. ♥

Pearl Two

Have you heard of it? I call it peripheral food shopping.

Here’s how it rolls.

Say I’m shopping in Trader Joe’s. If you were to glance into my cart you’d see: fresh flowers, whole wheat bread, colorful fruit and veggies, a wrapped burrito that I love and so on. My cart is “clean” of food-porn (a clean cart makes for a clean kitchen).

As I steer my cart into the center freezer aisle, I breeze by the cookies and candy, and head for the tins of coffee (on the top row).

But when I get to the coffee — lo and behold — underneath sits TJ’s awesome ice cream. At that moment, my mind jumps to my picky eater son. The poor guy doesn’t have much variety, so when I see something he’ll eat, I tend to buy it.

I lovingly place a carton of vanilla bean into my otherwise “clean” cart.

And that is peripheral shopping at it’s best.

You’ll notice how I essentially tell myself a big, fat lie: that I’m buying the vanilla ice cream for my son and of course I won’t eat it, the vanilla’s strictly for Will.

But, in the recesses of my mind – peripherally you might say – a Horton Hears a Who-whisper tells me that a spoonful of vanilla in the evening would be just the ticket.

Well.

You know as well as I that a spoonful of good ice cream can turn into two bowlfuls in no time.

To stop the peripheral shopping addiction in its tracks, it starts with noticing and acknowledging the whopper of a lie we tell ourselves. Being willing to be straight up honest is a serious game-changer.

Your mission: get really good at “catching yourself out.” Notice that when you pick-up a treat for someone at the grocery store, you’re picking up your favorites too. Put the ice cream back, wish it well, and get out of TJ’s as fast as humanly possible.

Another close call averted. ♥

Pearl Three

This slot is for “how I screwed up this week.” I have a really good “mess up” to share.

It was The Scarfer’s birthday this week (if you’re new here, and welcome!!, my husband loves his nickname). Mistake #1: I didn’t write out a battle plan for his big day of birthday-eating. If I’d had a plan, I’d be reporting success to you right now instead of the following.

There I was, “having” to buy birthday donuts from a shop that bakes fresh donuts every morning. A full dozen rode home with me. OMG, but they were good. (Save yourself by not taking that first bite.)

Mistake #2: I should’ve bought a small bag of donuts for my husband and two sons. And I had no business buying two jelly-filled that nobody eats but me (and occasionally the Scarfer).

We made his favorite for dinner: fondue which is seriously-yum. I was happy that I’d roasted broccoli to dip into the fondue, but when the broccoli was gone, I helped myself to a few bread chunks too. More yum-city. (Again, if I’d made a plan, the bread and fondue fiasco wouldn’t have happened.)

Earlier I’d made the Scarfer a chocolate cake with homemade chocolate frosting and – yikes – had to have a piece. Mistake #3: I know what cake tastes like, if I’d wanted cake, I should have planned for it and had it at breakfast. Truth is, the cake was too dry, but the frosting rocked!

If you’re counting, this was the first time I’ve had dessert after dinner in almost two years.

Do I beat myself up? I sure would if I thought it would help. But – as we know – attacking ourselves doesn’t lighten our load as we trek the Matterhorn (i.e. losing weight after 50).

Later I’m much less worried about the donuts, fondue and frosting, and more concerned about my habits.

Here’s what I did the next day to right my course:

In the morning I got on the scale and – huh — didn’t really love the number. At that I think, “Oh, hell no!!” Seriously, “oh, hell no” is my mantra when my smart eating habits tank. The mantra gets me back into the groove. Try it, it really works.

Because I deeply believe in the Royal Eating Plan, I have one donut with my morning coffee.

I carefully track everything that goes into my mouth.

For lunch I’m back in the game and have a whole-wheat English muffin sandwich with veggies.

Then I had something small at 6 p.m. (brown rice and a roasted sweet potato).

I clean the kitchen, write a post for Inspired Eater, and head to bed by 8:00 with my new book. Lights out by 9:30, Eventually I want to get up by 6 a.m. without feeling like a zombie.

And that’s how I deal with “relaxing my eating standards” (what we once called “cheating”).

Best Idea

If I could go back in time, I’d write up a plan for myself and keep the plan and it’s excellent tactics where I can see it all day long.

Remember, we can’t fall off anything because we’re not on anything. We’re living a Smart Eating Lifestyle and relaxing our standards is just part of the trek. It’s nothing to be dramatic about. It’s how we respond to eating food-porn that really matters.

How we respond is everything. ♥

Pearl Four

Our food slot! My Italian grandparents loved polenta especially my grandfather. He ate it like we eat Cream of Wheat. It’s boiled cornmeal and makes a great hot breakfast when it’s cold out.

But these days, I buy Trader Joe’s polenta that’s formed into yellow “logs” that you’ll find in TJ’s dry goods by the soup. (Or just ask, the staff can point you right to it.)

You can bake, fry, or grill polenta.

Here’s what I do.

I cut the log in half, and then cut one of the halves into four rounds placing the other half in the refrigerator. I fry my four rounds on the stove, but I bet they’re even tastier when baked or grilled.

After I heat them on the stove, I place my four hot rounds of polenta on the top of my salad. Sometimes I dab a tiny bit of butter on each round and add Parmesan cheese. Yum-o. ♥

Pearl Five

“The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest thing is to respond. But the hardest thing is to initiate.” – Seth Godin ♥

We have 27 days until Thanksgiving which isn’t meant to panic you. How is your new habit doing? Does it need shoring up? No problem. Get back on your habit-horse. You’re not starting anew, you’re continuing on with what you already started.

You’re not perfect? Join the club!!

I actually wrote my fitness habit on sticky notes and placed them throughout my life — the steering wheel is my favorite — so they’d remind me to workout. The stickies have been super helpful.

Remember, we’re working towards Thanksgiving at the moment, but soon we’ll be working towards Christmas.

I would love to hear the habit you’re creating in the comments below! Please share.

Have a wonderful end to October.

♥, 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! ♥