My Favorite – Can’t Live Without — Strategies for Losing after 50

Capital “LOVE” is for our peeps, furry babies and coffee. Lowercase “love” is for food.

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Hey Everyone!

Let’s get right to it!

Pearl One

Some of us read every word of these posts – and I love it when you point out typos, I really do! – while others read one post here and another there, but here’s the thing: in not reading 90 percent of this blog you’re missing the full impact of how I was able to lose 55 lbs. and, 17 years later, maintain the loss.

I approached my own initial forever-weight loss and maintenance differently than we’ve long learned to do from your average diet company, diet book, or strenuous, unsustainable boot-camp approach.

Problem is, I haven’t figured out how to say that I have a better way without sounding cheesy.

“I lost 55 lbs. and you can too!”

See how goofy that sounds?

If you have any ideas re: how to de-cheese me, I’m all eyes! 🙂

My Can’t Live Without Strategies & Tactics for Losing after Fifty

I happen to agree wholeheartedly with myself that losing after 50 and creating a forever-loss equals about — oh — a million or so mind-shifts, habits and tools. But if someone said, “right, but if you could only pick three important themes, what would they be?”

I would pick these guys:

1. The Pivotal Reframe that Makes Losing Possible

Years ago, it dawned on me to call losing weight, “my part-time job.” Seventeen years into maintenance I now call it “my hobby.”

As you know, there’s so much involved in losing weight. Sweeping the kitchen of obstacle-calories, asking housemates to please eat junk food out of the house (said with a smile), buying the right foods (and gear like an air fryer) to make the trek a smidge more doable, is all a crazy amount of work.

So, calling this process of losing after 50 “a part-time job” immediately gave me room to breathe. I wasn’t trying anymore to cram my new Smart Eating Lifestyle into every spare nook and cranny of my life (and feeling boiling resentment along the way), but with the “part-time job” reframe, I had the luxury to open windows of time that allowed me to set myself up for success.

2. I don’t let myself get hungry

Could there be a more important strategy? Me-thinks not. You and I have a habit with hunger and it’s not a good one.

Allowing ourselves to get overly-hungry is the sure-fire way to mess up our smart eating plans.

And I’m not only talking about famished-hunger, I’m talking about the kind of hunger that presents itself after a meal when we think, “a handful of peanut M&Ms sure sounds tasty.”

Which was me last night.

And after these many years, the cave woman part of my brain suggested this very handful of candy just last night.

It wasn’t ten or twenty years ago.

It was last night.

Before I started to vacuum up the calories, I realized what was happening — I was still merely hungry — and had a small bowl of cereal. Disaster averted.

My M&M craving? Gone.

Bottom line: nobody makes smart food choices when she’s hungry.

My tactics: live life with your cold-tote — packed in smart food – by your side. Always Eat Before You Eat. And never, ever return home hungry.

3. I Plan and Plan and Plan

In case you’re wondering, maintaining a 55-pound loss after age 50 is no picnic. So planning is a monumental part of my day-to-day.

My tactics: On Sunday afternoons, I make food that I can grab on the run like my whole-wheat pumpkin muffins; I hard boil eggs. I make two servings or so of brown rice. I read restaurant menus online in advance of entering the venue. I keep junk food out of my kitchen and smart food beautifully displayed in it. ♥

Pearl Two

If you’re new to the Inspired Eater, you should know that I was a butterball from age seven or eight until about the age of 42. (If you’d like the details re: my fun life with food, check out theses two links: About Me and Begin Here.)

One time in my 30s, I was at a casual meeting with four or five colleagues and the issue of weight and healthy eating came up. The group started chattering away about how they eat well by bringing such-and-such to work and . . . then they all looked at me, grew silent, and quickly moved onto the next agenda item.

And you know what?

It didn’t really bother me – yes, it hurt a little – because at that point I’d already lost ten or fifteen pounds and knew that I was headed for a forever-loss. I was new to the group and these women didn’t know how far I’d already come.

This sort of experience is why I say, “I understand. Being heavy is hard for a gazillion different reasons and losing the weight is super hard because, well, we LOVE food!!”

And that’s my point: we don’t need to love food in all caps ever again. We’re taking ourselves from capital LOVE to lowercase “love” when it comes to food.

Same with actual meals. Don’t make dishes that taste GREAT!

Make delicious food that’s good enough.

See the difference? We can love food that’s a B- and keep the A+ gob-smacking, unbelievable food as the rare treat.

Let others think what they will, we know we’re headed some place special (and it’s called a “forever-loss”). ♥

Pearl Three

A funny celebrity story. Remember how Renee Zellweiger gained about 30 lbs. for Bridget Jones’s Diary? Well I laughed when I heard her once say – and I’m paraphrasing – that she was perplexed to realize that to gain weight, one donut wouldn’t do the trick and that she’d had to eat many calories along with other high-fat foods to plump up for the role.

It’s good intell for you and me. It’s not one cone, one slice of birthday cake, or one bowl of mac ‘n cheese, it’s the amount that matters (and, yes, I know you know, but I wanted to share anyway).

You and I aren’t usually food-hungry or we’d stop at “one” of whatever food. When we plow through many, many calories we’re starving for something much deeper.

And the only portal I know of that takes us to our super wise sub-conscious — on a daily basis — is journal-writing. Ask yourself quality questions such as, what was happening inside of me the moment before, the hour before, the day before, the week before, and the month before I chowed the leftover pizza from last night (my sons were all, “what happened to the pizza?”). It’s powerful: give your highly-evolved sub-conscious a voice and watch her amaze you. ♥

Pearl Four

For some time we’ve used Pearl Four to talk food that’s both tasty and nutritious, but I’m pretty tapped out. I think I’ve shared my reliables: stir-fry, whole-wheat pumpkin (or banana or apple) muffins, really good fruit in the summer, and smoothies. If you’ve found a super helpful food please share in the comments below. We can all use a new food that makes our trek a little less daunting. Include how I make smart food on The Inspired Eater: Fed Up.

That said, have I shared with you that there’s an almond milk that’s just 30 calories? I live on it. While it comes in plain, I love “vanilla.” You’ll find it at your grocery store with the other milks.

Our new Pearl Four is thanks to a suggestion by Ms. B, who asked that I share good books. Great idea!

Here goes.

My habit is to try several books each week and ditch the ones that don’t work for me. I read to about page 10 or even 20, but if something doesn’t improve, back into my library bag it goes. I promise to only share amazing books that I LOVE (caps intended; books deserve it).

The author I have for you today is Matt Haig who authored two incredible, wowza books:

The Humans. When you first start reading The Humans you might wonder if it’s a non-fiction and then think that maybe it’s sci-si. It’s neither. It’s a five-star read, infused with a bit of magic, that’ll make you happy to be a human. The story is about an alien who’s been tasked with visiting Earth to see what humans are all about. The alien inhabits a dad’s body and goes home to “his” family. It’s a fish-out-of-water story and has humorous moments, but it’s touching and wonderful and please read it.

The Midnight Library. This Haig-masterpiece is about a woman who isn’t so thrilled with her life. Nothing’s going her way and she’s done. She ends up in a purgatory that takes her down several cool life-threads. If you’ve ever wondered, what if?, this is your read. And Haig outdid himself with the ending.

I highly recommend both The Humans and The Midnight Library. They’re easy to read and you can plow through each in a weekend. ♥

Pearl Five

“What did you think? I would not comeback? See I am back.” ~ Invajy ♥

I LOVE this quote (again, caps intended). The idea being: don’t ever give up. So what if you ate the entire bag of Doritos and your tongue is numb and orange? Ditch the drama, journal-write about what went south that led to the emptied Dorito bag, and then do your “ta-da” comeback (we’ve so got this).

I would love it if you’d follow me on Instagram and/or Twitter!

And if something touched you in the post, I’d appreciate it so much if you’d share it with a loved one.

Have a dessert-book-ish weekend!

♥, 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!

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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. ♥