Pearl One
Remember the time you went out for a birthday dinner with a dear friend, ate a lot of food and “wrecked everything”? (You were all, “Well, everyone was eating and drinking — and that beautiful cake — and I’m only human!” (No argument here.)
But then did you note how three days later you hopped back onto the Smart Eating Path? Sure, you were mad at yourself at first (helps nothing, but okay), but by deconstructing the day (in your journal) you figured out where your smart eating began to tank. that lead to overeating at the birthday party.
And yet when you think about that birthday dinner, you frame it in your mind as “terrible eating” and not “I got back on the Smart Eating Path quickly. Go me!!”
Here’s the thing, they believe we evolved to pay heightened attention to negative moments – like when we felt as if we were being stalked – so we’d stay alive to produce more babies who would also stay alive to produce their babies.
The happy result being you and me. 😊
That said, you and I are still looking for the terrifying, the stupid, and the problematic. What else are we going to do? Our people didn’t survive by joyously tip toeing through the tulips and getting devoured by a Saber-Tooth because we were focused on the pretty flowers.
No, we evolved to default to the negative, so therefore it becomes imperative that you and I consciously call on the skills and talents of our prefrontal (the planning, logical side of our brain) to focus on the small wins that show up during the day.
Give your prefrontal the job of keeping track of your wins each week. And no, I’m not talking scale-wins, I’m talking habit-y wins like the following.
That time when you intentionally began eating a bowl of grapes, cherries, or a yogurt cup after lunch. A great win.
How you habituated yourself to taking an insanely delicious book to bed around 8 pm.-ish every evening. Brilliant win.
And, as mentioned, the time you got pulled into the birthday girl’s overeating, but later got back on track. No question, fabulous win.
Remembering to stack your wins is key to your forever-loss. And because we’re such negative creatures, it’s important to write down your small wins throughout the day, and then stack them in your journal, and finally onto your sticky notes. Read those stickies enough times and they’ll eventually lodge into your heart.
Another fun way to remember wins: start the day with bracelets on your left arm, and for every small win transfer one bracelet to your right arm.
And while I encourage you to stack wins for the week, you can also stack summer-wins, January-wins, cruise-ship-with-a-ton of food-wins and so on. It’s a total blast to start noticing when you’ve rocked it.
You can also make a game of it by telling yourself in the morning, “I will find at least three small wins today.” Kind of like those who “get in their steps.”
It’s important that we notice our small wins and give them to ourselves with a handful of figurative confetti. You don’t want to score win after win while living on the Smart Eating Path and not notice your successful moments. We flourish with positive feedback; because remember we’d all be size 0 if turning on ourselves actually produced anything.
In modern times, the saber tooth tiger looks an awful lot like a gorgeous birthday cake. The next time you’re staring down a cake-a-saurus, plan to “eat before you eat”, thereby robbing him of his (scary, but delicious) power.
Ooh, that’s a win. Write it down!! ♥
Pearl Two
I know a man who created a super successful career making great money all while actively over drinking. After an intervention with loved ones, he committed to AA and he’s now fifteen years sober.
I was floored.
Could you really create such wild success – incredible job, off-the-chart money – when you’re getting drunk every day of the week?
Before knowing this man, I had no idea. I thought that you had to have your act together before the jewels of life would rain down.
This little story is my way of telling you that when I had my “moment of clarity” (AA’s term) and began losing weight in earnest, I was as much a goof-ball as I’d ever been.
Trust me, I did not have my act together in any way, shape or form.
If your life isn’t “together”, can you create a forever-loss for yourself? I’m the walking, talking poster child for it.
Life doesn’t seem to really care one whit about my smart eating habits; it still pelts me with curve balls every chance it gets.
The takeaway: as Life is hassling you no end, hop onto the Smart Eating Path. Then, when you careen off the cliff (because Life) hop back on again, and again, and again.
You don’t have to be “perfect” to get down to your preferred weight and preserve the loss for a lifetime.
You just have to get good at the “again” thing. ♥
Pearl Three
Our subconscious gets excited to be invited to the party. When you’re journal-writing, you’re rolling out the red carpet for her.
Today’s prompt: Such-and-such has become second-nature for me.
And please, take a moment and tell us what’s become second-nature for you in the comments below. Let’s share! ♥
Pearl Four
You might want to sit down for this one. A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne is the same brilliant writer who brought us The Hearts Invisible Furies (also highly recommend). If the plot doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, give it a go anyway. It is so good.
The main character is an unusually attractive young man who wants to reach stratospheric heights in the world of literature except for one little problem: he doesn’t have an original thought. I was drawn into Boyne’s story from page one – a favorite check-box of mine to tick — where we meet an older successful writer who’s drinking alone in a hotel bar in West Berlin just a year before the wall came down in 1989, and the story spools from there into present day.
If I say too much more, I risk leaking spoilers but I can tell you that the ending is one blockbuster of a conclusion. My review: this weekend order A Ladder to the Sky, put your phone on airplane-mode, make your bed cozy, and sink into one h-e-double-hockey-sticks of a story. ♥
Pearl Five
Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.” ♥
Napoleon Hill
My good friend here in Atlanta moves to the Villages in Florida this week. Happy for her, but bummed for me. On the plus side, I do love visiting the Orlando area so there’s that. Plus my friend wants to do a cruise, and I’m always up for a cruise if it isn’t too pricey.
I’d love a follow on Instagram and/or Facebook.
Have a wonderful weekend 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!
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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. ♥
