The Inspired Eater
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A Little Known Tool to Wield for Weight Loss Success After 50

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This little gem: it does a body good.

Welcome to our new peeps! So happy you’re here. As Tim Ferriss said, “people don’t want more information about their problems. They want solutions to their problems.” Below in pink you’ll find five super important posts. The regular Monday post I send will make a lot more sense after you read the pink. And if you haven’t received your Aunt Bea copy just write to me at: Wendy@theInspiredEater.com and I’ll shoot it right to you.

Follow me and the Inspired Eater on Instagram. This was a recent post:

Pearl One

When my boys were toddlers, I had a new mom-friend who also had a toddler ask me if I’d like to walk on a specific trail with her that week with the three kids. I didn’t even stop to think and responded, “I don’t feel comfortable going somewhere so desolate and empty.” (I’ve always been a cautious human.)

My friend responded, “I just couldn’t live like that.” But I didn’t hem or haw, I simply said “no, I don’t walk in isolated areas.”

I didn’t feel the need to bring up horror stories or in any way explain myself. I just said politely, “no.”

It occurred to me – as I was maintaining my original weight loss — that I’d slowly morphed into someone who’s assertive about her smart eating habits too.

Don’t get me wrong, there are situations when I get flustered like when I’m dealing with an enraged person, purchasing an expensive item like a car or staying mum when friends make strong political comments that I don’t agree with (I tend to change the subject).

What I Figured Out

Through many years of maintenance, smart eating became a nonnegotiable in my life. It didn’t matter if I was traveling, grieving or breaking a foot, my smart eating habits became, like my fingernails, always there.

What I noticed is that becoming assertive about my food choices turned out to be a foundational pillar to successfully maintaining my weight loss for a lifetime.

What do I mean about becoming assertive with your smart eating habits? Let me give you some examples:

  • I let everybody in the house know they need to keep their “treats” out of site, so they’ll be out of mind. One great thing about aging for me is that if a family member hides the junk food, I entirely forget it’s even there.
  • When I go for lunch with friends – I examine the menu in advance – and usually get two sides: a side of brown rice and a side of grilled veggies. If these food items aren’t available, I order a salad that leaves out heavy cheese and the like. Greek salads with feta cheese is a cheese that’s fine. In a Mexican restaurant I might order a small bean burrito. But whatever food I’m ordering, I’m confident and precise in asking for what I want.
  • I’m assertive when I plainly state to myself, “Living at a certain weight matters to me — and it matters that it matters!”
  • I’m also assertive with my own self. I have an inner dialogue running throughout the day like, “Yes, let’s have that sandwich for lunch. Yum!” or “no ma’am, we don’t eat cake like that anymore” or “yes, it’s my birthday, but I really want to continue my no-cake challenge for the full year!”

Transforming into an “assertive food person” isn’t an overnight thing. It’s more step-by-step.

I’m proving to myself, one smart self-assertion at a time that consistency builds confidence for the long haul.🎃

Pearl Two

Our writing prompt pearl to use with our journal.

Ask yourself these questions:

  • In general do you stand up for yourself?
  • When are you most assertive?
  • Where are the sticking points?
  • Do you see a common factor in the times when you’re most assertive?
  • Same question about your difficult moments.
  • In thinking back to the people who raised you, how did assertiveness come into play?
  • If assertiveness played out more like aggression, how did you respond?
  • What examples of assertiveness have you seen in life?
  • What do you think about becoming more assertive when it comes to staying on the Smart Eating Path? 🎃

Pearl Three

Sequencing is taken directly from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The purpose of sequences is to help us move from reacting to circumstances to responding. I encourage you to do a sequence a day in your journal. Powerful stuff. Apply to your own life.

Automatic Sequence

  • Situation (be super concrete): Mara lost 45 pounds in her forties and kept the weight off for years, until the pandemic hit. She worked from home, but lives with — and cares for her — aging mother, and her last child has left for college.
  • Initial thought: I can’t handle all of this happening at once! And it doesn’t help a bit that I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been.
  • Feeling: Frantic and fear. Loneliness too.
  • Action: She attempts to overcontrol her mother and even her son in college. She’s supposed to be working from home, but mainly she’s been doom-scrolling.
  • Results: She struggles through “the mess” (her words) that has become her life.

Chosen Sequence

  • Situation (be super concrete): Mara lost 45 pounds in her forties and kept the weight off for years, until the pandemic hit. She worked from home, but lives with — and cares for —  her aging mother, and her last child has left for college.
  • Chosen thought: Seriously? My life feels like I’m on Candid Camera. All of this “fun” hitting at once is annoying, but I’m doing something different this time: I’m consciously taking deep breaths, and noting where the magic is in daily life.
  • Action: Mara begins a journal that reflects small magical moments in her life. Mara writes about her relationship with her niece that’s only deepened through the years, a specific friend who touches Mara’s heart, and loving and nurturing her rescue fur-baby.
  • Result: She writes in the mornings and keeps her magical moments in mind as she goes forth about her day. 🎃

Pearl Four

Books love us and want us to be happy

Do I have a great book-dessert for you. It’s one of those books you might have been assigned in high school and avoided reading or read some and then stopped. This story is historical fiction at its very best.

Written by Pearl S. Buck in 1931, The Good Earth introduced the Western world to the daily lives of Chinese peasants. Born in West Virginia, Buck moved to China as an infant when her missionary parents relocated. She spent over forty years living there, which allowed her to portray peasant life with remarkable authenticity.

Buck won the Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth and went on in later years to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. But this is not a boring classic best left for high school classes. Oprah said about The Good Earth, “It’s juicy as all get out!”

I highly recommend — a thousand-percent book-dessert! 🎃

Pearl Five

Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.” 🎃

Nikos Kazantzakis

Writing for our group is one of my magical moments in life!

♥, Wendy

You know the scoop: I’m an Amazon affiliate. If you buy from a link in my post, I’ll receive money, but the arrangement won’t cost you a dime.

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!!

I am not an expert, doctor, surgeon, nurse, dietician, or 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.

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