Pearl One
It took many years for me to truly connect that eating several brownies starts with a thought in my brain. Let me give you an example. Say my husband’s company is downsizing and he’s laid off. I then have a thought about his being let go. From this one situation, there are many responses:
- First the thought: Omg.
My husband is out of work. “We’ll lose the house!; then the feeling: fear. - Thought: “Wow. I’ve wanted to start an e-business forever. Looks like now’s tr the time. Feeling: apprehensive, but excited.
- Thought: Awesome! We’ve been talking about moving to a new state for ages. Adventure: here we come! Feeling: thrilled.
After having our feeling (fear, excited, thrilled) we then kick into action. Most of us — on this site – have
a feeling and overeat. It might be stress-eating or what I call the 3Es: every-emotion-eating.
One more example.
A young woman has been 30 pounds over her preferred weight since middle school. She often tells friends, “No matter what I do, I can’t lose. The weight will not budge.”
Our young woman gets engaged and drops thirty to fit into her dress.
Nothing changed.
Except everything changed: her thinking.
Losing and maintaining always begins in our brain. Every poor food choice starts in our synapses. Once you make this internal shift, you’ll approach weight loss in an entirely new way.
The diet industry has done a number on our culture. They’ve long framed weight loss as a food or a willpower or a “Just Do It” kind of thing.
It’s not.
It’s much bigger: it’s a thinking thing.❄️
Pearl Two
Our journal Pearl.
- What do you think that: it’s not a food thing, it’s a thinking thing?
- How do you use your thinking to eat fewer calories?
- Try to list the ways your thinking turns off and your cavewoman takes over?
- List the ways you can keep your thinking focused on your plan: a lifetime weight loss.
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.
Initial Sequence
- Situation (be bare bones): Helen, 69, lives alone and her trash is picked up on Sundays. Her driveway is steep to bring trash outside on Sundays difficult.
- Initial thought: “I’m angry mainly at myself for not being able to do this like I once did.”
- Feeling: angry because she wants to feel independent, a Mary Tyler Moore ty;pe of person.
- Result: More getting mad at herself and coming up with lame solutions.
Chosen Sequence
- Situation (be bare bones): Helen, 69, lives alone and her trash is picked up on Sundays. Her driveway is steep making it hard to get the trash down on Sundays.
- Chosen thought: “It’s true. I like to feel independent so I’ll figure this one out. I can’t keep driving my trash to the curb. I’m not going to move into full on drama.”
- Feeling: “I feel courageous for looking carefully at the entire situation without flying into drama which is what I once would have done.”
- Action: she quietly sits at the kitchen table and makes a list of stuff she’s good at before making a list of ideas for her Sunday trash situation. She wonders whether the county trash up would allow her to leave the trash by her garage. The word “elderly” bugs her, but it’s a good way to get the job done. She also wonders if the neighbor boy wants to make extra money moving the trash can.
- Result: Turns out the trash people put her under “elderly/disabled.” Problem solved. ❄️
Pearl Four
I loved Marianne Cronin’s The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot and would you believe that this is the author’s debut book. Such talent. I’ll never forget the funny opening line, “When people say ‘terminal,’ I think of the ‘airport.’” This book is a not-to-miss book-dessert.
The reason I mention Cronin’s first book is due to her second one that/z come out to great reviews. Eddie Winston is Looking for Love, was released in 2024. I’m just now diving in, if it’s only half as good as her first, we’re in good hands. I’m leaning heavily on book-desserts in the evenings. ❄️
Pearl Five
“You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.” Anne Lamott ❄️
I’m sorry I’m so late. Too much time at the doctors.
Have a great mid-February!
♥, Wendy
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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.
