Happy New Year!! Now Let’s Talk Losing Weight After Age 50

Always your best bet: Brut Champagne (lowest calorie drink going)

Pearl One

Happy New Year Thrivers!!, of course, but today I’m feeling annoyed. I don’t know if you’ve seen the video on Instagram or Facebook showing Jane Fonda’s niece looking different today than she once looked being pursued by photographers? She was clearly so uncomfortable by the attention, but they kept coming at her as she tried to make her way to her car.

It took time, but I’ve finally realized: the media uses those of us with weight and food issues like the circuses of old used so-called “freaks” who were flesh-and-blood, merely misunderstood human beings.

Our media salivates at featuring women who are morbidly obese and then showing the women after they’ve lost a hundred pounds, as in “look! She went from awful to awesome.”

And they dress it all up in, “we only want to help these people” (the reality shows) and “we want to applaud these women for all the pounds they’ve lost” (the magazines).

Holy-Cow

As I researched for this post, I was surprised to learn that the Biggest Loser has been on for 17 years! And apparently even produced copycat shows.

I’ve never seen the Biggest Loser, but I did flip by it once and saw a coach screaming at someone to run faster, or pump more weight or something like that.

At the time I thought, “how awful.” I was into my forever preservation mode at that point; I knew how to successfully lose and preserve the loss. And my success had absolutely nothing to do with being screamed at.

It’s my thought that obese people appear to be the last bastion of a group that it’s deemed fine to gawk and sneer at. Functioning drug users like Matthew Perry can snow the world because addiction isn’t visible. An addiction to food, however, can be seen. A friend called it, “wearing your problems.”

When someone is severely obese the last place they need to be is on a reality show. They need medical intervention from a caring, kind, committed source.

I don’t have the precise answer for obese people, but I can tell you that I know a lot more about it than these reality shows know.

Obese people are not circus freaks. People having real trouble with our food-porn world are human beings who need a helping hand from us. Shame on everything behind these shows. ♥

Pearl Two

A moment on New Year’s resolutions. Like all of us, I used to make dramatic, huge resolutions that never got traction.

I finally got wise and began to make only fun and positive resolutions.

This year instead of resolving to lose twenty pounds or whatever, choose a resolution that’s relatively simple to activate like these little guys:

• Resolve to play exciting and kick-ass music every morning before your day begins (look to the movie people for guidance. They know the importance of the right music for every scene, so let’s steal a page from their playbook. Before your day starts in earnest, crank Prince!!
• Laugh really hard at something hilarious every single day. (I did this one year and still remember stuff I cracked up at.
• Resolve to only shop at thrift stores throughout 2024 (of course we can’t get everything at a thrift store like I need new slipper socks, but for everything else? I’m thinking I’ll treasure at the thrift.
• In The Inspired Eater: Fed Up’s chapter titled “14 Super Tools I Couldn’t Lose Without” choose one or two tools to be your 2024 resolution. (I’m shy to say this, but I want you guys to have a Rolls-Royce weight loss slash preservation experience in 2024. Read the book once a year forever and a Rolls-year will be yours.) Share in the comments below which habit you’re embedding. ♥

Pearl Three

In December, we’re deep-diving into Atomic Habits

In Atomic Habits, James Clear tell us, “Success is the process of daily habits. Not once in a lifetime transformation.”

Good one, James!! I’ve always been so taken with the stories of people being “discovered” like Giselle when she was spotted at McDonalds in Brazil and was soon cat walking for Victoria Secrets. But she stole my dream becauseI wanted to be discovered, and cat walk!!

Our culture – for some reason – loves the idea of “an overnight success.” We don’t seem to want to hear stories of endless toil, constant annoyances, set-back, obstacles and so forth.  Just a thought, but I wonder if movies introduced the idea. You know, Dorothy and Toto make it back to Kansas and all is well. At the end of two hours, the ending is all about wrapping up the story and calling it good.

The insanely successful I’ve personally known, became successful by showing up – no matter what – every single boring day. I know they went down paths that they’d rather they hadn’t, but when they realized they needed a better path, they located and hopped on it. ♥

Pearl Four

If you loved a Man Called Ove, this is your book. It’s adorable and sweet and life-affirming. In The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick, we meet Arthur, a widower on the first anniversary of his wife’s death. One moment, as he’s going through her things, he finds a never-before-seen (by him) fine gold charm bracelet.

And that begins Arthur’s journey that takes him around the world (Paris, London, and India). As he travels he starts to see that there’s still life to be enjoyed even if we’ve lost our darling.

I’m just a third of the way in and my attention was captured right off the bat.

Curious Charms is the perfect read over a long weekend. ♥

Pearl Five

“Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe.”

Sumner Redston

Christmas is so much fun for so many reasons, but I honestly love getting back to real life.

If you’ve enjoyed this post please share it with a loved one.

Have a beautiful holiday weekend.

See you on Tuesday, January 2!

♥, 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. ♥