How to Use this Comedienne’s Unique Wisdom for Losing & Preserving Our Weight after Age 50

Hello Thrivers!

If you have a question about something I’ve never addressed please just ask in the comments below or email me: Wendy@theInspiredEater.com.

Pearl One

Jerry Seinfeld recently said, “Your blessing in life is when you find the torture you’re comfortable with.” He went on, “That (goes for) marriage, kids, work, exercise, not eating the food you want to eat. Find the torture you’re comfortable with.”

I love this wisdom because I take his point to mean, “be honest with yourself. Life is not easy. Pick what works best for you.”

While I don’t find preserving a large loss tortuous today, I certainly once did. When I was working hard to develop better habits, I would see something delicious and tell myself, “Noooo, that’s not how we’re living anymore. Those days are gone. I know, it’s not fun, but this is the reality. I’d rather fit into clothes than overeat the lasagna.”

I said a version of these thoughts to myself every time I wanted to step off the Smart Eating Path which was easily once a day. It was a huge help to know what to say to myself and how to respond when facing alluring food.

First, I didn’t let myself get overly hungry and second, food was no longer my playland for the times when I was bored, sad, anxious or angry.

Today, choose one new habit to embed. The one that seems the most potent to me is to finish a tiny dinner by 6 p.m. and take a great book to bed around 8. Read for two hours and then lights out. (Adding that if I’m actually hungry, I go back to the dark kitchen and half of a banana.)

Or make it a forever habit to track your food and add up points or calories. Tracking and counting is one of the best habits I ever instilled. If you’re not tracking and counting your food, start the habit today (remember that it’s only the first 16-days that are the hardest).

Or try giving up one food for the remainder of the year. This idea comes from Tim Ferriss who gave up bagels thereby “making one decision that eliminated one hundred more.” His point: if you give up bagels for the year, you just say “no thank you” the second someone offers a bagel. It’s passive-decision making, like passive-income but with a twist! ♥

Pearl Two

I love this exercise.

Think about a time in your life when you had the world by the tail and nailed a successful moment. Maybe it was when you passed that really hard licensing-exam. Or when you landed the job you’d always wanted. Maybe it’s when you got the diagnosis you didn’t want, but you survived chemo and radiation and rid your body of the cancer cells.

Pick a moment when you were super proud of yourself.

In your mind’s eye, make “the win” “really big, so big that that the image fills the whole room, and then imagine it over your roof reaching up to the sky.

A quick aside: I’m a nervous passenger in cars. I know it’s rude to back-seat drive, plus I don’t like it when someone does it to me. So, over the years I’ve gotten into the habit of seeing two angels in pink flying along over the top of our car protecting and loving us.

Back to our regularly scheduled program. Now take your super big “win” out of the sky and make it small, small enough to “put” the win into a ring or a bracelet or glasses or something that’s with you daily.

The idea is that each time you glimpse your bracelet, the beautiful thought of your big win returns flooding you with feelings of accomplishment.

This amazing exercise comes to us from the world of Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). ♥

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.

Automatic Sequence

I’m pretending to be this person. The situation comes from a novel I once read.

• Situation (something super concrete): I’ve lived in Manhattan for 20 years now. I love this city. We’re moving to a suburb for quality of life and safety.
• Automatic thought: I’m Sarah Jessica Parker, I’m not Mrs. Brady. Suburbs are cookie-cutter houses filled with cookie-cutter people living cookie-cutter lives.
• Feeling: Incredible sadness at leaving and revulsion for where we’re going.
• Action: I half-hardheartedly look at homes on Zillow.
• Result: I cry a lot.

New Sequence

• Situation (something super concrete): I’ve lived in Manhattan for 20 years now. I love this city. We’re moving to a suburb for quality of life and safety.
• Chosen Thought: I’m choosing to look at the move as an exciting new adventure. The dogs will love more room and the big backyard. I’m sure they have fun things to do in the suburbs. We’ll be safer and can visit the city anytime.
• Feeling: Happy that my pups will be happy. Willing to give this new lifestyle a solid try.
• Action: I find homes online that I can imagine living in.
• Result: When we visit the suburb to see the homes I’m honestly surprised at the beauty of the town. I hadn’t expected it to be so lush. And the post office and library are practically walking distance from each other. I’m getting a little excited. ♥

Pearl Four

Pearl four is space for me to share a book-dessert, but – ugh – of the several I’ve skim-read, zero have wowed me. I mean, they’re good stories. I would have finished any one of them, but they’re not at book-dessert status.

So, the book that I’m highly recommending is also not a book-dessert, but it’s a book I very much want to share with you called The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. If you have children or teens in your life for whom you’re buying gifts, this book is a gem-filled treasure trove of incredible book recommendations. The first half of the book explains why reading aloud is so important for families, but the second half of the book is packed in incredible reads for ages 0 to 2, 2 to 5, preschool to first, 4^th grade to 7 and so on.

Because of two major moves, I homeschooled my two sons and dipped into this book almost daily. You’ll find classics along with newer books. I wrote in and dog-eared my copy. To give you an example of how the book presents titles:

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

Grades 3 – 6                            78 pages.                                   Harcourt, 1944

Then the book gives a short paragraph on what the book’s about and adds “related books” also with the authors’ names. Love, love, love this book. ♥

Pearl Five

It’s always hard before it becomes easy, it’s when things get tough that you mustn’t quit. The closer you are to your breakthrough, the harder things become and the fiercer you’ll always have to fight.” ♥

Based on a poem by Edgar Guest

Have a wonderful week! I’d love a follow on Instagram and Facebook

♥, Wendy

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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. ♥