Happy Friday, Thrivers!!

It’s been pointed out to me that my posts are too long. So I planned to keep this post short.

I’ll do better next week.

Pearl One

Let’s Talk the “S” Word.

I was planning to use Pearl One for another topic, but I just received an email from a sweet thriver who wrote about the success she’s having:  she’s down 44 lbs. since April 2021!! I LOVE hearing about those who trust the process of losing weight slowly.

If the weight loss happens a bit at a time, our cave woman slumbers in her cave, not feeling her presence is needed. Take it slowly with the many plateaus that are actually a good thing. (It’s just your body adjusting to the new weight.)

Our thriver brought up an important topic she wrote, (the trainer at the gym) said not to weigh myself!! And you weigh yourself every day. Maybe you could write about that sometime please. Cheers!!

The scale. Is anything as revered or hated as much as your average bathroom scale? On one side we have “Team How Could I Survive without my Scale?” And on the other side is “Team My Ears, My Ears! I Just Heard Talk of He who must not be Named!”

Here’s my take on the “S” word-drama.

The scale is merely a feedback device. Nothing more, nothing less. Many of us associate scales with the hurt, pain, and humiliation we experienced as kids when we were forced to step onto the scale. Totally get it. I have my own stories.

The reason the fitness industry is absolutely not a fan of the scale, however, is that muscle weighs more than fat, so if we’re working out we may — in theory — be gaining muscle, and today’s scale doesn’t differentiate between fat and muscle. So, the scale-haters, say “scales aren’t giving us useful information. What the point?”

Then we have the team who has no intention of ever giving up their scale. Their point is that the scale helps them know if what they’re eating is working or not.

I live somewhere in the middle. I don’t have a knee-jerk reaction to the word “scale.”

When I first became wacko-determined to lose the weight for good, I was weighed at Weight Watchers once a week. Then I got pregnant with twins, and of course stopped losing weight. A few weeks after I had my babies, I started WW meetings again. (I wasn’t able to breast feed so losing weight wasn’t a problem.)

I took one baby every Saturday (left one with my hub) and attended a meeting that also had the weekly weigh-in. I’m not in any way endorsing WW. It was simply the plan I picked, but I know many who count calories in their tracker living on the Mediterranean Diet, the Keto Diet and others. (The key: pick a plan you can live with forever. Trying a new plan every so often might be good for the diet industry’s bottom line, but it does nothing for our forever weight loss.)

Within months of being back to WW, I felt ready to be on my own. So I stayed with Weight Watchers “old” point system and was only weighed at the doctor’s office. I’d gotten it into my head that super strong habits come always came first for me.

Finally in my early 40s I lost all of the weight, and still chose to go without a scale for many years; I was still focused mainly on creating good habits. But I was never rabid against using a scale, I just didn’t think I needed it at the time. I (somehow) intuited that smart eating habits were the only thing I cared about. I figured that if I didn’t lose weight eating healthy foods in healthy amounts, so be it. The plan was to live a smart eating lifestyle. Come what weigh. LOL!

Around the time I hit 50 – and was past menopause – I bought a scale and used it every morning. Why? Because being down to a very low, but healthy weight, it was clear that if I happened to to eat a bit too much here or there, I could inadvertently eat myself out of my four-pound weight window. (If I gain weight, it’s only because it’s a conscious choice.)

The Scale-Naysayers

As we move forward in losing after 50, I think it’s super important to gather the info about eating plans, work outs, and the scale, and come to your own conclusion. Some feel safer using a scale, some feel fine without one. I used both tactics. At one time I loved working on my habits only. But these days I appreciate the feedback device for the info it gives me.

If I could talk to the fitness industry as a whole, I would explain that your average woman over 50 – like me – does not work out at the level needed for weight loss.

Sure, some can work out to such a degree that they struggle to get enough calories. Navy Seals, Olympians like Michael Phelps, and devoted marathon runners, okay.

But – I’d tell the industry – we aren’t in the armed forces; we’re not aiming for a place in the Olympics, and I definitely would never qualify for a long distance marathon.

Women over 50, 60, 70, and 80 – yes, we have thrivers over 80 – are past menopause and aren’t training so hard that the weight of their muscles are impacting the scale.

Are there outliers who work out to such a degree that the new muscle is adding weight to the scale? I guess there could be, and more power to her! But I’ve never met anyone over 50 who worked out at that level of intensity.

But always know: there are so many seriously awesome reasons to work out when we’re over 50: the feel-good rush of endorphins for one, fewer falls for two, and the magical properties for our brains! ♥

Pearl Two

In 2012, my best friend, passed. Ollie was a black lab who we rescued from a busy street. An absolute sweetheart.

In 2016, I had back surgery to repair a slipped disc (Heller, Emory. Masterpiece of a surgeon).

In 2019, my first ever car crash. Before I read the accident report, I so worried that I’d caused the accident. I hadn’t, major phew. Nobody was hurt. I had a broken arm, but that was it. (The cars took the impact.)

And so what?! Every one of us has stories. Life is hard, period. Nothing calk-walk about it.

At the beginning of making my wacko-dedication to losing after 40 (that later turned into maintaining 16 years at this writing) I let nothing come between me and getting healthier day by day.

One time at Starbucks I was on crutches and I remember thinking, it doesn’t matter that I broke my foot I will not stop being wacko-dedicated.

As the years careened by and life veered from merely being difficult to once or twice just awful. I did not waver in my dedication to, once and for giving up bad choices food. I was intent on embedding into my core what living a Smart Eating Lifestyle was all about.

So, how did I do this?

1. I made the decision to always put my dedication front-and-center, and I recommitted to the Smart Eating Lifestyle in the beginning at least three times a day. In your journal, write about why you’re so committed to losing weight for the trip, sure, but also aiming at a forever-loss. Then write that sentence into your calendar every day for at least a year.

2. I changed my self-talk and essentially said a version of this to me daily, just because we made a major move from the West Coast to the East, does not give me an open window to stagger off our Smart Eating Lifestyle.

3. Somehow I knew deep inside that chowing ice cream with my family even just once, would lead to a new habit of chowing with the family again and again. It’s takes forever to instill a great habit, but barely a moment to bring on a bad one.

Right?!

Seriously, when you’re ready, get dedicated to living the Smart Eating Lifestyle and check in with yourself about your commitment daily. ♥

Pearl Three

In September we’re keeping this slot for “how I screwed up this week”: the truth is that wearing Invisalign braces has somewhat thrown a monkey wrench into my good eating habits. Every month on the 30^th I put in a new super tight tray and the lip/tongue biting thing starts anew.

This time I was ready. I kept myself moderately full and I didn’t go near stores where I could score ice cream or vanilla shakes. (Thankfully I broke the vanilla shake habit in days, just missed a really terrible habit. The longer a bad habit goes on, the more difficult it is to break.) This time around I made a lot of smoothies and ate a lot of mashed food.

I didn’t exactly mess up this week. But I did make a chocolate cake with homemade chocolate frosting — yum-city!! — for one son who loves chocolate. I really wanted a piece, but adhered to my plan of saying to myself, if you really want that cake, you can have it in the morning with coffee.

Which is exactly what I did. So I wouldn’t call that messing up per se.

So instead of saying to myself, woe is me. I can never have fun-food in my life ever again. (Whimper, whimper.)

I say, If I want a slice I can have it in the morning with coffee.

The REP (Royal Eating Plan) is alive and well. If I want something fun and decadent, I tell me, just have it in the morning. The most wonderful part of the REP is that I never feel left out because I “can’t have” what everyone else is having. I can have it, it just has to happen in the morning

Check out this study that came to the same conclusion as me, they call it “food-timing.” ♥

Pearl Four

You guys, you will feel so virtuous eating this dish. Even better, it’s full-on yum!

A bunch of sweet potatoes showed up in my kitchen today. So I skinned two, and chopped them into cubes, then swished them around in a bowl with the following:

3 Tbl. Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar (I love Costco’s)

One small sweet onion (chopped)

2 garlic cloves or a Tbl. of the minced garlic that comes in a jar.

A pinch of salt and pepper.

To roast, I put parchment paper on a baking sheet (optional), and tossed the sweet potato squares onto the parchment.

Turn on the oven to 400 degrees. Let the squares roast for on one side for 15 minutes, pull them out of the oven, and turn them over. Now roast for another 20 minutes. And you’re good to go. (I had to play around with the temperature and time in the oven because initially mine weren’t golden, but black. So keep an eye on them.)

While the sweet potato and onion were roasting, I made brown rice which is super easy. All you do is boil 2.5 cups water. Once the water is in full-boil, add one cup of brown rice and then bring the rice to a boil (happens in seconds). Finally put a lid on the rice and turn the stove down to simmer for about 50 minutes.

I only wish I had had broccoli and baby tomatoes, because then I’d have felt triply virtuous!! I found this keeper of a recipe on AllRecipes.com. ♥

Pearl Five

Three months from now you will thank yourself.” — Alex Peterson ♥

The Holiday Healthy Weight Challenge!! Okay, we’re at seven weeks and six days until the U.S. Thanksgiving. My goal is to workout each day on my indoor bike. It’s been up and down. I’m not proud, but I get so impatient with myself because it’s a hard habit to establish. But even when I realize that I’m not riding my bike, I don’t give up, I merely hop on the bike and petal. With any new habit: give yourself good cues, and never give up on the original plan.

Have a wonderful weekend!

♥, 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!

You know the scoop: I am an Amazon affiliate so if you buy something through a link at this site, I may receive a small commission that won’t impact your price at all.

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. ♥

Nothing gets me up at zero dark thirty, except for this one thing.

Hello Thrivers!

Have you read the Aunt Bea booklet? It’s important to read her or this blog won’t make much sense. You’ll find her to your right in the box under my circle bio. She’s supposed to land in your email, but sometimes she ends up in spam. If you lost her just let me know: Wendy@TheInspiredEater.com and I’ll shoot her right to you! ♥

Onto our pearls!

Pearl One  

Why and how to deepen your ‘why.’ If we’re not chewing on our ‘why’ several times a day, we’re not strengthening our ‘why’ and receiving the full benefit. We want to be one with our ‘why’ because that is where all the motivation comes from.

For example, I’m not getting up at 5 in the bleeping morning for any reason. I need my sleep without it, I’m a zombie.

Period.

Oh, right, except for that time when I excitedly woke up super early before the kids, packed the minivan with The Scarfer, put our two little Firecrackers into their car seats, and set out for Florida’s Legoland.

You see? I had a strong ‘why’ for getting up when it was still dark.

These days The Firecrackers are 19, and trips without them are my new ‘why.’ (Haha, I kid.)

But my current ‘why’ for staying on the Smart Eating path has changed a bit. Today my overarching ‘why’ is that I want to be as healthy and strong as possible for my future family: the grand dogs, grand kids, The Scarfer, my boys, everyone.

Which is a tough ‘why’ because working for something that happens years in the future isn’t that motivational for me on a day-to-day basis.

So, since my today’s ‘why’ can be a tad nebulous, I add a strong amendment. I don’t have health issues that are made better by sitting on the couch and watching Hulu (sadly), so it’s imperative that I maintain an active lifestyle.

(That’s another thing: what I once called ‘working out,’ I now call ‘an active lifestyle.’)

Recently a Thriver wrote and said, ‘We don’t have to work out, we get to work out.’ I love the distinction. How we think about an activity and what we call it forms the basis for how we engage with the activity.

The Takeaway

Journal-write about your ‘why’ and write long enough that you get down to the nitty-gritty on why your ‘why’ matters so very much to you. Plan to write (or type) for a while before the real gems come spilling out.

Journal-writing about our whys and wants and questions and frustrations is the most inexpensive form of therapy available – and quite possibly the most powerful. ♥

Pearl Two

A good question to ask yourself before diving into food: Is this behavior adding to my Smart Eating habit or subtracting from it?

Take me this morning. I woke up on time, had my fun little breakfast – see Brownies for Breakfast for more info – and all was well in my world. After two hours of writing I made coffee and proceeded to go on the hunt for something cake-ish.

At that, my prefrontal brain took over saying, no, you’ve already had breakfast.

So, then the cave woman in me replied, who would even know? It won’t hurt anything to have a cupcake.

Prefrontal brain: If you eat a cupcake now, you won’t be hungry for lunch. And that’s the deal: you can have what you want for breakfast, but you have to stop by 9 a.m. and be hungry for lunch at noonish.

My cave woman: Big damn deal.

Prefrontal me to cave woman: Ask yourself, is having a cupcake adding to my strong habits or subtracting from them?

Cave woman: Subtracting.

Prefrontal: Try playing with Max – our attention-hound kitty – for ten minutes and then see how you feel.

Ten minutes later: I don’t want to ruin my lunch.

And with that, the prefrontal brain is back at the command center. ♥

Pearl Three

In June, I’m keeping this slot for talking about the poison of perfectionism. It appears to me that while our culture — in public — trounces ‘perfectionism,’ in private it’s a whole nother story. We drive ourselves nuts attempting to be perfect. Because if we worry that if we’re not perfect a catastrophe will descend.

Perfectionism is dangerous because it worms its way into our Smart Eating lives in stealth mode; we don’t even realize what’s happening until perfectionism has become a way of life for us.

And getting a handle on our own perfectionism is no picnic. Our neighbors drive slick cars, perfect people are everywhere on TV and social media; our homes look lovely (as long as nobody goes upstairs) and so on.

I once knew a mom in our kids’ playgroup who wore her one-karat diamond engagement ring with pride. Until another mom moved into her neighborhood with a two-karat. So, guess what one-karat did? Yep, she started appearing with her own two-karat (attempting to be perfect lead her to buy the two-karat).

Given that our culture is oriented to having things and more things and more and more things, it’s no wonder that we’ve fallen into the perfectionism trap. So let’s not be hard on ourselves. The perfect (seeming) world is all we’ve ever known.

Beginning to notice perfectionism appears in your life is the first step to rooting it out. I doubt it’s human to entirely rid oneself of perfectionism altogether. Wouldn’t that be us trying to be perfect in ridding ourselves of being perfect?! lol!

Just start noticing when you’re being particularly hard on yourself and journal-write freestyle about how perfectionism has taken root in your life. ♥

Pearl Four  

Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s ‘the experts’ seemed to work overtime to find fault with coffee; they were trying to figure out which horrific disease or terrible disorder coffee caused.

Each time a new study came out, I held my breath and when nothing came of the latest study thought, phew. Made it through another one.

Fast forward to May 2022, and a study on coffee came out that followed a whopping 171,616 participants (mean age of 55.6 years), and reported phenomenal news.

Among other benefits, regular coffee drinking decreases cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, Type 2 diabetes, and three cancers (colorectal, uterine and liver).

The Mayo Clinic recommends drinking at least two cups a day, adding that four cups – a max. of 400 milligrams – is even better.

Of course, this study isn’t referring to milkshakes bought at Starbucks, this was a ‘black or a teaspoon of sugar in your coffee’ study. (Yes, you read that right. If you like one teaspoon of sugar in your coffee you’re also good-to-go.)

So, that’s a no to Starbucks and a giant yes to home-coffee! ♥

Pearl Five

Be a warrior, not a worrier.” – Elizabeth Archer ♥

Below you will see my first foray into kayaking. Very, very fun.

I highly recommend doing something outside of your wheelhouse.

Have a beautiful journal-writing 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). 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’ve been asked if I could include something like Buy me a Coffee on the Inspired Eater. So if you feel up to sending a coffee, I am a devotee. You’ll find the coffee “button” to your right. And, as always, thank you so much for reading the Inspired Eater. ♥♥♥

Did you see the movie with Meryl Streep — Defending Your Life — where she dies and lands in limbo featuring food with zero calories? Streep’s Julia happily slurps a plate of fettuccine Alfredo, plows through crusty bread and drinks incredible wine. Women everywhere we’re like, “OMG. Hope limbo exists!”

But here on Earth magnificent calories are everywhere:

• We watch coworkers inhale enormous Chipotle burritos for lunch.
• We see our family plow into bowls of cookies & cream after a lasagna dinner.
• And we’re besieged with porn-food: on commercials, on shows and movies themselves, and splashed across social media.

It seems like everybody gets to eat! All the time!

Except us. 🙁

Tough Love That Ensures Loss.

Thing is — after menopause — to exist in our food-wealthy world and simultaneously keep our weight down, we have to be dedicated to developing the necessary muscles to make weight loss happen.

To lose fifty-five — and later, maintain — I developed the muscles slowly over many, many months. Some muscles took years. And, let’s be honest, in the beginning my muscles were like over-cooked pasta.

I love how Seth Godin says, “take the long-cut.” Get it? Instead of trying to find the short-cut, plan to take your time — habits require time and conscious effort to truly embed themselves into our lives.

The bottom line — no pun — is that you and I must be smart about how we engage with food if we want to stay at a specific weight.

Best Question Ever to Ask Yourself.

As I’ve re-trained my brain to make smart food choices, I default into this question all day long:

• Do I want to be a size 8 or do I want to have pancakes on Sunday with the family?
• Do I want to be a size 8 or do I want to chow down on the (awesome) plates of Mexican food everyone’s having?
• Do I want to be a size 8 or do I want to dive into pizza with the kids (this last one was tough, but giving up pizza helped me drop five. Today I eat pizza twice a year, not twice a month like I once did).

Keep in mind that I did not use this question when I was wearing a size 16. I took my goal of losing fifty-five pounds one step at a time, so back in the day I’d ask myself: Do I want to be a size 14 or do I want to eat several Kit Kat bars?

Fine-tune this question to your life. Try one of these and see how it feels:

• Do I want to fit comfortably into my jeans or do I want BBQ?
• Do I want to lower my blood pressure or do I want an ice cream sundae?
• Do I want to be down five pounds for Thanksgiving or do I want waffles?

Do I Take the Question on Vacation?

My bullet-proof question is never off-duty. It works on special holidays, at work, for birthdays, and it does double-shifts on vacation. The deal I make with myself is that if I want to go on a trip, the question comes too.

Take last weekend, we spent three memorable days visiting my husband’s brother and darling family in Savannah, and I asked myself on the trip, “Do I want to be a size 8 or would I rather eat one of those gorgeous maple bars everyone is having for breakfast?” Believe me, I asked variations of this question a lot.

Back from the trip do I feel like I ruined our weekend by not eating the calorie-crazy food? Not even a little bit.

Is it Fair?

It’s not at all fair that everyone gets to have a daily food party, except for you and me. But nobody packs on weight like women over 50. Our bodies horde calories like we’re preparing for a long Dakota winter.

The habit of asking yourself this invaluable question does not develop in a day. Do everything you can to remind yourself to use the question: tape sticky notes around your house with the question. Create a screen saver with the question. Alarm your phone so that when the alarms go off you’ll remind yourself to ask the question. Tattoo the question on your arm (kidding, but you get the idea).

And don’t forget that it takes sixty-six days (based on the study I love out of England) to form a solid habit. Take Seth’s “long-cut,” you’ll see amazing results. And once you establish the habit of asking this important question? Keep it close to your heart forever.

I’d love to hear what Q. you’ll ask yourself!

And remember, it’s not just your imagination. Health is hard!

♥, Wendy

Now here’s a habit I could happily instill! 🙂

Happy Friday Thrivers,

If you haven’t read the Aunt Bea booklet, she’s a must. You’ll find her to your right in the box under my circle bio. She should land in your email, but sometimes she goes to spam. If you lost her, just say: Wendy@TheInspiredEater.com and I’ll shoot Aunt Bea right to you.

And away we go.

Pearl One

Back when I first began to lose weight in earnest I couldn’t have told you, “Not only do I want to lose weight, but I also want to stop wanting food.”

I couldn’t have told you such a thing even existed. Soothe-food like ice cream and chocolate cake would be my substance of choice into my 90s. End of story.

These days when something truly abysmal is happening in life, I don’t reach for food.

You might think, oh she’s making it up. Or, she was never that into food in the first place.

No and no. Food was my cocaine. Bored, celebrating, sad, didn’t matter, I turned to food.

So, now the question could be: how — when everyday life goes ka-blooey – do I avoid going Cookie Monster on the kitchen?

I know, you’re bored with this answer.

What I’ve done is to create a new response system to problems with the development of embedded habits, habits, and more habits. Once I instilled ironclad habits into my life, the scale began to drop.

Habits first, scale second.

To hone your habits, read or re-read Atomic Habits by James Clear. This jewel of a book came out in 2018 and is still on the best seller lists. The author talks “three layers of behavior change”, why bad habits are a breeze to create while good habits are a struggle, and why systems are far more important than goals.

To keep myself on track I re-read Clear’s book once a year-ish.

Habit creation compounded leads to the numbers going down on the scale, for sure, but also an eventual break with a substance we can’t do without that’s legal, cheap, and culture-approved.

But with the right mind-shifts and knowledge we can take down this substance one kickass habit at a time. ♥

Pearl Two

It takes bravery to attempt to lose weight after age 50. Think I’m being melodramatic? Well, consider this: when we climb back onto the smart eating path – having tried to lose/maintain many times before – we risk setting ourselves up for disappointment, irritation and boredom.

At our age it just seems easier to forgo the whole damn thing, and “make peace” with our body. Which I’m all for of course. Unless you can’t see your GP without her bringing up the weight situation (again). Or watch as you continually bump up in pant sizes. And don’t so much love looking in the mirror and seeing your Great Uncle Joe staring back at you.

See? It takes bravery at our age to climb back onto the horse and ride it night and day until we’ve peeled off the extra 40 lbs. we’ve accumulated over the last many decades. But even that doesn’t require as much bravery as planning the maintenance phase of losing 40 lbs.

In the past, losing a lot and then maintaining has been the bane of our existence.

Nobody had figured out the maintenance phase, until now. This is a new era for women, health and our bodies. We decide at what weight we feel most comfortable. We choose the best maintenance weight. We grew up loving Karen Carpenter. We know the tragedy of over-dieting. Princess Diana showed us the danger in bulimia. And Elizabeth Taylor was a model for why not to yo-yo diet.

No, those roads — paved with sadness — aren’t for us. We’re older and wiser and have zero interest in being lured into poor eating habits. Creating healthy bodies is our thing these days.

And it takes bravery to trek in this new era.

And that’s okay because we can do brave things. ♥

Pearl Three

In April we’re talking: “Let’s live differently!”

In a word I tend to fritter weekends. I have long Saturdays or Sundays, and later look back thinking, um, exactly what did I do, enjoy, or sink into?

I have some weekends when I don’t even read. I might bake or tidy here or there but I don’t go at projects with gusto unless forced like right before a trip or a big holiday like Christmas.

This coming weekend, I want to do it differently. I want to relax, of course, but I also want that cool feeling of crashing into bed with a good-tired feeling of having packed a lot into the day and feeling grateful for sleep.

How will I create a fun, relaxing, yet beautifully full weekend? Now that’s a good question. Definitely one for journal-writing which always produces an array of gems.

I hope you’ll journal-write about how to create a successful weekend with me. ♥

Pearl Four

Let’s talk food! When I was slowly working towards eliminating sugar in my evenings, I did not go from downing eight Oreos to never eating sugar. Nope. I never could have done that. Instead I went from a bowl of ice cream to allowing myself only what would fit into my small ceramic cup. (And in keeping with the spirit of the cup idea I did not cram as much as possible into it.)

At one point I went to a relatively healthy dessert of dark chocolate, a marshmallow or two, and a tablespoon or so of nuts.

I kept treading in that direction: smaller, healthier, smaller, healthier, until I finally challenged myself to give up evening sugar for 66 days and boom.

Good-bye sugar! (More details on how I did it here.) ♥

Pearl Five

You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ♥

I’d love to feature those of us with success stories. I hope you’ll write (Wendy@theInspiredEater.com) telling me about your success and not minding too much if I ask a question or two! 🙂

Go big this weekend, but in a kind, happy way that’ll see Monday-you wake up thinking, “huh. Very cool.”

♥, 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). 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!

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. 🙂

Me cuddling my River. Have you seen the meme, “What do you mean ‘I’m not a people?’ You tell everyone I’m your baby.“

Hi All!

Many have asked about my furry-boy’s health. River had his ultrasound yesterday and the vet said he’ll call today. Thank you for caring. We have wonderful dog people on here! 🙂

Onto the pearls.

Pearl One

First a caveat, I’m so thankful for the self-help world; I’ve benefited greatly. So please don’t think I’m dissing self-help. Not at all.

Given that, I’ve spent the last five decades reading self-help books, listening to cassettes (lol) and to podcasts these days. And I love a good TED Talk.

But somehow I took in a super subtle message – just lightly layered into the self-help vehicles – that high self-esteem is essential before we can create something of value (in our case, taking back our health; losing and maintaining after 50).

And yet I’m proof that the theory is completely wrong! I lost 55 lbs. and have kept them off for 16 years now, and I’m a total goofball.

Turns out, we don’t have to be heads and shoulders above the average. We can feel so-so inside and still produce incredible results.

Here’s what happened for me.

Back when I initially got serious about renovating my eating habits (mid-30s), my self-talk was lousy; my confidence maybe a C+ depending on the moment; and, my courage? Well, I can see where you might say that I was being semi-courageous in a situation or two, but on the whole, I utterly freak out when I’m supposedly “being courageous.” So, not sure that counts. (Still haven’t mastered that “staying serene in a crisis” thing.)

And yet – even with iffy self-esteem, I lost the 55 lbs. and have maintained the loss.

Our Takeaway

I love that we don’t need the confidence of Oprah, the emotional strength and courage of Brene Brown, or the brains and stamina of Sara Blakely (Spanx).

We can be an emotional mess and still lose and maintain after 50!!

Isn’t that the best?! Doesn’t that just open up the whole world to us? We don’t have to “have our act together” to get out there and make it happen.

My new mantra, please join me: we can be mushy on the inside and still create amazing lives for ourselves.

Because always remember: I’m not special. I’m just like you.

Let’s take the iffy path together.

Pearl Two

“I’m trying to lose weight.” That word choice “lose weight” is said like it’s a one-off thing we need to accomplish.

It’s akin to saying I’m going to college.

You know and I know how much is involved in heading to – and being in — college (e.g. massive red-tape, years of trying to stay awake in class, semester after semester of cram-studying, freaking out when you get an F on algebra and so much more.

Yet we still hold to the notion that losing weight is merely about sticking with an eating plan. Bada-boom, right? In my experience, wrong.

Of course finding the right meal plan for ourselves is vital, but it’s not much different than taking our SAT. We need a good SAT score to get into college, but we all get that — while it’s necessary — it’s merely the very beginning of college life.

There’s a Grand Canyon size difference between seeing losing weight as a simple process – eat on my plan – versus having a deep understanding of all that’s involved in losing after 50.

We’re like the student who enters college as a caterpillar and four years later emerges a beautiful butterfly. I know I’m throwing a lot of metaphors in this post, but we’re going through a butterfly-transformation ourselves when we’re losing and maintaining after 50. ♥

Pearl Three

Each month I’m using this spot as the place to dive a little deeper. Our March topic is: Using time as a supportive tool. Here’s today’s topic: when I have a craving or a food-idea that’s not exactly on my smart eating path, I’ll ask myself, can I wait ten minutes?

It took time to practice my ten minute strategy, but I’ve learned that cravings and “bad ideas” actually dissolve fairly quickly.

Cravings are like clouds. They meander in and then they drift out.

Ask yourself, can I wait ten minutes? Then set a timer and do something absorbing. When the timer rings and your craving is gone, immediately have a healthy mini-meal.

Because largely a craving is merely a sign that we’re hungry.

Here’s the ten minute breakdown:

Step one: Have craving.

Step two: Can I wait ten minutes? Set timer.

Step three: When timer rings, craving is gone.

Step four: Immediately eat a healthy mini-meal. ♥

Pearl Four

Do you remember restaurants in the 70s that had a “diet plate” option usually at the bottom of a menu? It was like half of a canned peach, wilted lettuce, a hamburger without a bun, weird looking slices of tomato, and a blob of cottage cheese.

Blecky.

And yet today, I love (low fat) cottage cheese.

One half cup: 90 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, and a whopping 13 grams of protein.

I don’t know what kind of magic potion they dumped on cottage cheese, but whatever it was it worked! ♥

Pearl Five

“The most important day is the day you decide you’re good enough for you. It’s the day you set yourself free.” ― Brittany Josephina ♥

Beautiful quote. Speaks straight to my heart.

This Tuesday I’ll detail how I prep for a trip with the plan to enjoy myself without coming home with extra pounds.

Create a lovely weekend for yourself.

♥, Wendy

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