Having the right food in the house when we’re losing or maintaining after 50 isn’t just nice, it’s essential to smart eating versus chowing like a hungry toddler-gone-wild.
I tend to reach for something sugary every evening (update: this was pre-ditching my evening sugar habit, read more about how I did it here). It took time, but I now get that embracing my sweet-tooth is the only tactic that’s worked.
I taste-tested and reviewed a bunch of “friendly” summer desserts, and rated them from not-so-much to awesome:
One
Two
Three
Angel food cake!!!
Love, love, love angel food cake, especially chunked up with strawberries and whipped cream. I mean, come on! So good. That said the grocery store prices are frightening — I haven’t yet adjusted to our new normal — so rather than buy a pre-made angel food cake: get a box mix or make angel food from scratch. The star of the angel food cake show is about 12 egg whites.
Four
Sugar-free chockablock pudding with whipped cream. Delish. This is my go-to when I “need” something fun that looks decadent.
Five
Creamy Coconut Popsicles.
Have you seen the popsicles by Outshine made for adults? If coconut isn’t your thing, they also come in strawberry, mango, peach, tangerine, strawberry-lemonade and more. Really tasty.
Six
Trader Joe’s Macaron cookies!
These three macarons with a good coffee makes me feel fancy.
Seven
When I’m craving something fun that’s not part of my clean eating plan (like, I made birthday cake for my boys), I’ll skip dinner all together and only have dessert.
And btw, I learned this strategy from “naturally thin” who eat what they want and aren’t limited by what dinner is “supposed to be.”
Having dessert for dinner gets all 5 stars because the scale will never be the wiser come morning (if you don’t go wild of course).
Eight
Voortman Sugar Free Vanilla Wafer Cookies.
Five stars. These wafer cookies are so fun. They come in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate with no high-fructose corn syrup plus 30 percent less carbs than the regular wafers.
Be still your heart because this company also makes sugar-free cookies in oatmeal, short bread, key lime pie, lemon, and chocolate chip.
I can’t be trusted with oatmeal cookies — I know my limits — but I can stop at a (sane) portion size with every other flavor.
Nine
Baby watermelons are my healthiest addiction.
I love everything about a ripe watermelon, but I’m terrible at picking huge melonswell; I tend to pick mushy or overripe ones every time. I’ve had more luck with the small guys.
When I really need a huge, ripe watermelon, I ask the store’s fruit guy or the serious senior citizen — thumping melons a foot away — for assistance. (It’s never failed, people love to be helpful.)
Ten
My favorite is saved for last: top fresh strawberries with a whipped cream hat.
Berries are a perfect dessert because they’re beautiful, delicious, nutritious and don’t propel you into eating everything sugar in the kitchen. Five stars.
I love hearing your ideas! How do you keep your sweet-tooth from wrecking your clean eating days?
♥, 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 to you right away!
You know the scoop. Some links might be affiliate links and as an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases. Of course you incur no additional cost and I’ll always be totally upfront with you.
I don’t have a thing against Starbucks, per se. I’m just not wild about any fast-food drive-thrus and their artificial ingredients that wreak havoc on our weight and health.
What’s that?
Starbucks isn’t really fast-food? It’s actually in a luxury class all its own?
Well, let’s get quick background on the subject.
Last summer the famous McD featured a Chocolatey Pretzel McSomething, but it’s been replaced.
This coming summer the king of fast-food is bringing us the Strawberry Shortcake McCalories made with vanilla ice cream, strawberry-flavored clusters (whatever those are), and shortbread cookies.
And here’s what’s important to remember, the summer McFrozen is “limited time only” so you and I need to move our caboose. Like, stat.
So back to Starbucks. Their featured summer drinks are the Chocolate Java Mint Frappiccino and the White Chocolate Macadamia Cream Cold Brew.
According to Starbucks’s press release the drinks are available starting in May in the U.S. for a limited time, while supplies last.
See what I mean?
McD’s McFlurry and Starbucks’s drinks are both “limited time only” and we need to move fast or we’ll lose out on this spectacular drink experience.
But my guess is, dig under the surface and you’ll find that the fast-food giants are actually serving “limited time only” desserts as a way to create a habit.
The fast-food peeps are aware that they have “true fans”, what I’m betting is they hope their specialty drinks will tempt on-the-fence customers and the never-evers (like myself) to drive screaming into their drive-thrus for a drink-dessert that’s the living end.
But here are the two pain-points for you and me:
1) Training our taste-buds to love a bowl of plain strawberries maybe capped with a swish of whipped cream is our life-long plan. If our mouths are having a party with the high-sugar and/or high-fat desserts like the McFlurry, the humble strawberry doesn’t stand a chance.
2) Eliminating our habit of stopping at any fast-food is the whole idea. Big Fast-Food wants to obliterate our good habit of cutting them out of our lives entirely.
How to get around the fast-food in your life? Read on. ♥
Pearl Two
You want fun-food? I once told myself, “Hey, no problem, you can have the food, as long as you first study the nutrition count.”
My rule for myself was that if I read the nutrition labels on a product or the nutrition count online then I could have the fun-food.
But somehow that gorgeous pizza didn’t look so awesome when I realized that – holy cow — a slice of Mellow Mushroom’s meat pizza is 530 calories, 27 g fat, 1,370 mg sodium, and 48 g carbs. And who stops at one slice?
The sodium alone is crazy.
Figuring out the nutrition count on donuts, fast food burgers and ice cream is life-changing.
Do you see what’s actually happening? It’s your cavewoman who wants to chow the pizza. But it’s your prefrontal who reads the nutrition info. leading you to make smart food choices.
Get the prefrontal involved and it becomes your decision what you’ll eat and when. ♥
Pearl Three
June’s topic for the month: what cannot be an afterthought in our smart eating lives. Every week we’ll talk activities that require hard-core planning rather than off-the-cuff moves we might normally make.
Today’s topic: we’re heading into summer vacations and planning how and what you’ll eat on the trip needs to be given serious thought.
I’ve been a travel writer for 16 years now, and I never gained weight on trips. Having a solid plan in place and not winging it moment by moment gets all the credit. Whether I was traveling by car or plane, I knew exactly how the food-situation would go down.
Bottom line: Know before you go. ♥
Pearl Four
Books love us and want us to be at our preferred weight.
You are owed an apology. And the Mountains Echoed by one of my favorite authors, Khaled Hosseini, should have been one of the first book-desserts I shared. The book’s genre falls under both “historical fiction” and “domestic fiction.”
Total honesty: if I’d read a description about this title’s plot I’d have thought, “hard pass.” But I’d read Hosseini’s other two masterpieces — The Kite Runnerand A Thousand Splendid Suns– so I was 100-percent in. When I came up with the idea of book-dessert it was because of books like And the Mountains Echoed.
So, that’s my review: 100-percent. ♥
Pearl Five
Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” C.G. Jung ♥
We can access our subconscious when we pick up our journal and allow our subconscious to talk with us through the pen. ♥
Have a fantastic weekend, all!
♥, 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’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.
When was the last time you lusted for an apple? Food-porn is designed to ensnare us.
Hello Thrivers!
I hope your long weekend was a good one. If you’re brand new to the blog read Aunt Bea and then begin here. Thrivers seem to really like this post too!!
Pearl One
One afternoon I found myself thinking, “it’s too quiet”, so I put on jazz and then went in search of something horrendous to eat.
Because – in my heart of hearts — I always will default into food-porn.
But just as I’m opening the wrong cupboards, I hear the piano’s tinkle, tinkle, tinkle and thought “people who listen to jazz do not eat inappropriately.”
My interest in junk-food evaporated immediately.
And after 18-years of preserving my loss, I can promise you that I want to eat inappropriately at least once a day. So, what I’ve learned: when I start to daydream about food-porn that’s when I go into damage-control mode and tell myself, “If you’re pining for junk food, you’re merely hungry for food/food.”
Because the diet-cartel has long pushed the notion that using their particular product means that we’ll never want junk food again. Ever!!
Total urban myth.
Of course we want to inhale made-to-be alluring, engineered junk-food. The companies’ business plan includes creating enticing “food.”
As you’ve likely heard, they’re paying scientists to increase the “mouth feel” of junk food. Every time you open a package of cookies, remember that companies are actively working against your best interest.
Of course, there are various times in the day when I can walk by pizza and not blink, but if I haven’t eaten I might inhale the pizza. So when pizza is in your midst and looking quite tasty, eat a small, but powerful food: apple with peanut butter, hummus on toast, scrambled eggs with cheese, pineapple poured over cottage cheese (my favorite) and so forth.
Try this challenge for yourself: wait until you start pining for a donut and then consciously eat a small meal. After you eat your small meal, ask yourself how do I feel towards the donut now?
Still want the donut? Grab a handful of nuts. I’ve read that nuts may be one of the most powerful strategies for metaphorically squirting the donut with ketchup. (Which I highly recommend doing for real. The brain sees you squirting ketchup up on treats and is immediately put on notice that you’re serious-beyond serious-now.)
I’ll say it again for emphasis: fantasizing about junk-food is nothing more than you’re hungry for real food. ♥
Clear tells us that to embed a strong new habit, we need to make the new behavior: obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying.
Two of these laws, obvious and attractive, encourage us to make our environment work for us and not against. In our case we want to make it annoyingly difficult to get our hands on junk-food and insanely easy to eat smart-food. Keep your kitchen stocked in your favorite smart food and prepare as much in advance as you can: hard-boil eggs, cook your protein, have your favorite fruit on hand (especially in the spring a summer).
The more prepared you are, the more small wins you’ll have.
There shouldn’t be cheesecake or pizza in our kitchen in the first place, but if you live with others who require treats, ask that the ultra-processed food – what we’re now calling junk-food – live in the highest cupboard where you can’t see or reach it (even with a stool). Hide cold treats in a brown bag that’s pushed to the back of the bottom shelf to the back.
I used to say this in jest, but it’s totally true: one perk of getting older is that we forget the treats in our kitchen if they’re out of sight.
Clear’s third law is “easy.” When you want to make losing weight smoother, a little less rocky, consider putting these ideas into place:
Stay satiated. Hunger is not your friend. I have a much easier time of dismissing ice cream if I’ve just had a bowl of cereal.
Keep several book-desserts next to your bed in easy reach ready to support you at 8 p.m. each evening. Giving up evening eating is tough, but you can make it a tad easier by having a stack of book-desserts at the ready
Clear’s last law: “make it satisfying.” This one is difficult because food is our satisfaction, but say this to yourself every day: most of us in our food-wealthy world struggle mightily with staying out of the junk-food.
Ideas to make losing and preserving after 50 satisfying. As you lose, visit your favorite thrift stores and buy in your new size (yes, even if you’re not yet at your preferred weight. Wearing your former size of clothes probably isn’t the best idea. When you go down a size, pick up new clothes for yourself at your thrift store and you’ll signal your brain, “Hey! I am sooo serious about this” (your brain needs to see you engaging in strong actions).
Big wins (like clothes) aside, I like to focus on small wins to keep myself in the smart eating game. For example I play a game with myself that if I do a,b, and c, I’ll get a new nail polish color, I’ll give myself an hour in the day to just read, in the summer I’ll lay-out at our community pool as so forth.
Somebody said “normalize little wins” and I couldn’t agree more.
I’m working on a house project right now that if I complete it will score me a small bottle of my favorite perfume (huge for me because most of the money goes to the house, my sons or our sweet kitty).
When you’re ready to develop one new habit (more than one is being mean to yourself), keep in mind that my favorite study out of England concluded that it takes 66-days to embed a strong new habit. But amazing news, it’s only the first 16 days that are the hardest. ♥
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.
Old Sequence
Situation (something concrete): I heard a man on the radio say that when his dog dies it will “destroy me.”
Automatic thought: I’ve lost too much in my life; I can’t take losing Lily.”
Feeling: Heartbroken.
Action: Eats comfort food.
Result: Gains weight.
In real life, this man may need to make a bridge between the “automatic” thought and the “chosen thought.”
New Sequence
Situation (something concrete): I heard a man on the radio say that when his dog dies it will “destroy me.”
Chosen thought: Of course, it’ll hard when she passes. I’ll be so very sad. But I can do this. Taking care of my heart about a difficult time to come is imperative. Instead of stacking my losses, I’m developing a new habit to stack my small “wins” with Lily (like: I have a great vet. Win! Lily loves to swim and I take her to a pool once a week. Win. It’s on my Lily-bucket-list to take her to the beach next month. Win!
Feeling: A little more balanced, a little less frantic at the very notion.
Action: play a lot and do a lot with Lily and I’ll keep a journal of all the fun things we do together that I’ll read one day for comfort.
Result: She’s with me now and life is good. When the time comes, I’ll be okay. ♥
Our brains are always listening to us. Don’t say “destroy me” instead say “it’ll be rough, but I can do it.”
Pearl Four
Light summer fun books. I highly recommend all three:
If you haven’t yet joined me on Facebook and Instagram, please do! And if there’s a topic you’d like me to address, I’m more than happy to. Just write in the comments below or email me: Wendy@theInspiredEater.com.
And just for some summer fun: send me pictures of your fur-kid and I’ll share the photo on here!
Make it a beautiful week!
♥, 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, 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. ♥
A very happy thriver wrote that she took off twenty-five pounds and I’ll let “L” tell you the rest:
Hello, again! I’m still an avid follower and love Fridays. I am so hooked on this lifestyle, although I live in fear that one day the weight will all come back-like overnight, ha ha! Can you send me the updated version of your book? I was thinking just yesterday that I need to check in with Aunt Bea again. Twenty-five pounds gone and it feels so good.
How amazing to hear that “L” – along with so many readers — is putting everything into action!
But my next thought? At this moment on the Smart Eating Path, being fearful is what we want. Being afraid of regaining the weight given our food-porn culture is the healthiest response to Big Fast-Food, Big-Food in the grocery stores and large-platters in the restaurants. Maybe we’ve reached our preferred weight, but the world hasn’t changed; the “opportunity” to eat badly and in large amounts is still everywhere.
For about the first twelve years of maintenance/preservation, I had a strong sense of fear: what will preserving my loss look like this time? how will I handle wanting sugar every evening? what about when I’m grieving? and certain holidays are still so hard how will I deal with that? what about after a disappointing summer? and so on and so forth. I was “what-iffing” myself.
Turns out, being hyper-on-edge is our friend, at least until the planet makes significant changes. (It could happen, look what happened to the cigarette.)
I asked our thriver to pick which micro-skill helps her the most:
“The biggest habits I rely on are food-logging, weighing and measuring food, always have healthy food ready, the cold tote and eat before you go ( this really helps with all the junk my friends bring to game night and Bunco).
This is so good to hear that our group is having success with the micro-habits (Cartwheel emoji, cartwheel emoji, cartwheel emoji!). Please send in minor, but pivotal successes, the hardest time when you overcame a difficulty or impressed a doctor. All treasured!! ♥
Pearl Two
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the damage Big Fast-Food does to those of us who want to choose our weight rather than being at the whim of external forces.
I’ve identified three forces (and will be adding a fourth).
Big Fast-Food: know it well because it’s in every square-foot of our lives. Develop the habit — using the sixty-six days study out of England — of never eating fast-food. If you have no choice like once a year and need food: go to Taco Bell and order one bean burrito “al fresco.”
Best way to eliminate fast-food: always carry a cold-tote full of attractive bites.
So today let’s talk Big Platter Restaurant food which is also everywhere. This habit was a tough one to put into place because I’d invariably show up at a restaurant a little bit too hungry. Not smart. The problem if you show up hungry of course is that you’re more likely to inhale the entire plate of food rather cutting the plate in half and putting it in a doggie to-go container.
If you don’t want to eat more than half of the plate and can’t take it home because you’re on a ship or something like it, in a pinch I’ll pour a ton of salt on the remaining food so I won’t pick at it.
But the biggest win for me, was to eat food on the way to the restaurant so that I didn’t arrive super hungry. A one-quarter cup almonds, a sliced apple, a banana, or a yogurt cup is what I tend to use.
Sometimes I’ve stood at the fridge and eaten straight out of the cottage cheese container knowing the Mexican restaurant is like five seconds from our house. If the restaurant were further away, I would have taken a cold-tote. (I’m the only one who eat cottage cheese in our house.)
IF you don’t have small, healthy food that’s in your cold-tote, it’s a signal to you that you need to make having small bites on-hand more of a priority.
The whole idea is to make your eating-life a bit easier on yourself given this forever-trek we’re on. ♥
Pearl Three
A sequence every week
Original Sequence from My Own Life
Situation (something concrete): A dear friend was my plus-one on the cruise I took last November. (Our kids grew up together). We had a wonderful time and I thought we ‘d deepened our friendship in those seven days. But in the months following, I haven’t heard a peep.
Thought: What the heck? Had I snored too much on the ship?
Feeling: Bummed.
Action: I don’t reach out.
Result: A friendship withers on the vine.
My Chosen New Thought
Situation (something concrete): A dear friend was my plus-one on the cruise I took last November. (Our kids grew up together). We had a wonderful time and I thought we ‘d deepened our friendship in those seven days. In the months following, I haven’t heard a peep.
Thought: When we went on the cruise my friend had only been at her brand-new teaching job for about three months. She’s a high school English teacher. and very graciously asked her new supervisor for the week off. And she’s super involved in a cat rescue group.
The woman is busy.
Feeling: I feel compassion for all she’s doing especially cat rescue.
Action: I remind myself that not everything is about me.
Result: I send her a “just let me know you’re alive” email.
Are you doing these sequences in your own life? Do you find them helpful? Not helpful? Wished you had learned in freshman year of high school, like me? ♥
Pearl Four
Pearl four is an amazing book recommendation; not a review, just an awesome book I want to share
Last month I featured Kate Atkinson’s incredible book Life After Life that I found just awesome. A quick rewind: We meet Ursula first as a baby. We watch her go through many lives before she completes a satisfying experience for her final life. I highly, highly recommendLife After Life.
The New Yorker wrote, “This follow [to Life After Life] tracks Ursula’s brother, Teddy, a favorite son who flies an RAF bomber during the Second World War and remains kind, thoughtful, and patient through a life of quiet sadness…Teddy, unlike his sister, lives only one life, but Atkinson’s deft handling of time, as she jumps from boyhood to old age and back, is impressive.” Haven’t finished, am loving. I leave it by my bed and I only read when I’m escaping the kitchen.”
So good, but long. Pairing these two books together over the summer make perfect book-desserts.
Pearl Five
“It’s your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life’s story will develop.” ― Dieter F. Uchtdorf ♥
Remember, let me know if you bought the first version of the book The Inspired Eater: Fed Up! It looks like a book. I got rid of that crazy large font. Just email me: Wendy@TheInspiredEater.com.
♥, 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’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.
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. ♥
Flourishing after age fifty is a real thing. Owning your “flourish” allows you to feel like you belong with the billions of us trekking the Smart Eating Path.
Pearl One
You’ve tried a million times to lose weight, and are highly skeptical that the micro-steps I share will actually produce results?
I get it.
But consider this: we’re late bloomers. Tell yourself, “Some bloom in their younger years; I happen to be blooming in my second half of life.”
All kinds of blooming applauded!
In decades past, we didn’t know that we didn’t know (about how to lose after age fifty for the long haul).
And for whatever reason, I stumbled upon the map.
But the map doesn’t belong to me.
So — as you continue to bloom — I want you to have and know this map too. And then, spread the word. ♥
Pearl Two
Last month a home-bound friend and I wanted to get together for lunch, but she wasn’t ready to go out to eat. So, it was left to me to bring restaurant meals for us both.
What did she feel like? Mexican? Pizza? Thai? Chinese?
She didn’t really care; I should just get whatever I wanted.
Oh, great. I really don’t love trying to deduce what someone else might like.
But, knowing that Mexican or pizza are not the smartest food choices, I narrowed my options down to: Thai or Chinese?
At that, I turned to Google asking “which type of food is the best for those trying to keep it healthy”?
You know, I totally assumed that I’d find a rather namby-pamby “both cuisines are wonderful in their own special way” type of response.
But that is NOT what I learned!!
I was so surprised to discover that Thai is far and away preferable health-wise to those of us helicoptering our health.
Why Thai?
There are several key differences between Thai and Chinese, like the following:
(1) Thai food isn’t made with heavy sauces, but with light delicate herbs and spices.
(2) Thai dishes are packed in non-starchy veggies like carrots, cucumber, bean sprouts, onions and the like.
(3) Many dishes substitute coconut milk instead of heavy cream for great flavor.
(4) Thai has brown rice as an option which is what I always order.
(5) Rather than fried spring rolls, order “summer rolls” at Thai that clock in around 110 calories each, aren’t fried, and are stuffed with healthy veggies.
My Two Favorite Orders
I have two go-tos that I always order:
Thai “yum, yum” salad made with tofu. (The word “yum” in Thai means “mixed” or “tossed together.” But in any language this salad rocks!)
Green curry. I order mine with tofu as the protein and request extra vegetables. (I mean, so good!) ♥
Pearl Three
Back in the day, Saturday morning cartoon commercials were sophisticated thanks to the Mad Men who aimed their laser directly at kids who were too young to see the dangers of highly sugared cereals behind Tony the Tigers, Franken Berrys, and the count Choculas.
Shelby (my sister) and I — thoroughly brainwashed thanks to those ads – couldn’t help but notice that “the other kids got to be ‘coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs’, why not us?!”
So, my mom relented. (Phew, we thought, finally.)
Every December she he wrapped mini-boxes of sugared cereal and stuffed them into our Christmas stockings.
And it wasn’t just sugary cereal my mom disapproved of. We weren’t allowed to have Tang, Kool-Aid, Hostess-anything, Jif peanut butter and so on. (Don’t get me wrong, my mom wasn’t a health nut. She bought all of the Hostess cupcakes and Ho Hos she and my dad partied after we’d gone to bed.)
Then when fast-food began mushrooming across the land, true-to-form my mom wasn’t biting and rarely allowed us to partake.
The woman was psycho.
All that said I want you to know about the book titled: Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Usby Michael Moss. You’ll be stunned at how sneaky and (frankly) immoral the people behind the junk food explosion really are.
Salt, Sugar, Fat isn’t a book-dessert read; it’s just not juicy enough. But once I skimmed the boring first part, this book became hard to put down.
It’s a keeper and here’s why: reading just a page or a day and highlighting your favorite passages will allow your smart eating life to soar.
It’s that good.
And that annoying. Just a few pages into Moss’s book and I was checking the sugar ingredient on everything I thought was innocent like spaghetti sauce, bread, even my favorite whole-wheat bagels.
Salt, Sugar, Fat should be called titled, How Big Food Tricked Us Into Eating Chemicals as a way of Life. ♥
Pearl Four
I’ve shared this book before, but if you haven’t had the pleasure: lucky you because a wonderful story is coming your way! Min Jin Lee’s first book, Pachinko, snagged the Pulitzer’s Fiction Runner Up in 2018 and is proof that aliens live among us (meaning the advanced level of writing is beyond comprehension). Her second book Free Food for Millionaires is a phenomenal read too! ♥
Pearl Five
Don’t wait your turn. Bet on yourself and have the confidence to stand up and say, ‘My time is now.'” ♥
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’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.
Our daily motto: full immersion. Full immersion. Full immersion. Say it often and in time your brain will latch on and begin to make better smart eating choices.
Hi Thrivers,
Fun week babysitting an African grey parrot. So sweet, so smart.
On with the show! ♥
Pearl One
When my boys were young, we moved often enough that homeschooling them seemed like the best plan. Also, as a travel writer destinations and hotels don’t want to deal with media during their busy seasons, but in bleak February they’re like, “come on down!” So, the boys being homeschooled made it easier to travel.
And one son’s personality did not lend itself to the school system. (To put it mildly.)
So, I put one toe on the home school yellow brick road and never looked back. It wasn’t long before I realized that to do a spectacular job, I had to go all-in.
It was time: go full immersion or go home.
Homeschooling my boys became my thing, I even put reading my own books on-hold for many years because reading kid-lit was an enormous slice of our homeschooling life. If we weren’t doing an actual lesson, we were with Laura and Pa watching a railroad being built.
Point is: weight loss and preservation after age fifty also requires full immersion.
I know. I can hear you saying, “look, lady. My schedule is packed. I might be retired but I’m regularly knee-deep in a, b, and c. Full immersion might be a lovely concept for others, but it won’t fit my lifestyle. What else have ya got?”
That’s the thing.
I don’t have anything else. Attempting to live the Smart Eating Lifestyle without calling it a part-time job and living like it’s your part-time job is the only way I know of to preserve a forever-loss.
If you want the Ozempek quick-fix then, of course, you can lose twenty pounds for the upcoming reunion.
But if you’ve had it with losing and regaining the same pounds over and over again, the time is now to fully immerse into the Smart Eating Lifestyle. (Why is “the time now”? Because we’re not twelve, that’s why.)
As I’ve said, follow my bread crumbs. I want to forge a new chapter for women over fifty; one where we create the best, healthiest second half of life as we possibly can. And that starts with learning how to get to your preferred weight and preserve the loss for a lifetime.
I’ve mentioned before that when I caught a picture of myself at my cousin’s wedding, I honestly didn’t know at first who the heavy woman in the red dress was until I saw my very round face peering back at me.
We’ve got this. I’ll share every micro-step I ever took over the last two decades. Just follow my lead and we can make this happen. But first, commit to the full immersion. ♥
Pearl Two
Put succinctly, being bored when we’re living the Smart Eating Lifestyle is playing with fire. Insert fun into the harder windows of your day. Don’t take boredom lightly. Along with stress and grief, boredom is one of the top three smart eating day-destroyers. ♥
Pearl Three
Topic for July: how to keep steering yourself back onto the Smart Eating Path.
Acknowledging that you will slip into negative eating is the first step in dropping the traditional drama around food (“what’s wrong with me?” “I’ll never be a size 12” and so on). So, you ate the cheesecake. I mean, who hasn’t?
Here’s the new modern-day drama you’re fully encouraged to embrace: grab the ketchup (or salt, whichever’s handy) and squirt the blank out of the offending food that you might inhale. Or take a slice and then squirt it. You have to move fast for this trick to work.
Squirt like your life depends on it. No little blob-squirts, douse the sucker!
The ketchup or salt is doing double-duty for you. 1) Squirting the cheesecake with ketchup means that that particular offensive food is done. Now you can easily throw it away. But 2) the ketchupping action shouts to your brain that life is changing. No longer will we – you and your brain – be at the whim of food. Your brain is always watching, always soaking in what you’re up to. If your brain see’s you decimating negative food often enough it will think, “we don’t like porn-food. Good to know.”
After you’ve ketchupped the last of the cheesecake, wait an hour or two, keep yourself busy, and get back to your happy and healthy food plan (for me that usually means I make my blueberry-oatmeal bowl). And remember, even if you only ketchup the very last bite of cheesecake, you can still call it a win. ♥
Pearl Four
Books love us and want us to be happy.
Summer is for light and frothy books. Who wants to sit at the pool reading the Grapes of Wrath (awesome page-turner, by the way). In honor of summer, I highly recommend Lisa Scottoline’s — rhymes with fettuccine — memoir-funny books.
The books are a LOL-hilarious and a very frank peek behind a successful writer’s curtain. Also, they’re best read in order. 🙂
Why My Third Husband Will Be A Dog: The Amazing Adventures of an Ordinary Woman
My Nest Isn’t Empty, It Just Has More Closet Space
Best Friends, Occasional Enemies: The Lighter Side of Life as a Mother and Daughter
Happy and Merry
Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim
Have a Nice Guilt Trip
Does This Beach Make Me Look Fat?:True Stories and Confessions
I’ve Got Sand In All the Wrong Places
I Need a Lifeguard Everywhere But the Pool
I See Life Through Rose-Colored Glasses ♥
Pearl Five
Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” ― Steve Maraboli ♥
And as we’re getting stronger and more resilient in parts of our lives, we need to acknowledge and high-five ourselves when we pull off something wonderful like getting the colonoscopy we’ve long ignored or taking a new route to see clients so you don’t drive by your (once) favorite donut shop. Throw a little internal party for yourself as in, “wow, look at me. I haven’t had a chip or a cracker in a year!” (Large parties allowed too.)
Thank you so much for everyone who follows me on Facebook and Instagram. Very appreciated.
I would love it if you’d share a post with family, friends, even doctors. 🙂
Have the kind of weekend where you stop and appreciate how cool and accomplished you are.
♥, 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’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.
How to find the treasure in your next binge or overeat.
Pearl One
When this smart eating hack occurred to me, it practically knocked my flip-flops off.
Let’s say you overate a little bit or maybe you overate a lot of bit.
Right here, at this feeling-gross-moment, is where the treasure lies.
I understand that you not feeling so great, but challenge yourself to write a letter or a journal-entry to your future self.
The idea is to see what went downhill and lead to a binge. Write about and think your letter often. Of course, this method isn’t 100 percent, but it will go miles in addressing overeating or bingeing. Make it a habit: overeat? Journal-write about it.
Write at least a paragraph to these questions (this is not the time to be word-stingy).
How do you feel – in your body — right now? (Ex: Stomach ache, want to throw up etc.)
How do you feel emotionally at this moment? (Ex: I’m so mad at myself. I was doing so well around food and I messed everything up for what?! Margaritas and chips? Wendy’s note: try to keep in mind that you’re normal.)
If you’re mad at you, what do you tell yourself at this moment? (Ex: I’m so dumb, what’s wrong with me, why am I so weird around food? etc.)
If your internal voice is harsh and critical, where do you think you first heard this type of criticism? (Knowing is important not for blaming purposes, but so that we can address the criticism at its roots.)
At that, stack the times in your adult life when you’ve been responsible. Stack at least five. Then do something you couldn’t do as a kid: talk back to the voice who called you names.
Write at least three paragraphs on what you’d say to the voice who called you an airhead, again, all in your journal only (“I was twelve!” “I was still learning in life!” Who calls a child an airhead anyhow?!”).
What you most want for future-you (give at least three ideas).
What do you want future-you to know: (Ex: that it feels awful to overeat because. . .)
Do you know specifically what triggers you into eating too much?
How can you address the triggers so they lose their power?
How do you wish you’d responded instead of overeating?
How can you make it more attractive (from Atomic Habits) to stay the Smart Eating Path? (Ex: I can always keep my favorite healthy food on-hand, not get overly hungry, not talk to that combative family member on the phone when I’m too close to the binge food etc. etc.).
Can you write suggestions re: what you wished you’d done instead of overeat?
The essential idea is to teach future-you about how terrible it feels to give in. And then give strong ideas that would better than overeating.]And last, revisit your letter as often as needed. Keep it front-and-center in your daily. ♥
Pearl Two
I can turn any food into a “bingeable.” Acknowledging to myself that I’d always use food to comfort, celebrate or numb-out is just how I’m built.
As you know, it’s cake over wine every time.
Acknowledging that I’ll always default head-first into food is an annoying thought, but I also know more about myself and can therefore handle the overeating tendency that much better. ♥
Pearl Three
June’s topic for the month: what cannot be an afterthought in our smart eating lives.
Today’s topic: we’re heading into summer vacations and planning how and what you’ll eat on the trip needs to be given serious planning.
I’ve been a travel writer for sixteen years now, and I never gained weight on trips. Having a solid plan in place and not winging it moment by moment gets all the credit. Whether I was traveling by car or plane, I knew exactly how the food-situation would go down.
Bottom line: Know before you go
Pearl Four
Our book-dessert slot! You are owed an apology. And the Mountains Echoedby one of my favorite authors, Khaled Hosseini, should have been one of the first book-desserts I shared. The book’s genre falls under both “historical fiction” and “domestic fiction.”
Total honesty: if I’d read a description about this title’s plot I’d have thought, “pass.” But I’d already read Hosseini’s other two masterpieces — The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns – so I was all in. When I came up with the idea of book-dessert it was because of books like And the Mountains Echoed
So, that’s my review: 100 percent. (And again, my apologies.) ♥
Pearl Five
“Living is the art of getting used to what you don’t expect.” Eleanor C. Wood ♥
If you haven’t yet read Aunt Bea, just shoot me an email: Wendy@WendyIrvineWriter.com! 🙂
♥, 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’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.
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. ♥
A cool new habit can throw a bad habit off the cliff!
Hello Thrivers!!
I’ve returned from an exhausting week. Nothing bad to report except two very long flights. If I plan far enough in advance – Southwest can be booked six months prior – I’ll still get the great rate without the insanely long day.
I know, gas prices are bonkers, but if you’re going somewhere fun this summer, share your plans in the comments below. I love hearing about trips!
Onto our pearls.
Pearl One
It’s my belief that you and I are at the dawn of a new era where we crush the myth that women over 50 can’t lose or maintain weight loss.
Here’s why I’m optimistic: we’re beginning to note how invested our culture is in romanticizing enormous food intake.
Consider Carrie Underwood who came out with a new song last Thanksgiving called Stretchy Pants.
The lyrics go:
I’ve got my place at the table, can’t fit no more on my plate I’ve got my fork in my hand ready to stuff my face…
Lovely.
And it would be lovely if our culture only chowed with abandon once or twice a year, but instead we’ve been habituated to think that every co-worker requires a birthday cake; November and December is about inhaling trillions of calories; and summers wouldn’t be summer without a freezer packed in ice cream.
And these days people wonder why so many of us reach for our stretchy pants year-round.
Attempting to maintain a loss after 50 is not possible without first fully absorbing the idea that our food’s on steroids and is being “pushed” at us every day, in every way.
The Mad Men behind the food products are paid well to create powerful ear-worms that do their duty long after we’ve heard a commercial. I know you remember:
Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce,
special orders don’t upset us…
Or:
Oh, I’d love to be an Oscar Myer Weiner,
That is what I’d truly like to be…
Food-pushers spend bucks on TV commercials, billboards, podcasts, print ads and the like telling us that our lives aren’t good if we don’t eat their burgers. So their ads encourage us to buy more and more of their product.
Because, let’s be real, nobody creates ‘hit us over the head’ ads for broccoli.
My point: when we struggle to lose after age 50, it isn’t a testament to our lack of control in the past that we’re down five pounds, up eight. Our food-porn world pushes calories the way cigarette companies once pushed ‘coffin nails’.
And then we also have the diet-industry that hocks ‘lose 10 in ten.’
Between these two giants — food-porn and the diet industry — we shouldn’t be so fast to skewer ourselves for not fitting into our size 10 shorts.
Understanding what we’re up against is required for our ultimate Smart Eating success.
The Takeaway: Start to notice the endless food ads in your life and design an entirely new thought-habit for yourself. Say, hmmm there’s another and another and another food ad. These food-pushers really are everywhere. I think I’ll count how many fast food stops I see on my way to work today.
And a supportive habit takes root. ♥
Pearl Two
For months now I’ve noticed that I use new vocab for living well on the Smart Eating Lifestyle. It’s occurred to me that a glossary of sorts would help new members come aboard more seamlessly.
I don’t have the full glossary created yet, but here’s a sampler of what I do have (and if you have suggestions for the glossary, email away!! Wendy@theInspiredEater.com).
Our Glossary 🙂
Ban perfectionism – Attempting to be perfect is just one more way that we give up on ourselves.
Bite-o-meter – How many delicious bites we get from a food. (Ex: salads deliver a lot on the bite-o-meter.)
Book-in-the-bed – Wonderful way to ditch the evening calories and chill before sleep.
Conscious deserting – thoughtfully choosing a dessert like these.
Cookie Monster – Going berserk and inhaling the highest caloric items we can find.
Contrarion – Living quite differently from the larger group.
Daily details – Setting ourselves up for success is in the daily details.
Distraction eating – Boredom eating is a sign that we need some excitement in life.
Dessert-book – The lowest calorie option for “something good” after a tiny dinner.
Drastic dieting – The old, unproductive way of attempting to decrease weight.
Errand companions: car-banana or my cold tote filled with healthy bites.
Feedback device – Our scales (I didn’t use when losing, but I do use to maintain).
Food titans – the people behind the mass, brainwashy food ads: fast food, grocery stores, restaurants.
Food tools – Actual food for our kitchen that supports our Smart Eating Lifestyle.
Maintenance – Protecting our hard-won losses.
Mouth happiness – Healthy food that’s fun to eat like cherries or petite carrots with hummus.
My tummy — A souvenir from the babies.
Smart Food List that we keep taped inside a cupboard. This important list reminds us how to fill up and get out of a hunger zone quickly:
My blueberry-apple-oatmeal bowl.
Small cup of yogurt.
The whole wheat, one-teaspoon peanut butter and half of sliced banana.
A hard-boiled egg on toast.
Snooze-food – Healthy, but excruciatingly boring food (e.g. the old way of eating).
Strengthening and holding – What we once called ‘plateauing,’ we now know is strengthening our current loss.
The Elaine – order two side salads and combine in large bowl.
The skill to chill – Working with ourselves on how we best relax vs. inhaling the kitchen (different for everyone).
The three E’s — Every-emotion-eating (or stress eating).
Thriver – You and me, our group living the Smart Eating Lifestyle (who understand that slips are part of the game). ♥
Pearl Three
Let’s live differently. Visiting my parents was interesting. My mom has Alzheimer’s and my dad is taking care of her and I’m still stunned at how well my dad is managing.
That said, he practically embraces anxiety. He even said, “Well, we got everything done today. Now I need something new to worry about.”
It’s funny until you realize that he’s serious. It’s like he adopted a bad habit of needing something to ruminate about even when all is going well.
So, then I wondered, do I do something similar?
I don’t look for anxiety, per se, but I have caught myself feeling sad at times when given two seconds of thought deep-down I felt happy. It’s possible that somehow I feel safer aligning with the negative feeling assuming that if I feel too good the other shoe might drop. (I’m not suggesting this makes an ounce of sense. It’s another bad habit I need to break).
My takeaway: there are times throughout my day when I consciously tell myself, It’s okay to feel good. You love your writing (this blog). The kids are doing well. You’re planning a Trusted Housesitters (.com) ‘job’ for the summer. And the rug is vacuumed. Things are good.
Writing this message on note card and perching next to laptop. ♥
Pearl Four
Food! I’ve long had a habit of loving to read while crunching something like Cheeze-Its. And those salty orange guys don’t exactly fit into my life anymore.
But here’s what I can crunch without a second thought:
Cherries – Late May to late July.
Watermelon – arriving in June!
Cut up peaches – May to August.
Strawberries — June.
Petite carrots – not a fruit of course, but a bowl of petites deliver crunch and sky-high nutrition.
This weekend you’ll find me at Costco filling my cart with fruit. ♥
Pearl Five
A nail is driven out by another nail; habit is overcome by habit.” — Erasmus ♥
I’d love to share your success story. Anonymous of course. And a ‘success story’ doesn’t need to be pounds lost. It can be establishing a new habit, embracing a new mind-shift or dealing well with a challenging event.
A positive habit, new mind-shift, or meeting a challenge is true success. Send your stories to me: Wendy@theInspiredEater.com.
I’m spending the weekend getting back on schedule from my California trip’s jet lag (made worse by terrible flight schedules).
Have an uneventful, relaxing weekend and see you on Tuesday!
♥, 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!
Happy Friday, All! Let me know how you’re doing with the long weekend!
Pearl One
I’m currently knee-deep in 1938 Manhattan. A Rolls Royce with driver, a glittering Park Avenue apartment and $10,000 diamond chandelier earrings figure prominently.
But here’s the part I love: the author juxtaposes the wealthy world to a more humble man’s way of life. We hear the advice from the heroine’s dad through her thoughts:
“Whatever setbacks he had faced in his life, he said, however daunting or dispiriting the unfolding of events, he always knew that he would make it through, as long as when he woke in the morning he was looking forward to his first cup of coffee.” ― Amor Towles, Rules of Civility
This is my take on the dad’s advice to Katie: summer cottages at the Hamptons are cool and all, but the true luxury in life is the ability to cherish the smallest of pleasures.
Whew.
Isn’t that a good one?
Her dad’s insight applies to our “losing after 50” life too: learning to appreciate the small treasures that have nothing to do with the food-on-steroids in our culture.
Instead a book so exceptional that we finish the last chapter a changed woman; a lengthy cuddle with our fur-sweethearts total attention on our furs-kids rather than multitasking as we scratch their heads; or noting a beautiful walk on a crisp December morning, these are the “desserts” that don’t clash with our smart eating lives.
Nothing against luxuries. As a travel writer, five-star hotels are a blast, but Amor Towles brings it when he says it’s not the chic addresses, or diamonds, or three Michelin starred meals that make a life.
It’s the little things.
Journal-write about what brings you joy – that don’t involve calories – and refer back to your wisdom daily. ♥
Pearl Two
Do you know about this amazing site? The first tier (that I’ve used for years) is totally free, and it’s the coolest.
AllTrails.com reviews every walk/bike/run trail in your town or city. Same when you’re on vacation many places in the world. Looking for a moderately-challenging, but shaded walk? Or are you hoping to find an easy hike to a waterfall? How about a path that passes a dog park?
Last week I wrote that mid- to late-November is the ideal time to tell people in our life, “Please no food gifts.”
So several readers asked, then what should we ask for?
Good point.
I put together this inexpensive list that uplevels all of our smart eating lives. I have every single one of these items below and can attest: awesome.
Pink and Gold Measuring Cups and Spoons. These beauties make a gorgeous gift to give or receive. I actually keep four sets of measuring cups and spoons – albeit not this fancy — in an easy-to-access cupboard because I measure everything. I separate the spoons for easier use. This set all in gold is really pretty too.
Insulated Lunch Bag. I take my petite carrots, baby tomatoes, sliced cucumber, an occasional hardboiled egg and yogurt to eat in the car when I’m running errands.
Books perfect for dessert in the evenings. (Although maybe skip asking for the “Elephant in the Room” for the holidays. People might not appreciate getting Elephant in the Room from you.
Reusable Silicone Baking Cups Muffin Liners. I’ve had these exact muffin cup liners for three years. Easy to use, easy to clean. And I never have to worry about running out.”
Hat for the Cold in Leopard. I’m at the dog park for an hour every single day. Late fall into spring it is cold, so I bundle up and top myself off in this hat.
Pretty Jacket I Love for the Brrr Temps. I rarely buy a new coat or jacket, but I had lunch with a friend who was in therapy to learn to handle a super rough diagnosis. Her therapist suggested she buy a jacket in a color she’d never before considered for herself. She bought an electric blue. I thought it was a great idea, so I bought a jacket in bright green and love it. It keeps me warm when the temps drop into the 40s. (Photo of me in jacket below.)
I hope these gift ideas inspire you to think of new ways to support yourself as you go forward on this quite difficult path we’ve chosen. ♥
Pearl Four
Years into maintenance, I’ve extinguished my evening sugar-athon. However – don’t get me wrong – I had a bad relationship with sugar for years.
But.
We cannot transform a thousand eating habits overnight.
Here’s what I loved to eat in December before I kicked my sugar habit:
Pepperidge Farm’s Gingerbread Men. Tiny, low calorie, and serving size four. However, not sure how the supply chain problem will impact our little guys, but in normal times I find mine at Kroger.
Trader Joe’s French Macarons (find in frozen section near the ice cream) – Macarons are a great choice for a low calorie dessert (110 calorie for three macarons). Pair macarons with decaf coffee in the evening or hot tea and you have yourself a nice dessert. My review: More!
The Simple Candy Cane – At 60 calories per, a candy cane is a classic go-to (dating back to 1670). My only problem: because a candy cane is just 60, I occasionally went bananas and ate 300 calories worth at a sitting. The moral? Don’t be me.
Pearl Five
You don’t get results from focusing on results. You get results from focusing on the actions that produce results.” – Mike Hawkins ♥
I hope you’re having a peaceful holiday weekend.
With love,
♥ 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, 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. ♥
Me in bright green. It was 48 degrees this morning and I’m pleased to tell you this jacket did it’s job.I’m participating in a Christmas Blog Hop. Visit the links below for some fun holiday inspo!!
