Photo by Rhett Wesley on Unsplash

Hello Thrivers!

Whichever beautiful country you’re reading this from, I hope it finds you cozy.

I should add that I’m trying not to write such long posts. I don’t want you to see my emails and think, oh no, another phone book.

Here we go.

Pearl One

My Gram – who I mention a lot because I loved her so much – used to say, “My get-up-and-go, got-up-and-went.”

I receive just enough emails to leave me with the vibe that so many of us are losing – and maintaining – after age 50, 60, 70, and yes, 80, with our fingers crossed, hoping for a miracle this time.

For sure, I talk about the many micro-habits that are so important to embed in your life:

• Keeping a cold-tote with you at all times when you’re out-and-about.
• Going to bed early with a book-dessert (especially when you’re changing an evening eating habit).
• Always stashing a protein bar or a banana in your handbag. Always.
• Keeping a clean grocery cart and kitchen (eliminating all food that you’ll overeat).

And so on.

But just like your phone that needs to be charged each day, your part-time job (if you will) is to ignite the part of you that brings the energy, the fire, the magic to every strategy as we trek the Matterhorn of losing after 50.

Without charge, our awesome phones go from 33%, to 12%, to – hold me!! – eight percent.

So the question is, how do you bring your most on-fire self to the Smartest Eating Lifestyle?

No more wishing on a star or hoping for a miracle.

We’re the captain of our gorgeous cruise ship, and our ship runs on the magic of our excitement. With it, she’ll tour the most amazing ports around the world.

But without our crackling energy, she goes nowhere.

Your choice. ♥

Pearl Two

You know how we’re participating in the Healthy Holiday Challenge that we began in August? Well, my plan was to establish a fitness habit.

I didn’t want to work towards a goal, I wanted to embed an actual habit (like my morning coffee).

And I’m right in the middle of establishing a fitness habit, as we speak.

This is what I do. To make developing the habit easier on myself, I tell myself that I don’t need to change into “the right clothes” because I’m only riding for ten minutes. By luck, this time, I pulled out my favorite toy — Instagram — and scrolled away as I rode.

O.M.G.

The first day I used Instagram, I rode at a level-five for 20 minutes (I wasn’t working out. I was merely trying to establish a habit). When I looked up, I realized that I’d ridden that long because of Instagram. The next day — with Instagram along for the ride again — I rode for 29 minutes, and I’ve done that every day since.

I should add that my “why” has also changed and I hadn’t realized it, but I’d always thought my “why” was about my sons. At least at the moment, I realized that I now have a much stronger “why.” As a writer I sit on my butt way too much and for that reason I need to work out and stretch. How I feel on a daily basis is more motivating than two cranky teenagers. (Who’d have guessed?)

So too-much-sitting motivates my workouts today. Consider looking at your “why” to see if it too could use an update. ♥

Pearl Three

Welcome to how I “screwed up.” I want to share how I “relaxed my standards a bit” because I don’t want you to think for a moment that I’m perfect in any sense of the word. To keep my weight down, I don’t overexercise and I’m not bulimic. I’m just your average gal who got tired of clothes not fitting. Nothing unusual to see here folks.

A good example. My idea of heaven is me on the couch, eating half (maybe more) of the Cheez-It box, kitty on lap (if I’m lucky) with a good book. I haven’t had a good Cheez-It blowout in years. Ah, the memories. Cheez-Its and I had some wild times together.

But my size eight jeans gave me an ultimatum. Choose. Would it be the jeans or the Cheez-Its?

I chose.

Completely worth it. ♥

Pear Four

Whole wheat pumpkin muffins! I’ve made these babies for years throughout the chilly months. Look how low in sugar!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

• 1 cup white flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3 TBL. sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder.
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice.
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 whole egg (I add more for added nutrition).
• 3/4 cup skim milk (I use almond milk)
• 2 TBL. butter
• 15 oz. can of pumpkin (plain), or 3 or 4 mashed bananas for banana muffins.

Spray muffin pan, use foil muffin cups or try these silicone muffin cups that I think rock.

In a large bowl, stir the dry ingredients together and make a well in the center.

In a small mixing bowl, stir together egg, milk and butter.

Stir in 3/4 of a can of pumpkin (I use the entire can).

Add wet ingredients to dry. Batter should be somewhat lumpy. Spoon into muffin cups.

Bake for 20 minutes. Healthy and yum. ♥

Pearl Five

A habit is a gift you give yourself.” – Me ♥

The Holiday Weight Challenge. Just 35 days until Thanksgiving!! Which new habit have you been working towards? I hope you’ll share in the comments below.

Creating a new habit is not about being perfect. Say this over and over (and over) to yourself.

Have a beautiful fall 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). 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. ♥

Step away from the pizza and wine, and nobody’s Smart Eating Lifestyle gets hurt.

Pearl One

I listen often to the Two Disabled Dude’s podcast that’s tagline reads, we believe life is how we react.

Viktor Frankl, a survivor of Auschwitz, would completely agree.

You may already know is story, but before Frankl and his family were arrested by the Nazis, he was a successful psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna. In the death camp, it came to Frankl that while the Nazis could take everything from him, they couldn’t take his thoughts, or his responses. The Nazis had no say over his mind.

Frankl left us with so many lessons on life, but this is one of my favorites.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ― Viktor E. Frankl

I love this quote. Between stimulus and response there is a space, and human beings have the ability to choose the thought that goes into that space.

An example.

Stimulus: you make it home after a long, tiring day to a hot, huge cheesy pizza in your kitchen. Next to the pizza sits a bottle of Merlot.

Response: You say to your partner, “give me five seconds to put on jammies and I’ll be right back!”

But slow your roll for a second.

Frankl tells us that there’s a space between seeing the pizza, and racing to get into our jams.

The space Frankl talks about is the moment when we have the ability – to slow everything down – and choose our thought, rather than reacting from a cave woman’s point of view (pizza, grunt, grunt, mine! grunt, grunt).

Instead the scene could go like this.

You walk into the house after a long, tiring day. You see the pizza. You think, major-yum. But you take a moment to chill and gather your thoughts. At that, you ask yourself the best question ever, do I want to be a size 8 or do I want to eat the pizza?

You also remind yourself that you can have the pizza in the morning. It’ll be tasty! (Having saved food for breakfast in the past, you know this is a fun move.)

You say to your partner, “You go ahead without me. I’ll eat my pizza in the morning.” At that, you grab a fast shower, relax into your jams, and return feeling much better. You eat a small dinner – that you prepared in advance — of brown rice, roasted sweet potatoes, and broccoli (your favorite).

As Loki tells Thor, “If it were easy, everyone would do it.” ♥

Pearl Two

Readers have asked what I think about intuitive eating. I can tell you that it’s an outstanding way to engage with food once you’ve lost the weight, and have maintained the loss for ten years.

At that point I say, go for it!

Living in our food-porn world, an intuitive eating lifestyle won’t produce the results you’re looking for when losing after age 50 (but I think you intuitively already knew that).

As you know I’m 16 years into maintenance and 50% of the time I eat intuitively. Here’s how I do it:  First, I have to feel hungry because if I don’t feel ready to eat, I won’t eat. (I know this sounds obvious, but you and I can easily eat with others when we’re not exactly hungry.)

Second, I give careful thought to what kind of food sounds good to me at that moment.

I ask myself:

• Do I want to prepare food? Or grab something quickly?
• Do I want cold or hot?
• Sweet or savory? (Sweet would be my oatmeal-fruit bowl. Savory would be brown rice with veggies.)

But – in a million years – there’s no way I could’ve had this conversation with myself in the past if I hadn’t already maintained a loss for 16 years.

Which is why I say that intuitive eating is awesome, but only after ten years of maintenance. ♥

Pearl Three

We’re keeping this slot in October for what we once called “cheating,” “screwing up” or even “goofing.” Today we call “relaxing our standards a bit.” 🙂

Here’s how my eating went south these last seven days.

Turns out, I never tossed the donuts I talked about last week. And I never threw out the marshmallows. In my defense, my husband kept buying the marshmallows, so I had to eat them.

I finally put my foot down, “no more marshmallows!” He said, “I thought you liked marshmallows.” And I said, “what does that have to do with anything? No more!”

It’s funny how “just four marshmallows” becomes eight, becomes ten, becomes handfuls. But at this typing the kitchen is definitely marshmallow-free. Because I ate them all. (And, yes, I kindly requested that he not buy more this week. I have to nip it in the bud so that my mini-addiction doesn’t turn into a tough habit to break.)

Okay, now we come to the donuts. They really are fun to have with morning coffee, but they fill me up to such a degree that I’m not ready for lunch. And that has always been the deal that I’ve had with myself, that I have to be somewhat hungry to eat lunch at noon(ish).

Plus one of my sons love cinnamon and sugar donuts, so I tend to leave treats alone if they’re someone’s favorite. (I just keep the food out of sight.)

So, that’s how I relaxed my standards a bit this week. Next month we’ll focus on how I crushed it too. I want you to know that I have both not-so-fun and fantastic days. One of the most damaging thoughts I once held was thinking that I had to be perfect for weight loss to happen. I couldn’t make even one error or all was lost.

I didn’t understand that in real life, the successful folks stumble and get back up.

Over, and over, and over again ♥

Pearl Four

Let’s talk avocados. For years I didn’t eat avocados because I thought that they were too high in calories. They are, but check out their amazing nutrition content:

A whole medium avocado contains about 240 calories, 13 grams carbohydrate, 3 grams protein, 22 grams fat (15 grams monounsaturated, 4 grams polyunsaturated, 3 grams saturated), 10 grams fiber, and 11 milligrams sodium. Along with their low sodium levels, avocados contain no cholesterol. – Harvard, School of Public Health.

I’ve always been a huge fan of avocados, and because I strongly believe that when we eat is as important as what we eat, so I have my avocado sandwich for lunch.

I mash a plain avocado with a light sprinkle of salt and add it to whole-wheat bread. I also grab a bowl of cherry tomatoes, and pop one in my mouth as I take each bite of my avocado sandwich.

Awesome lunch. ♥

Pearl Five

What is the secret of success? Right decisions. How do you make right decisions? Experience. How do you gain experience? Wrong decisions.” – Abdul Kalam ♥

Our Holiday Health Challenge!! Just 41 days until the U.S. Thanksgiving and we’ve got this. I don’t care how many times you’ve started and stopped because it’s okay! Starting and stopping is part of how habits develop!

If you need to journal about why you chose the original goal in the first place, journal-away. I sure am. I’ll be journaling about why the goal I set in late August matters so much to me, and how I will begin the new year with this habit locked into place. (Not “I hope to,” but “I will.”)

Have a wonderful October 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). 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. ♥

Photo by Reynier Carl on Unsplash

Hello Thrivers,

The price of everything is skyrocketing. We’ve started shopping at Aldis again. If you have a way to save money, please share in the comments below.

It’s Five Pearl Friday!

Pearl One

There’s Oprah of course. But — aside from the obvious — have you ever thought about the genius that’s all around us? You and I marinate in the success of others to such an extent that we’ve become accustomed to the greatness, and don’t give it a second thought.

Give me a moment, and I’ll explain how seeing the genius all around us can change our inner world.

Let’s start with my car mechanic. Kyle isn’t just “fixing cars,” he’s saving lives by keeping his customers off the side of the freeway, and we love him for it. (K&R Auto, Atlanta.)

Or my hairstylist who doesn’t only do hair, her artistry leaves me feeling confident and pretty long after I’ve left her chair.

When you walk into your local Costco (839 total as of September 2022), do you wonder about the two guys who brought Costco into our world?

When you open the refrigerator, do you marvel at the guys through the last few centuries who built on each other’s knowledge and dedication to bring us our modern day frig?

That novel you can’t put down? That’s the work of a master storyteller.

Genius is all around us. Guess who invented the first car? There’s debate, but one name that comes up repeatedly is Karl Benz, Mercedes’s dad!!

And it’s not just the big time inventors. There’s people like the dedicated IT guy who keeps the Children’s Hospital computers in top condition for the nurses and doctors who care for the children.

We can include our librarian, the people at the post office, the gutter cleaning company, the owner and people who work at the gas station; our list would be endless.

You’re thinking, big whoop. So there’s amazing inventions everywhere. I’m not exactly inventing cars. In Pearl Two I’ll explain why this matters. ♥

Pearl Two

It’s self-evident that we can take great inspiration from the story of a single, destitute mom who in a Scottish café brought Harry Potter’s world to life.

But there’s phenomenal examples of inspiration all around us, and here’s how I keep myself pumped up: I look for inspiration everywhere I can find it. I mean, in any situation I’m looking for inspiration (or learning from mistakes).

When my boys were young, I found inspirational messages in their superhero shows (especially Big Hero Six). I essentially looked at the bigger message the movie was conveying, and used it as a boost in my own life.

I love my veterinarian, and watching him expand over the last seven years has been crazy-inspirational. He had a thriving practice, but then created a cat clinic, and now is building a second story onto his clinic that will become his surgery room. (It’s easy to see his dream go up because he’s on a main road in town.)

When I drive by his clinic rather than saying to myself, a second story, cool. I think, look at how much he believes in himself. And my very next thought is, wowza, if Zach can commit a massive amount of money to his business I can sure stay focused on creating a Smart Eating Lifestyle. Had he always dreamed of a huge vet clinic? What did he say to the loan officer? How does he pumps himself up each day?

In other words, I’ve made it a habit to look for inspiration everywhere I go, so that I’m always filling my brain with a can-do mindset.

My point, J.K. Rowling doesn’t have a lock on inspiration.

It’s a habit to instill – looking for inspiration in your day-to-day –, but practice it often, and eventually it becomes second nature.

Journal about the encouraging scenes you notice each day, write about them in your journal, and then “inspiration stack.” My stack would be: my veterinarian, Dr. Edith Eger (survived Auschwitz), a friend’s daughter who travels solo to other countries, and definitively my friend who has a disability, but lives life with gusto.

I’d love to hear what inspirational scenes you’ve spotted in your own life. I hope you’ll share. ♥

Pearl Three

In October, we’re keeping this slot for “How I Screwed Up.” You know that I’m a big believer in “brownies for breakfast.”

The Scarfer went shopping and he brought home donuts. I went to bed thinking, tomorrow morning will be tasty. The morning dawned and while it was fun to have a donut with coffee – okay three –, they weren’t worth the sugar and rush.

Remember wad-able food? Well, these donuts were melt-in-your-mouth, gone in a flash, totally wad-able bites. Normally I eat maximum-bite food like a whole wheat bagel with whipped cream cheese, a bowl of Cheerios, or maybe pizza from last night. I don’t eat food that disappears in a blink.

As you know I hold myself to two rules for eating “anything I want for breakfast:” I have to be done eating by 9:00 a.m. And I can’t eat so much that I won’t want lunch at noonish. For example, if I’d eaten half the box of donuts, I probably wouldn’t have wanted lunch until 3 or 4 p.m.

My Takeaway

Wad-able foods are merely eye candy and aren’t worth the time and money. I won’t put them on my grocery list again. ♥

Pearl Four

You know what hasn’t been in my freezer for a handful of months? A gallon or more of ice cream. My husband hasn’t been buying any. I work hard not to preach about how he should eat.

So, I didn’t say a word.

Today he casually mentioned that he’s buying cereal – on sale – and has a bowl every evening instead of ice cream. (I acted all cool like, “oh, what a good idea.” Inside I was thinking, strike up the band!!)

He added, “Have you seen the price of ice cream??” Um, no, I never go in that aisle. Apparently it’s doubled in price. Yikes.

He’s not doing it for his health, he’s doing it because he’s angry about the prices.

Whatever works, I’m flexible.

This a huge step for this guy. He isn’t a teen, he’s in his 50s and eating whackadoo-food all day has caught up with him.

If you’re also struggling with an ice cream habit, consider keeping a clean grocery cart when you shop (no ice cream goes into the cart), and eating cereal as your “bridge-food.” (Meaning the slower you go, the better the habit will be rooted into your life.) ♥

Pearl Five

I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of “Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,” and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough. – Marissa Mayer ♥

Have a smart eating 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). 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. ♥

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. ♥

A sugar-addict can find her fix anywhere. Just saying. Photo by Wouter Supardi Salari on Unsplash

Happy Friday, Thrivers!

Let’s jump right in!

Pearl One

I have a dear friend who has a rare disease called spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) that a doctor described as being like MS and Parkinson’s had a baby.

A handful of years after getting her diagnosis, her lovely husband – of 30 years — told her that he wanted a divorce and was gone in a flash.

And finally tested, her two adult kids have the SCA gene too.

Her response to all of this? Before her ex left, she went all-in and found several “adaptive” sports programs that welcomed her with open arms like indoor rock climbing, a weekly Parkinson’s dance group, the YMCA for individual and group classes, and an adaptive scuba diving program in the Bahamas.

But coolest of all, Susan adopted a service dog and by holding his harness can walk unaided. He’s also super helpful if she falls.

Susan’s response to what could me called a nightmarish situation, has been nothing less than spectacular.

But I have to add, she’s not a superhero because of course, she cries, she rages, and then she cries and rages some more.

But somewhere deep in her psyche, Susan has reached a place of acceptance. Not that she loves what she’s learned to accept, but that she’s made peace with “what is” and is getting on with life.

In Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance – getting to the stage of acceptance doesn’t mean loving what’s happened, it means calling a truce with grief and accepting the reality of the circumstances.

It’s my take that most who refer to Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief automatically assume that we’re talking giant chunks of time (he died in 2012, ten years later I’ve finally made it to acceptance).

But actually we can cycle through the stages in one minute like this: let’s say that I’ve been in maintenance for 16 years now and one evening I see my husband plow through a huge bowl of ice cream at 8 p.m. In the space of a moment watch how I pass through the grief stages:

Denial: He can sit next to me with ice cream. I’m fine. No biggie. Really. I’m fine.

Anger: I say to him,”Do have to eat the fricken’ bowl in front of me? How do you think I feel?!”

Bargaining: To myself, maybe I can have just a little and it won’t matter.

Depression: Why does everyone get to have fun-food, but me? 🙁

Acceptance: I say to myself, look, if you really want the ice cream you can have it in the morning. No problem. But when I ask myself if I want to be a size 8 or eat massive bowls of ice cream, it’s no contest. My wonderful grandma used to say, “in every life a little rain must fall, my darling.”

And so, keeping our smart eating lifestyle in mind as we proceed, knowing which stage of grief we’re in can only strengthen our smart eating lifestyle. ♥

Pearl Two

A step-by-step on how to make the first and second week successful, so you’ll have a third week. Let’s say that I want to bring a new habit to my evenings.

In the afternoon of the day I’m beginning to establish the new habit, I journal about how Day One will unfold. I never allow for the cave woman’s attitude “what happens, happens.”

I write in detail about the food I’ll eat (this is different than your tracker, continue tracking as you usually do), the podcasts I’ll listen to, and how I’ll remove myself from rooms and activities (like TV) that in the past I’ve always paired with ice cream. I’ll include what the most difficult moments in the evening will be for me, and I’ll write about how I’ll address each difficulty. Up until the moment I turn the lights out and fall asleep, I follow my plan.

The Steps to Creating a New Habit (or shoring up an old one). What follows is exactly how I begin — in the first week — to create a new habit. This process works for every new habit like giving up afternoon or evening sugar; having a smoothie in the evening versus cookies, cake, and candy (the Big Three), or walking each day for 30 minutes.

My Journal

The idea behind planning your toughest part of the day, is that you’re addressing what’s most difficult when you’re feeling good and aren’t under the duress of a craving.

Then when you get to the time of day that’s most difficult, you refer to the evening plan already written in your journal.

As you know, the first week or two of developing a new habit can be crazy-hard. Staying present with yourself every moment of the most difficult time of day is key (my difficult time is in the evening, yours might be mid-afternoon, or only on weekends).

The idea is that we’re taking ourselves by the hand, and following what we’ve already mapped out in our journal.

So, for week 1 and 2, our goal is to stay in our prefrontal brain by adhering to the plan. In the past, we’ve eaten poorly in the mid-afternoon or evening because we allowed our cave woman brain to run the show. After a long day, we need a break, and it just seems miles easier to let the cave woman run wild.

But she’s famous for making bad choices again and again.

Remember the cave woman will encourage you to overeat the lasagna, drink a third glass of wine, and chow the last of the garlic bread as you clean the kitchen. (This is a good time to say, ask for help. If evenings are tough, ask someone else to clean the kitchen or just leave it for tomorrow morning.)

The moment we engage our prefrontal brain — and lull our cave woman to sleep –, look out. The habit we want to embed in our hearts is just a few journal-planning sessions away.

This is how my journal rolls:

6:00 p.m. — I put all treats that I don’t want to eat, straight into the trash and squirt ketchup into the bag for good measure. (If you can’t exactly trash other people’s food, ask him or her to hide it on a top shelf that you can’t reach.)

6:15 – Eat my sweet potato with a light sprinkle of salt.

6:30 – Write for an hour or so. Don’t hang around to watch everyone have dessert.

7:30 – Listen to one episode of an inspirational podcast; two or three if needed.

8:30 – Evening shower, brush teeth, book/bed. (Currently reading The Gift: 14 Lessons to Save Your Life by Edith Eger. Great book. You might remember Dr. Eger from her first book, The Choice: Embrace the Possible. I’ve never been able to get through the entirety of a memoir about Auschwitz, — ever –until Dr. Eger’s. This woman’s story is so uplifting and I loved reading it, but heads up: I sent The Choice as a gift to a sweet, sensitive friend. She wouldn’t read past page 30. If you don’t do Auschwitz, The Gift is an excellent second choice.

Below I’ve included podcast and streaming suggestions that are motivational or just plain funny to keep you on the straight and narrow. Remember you don’t need to listen or watch a gung-ho podcast about food. You just want something entertaining that’ll lift your spirits.

Take a look.

• 29 Motivational Podcasts to Inspire You in 2022. I haven’t listened all 29 podcasts of course, but I love many on this list like The Tim Ferriss Show (although I hope you’ll ignore his “cheat day” eating plan) and the TED Radio Show.

• If you don’t like podcasts, consider watching TED Talks on your device. They’re short and motivational.

• These Are the 30 Best Comedy Specials on Netflix Right Now. If you want funny, this list has John Mulaney (Kid Gorgeous), Wanda Sykes, Sarah Silverman, Pete Davidson and many more. Only catch: do not watch shows about cooking or food.

The idea is that we’re taking ourselves by the hand, and leading us though the evening based on our planning earlier in the day.

Creating new habits is a challenge, for sure, but master how to keep your prefrontal brain in charge and prepare for success. ♥

Pearl Three

We’re keeping Pearl Three’s slot for what we once called “cheating,” “screwing up” or even “goofing,” today we call “relaxing our standards.” Who’s in?

Title this story: she’s in complete denial or how I relaxed my standards in one week. It all started with four innocent baby marshmallows melted atop my sweet potato. Once I’d had the taste of marshmallow I quickly progressed to handfuls of babies, eventually graduating to the big guys (keeping the count to just four, um, in the beginning).

But just as you’d expect, the time came when even four didn’t give me the fix I needed. Soon, I was downing a third of a bag — at one sitting. I should add: when nobody was around. I know that I need to decouple from the marshmallows and I’ll get to it, just as soon as I finish the last two bags in the cupboard.

As AA says, “Progress not perfection.” ♥

Pearl Four

As you know, I’m a huge fan of taking snacks in my cold-tote. But there are times when I’d like to eat something satiating in my kitchen, so that I’m not super hungry right in the middle of whatever I’m doing out of my home. Don’t get me wrong: I always travel with my cold-tote, but sometimes I want to leave the house comfortably full.

Here’s how I fill my tum: I make a peanut butter and ‘nanna sandwich (thank you, Elvis’s mom) on whole-wheat. If I’m out of bananas, I use strawberry preserves or honey.

Each of these food items on their own are filling, but when put into sandwich mode will “hold me” for a good two hours.♥

Pearl Five

The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill ♥

Have a great weekend, Thrivers!

♥, 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. ♥

Pearl One

In the initial years of twin babies, I knew a bunch of moms because our little people played together in the local park’s sandbox. At the time, I was the only person with two babies, everyone else had one.

Those were the days in which I was sinking. All three of us cried throughout those first two years, but only I tried to sleep at night while they preferred to go on scream-crying.

After one particularly bad sleepless night, I said to a fellow mom, “The other moms seem to be having an easier time. Everyone is better at this than me.”

The other mom laughed as if to say, “That is just your imagination.”

I felt better.

So today – when I receive emails from readers — I get a strong vibe that everyone thinks everyone else is having a much better time of losing after 50.

That they’re more committed.

Having greater and easier success.

And rarely – if ever – “slipping.”

If that’s been the drum beat in the back of your mind let me assure you that three donuts and a handful of small cookies later, you’re absolutely not alone.

Take yesterday morning, My husband and I said good-bye to our latest house sit (sweet kitties) and began the five hour drive home.

But before we went anywhere I requested that we stop and get donuts and coffee for the road.

Yes, we stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts and I picked out three.

I ate one donut every half-hour to make them last longer.

Three.

Why am I sharing?

Because I don’t want you to feel alone. We’re all far from perfect. Everyone goofs up especially given our food-porn culture.

Because there are many.

We all have days that go sideways, days when we blame ourselves for “bad” eating.

Begin to watch your eating from the “observer” perspective. Eat your junk food and then watch yourself return to making smart choices on your own behalf.

So yesterday morning I ate the three donuts. Today I’m having my usual: an oatmeal bowl.

Remember, it’s not the donuts. It’s our response to the donuts that ultimately determines our success. ♥

Pearl Two

A wondrous story from a fellow thriver! My history of disordered eating is almost as old as I am.  I discovered at 16 years that eating a big bag (the really large one) of M&Ms was a wonderful substitute for actually feeling my feelings.  Of course, at the time, I had no idea that’s what I was doing, and that it would lead to a lifetime of eating disorders and disordered eating. 

I was able to maintain my weight, or become underweight, for many years despite my very abnormal relationship with food.  But, as with most addictions, it caught up.  Food became an addiction and the weight piled on.  At my heaviest I weighed 90 pounds more than I do today.  Some of that I regained after losing it in a royally unhealthy manner.  I had lost the weight, but not dealt with the emotional component behind, it so of course it was going to come back. 

“The Inspired Eater”/ Wendy helped me to really start digging into the emotions behind it.  In the last 1 1/2 years I have lost over 30 pounds.  No more going to the grocery store hungry.  No more drive thru meals.  None of my addictive foods are in my home (for me it is all things sugar and creamy).   I used to take advantage of time alone to finally get to eat all the food I wanted with no one around and would head to the store or fast food immediately.  No more.  I used to use food shopping trips to sneak in my favorite binge foods.  No more.  I feel my feelings instead of feeding them and numbing out.

I’ve also found a new tool to help me. I’ve learned to treat food, which is an addiction for me, just like recovering alcoholics treat drinking.   “One day at a time”.  For today I will be “sober.” Here’s how that looks for me: I want cake and frosting.  I really want it.  Okay, but it will lead to more sugar and more eating and I have been doing well.  However, for TODAY I am choosing not to get/eat it.  If I want it tomorrow, I will deal with it then.  But for today, I am saying no. Now, if a certain craving appears multiple days in a row and I fear it is turning into a food obsession,  I choose a small amount, have it early in the day, and make sure that my typical healthy meal follows it. 

Approaching food addiction like alcoholism is making a difference—again, always combined with the incredible advice/ideas/support that Wendy provides.  It is a multi-pronged approach for sure.  

There is no describing the wonderful feeling of being able to look in my closet and knowing all my clothes fit. That I can feel good about going out in public instead of wanting to hide because of shame due to my size. 

I once saw a saying that said “what you eat in private, you wear in public”.  Ouch, that truth-bomb hits close to home.  So in my ever-filling tool bag of eating helps, “one day at a time” is added,  and I am happy to have it. ♥

Pearl Three

We have just ten weeks to our Holiday Healthy Weight Challenge!

If you’re doing the Holiday Healthy Weight Challenge — and if you’re not on board, join us — we have ten weeks to bring our goal to life. When you have a sec, visualize exactly what you’d like to accomplish by the U.S. Thanksgiving. (My goal involves getting sweaty for 30 minutes a day. One sweet reader said, “please share how you did it.” Well, B, as soon as I know, I’ll share it!)

And of course, journal, journal, journal about your goal, why it matters to you, what you expect the difficulties will be, how to address those difficulties and how you can re-motivate yourself each week. We can do this! ♥

Pearl Four

Anyone alive at this moment in history – whether losing after 50 or not – needs to eat more fruit and veggies.

And with today’s wacky economy, I want to share the latest news on finding exceptional produce at a low price. For safety reasons, let’s call the upper crust food store Splatts. It’s my husband who likes to peruse the very expensive calories in our Splatts. I rarely go into mine and when I do, I never buy anything.

But I just read some interesting news: apparently it’s common knowledge among the frugal that Splatts is home to incredible produce prices.

The guy who writes the blog, Eat Like No One Else, says what all of my Googling said, “The number one reason to go to (Slatt’s) is the produce. A stop in the produce department is a must for all the incredible buys. I got some amazing deals on some quality produce (asparagus for .88/lb, broccoli crowns for .98/lb, Brussels sprouts for $1.99/lb.).”

Of course, inexpensive produce only works as long as you don’t cave and buy the pricey items. My very best suggestion: before entering Splatts eat something that will hold you (this goes for every food store); then set the timer on your phone to go off at the ten or fifteen minute mark; now proceed into the Land of the Dragons. Head straight for the produce section, pay, and get the heck out of the lair! ♥

Pearl Five

Life will only change when you become more committed to your dreams than you are to your comfort zone.” – Billy Cox ♥

Have a beautiful weekend full of visualizations!

♥, 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!

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. ♥♥♥

Pearl Three: shhh! Don’t awaken the cave woman. Photo by Raphael Lovaski on Unsplash

Pearl One

Forty-two years ago, the Tahoe slope that morning was practically empty. I’d skied a bit further ahead of my (first ever) boyfriend, so I stopped to wait for Mike (names have been changed to protect the skinny). While waiting, two guys on a chair lift hooted and hollered in my direction.

Pleased, I thought, wow I must look pretty cool. After lunch Mike and I were on the chairlift with the same guys two empty seats back. One said quite clearly, “Oh. She’s big.”

I was mortified, because one, I was a teenager so of course and two, my new boyfriend was in earshot. I hoped Mike hadn’t heard.

Mike heard.

And that ski-memory pretty much sums up the first thirty-five years of life. My younger sister? Boy magnet. I was Roseanne to her sister Jackie. Alice to Mrs. Brady. Fred to Lucy Ricardo.

Some would say “oh, cry me a river” there are real tragedies unfolding across the globe. Okay, but here’s the thing: these days, our culture would never tell a smoker, an alcoholic, or someone addicted to drugs to stop whining and get on with it.

But they tell heavy people just this daily. We don’t stop to think that overeating is a sibling to the other addictions and just as dangerous.

For example, we understand that anorexia or bulimia can result in death, but we largely ignore the reality that too much weight can lead to a higher risk of  heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain cancers among other diseases (hsph.harvard.edu).

My Point

It’s vital that you and I take wanting to lose weight seriously.

• No more apologizing for eating differently than everyone else.

• No more minimizing that we, in fact, are super serious about our health. 

• No more politely eating something when we actually wanted to say, “no thank you.”

At first we might think that we’re losing weight for vanity purposes only. (Maybe you want to look great at your high school reunion.)

But dig deeper and you’ll find that something inside of us knows that too much weight — just like cigarettes, drink and drugs — can be a precursor to serious (and sometimes fatal) health problems.

What the “cry me a river” crowd doesn’t get is that what you and I are steadily pursuing and protecting — our smart eating lifestyle — is just as significant an endeavor as extinguishing any other addiction. I’m sorry, but I’m not going to say “I’m sorry” anymore. ♥

Pearl Two

Have you ever noticed that high calorie, high fat food is often soft, easy to eat, and disappears in a flash?

Because I sure have.

Take the world of cream filled cupcakes. They’re so soft, I could wad up the cakes into a little chocolate ball in ten seconds flat.

In fact, I think my waded ball invention applies to all snack cake products both “chocolate” and “golden cream” filled cakes along with those pink coconut breast-like looking things.

All wad-able.

And our culture is packed in wad-able items: birthday cake, brownies, pancakes and waffles, donuts. You get the idea.

Admittedly ice cream, crunchy cookies, and sticky pies would be tough to wad. Ice cream is cold, cookies crumble, but I think with perseverance I could wad up a pie slice in ten seconds too.

The foods our bodies really need aren’t wad-able and can take forever to eat like salads, large crunchy sandwiches, smoothies, all fruits, all veggies, and most food items that come in the “whole wheat” flavor.

My point? Go forth and wad up those “snacks”and practice slam dunking them into the trash can. And when you wonder whether a food is healthy or not, give it the wad-able test and you’re good to go! ♥

Pearl Three

Pearl Three is our slot to talk about the Holiday Healthy Weight Challenge. We have 11 weeks until Thanksgiving.

I won’t win any popularity contests for saying this, but losing two pounds a week – the number that’s long been touted – is much too fast. We have 11 weeks to Thanksgiving. If you goal yourself to lose one pound a week, you’re doing a spectacular job. (Any faster and it just piles back on.)

Always remember that losing too fast wakes up the cave woman in our brain who assumes that we’re starving. Which is why most can’t maintain longer than two or three years. You’ve heard “the body’s set-point” theory? Well, I don’t happen to agree with the idea that our bodies will always want to return to a “set-point.” I think that what the researchers are actually seeing are people who lose weight quickly thereby waking up the cave woman who proceeds to take them back to “the set-point.”

To lose and maintain, we need to take off the weight nice and slowly to avoid triggering the cave woman.

So, 11 pounds in 11 weeks. That’s a bit faster than I’d recommend.  Lose and maintain. Lose and maintain. Lose and maintain. I honestly think that’s why I’ve had success in maintaining my loss: I went super slowly in the first place. ♥

Pearl Four

Our food slot. There was a time when hard boiled eggs weren’t on my radar except at Easter, but I’ve rediscovered what a great “food-tool” these babies can be.

On Sundays I make five to six hard boiled eggs with a goal of eating one a day (give or take). I mash one egg with pickle relish, a tiny bit of ranch dressing, and a very light sprinkle of salt and spread over toast.

The best part about boiling and bagging five or six eggs on a Sunday means that I’ll have an easy-to-grab smart food that I can toss into my cold-tote in a flash. ♥

Pearl Five

Don’t give up on the person you are becoming. Stay focused and give it all that you’ve got.” — Anonymous ♥

“Give it all that you’ve got.” I love these six words for any and every endeavor. I’m keeping them on my screensaver to motivate me daily.

Hope you’re headed towards a beautiful veggie and fruit filled 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. ♥

Hello Thrivers!

August has me doing the annual doctors: pap, mammogram, shingles vaccines. (We had two vibrant young women in our extended family die of cancer. Just 38 and 43. So I try to remind myself how incredibly lucky I am to be annoyed by visiting the doctors.)

These pearls are good, I hope you agree.

Pearl One

Crazy week, but in its own way exceptional too.

Take a look.

Before I begin: I swear I was not in demanding princess-mode.

Long story, short: I needed a head-shot – in my life, photos were shot at home, nothing fancy – so I set an appointment with an experienced photographer who’d (according to his gorgeous website) been shooting head-shots for many years.

A million things went wrong that day – some me, some not me — but everything was made worse by the make-up artist’s work. The photographer was insistent that I have my professional make up done. (He comes from the actors’ world and seems to assume regular people can’t do makeup for photos.)

Anyhoo, one makeup artist later and I’d bloomed into full clown. My super supportive son got up off the couch – we were at the photographer’s studio — took one look at my face and quietly sat back down. At that I went to the bathroom’s mirror and omg.

It was bad. I mean bad/bad. I was all eyebrows.

Two gigantic caterpillars sitting on my face.

I wiped off as much as I could. I asked the make-up person to at least take off the fake eyelashes which she did. (Right before she bolted.)

And then we started the shoot. The photographer didn’t do one thing to help my mood. There was no music, nothing funny to laugh at, no beautiful photo on the wall, just nothing. And yet he kept clicking the camera. I tried to think of something funny, but by the time I’d thought of something to make myself laugh, he’d already taken three or four more shots. So the photos were of stressed out me, with Halloween-like make-up.  

All to say, I’m buying a ring light and taking selfies from now on. (Adding: I’ve known professional photographers who are awesome. My entire situation was a one-off.)

But here’s the thing: At the photographer’s studio, I realized that the photo was a fail. (I haven’t told you the whole boring story. The make-up artist was one hacking cough amid a million hiccups that day.)

Riding down the elevator my “looking-for-the-lesson” habit – one that I’d practiced over the last two decades – kicked in with no prodding from me.

Driving home, I turned the entire situation over in my mind, looking at every facet. I wanted to figure out the parts of which I had control. I began asking myself, Exactly what happened here? How can I do it better next time? What did I miss? How was I snookered? Had I been overeager with his beautiful website? (Yes.) When he wasn’t communicating with me at all prior to the shoot, did I allow the little red flags alert me to a potential problem? (No.)

I backed the timeline up. I kept asking myself over and over: what could I have done differently? How could I have influenced the experience for a successful outcome? What can I learn?

I didn’t ask myself these questions in a mean or cruel way. And I absolutely wasn’t trying to find the person to hang the blame on. I only wanted to learn from the situation.

I was smack in the middle of a massive failure, and I was doing a deep-dive trying to assess what role I’d played in this little drama.

We all fail here and there. In big and small ways. It’s how we respond to the so-called fail. Realizing that the head shot was in free-fall, I wanted to get something out of this situation. No, I wouldn’t have an amazing photo, but I would become a better version of myself if I had anything to say about it.

I continued with the questions: How could I have made this better from the get-go? Why did I ignore the meadow of tiny red flags?

And the gems spilled forth.

I’m not kidding, I learned so much about how I engage with the world. I didn’t only learn lessons for an (unlikely) photo shoot to come, but I did learn lessons that I could apply to my daily life right now.

I continued with the questions like how do I handle being assertive? How am I making myself insignificant while making the photographer and make-up artist too important?

The Art of Recovering from an Overeat

So, back to our topic. You attacked the kitchen and ate the leftover cheesecake? And then the box of Ding Dongs?

And last week you went out with a friend and ate half the pizza and downed two beers? And had ice cream when you got home? And everything went south from there?

Honestly, this is how I would proceed. First I’d tell myself to chill; that I was in failure-recovery mode and something awesome would come out of this.

I’d remind myself that the best lessons can come from any situation but especially the fails. Then I’d pull out my journal and answer these questions:

• An overview: what has happened over the last week for me? The last month?
• What has me so worried? So scared? So mad? So very sad?  (If you’re feeling like, drrr, my best friend had a heart attack. Okay, then write about the worry and how the worry is affecting you.)
• Still asking yourself: At what point, did I stop “having my own back?”
• What does “having my own back even mean to me (in various situations)?”
• What was going on in my life before I stepped off the smart eating path and lunged for the cheesecake?
• How do I interrupt overeating?
• What happened in my day, my week, my month that led me to the calories?
• What red flags did I miss before I Cookie Monster’d the kitchen?
• How do I support myself when I’m having the aforementioned feelings?

I’ll tell you something funny: as a travel writer I often embraced it when part of the trip fell off the cliff. It gave me something interesting to write about.

Same here. “Failures” are awesome because it gives us new info into who we are and how we can evolve into better versions of ourselves.

The next time everything tanks start looking at the many facets of the “fail.” What is the “fail” trying to tell you?

This “fail” could be just one of many diamonds that transforms your life. ♥

Pearl Two

As I’ve mentioned, the diet-industry has sold us on the idea that “losing ten is easy.” That said, I’ve also noticed how prevalent the word “easy” is in our world.

You could make an argument that life can be brutal, and learning or doing something easily would be a welcome diversion.

I get it, but. . . things that really matter aren’t easy. Nothing about raising kids – or a puppy!! – is easy, but they’re the most precious creatures on earth to us.

Very little about travel is easy, but our treks matter so very much to us. And we love sharing our trip memories later.

Losing weight especially after menopause? Nothing easy about it.

We always need to remind ourselves: it’s hard, apparently it’s supposed to be hard, but we can do hard things.

We’re totally up for the challenge. ♥

Pearl Three

In August, Pearl Three is about habit formation and today, specifically: my habit of “forgetting.”

“Forgetting” is one of my most favorite excuses when I’m dorking around, and not getting down to business.

Say I skip a workout, I automatically assuage my guilt by thinking, “Well, I just forgot.” Nifty. Forgetting has gotten me out of all kinds of stuff I didn’t feel like doing such as going to the bank, cleaning the bathroom, writing a chapter.

Of course, I calendar everything like doctor appointments; an article’s due date; or the next kayaking get-together.

So then the question becomes: do I just need to better calendar my personal goals?

I have a bike ride plan with a group later in August and I need to do 20 minutes a day on my inside-bike. I’m afraid that writing “biking” into my calendar will cause me to “forget” to read my calendar.

But this is the moment to create teeny-weenie habit-cues for myself according to James Clear in his amazing book, Atomic Habits.

My cues for riding indoors: cute workout clothes laid out on bed and leave phone on bed too (so I can watch a show while I ride).

Keep notes on the length of the ride, the difficulty levels, and improvement I’m making. (Tracking is huge to embedding a habit.)

But next time I “just forget?” I’ll tell myself, no ma’am that is a cop-out. These days my “I forgot” is my cue to sit down and journal about my “why.” Why do I want to ride my indoor bike? Why is it so important to me? And then time to revisit the calendar to put my “why” into action. ♥

Pearl Four

Food!* Yes, I know. We’re nowhere near the holidays and I’m writing about sweet potatoes. But hang with me, this will make sense in a moment.

Did you know that you can nuke one sweet potato and get four grams of fiber, 0.5 grams of fat, and billions of vitamins? (That is, unless you have kidney troubles, then steer clear, but you likely already knew that.)

It’s a fun tiny meal — because it’s somewhat sweet — and makes one feel virtuous all at the same time (as in, make sure to eat the sweet potato in front of others so you can quietly humble-gloat about how cool your food choices are. Win-win!!)

Here’s the easy how-to:

Wash one sweet potato.

Stick it with a knife or fork four times (to allow steam to escape).

Put on plate, plunk in microwave.

Nuke for 2.5 minutes. Turn, then nuke another 2.5 minutes.

Cut it open. Drop three to six mini-marshmallows on top.

Nuke for ten seconds.

Eat it like you would a baked potato or mash it.

Very-yum.

*Always keep in mind that I’m not a doctor, I’m a lost-55-pounder. I’m sharing how I eat and think on a daily basis. If you don’t like your GP, shop around. You are that important. Talk with her about your health. ♥

Pearl Five

When it hurts: observe. Life is trying to teach you something.” — Anita Krizzan ♥

Have a wonderful August weekend, Thrivers!

♥, 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.

When you embed a new habit into your heart you’re becoming a new version of you.

Pearl One

Back when yo-yo-ing was my lifestyle, I would never have called myself “smug.” Most of the time, I was dealing with too little confidence, rather than too much.

But.

To be perfectly transparent, I remember losing ten or fifteen pounds, and turning moderately smug. As if I were too cool for school. As in, I’d never have to deal with weight issues again! (Awesome, right?)

And – in my opinion – feeling smug is the very precursor to the downhill slide into re-gaining the fifteen + more.

Like all of us trying to lose weight, I was on an elevator that went up and down through the years.

And back then I didn’t know that what I put into my mind and heart was far more important than what I put into my mouth. I didn’t know that being smug would never be a helpful thought or feeling. It would always be the beginning of a downfall.

Thankfully I figured out trashing the smug thought was vital, and instead think, I’m always learning. I’m always discovering. I slip and that’s okay. I’ll just meet the new day and go for it again. Over and over and over.

I know that a lot of Thrivers are having amazing success. And don’t get me wrong, I love hearing about the awesome strides everyone’s making, but consider nestling this phrase into your heart forever.

♥ I’m not smug about losing.

♥ I’m not smug about losing.

♥ I’m not smug about losing.

If you’re having what anyone would deem “victory!!,” don’t be lured down the smug-pathway. It might seem like allowing ourselves to feel a tiny bit smug is the pinnacle of “success”, but it’s really the precursor to a downward spiral back into overeating-land.

I’m not smug about losing. Let’s don’t me smug together. ♥

Pearl Two

Welcome to the Holiday Healthy Weight Challenge! If you’re not yet on-board, please join us!! This is my first year for a holiday challenge. This will be fun.

We currently have 12 weeks and 5 days before Thanksgiving (U.S.). If you live somewhere else on our beautiful, blue marble, jump in and play along anyway. For example, Canada’s Thanksgiving is in six weeks and six days on October 10. I’m inviting all of our planet’s countries like Switzerland, England and Australia: you guys come along too! Fyi: the U.S. Thanksgiving is on 11-24-22.

Thirteen weeks and five days is a perfect amount of time to focus on Thanksgiving-you.

The Best Therapy Available

I’ll never stop saying that I’m a huge believer in journaling. I’ve mentioned that in a lifetime long, long ago I was a private practice therapist. I absolutely revere cognitive-behavioral therapy, but writing about our issues produces tangible gems too. It’s inexpensive, and I think, tends to be considered “second- or third-rate.”

Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of journaling, it’s the real-deal.

If your hand gets tired of writing jump onto the laptop. (I love typing out my thoughts, but journaling experts often say that handwriting is better.)

For those on the Healthy Weight Challenge, let’s go! Write about the following:

When you wake up on Thanksgiving morning, how would you like to feel about your health, your weight, your fitness and so forth? List at least three ways you’d love for Thanksgiving-you to feel on the big day.

What habits did late August- and September-you do for Thanksgiving-you? How did she create a successful month for her later self? Be super specific like: I want to habitually “eat before I eat” so that I never again face a table full of gorgeous food when I’m ravenous. My days of being way too hungry are over!

What is most important to you about losing weight? (Look gorgeous for a new job? Drop your BMI score? Get off certain meds?)

What do you wish were more important to you? (You might write, I wish I cared more about working out, not eating after 6 pm, or eliminating evening-eating all-together.)

Keeping it positive, tell yourself: I deeply care about working out, I deeply care about not eating after 6, and I deeply care about how I’ll feel on January 1. Don’t say, I wish. Say, I do. (Seems like a small distinction but it’s huge.)

A challenge. Consider taking on this new thought for the next seven days: I’m shifting into a new me in fall 2022. (Be specific.) I will be eating a small salad for dinner, or eating like“Elaine” for lunch (Elaine on Seinfeld would ask the waitress to combine two small salads to make one large salad), or I’m giving up evening sugar.

Our new thought about a “new me in the fall 2022” will be a habit in it’s infancy. Be gentle with the new activity that you’re shaping into a habit. Don’t tell it that it’s annoying or anything like that. Treat the beginning of a new habit like a newborn for the week to come.

In my case, I’m working on my fitness. So, I’d write: I’m shifting into a new me in the fall 2022. I will write very specifically about how I will start the process of daily movement involving sweat. Let me know if you want the particulars.

Let’s challenge ourselves with small habits to reap huge rewards by November 24! ♥

Pearl Three

We’ve set August aside to talk about habits in Pearl Three. Because my posts are already too long (sorry), I’ll just say this.

Throughout the last many years, I began to slowly notice how ideas for – in our case – smart eating can be found almost anywhere. The “Elaine” salad from Seinfeld is the perfect example.

I find new nuggets, suggestions and aha moments when I speak with friends, listen to a podcast, or even glance in a fellow shopper’s grocery cart. Lol. I did exactly that when I watched a woman – who looked to be in her 40s and in great shape — in Costco toss two large bags of a salad kit into her cart. So I immediately said, “Those must be really good.” And she proceeded to tell me how to prep the kale salad kit for the most nutrition minus the excess calories and fat.

We can learn new pieces of information almost anywhere if we stay open to the incoming intell.

Where have you learned helpful ideas? And what was the tip? We’d all love to know!! ♥

Pearl Four

Food! Let’s say that you (really me) created a not so great ice cream habit for yourself. At this stage of the smart eating game, I weaned off the ice cream habit due to my braces relatively easily. In retrospect, I simply didn’t give the ice cream habit time to truly sink in.

Today I can go straight from ice cream to (a better choice) smoothies: almond milk, frozen banana, frozen blueberries, ¼ cup vanilla yogurt. Tasty.

But back in the day, that would have been a total joke: I would never have accepted a smoothie in place of ice cream.

Here’s the plan that would have worked for me:

To start, somebody would’ve had to explain to me that the ultimate goal was getting off the hard stuff for good (which would have made me frown and think, why would I have to give up ice cream for good?)

Heavy sigh. (You see what I was working with?)

Next I’d recommend beginning by substituting sorbet for ice cream. Not for a week or two, but for the amount of time it takes to create a sorbet habit instead of an ice cream habit. I’d also begin “backing up the clock” meaning that if I once chowed my ice cream at 10 pm, I’d move my sorbet habit to 9 pm. And I’d go to bed early with a book.

Then I’d swap smoothies out for sorbet. And again, I’d have a smoothie every evening for not weeks, but months. I’d also back up the clock again. So I’d have my smoothie now at 8 pm. Again, I’d go to bed early with a book.

Finally if I still wasn’t ready to give up having an evening dessert, I would substitute in a handful of baby marshmallows, a little dark chocolate and two or three nuts. (This actually was my dessert for quite awhile until I gave up eating in the evening all together.)

You could use this exact strategy with chips, cake, candy, cookies, chocolate. Name your addiction and you absolutely can slowly wean yourself off. ♥

Pearl Five

Success is all about going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill ♥

I’m spending the weekend bagging up still-in-great-shape clutter, and taking the bags to my local animal-rescue thrift store. I know I’ve mentioned this, but giving away treasure is so much easier when I know the items will help those I care so much about (the fur-people).

I hope you have a weekend filled with good sleep, sweet animals, and plenty of “fuel-food.”

♥, 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.

Hello everyone!

If sugar is on your last nerve, read on!

Pearl One

Craving treats in the evening plagued me for years. I’d tried everything I could think of to end the cookies, candy, cake, ice cream routine, but nothing worked. Once I even talked my husband into keeping his treats in a locked safe. I can’t remember how long that so-called “solution” worked, but it was probably one day, tops.

Back in January 2021 I decided I’d had enough. I thought, I will extinguish my evening sugar habit once and for all.

And after a lifetime of getting nowhere, I finally hit on my own hack that wiped sugar off my map. At this writing I haven’t had sugary treats in the evenings for three years. The plan works beautifully. And it now belongs to you.

The Stop the Evening Sugar Plan

For the first week or so of early January, I’d spend each morning writing about the steps I would take that evening to defeat my sugar-urge. The first two weeks were the hardest.

My planning notes looked like this.

When the dessert-hour rolls around and I’m craving Oreos and ice cream – not to mention watching my husband, the Scarfer, chowing down –, I agree to do the following:

• Step One — Get out of the kitchen and away from the ice cream scarfer. I will listen to an inspirational podcast and wait for the craving to quiet down (btw, cravings are like clouds. They subside if you wait them out).
• Step Two — Listen to hard rock from the 70s. (Not sure why, but great music stops my cravings.)
• Step Three –Take a hot shower.
• Step Four — Brush teeth and read in bed. (I call it book-dessert.)
• Step Six — Turn on the electric blanket and go to sleep.

Within two weeks my sugar cravings seriously calmed down.

By Day 66: the new habit was solidly mine. Today if I want something fun – like birthday cake – I have it with my morning coffee. More about the advantages of brownies for breakfast here.

Now You

In the morning, long before the cravings start make a “step list” for yourself to navigate evening cravings. Write down the moment you start thinking about eating the treats. Is it immediately after dinner? Or more like 9 p.m. when you’re watching Hulu? Or is it after everyone goes to bed and you have time to yourself?

Write up a plan that focuses on precisely what you commit to doing when the urge hits. Let’s say you know that you want a large bowl of ice cream every evening at 9. Plan to get out of the environment that’s connected with ice cream: the couch, Hulu, your scarfing partner.

Just like Pavlov’s dogs, our brain has connected relaxing evenings to ice cream.

So write up a plan that specifically – very specifically to your life – takes you step-by-step through the hardest time of day when the sugar urge hits and detail how you’ll handle it (listen to light jazz? Take a bath? Get into bed and call it a day?).

Let your partner know, “Hey, I just want to give you the heads up, but I won’t be watching Hulu tonight. And it would really help if you wouldn’t eat ice cream around me for the next two weeks.”

As I snuffed out my evening sugar habit, I didn’t just pick one step from my list.

No. I completed all six steps that first week.

Within two weeks my sugar cravings had somewhat calmed down.

By Day 66 (the time my favorite study says it takes to create a habit): the new habit was mine. Today if I want something fun – like birthday cake – I have it in the morning with my coffee. Read more in Brownies for Breakfast.

Make a “step list” for yourself to navigate your cravings.  

Don’t come up with a one-step plan. You need at least five or six ideas to essentially remind yourself about what really matters to you. (And if you’re reading this, I doubt it’s ice cream.)

Tracking your experience is key. These lines are from January 2021 when I wrote down one line about how I was developing my no-sugar habit:

Day One – 1-2-21. Had cake last night for “dinner.” It was my way of saying good-bye to sugar. It needed a funeral.

Day Two – 1-3-21. I did it! The whole plan: I went to bed early with my book. No sugar!

Day Three – 1-4-21. Another success. Going to sleep earlier has helped in so many ways. No sugar.

Day Eight — 1-12-21. Day 10 — Still no dessert!!

And there you have it.

Let me know what habit you’re extinguishing – or bringing to life — using this step-by-step method. ♥

Pearl Two

If anybody thinks that I eat perfectly day in and day out, please allow me to disavow you of this notion.

While it’s true that my plan is to keep my weight within a four pound window, I still have moments when I step off the smart eating path.

So, when my weight heads in the wrong direction, do I beat myself up for whatever I ate or overate? No, not even a little. I see it this way: if being mean to ourselves worked you and I would be a size 4.

Instead I’ve retrained my brain to use supportive self-talk. Learning to talk kindly to yourself is practically a superpower.

So there I was a pound over my “high” weight.

Here’s what I tell myself when I need to strengthen my smart eating habits:

Me: Oh, hell no!! (This one’s my favorite. Oh, hell no! means that there’s no way that I’m returning to my prior weight that included health problems and so forth.)

Me again: Not on my watch!

Still me: “Smart habits first and the weight loss will follow.” (Just thinking about habits reminds me that, if I’m gaining one of my habits is slipping.)

Final me: I decide the number on my pant-size not the Superbowl party, the chocolate Easter eggs, or even pizza by the pool come summer.

Please use my, oh, hell no! Three little words that have played a huge role in helping me keep off 55 lbs. ♥

Pearl Three

I keep this space to write about Thinking Big. I’ll always be in love with the very idea of Thinking Big because it pushes me to go for the gusto when planning my life. OF course it’s true that there’s much we don’t have control over, but it’s also exciting to know that we have control over a lot.

Thinking Big can be as small as, I will read every book my favorite author has written to something huge like, I will author and publish a book. Big-small: I will take that acting class I’ve long thought about. Big-huge: I will be in a movie within the next five years. Big-small: I’ll seriously spruce up my French. Big-huge: I will live in France for at least a year.

I’d love to hear: what are your thinking big plans? ♥

Pearl Four

Over the last month, when it was time for an afternoon snack or light dinner I’d open my fridge’s salad drawer, and come up empty in the leafy greens department. I had a realization. “Real” salad doesn’t have to be lettuce based.

Right?

Right. Given my aha moment I pulled out my trusty cucumber and sliced off ten cucumber coins. I placed a handful of petite carrots and cherry tomatoes on the plate next to the cucumbers and finally drizzled all with one teaspoon of olive oil and a added a small blob of ranch dressing. I lightly dip the veggies into the dressing for a smidgen of extra flavor.

Share your coolest aha moments. Learning from each other is a brilliant way to raise our smart-eating game. ♥

Pearl Five

“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” – Bruce Lee ♥

Join me in making it a beautiful week!

♥, 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. ♥

My favorite cold tote-bag to carry smart snacks.

My five-star book list.