We don’t have to be perfect to create a lifetime weight loss for ourselves.

Hello Thrivers,

I hope this post finds you well. Would you believe that I got sick again? I think that whatever I have now is in response to my Christmas-flu. I’m calling the GP in the morning. For now, these are former pearls that I updated.

Pearl One

First a caveat, I’m so thankful for the self-help world; I’ve benefited greatly.

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

But through the years, I took in a subtle message that I needed high self-esteem before I could create something of value like taking back our health (losing and maintaining after 50). I thought that I really had to have my act together to move onto a permanent weight loss.

And yet I’ve known people who’ve been insanely successful in their work lives, but had a drinking problem.

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

Here’s what happened for me.

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

And yet – even with iffy self-esteem — I lost the fifty-five pounds and have maintained the loss. And I didn’t have to be perfect to create a permanent loss for myself.

Our Takeaway

I love that we don’t need the confidence of Oprah, the emotional strength of Brene Brown, or the brains of Sara Blakely (Spanx) to create exiting lives for ourselves.

So, good news: we can be an emotional mess and still lose and maintain after age fifty! ♥

Pearl Two

Last week my techie husband and I were driving to a new locale. At one point the GPS stopped talking, and my hub said, “Give it a second, it’s trying to get a satellite connection.”

I responded in a princess voice, “But I want my satellite connection nnnnowwww.”

As a culture we’re a bunch of speed-freaks. We love a good ‘overnight success’ story. We want our cars fast, and the car’s a/c to be even faster. We don’t want to wait long in the drive-thru, or if we do we’re likely to pull out of line — in a huff — to find a shorter drive-thru wait.

We like our light ‘at the speed of’ and we all carry a small computer in our hand bag that allows us to talk with anyone, anywhere, anytime with a lightning fast connection.

So it comes as no surprise that when diet-headlines and diet books have long promised, “Lose Belly Fat in Ten Days” we’ve had a tendency to believe them.

But if we’re to get down to bare-bones reality: cool, awesome and spectacular don’t arrive with Amazon speed. Nobody learns piano or a foreign language with a few months of practice. We don’t create a successful business in twelve months. And we definitely won’t lose anywhere near what the headlines have long promised.

And that’s okay because wrapped into the ‘lose belly fat in 10 days” is the message from the company: you need weight loss to be easy, and we need your money. Their underlying message: if it’s not easy, you can’t do it. Seriously condescending.

Don’t be swayed by ‘easy.’ Keep your cash, expect losing after 50 to be hard, and get annoyed at those proclaiming losing after 50 is effortless.

Because inherent in my message: We’re smart, we’re resilient, and we’ve got this. ♥

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.

Original Sequence

• Situation (something very concrete): “The scale has only gone up.”
• Thought: “Oh, no. I thought this time would be different, that I would really keep my weight loss off. And – per usual – I’m not.”
• Feeling: Total anger, disappointment.
• Action: I spend the next week overeating.
• Result: The scale goes even higher, confirming that I can’t do this (maintain).

New Sequence

• Situation (something very concrete): “The scale has only gone up.”
• Thought: “Okay, instead of getting furious, I’m getting curious.”
• Feeling: Resolved.
• Action: I immediately head for my journal and begin writing. I ask myself what my habits are like? Am I still tracking? Have I given up evening desserting? Do I take a great book to bed? Do I still have the habit of seeing my eating life as “on a diet” or “off the diet?” If I’m still looking at eating as “being on” versus “being off”, how do I help myself let go of that old way of living with food? How do I help myself live on the Smart Eating Path? What do I start with first?
• Result: I’m back to strengthening my habits and immediately shop for smart food. ♥

Pearl Four

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed is a phenomenal read. Absolute book-dessert.

Pearl Five

Successful people are successful for one simple reason: they think about failure differently.” — Seth Godin ♥

♥, 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, doctor, surgeon, nurse, dietician, or 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.

Make 2025 the year you embed the cold-tote habit

We have new people – and  welcome!! – I’m sharing five super important posts to read below. It’ll make these weekly posts a lot easier to understand. And if you haven’t received your Aunt Bea copy just write to me at: Wendy@theInspiredEater.com and I’ll shoot it right over.

• Begin Here
• This Metaphor Is My Constant Companion as I Preserve My Weight Loss After Age Fifty
• Brownies for Breakfast
• 6 Pillars of Losing Weight After Age 50
• How to Conquer Your Evening Sugar Cravings

Pearl One

Let’s be honest: losing weight is a trial at any age given that we’ve long been marinating in a culture where food-porn has run wild since the 1950s.

My thought is that until you and I recognize the force behind the Mad Men’s wily marketing campaigns — paid for by Big Food-Porn –, we won’t be able to go forward with a permanent lifetime-loss.

The last sentence might sound over-the-top, but hear me out. If we don’t acknowledge that our culture has played a significant role in our weight issues, then you and I are back on the merry-go-round and totally responsible for our weight issues. We return to the old standby: lose weight on a yo-yo diet for a short period of time, regain the weight and run back to the diet-cartel (who are happy to have us. After all, billions in profit is nothing to sneeze at).

The diet-cartel wants to “help us” lose the same thirty pounds over and over (and over) again. Have you noticed? They’ve never taught us how to preserve (maintain) a lifetime loss. And why would they? It would create a profit-loss tsunami headed straight for their business model.

Why does any of this matter to us? To create permanent success, you and I need to understand what we’re up against i.e. what we’re dealing with.

Every time we leave the house and are confronted by a vast landscape of fast-food drive-thrus, doughnut shops, and giant-portion sized restaurant meals — if we’re even a little bit hungry –, it becomes too seductive to succumb to all the alluring and convenient “food.”

But the instant the light flips on about how this game is played, we can figure out which smart tools to bring to the tango. Have I convinced you yet of the importance of always keeping a tote-bag packed in nutritious food by your side?

If you haven’t yet started to embed this tool, make today the day. I’m convinced that a lot of us overeat because we’re out of the house running errands and are too far from our healthy kitchens. Pack your cold tote in sliced apple, red grapes, chunked strawberries, peeled hard-boiled eggs, dried plums, a small yogurt, and hummus sandwich and so forth. If you haven’t yet seen the beauty of this tool, give it one week to behold its awesomeness. Just one week.

I wish I could share the tote I use, they’re out of stock: this one comes in the right size and has an adjustable shoulder strap, same tote but without cross body strap. I use a small tote made for the individual; anything large might make you like you’re lugging around a baby elephant. The last thing we want is that you get annoyed and give up.

Until food-on-steroids goes the way of la cigarette, our cold-tote will protects us from the blanket of calories across our globe.❄️

Pearl Two

Pearl Two is from a former pearl that I gussied up. This is the one smart tip that moved mountains for me. You might have noticed: Everything involved with losing/preserving our weight loss – buying the right food (at three different stores), chopping the right food, cooking the right food, bagging the right food — is a lot of work and a pain in the neck.

Early on when I was losing, I meta-noticed that I was grumping and grousing, and feeling “put upon” every step of the way. At the same time, I knew that somehow I had to make peace with the massive amount of work involved in losing weight/preserving for the long run.

And one day, it hit me. From this moment forward, I will think about all that’s involved with losing weight and preserving as my part-time job. And boom! No longer was losing weight practically an afterthought; by calling it my part-time job I shifted from thinking of the work as being “in the way” to understanding it for the most difficult undertaking that it is. In a funny way, thinking of the work as my part-time job made the whole endeavor a little easier and a lot more fun. ❄️

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.

This sequence is from an experience my sister had and I’m pretending to be her:

Automatic Sequence

• Knee jerk Situation (something very concrete): My sister Shelley and her Tucson husband hike what’s called the Grand Canyon “rim-to-rim.”
• Thought: Nobody told me this hike included crossing the Colorado River on a swinging bridge.
• Feeling: anger and intense panic.
• Action: Ben was behind me so I couldn’t balk and turn back, even though I tried.
• Result: I never want to do this hike again.

Conscious Sequence:

• (something very concrete): My sister Shelley and her Tucson husband hike what’s called the Grand Canyon “rim-to-rim.”
• Conscious thought: I’ve just done a grueling hike and now I need to cross the raging Colorado River on a suspension bridge? I’ve come too far to stop now; I’ll look ahead and not down because I can see through the bridge to the water and it’s so scary.
• Feeling: Still scared, but then resolved.
• Action: I put one foot in front of the other looking straight ahead and I made it.
• Result: Pride in myself and what I accomplished. ❄️

Pearl Four

Books love us and want us to be happy

Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ina Garten. As you know, memoir is one of my most favorite genres. I love reading about super successfuls who’ve made it. I’m not even a viewer of Ina Gartner’s show and I haven’t read her books, but reading about people who “think big” and slay it is so inspirational to me. In her memoir she writes about her painful childhood and building the Barefoot Contessa’s brand. This phenomenal feel-good book can be read in a weekend. Five stars. ❄️

Pearl Five

“The most important thing in life is to stop saying ‘I wish’ and start saying ‘I will’. Consider nothing impossible then treat possibilities as probabilities.” ❄️

Charles Dickens

My heart is with California. And Canada and Mexicos’ response was crazy impressive.

Stay warm and safe.

♥, 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, doctor, surgeon, nurse, dietician, or 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.

Let’s get wise to perfectionism’s grip on our lives: check out this new way of chilling out.

We have new people – and  welcome!! – I’m sharing five super important posts to read below. It’ll make these weekly posts a lot easier to understand. And if you haven’t received your Aunt Bea copy just write to me at: Wendy@theInspiredEater.com and I’ll shoot it right over.

• Begin Here
• This Metaphor Is My Constant Companion as I Preserve My Weight Loss After Age Fifty
• Brownies for Breakfast
• 6 Pillars of Losing Weight After Age 50
• How to Conquer Your Evening Sugar Cravings

Pearl One

It appears to me that while our culture — publicly — trounces “perfectionism,” in private it’s a whole ‘nother story. We drive ourselves crazy attempting to be perfect. We worry that if we’re not perfect, catastrophes (plural) will likely descend.

Perfectionism is dangerous because it enters our heart on stealth mode; we don’t realize what’s happening until perfectionism has become a way of life for us. (Like fish don’t recognize water.)

And getting a handle on our own perfectionism is no picnic. Our neighbors drive slick cars, gorgeous people are everywhere in shows and on social media; our homes look lovely (as long as nobody goes upstairs) and so on. I once knew a mom in our kids’ playgroup who wore her one-karat diamond engagement ring with pride. Until another mom moved into her neighborhood with a two-karat. So, guess what one-karat did? Yep, you’re right.

Given that our culture is oriented to showcasing a fabulous lifestyle by buying things and more things, it’s no wonder we’ve fallen into the perfectionism-quicksand. So, let’s not be hard on ourselves. The perfect (seeming) world is all we’ve ever known.

But when I feel ensnared in the grip of perfectionism, I write in my journal about the deal I made with myself around the need to be perfect. (A supervisor said, “I want to be duck gliding atop the water, and kicking my little legs underneath as hard as possible.”

In my journal I wrote essentially that some level of perfectionism could stay in my life. I’d only be allowed to bring my A-game to writing articles and our blog. I also stay on point caring for my darling kitty.

But the deal I made with myself is that I could only “go perfectionist” on one or two things. So with that in mind, Martha Stewart would give me a D in making my bed each morning (even though I love returning home to a made bed). She’d give me a B in keeping my car clean. At this point in my life I know I’d get an F for cooking (I cooked and baked for years and now that chapter of my life is closing). I’d give myself a B- for getting library books back on time.

You see? You can keep your perfectionism re: one or two things and then give yourself the gift of chilling out and allowing some things in your life to live at a C+.

Try this method using your perfectionism tendency to consciously choose what part of your life needs the A treatment and which parts are fine if they’re at a C-. Thinking about priorities like this, instantly gives you room to breath.

Let’s begin by pulling out our journal and asking ourselves strong questions:

• When and where did I get the idea that I had to have my ducks in order at any given time?
• If the overall plan is to decrease debilitating perfectionism, can you make a list of exactly when perfectionism enters the picture? (Ex: I wanted to be a perfect mom.)
• Can you be outstanding at one passion-project, but a “C+” at other things?
• Write five examples of the people around you now who seem to have perfect lives. (Ex: like an outrageously talented singer, your next-door neighbor who’s an airline pilot and drives to the airport in his silver Porsche; the blog mom who keeps a clean home, wears light make-up and still has time to take adorable reels of her little girls and then post them online.
• What do you think might happen if you’re not at the height of your powers? (Ex: you’ll be passed over in some way?)
• Write five examples of stuff that happened in your childhood and teenage years re: perfectionism.
• What do you tell yourself when you don’t hit it out of the park?
• Do you have one person in your life that seemed tethered to an authentic life and never seemed to think about perfectionism at all? (For me, it was my grandma.)
• When you think about perfectionism now, how does it present in the current day?
• If you’re going through a tough situation not of your making – lol, who isn’t? — where/how does perfectionism rear its head?
• How can you talk to yourself so that you’ll help yourself chill out?  (I was getting paralyzed by a project I was working on. Perfectionism was bothering me so much, that I finally just told myself to relax and fun. And the message stuck with me. I wrote it down a couple of times on my calendar so I’d see it every day.

Perfectionism has no place on our Smart Eating Path. I didn’t lose and preserve the loss acting perfect. Quite the opposite actually. It’s funny, but we don’t need to hold the reins so tightly. Let’s consciously relax our grip; we’ll likely have a better experience relaxing as we continue to trek the Matterhorn (losing after fifty). ❄️

Pearl Two

I thought that researching the history of dieting meant digging back to the Middle Ages, and that is where I found an Italian named Luigi Cornaro. Cornaro lost 40-pounds on his own plan and when he turned 83 wrote The Art of Living Long. Would you believe that his book has been republished several times, in fact, just recently in 2010.

Cornaro advised eating 12 ounces of food a day and 14 ounces of wine. And would you believe that he lived to be 98?!

Later when I dove deeper into the history of weight loss, I discovered that wanting to be lean started way back when the ancients ruled the world.

My theory (best guess) is that before our era only the wealthy had issues with weight. Getting so heavy that one couldn’t ride a horse demonstrates the obvious plight: the struggle is real.

My point: it might not always feel like it, but our culture is the wealthiest the world has ever seen. But we’re struggling about how to have such abundance and have a healthy life without the coconut cream pie ruling our world. Does it help to know that the weight issue has been around forever? We’re in good company. ❄️

Pearl Three

Sequencing is taken directly from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The purpose of sequences is to help us move from reacting to circumstances to responding. I encourage you to do a sequence a day in your journal. Powerful stuff.

Automatic Sequence

I’m writing from the POV of a long ago friend, Susan.

• Situation (something super concrete):  My husband left me for another woman months ago.
• Automatic Thought: I can’t live without him.
• Feelings: shock, terror, despair, abandoned.
• Action: I go into a kind of paralysis where I don’t eat or drink since he’s been gone. I can’t focus on books or shows. I work part-time which is heaven sent because I need private time at home so I can just stare at the wall.
• Result: I’ve turned into myself. I go through the motions of life but barely.

If these sequences were actually happening to us in real life we’d need three or four bridge sequences between an “automatic” one and this new chosen sequence.

New Chosen Sequence

• Situation (something super concrete):  My husband left me for another woman months ago.
• Chosen Thought: I can be like the American woman who worked for Churchill as a spy behind enemy lines. After an accident she had as an adult, she had a limp due to a prosthetic leg. If that woman can limp around the Nazis with a prosthetic leg (and survive well to tell the tale), I can carve a new life out for myself, yes, even if it’s without Mark.
• Feelings: Always sad of course, but I’m heading towards an acceptance of sorts with what happened.
• Actions: I push myself to get out more. I’ve created a container garden on my deck that I’m really into.
• Result: While I’ll always be sad about Mark leaving, I’m moving on. I have a new sense of my own competence which I cherish. ❄️

Pearl Four

Books love us and want us to be happy

This book came out in 2008, but if you missed it this is one awesome read: Loving Frank: a Novel by Nancy Horan. This is a very well researched book that is based on an affair that actually happened between Frank Lloyd Wright and a married woman. It’s absorbing read whether you’re into Frank Lloyd Wright or not. The ending is astounding. If you want to get lost in a great book-dessert, go for it! ❄️

Pearl Five

Successful people don’t make excuses; they find solutions.” ❄️

Estee Lauder

Writing to you is one of the most fun things I do all week! In the U.S. we have a super cold front coming in so I’m off to clean my flannel sheets.

Stay warm and cozy!

♥, 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, dietician, 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.

We have new people –and  welcome!! – I’m sharing five super important posts to read below. It’ll make these weekly posts a lot easier to understand. And if you haven’t received your Aunt Bea copy just write to me at: Wendy@theInspiredEater.com and I’ll shoot it right over.

• Begin Here
• This Metaphor Is My Constant Companion as I Preserve My Weight Loss After Age Fifty
• Brownies for Breakfast
• 6 Pillars of Losing Weight After Age 50
• How to Conquer Your Evening Sugar Cravings

Thank you for all of the well-wishes for my flu-fun. December 18 to current day. I’m still not 100 percent, but I’m getting there; your good wishes definitely helped!

Pearl One

I call no fair!! How did the party people hijack New Years Eve? Why do we associate December 31 with good drink, a sparkly evening dress and being at a party?

That said, back when we lived in California friends held a New Year’s Eve party for families where the clock struck midnight at (really) 9 p.m. Adorable. Now, that was fun. Thank you, Steph, for your out-of-the-play-pen thinking!

But back to reality. As you know, you and I are not spring chickens. We’ve all done the must-be-at-a-party thing. Maybe one time it was good, the rest of the time it was bad. Most (all?) of the adults I know today like to be in bed with a good book and asleep by ten. We’re the weirdos who get mammograms once a year and our teeth cleaned twice a year.

Let’s take back the holiday for our own mental health. Instead of feeling badly about not being invited to an a shindig (“what’s wrong with me?”), let’s make December 31 and January 1 spa days!

Visiting a fancy spa is super fun, but going-spa doesn’t have to mean spending money. Take a long shower or bath and hang out in your jammies. Put on a good show to stream (Wicked is available starting on 12-31-24) Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV among smaller streaming services (speaking of apples I highly recommend sliced apple to accompany you to Oz. ♥

Pearl Two

Staying on the Smart Eating Path is rooted in smart habits that I embedded over the years.

• I broke my foot: stayed on my smart eating plan.
• Bought a disaster of a house in CA (still regret buying to this day). I stayed on my smart eating plan.
• Traveled a lot first in CA, later on the East Coast. Stayed on smart eating plan.
• Two major moves. My smart eating habits came with me.
• An amazing surgeon (Dr. Heller, Emory) fixed a bulging disc in my back, stayed on my eating plan.
• Came down with Covid (2020). Stayed on eating plan.
• Animals that I’ll always cherish passed on. Kept my smart eating habits.

You get the gist. ♥

Pearl Three

Sequencing is taken directly from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The purpose of sequences is to help us move from reacting to circumstances to responding. I encourage you to do a sequence a day in your journal. Powerful stuff.

Automatic Sequence

• Situation (something very concrete): My baby was born with Down syndrome.
• Thought: What’s happening? What will happen to family?
• Feeling: Despair.
• Action: I cry a lot.
• Result: I create a sad home for everyone in the family.

Chosen Sequence

• Situation (something very concrete): My baby was born with Down syndrome.
• Chosen Thought: What a beautiful, beautiful baby. It’s possible that this might work.
• Feeling: I’m falling in love with this precious little person.
• Action: I dress my baby in gorgeous clothes usually topped with a seriously adorable bow. We talk and cuddle her maybe too much? It’s actually hard to stop kissing her.
• Result: You get the ball rolling in a positive, wonderful direction for your family. You start to feel sorry for families who don’t have a Down syndrome baby in their life. ♥

Pearl Four

Books love us and want us to be happy.

The winner of the three most rock-star dessert-books of 2024:

One

I was drawn into this story from the first sentence: “when people say ‘terminal’, I think of the airport.”

The two protagonists are thoughtful, funny, and wise. One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin is the book-dessert superstar fiction of 2024.

Two

I don’t get it. How does a boring title: Life After Life paired with a ho-hum book cover end up as one heck of a read? But enough of the bad news. The good news is that this story drew me within the first two or three pages (love, love, love when that happens).

I’m not alone in loving this book: Time called Life After Life “brilliant”, People “excellent”, and the Wall Street Journal “wonderful.”

This is the no-comedy, sophisticated version of Ground Hog Day, but set in England spanning the years of the two World Wars.

In 1910, we first meet baby Ursula born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, we know the baby passes because “darkness fell.”  But in the next chapter Ursula survives the cord and plays out a new timeline.

This is a can’t-miss book-dessert of the highest caliber think: book version of tiramisu cheesecake (made by someone who isn’t you).

Three

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

And that begins Arthur’s journey that takes him around the world (Paris, London, and India). As he travels, he starts to see that there’s still life to be enjoyed even if we’ve lost our darling.Curious Charms is the perfect read over a long weekend. ♥

Pearl Five

New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” ♥

—Lao Tzu

Here’s what I learned from enduring the flu at sixty. 1) Keep a hard piece of paper under your bed detailing the meds and supplements you take in morning and at night. When you first realize that you don’t feel well hand the list to your caregiver.

Everything else I learned did not involve a caregiver. So if you’re flying solo, I got you. One, keep a well divided morning and evening meds in a pill pocket that forevermore lives under your bed for when you most need it. Check out this adorable pill pocket: it’s not your grandma’s. (Use this adorable pill picket daily and maybe choose a more standard one for under your bed. Check the “under the bed” pill pocket on your birthday every year to update the meds. 2) Add a bottle of Ibuprofen. 3) Dehydration is no joke. This is what saved me: ice water in a no-leak, covered straw thermos. This guy was my friend, I keep mine in bed with me still. I also wished I’d stashed an at-home Covid test, thermometer, and bottle of stool softener (just saying) under my bed too. If you can think of anything else I’ve missed, will you share in the comments below (we all need tips).

Have a wonderful New Year’s Eve Eve and remember, we’re now in the season of spa-time (share below what you’re planning)!

♥, 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, dietician, 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

The car pertains to my fun day this week, but I chose the pup photo simply because he’s so adorable.

Pearl One

Hello thrivers!!

Welcome to the last Friday of February! We’re getting closer to my favorite holiday: daylight savings time when it stays light later!

Let’s go!

We’ve all said something like, “I can’t think about my fur-child who died; I’ll start crying again.” Or, “if I just think about my supervisor’s bad attitude, I get angry.” (Note: we think something and then have a feeling.)

I’ve written about sequences before and how they play out in our day to day. (Just shout if you want these two posts: Wendy@theInspiredEater.com.)

The following sequences are based on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). I’m doing a sequence today from my own life. The main idea is to become more conscious of our thoughts, and learn to respond rather than react to the difficulty in our daily. Take a look:

My Old Sequence

• Situation (something concrete): I had a small car accident yesterday. I ran into a sign, happily the sign wasn’t hurt, but my car is at the body shop for about a week.
• My thought: “A week without a car?! That’s just crazy-talk!! How am I supposed to do that?!”
• My feeling: enraged at myself and life in general.
• My action: I called the body shop and requested a rental car and was told that they aren’t in the rental car business. I pouted. A lot.
• Result: I was extremely “worked up.” I lost my entire day because of my irate reaction to a life incident.

My New Sequence

Now, let’s do a happier, more productive sequence.

• Situation (something concrete): I had a small car accident yesterday. I ran into a sign, happily the sign wasn’t hurt, but my car is at the body shop for about a week.
• My thought (that I consciously choose): “Thank the heavens that I didn’t hurt anybody. Hmm, five work days with no car? I know how to make this week fun.”
• My feelings: Sad I had an accident, but amused at my reaction to not having a car.
• Action: Friends drove me home and I took a hot shower and then crashed for awhile with a great book.
• Result: After reading for about an hour, I return to my desk, and only do fun, easy tasks; nothing that requires focus or decision making.

See how the “old” sequence results in nothing good happening? While in the “new” sequence I slowed down my mind and chose my thoughts rather than allowing them “to just happen to me.”

Writing out a daily sequence for yourself is truly life-changing. Two years ago, my fur-child passed and I did a sequence that helped me so much I remember it to this day. The sequence didn’t make me happy that he passed but the new sequence eased some of the pain. Sequences work, go for it and you’ll see. ♥

Pearl Two

If you’re thinking, “I can’t go from ‘old’ to ‘new’ that fast. No way!”

Valid point, most of us want another step in the sequence; a bridge from the “old” to the “new.”

Here’s how an example of a bridge-sequence:

• Situation (something concrete): I had a small car accident yesterday. I ran into a sign, happily the sign wasn’t hurt, but my car is at the body shop for about a week.
• Bridge-thought: “An entire week without a car? Well, maybe. . .”
• Feelings: curiosity, a smidge of hope.
• Action: I return home ready to try a different response: I scroll Instagram (remember this is the bridge).
• Result: An hour of scrolling and I feel more like myself; ready to get on with a soft-landing day.

In your journal, write an “old” and then a “new” sequence; if you want a bridge-sequence, go for it.

Just Remember This

The “situation” has to be something tangible like “I ate the rest of the cake” or “I have two apples in the kitchen.” It can’t be, “she was yelling at me” – it has to be something we can all agree on like, “yes, the dog had puppies.”

Develop a daily sequence habit, and one-day you’ll be able to do them rapidly in your mind. ♥

Pearl Three

I’m keeping pearl three for something fun that I want to share

“Well, that can’t be a good thing” is what I hear time and again when I recommend Netflix’s Love on the Spectrum.

But bring your tissues because Love on the Spectrum produces tears of joy, and is absolutely a very good thing. The three-time Emmy winning show focuses on four or five dating story-lines with people on the spectrum. Everything is handled respectfully; and the parents of the main daters are very much involved in the show. The moms talk to the interviewer on camera about having raised a child on the spectrum. Often brothers and sisters are included in the show too (along with many pups!).

As I watch the show, I’ve had the sense that the creator has experience with autism; either he or someone he loves is on the spectrum.

Give the show a whirl. Start with Love on the Spectrum U.S. season one. And then move onto U.S. season two. And report back! ♥

Pearl Four

I don’t get it. How does a boring title: Life After Life paired with a ho-hum book cover end up as one heck of a read?

But enough of the bad news. The good news is that this story drew me within the first two or three pages (love, love, love when that happens).

I’m not alone in loving this book: Time called Life After Life “brilliant”, People “excellent”, and the Wall Street Journal “wonderful.”

This is the no-comedy, sophisticated version of Ground Hog Day, but set in England spanning the years of the two World Wars. The only thing Bill Murray’s movie is similar to Life After Life is that the main characters “keep trying” and if I say anything more: it’ll be a spoiler.

In 1910, we first meet baby Ursula born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, we know the baby passes because “darkness fell.”  

But next chapter Ursula survives the cord and plays out a new timeline.

This is a book-dessert of the highest caliber think: book version of tiramisu cheese cake (made by someone who wasn’t you). ♥

Pearl Five

The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” — Oprah Winfrey ♥

Have a wonderful 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’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. ♥

Pearl One

(Heavy sigh.)

It happened again this morning.

There I was, drinking caffeine while reading an online newsletter; minding my own business.

I began reading about a man who’d lost 70 lbs. The story was focused on the “aha” moment he’d had about his weight and how his “aha” changed his life.

All cool, right?

This man did the very strenuous work of losing weight, but at the end of the article he declared, “it was easy!”

That’s where the heavy sigh comes in.

What is it with our culture that we continue to perpetuate the myth of “easy” weight loss?

The animal doesn’t exist.

My take on the situation? In order to sell weight loss products to the public, the Mad Men of the last century had to take a seriously difficult trek (losing weight after age 50) and turn it on its head by using the magical word “easy.”

And we fell for it.

Bottom line: especially in our food-porn world of today, it’s extremely difficult to lose and preserve. As I was losing the 55 lbs, I started to call the work involved with losing weight “my part-time job.” Just those four words transformed how I engaged with the millions of micro-steps and habits that I had to internalize to lose the weight, and then to preserve the loss for almost 18 years. ♥

Pearl Two

Do you track your food?

If you haven’t — or aren’t consistent — keep in mind that most of us have said in the past, “I’d do anything to lose weight.”

“Except for tracking my food of course.”

Think about it. Thousands of people would rather go on the new diet pills and risk scary side effects (which are, at least for now, truly horrifying), than making a habit of tracking food.

I went to the big guy: the NIH who implemented a study concluding that:

The NIH did a study with “the number of possible tracking days was divided to create the 3 groups of participants: rare trackers (<33% total days tracked), inconsistent trackers (33–66% total days tracked), and consistent trackers (>66% total days tracked). After controlling for initial body mass index, hemoglobin A1c, and gender, only consistent trackers had significant weight loss (−9.99 pounds), following a linear relationship with consistent loss throughout the year.

In addition, the weight loss trend for the rare and inconsistent trackers followed a nonlinear path, with the holidays slowing weight loss and the onset of summer increasing weight loss. These results show the importance of frequent dietary tracking for consistent long-term weight loss success.”

It’s dry reading that says: if you ate the fun-size Snickers then write the fun-size Snickers down. ♥

See how they’re pink and spiral-bound? Make it as easy on yourself as possible.

Pearl Three

From today forward, I’m keeping Pearl 3 for something fun that I want to share with you

Last weekend, I binged a bunch of Seinfeld’s Comediennes in Cars Getting Coffee. Big deal, right? Beautiful cars, funny moments galore. In the past I’d only watched the episodes with the particular comedian I loved and didn’t watch the rest.

This time, however, I watched not caring which comedienne he had coffee with, and later, when I was getting ready for bed thought, “I feel like I’ve just watched two very intelligent people having a casual conversation.” This thought came after watching Jerry and Loren Michaels having coffee. It’s amazing that we can watch two super interesting people – tops in their field – have a real conversation.

I like seeing “how the sausage is made” and it’s so relieving to hear that these “stars” have all the insecurities we have. ♥

Pearl Four

French Braid: the Novel by Anne Tyler. Of this exceptional read, Amazon’s description says it perfectly. “The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever leave home, but in some ways, they have never been farther apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family’s orbit, for reasons none of them understand. Yet, as these lives advance across decades, the Garretts’ influences on one another ripple ineffably but unmistakably through each generation.”

As I read, I kept thinking, “now it’ll get predictable, or maybe in the next chapter it’ll get predictable but no, Tyler twists into an entirely different direction I hadn’t anticipated at all. Over and over and over.

Count on this Book Dessert to sail you away from Freezer-Stocked-in-Ice Cream land. ♥

Pearl Five

“The only thing that’s keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself.” — Tony Robbins ♥

Have a beautiful 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’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. ♥

There’s so many ways to embrace Valentine’s Day and have fun: table settings, door-decor, and clothes.

We have new people – and welcome!! – if you haven’t yet, I want to encourage you to first read “Begin Here” in the yellow ribbon at the top of this page. This site will make more sense if you also read Aunt Bea. If you haven’t received her I’m more than happy to send, please just shout: Wendy@theInspiredEater.com.

Let’s begin today.

Pearl One

The studies tell us that we’re a lonely planet. Fair enough. It’s likely that we’ve upgraded our lives to such an extent that we’ve lost the plot.

In today’s world, it’s the norm that family (immediate and extended) are flung far and wide.

The advent of the car replaced the horse. The advent of the plane replaced the train. And the advent of IBM (I’ve been moved) type careers . . .replaced . . . the family?

Think of it, for millions of years, we’ve walked this planet in a tribe and later in a small village. We didn’t evolve to drive into the garage, magically click the garage door shut, and walk into our home never having seen a single neighbor (black and white to my grandparents experience.

I know I’m speaking to the choir, and maybe and overstating, but it’s possible that a lack of family and community connection has given birth to our addicted planet whether we’re talking about alcohol, drugs, nicotine and/or food.

I’m suggesting is this: for a day or a week, meta-watch yourself and notice how you engage or don’t engage, notice how you react to loneliness in your big picture, but also in your day-to-day.

This is a perfect time to pull out your journal and write about what you learned after meta-watching yourself deal with loneliness. Keep notes if you can.

Pen to paper, ask yourself these questions:

Am I lonely? Is the loneliness so pervasive that it just feels normal to me? Is my life turning out differently than what I’d planned? What is my inner-dialogue when I’m feeling lonely? What do I reach for ? Am I able to take a breath and meta-watch myself as I’m lonely? What do I reach for when I’m lonely When I realize that somebody else is lonely, what does that trigger in me?

When you write, keep an eye-out for unique ways that you can incorporate tinto your life. We can’t go back in time to sit around the fire with our tribe s’mores, but we can develop a better understanding of how our culture is wanting in the loneliness-department it’s not just on us. At the end when my poor dad moved f moved out of his forever home that would only be be six months of living in an assisted living place caring my for mom who has Alszheimers. I think he was lonely. I think the feeling of loneliness will be with us for our entire lives, it’s just part of being human.]

It’s a work of a lifetime to determine how to respond to the challenge. ♥

Pearl Two

Still thinking about loneliness. Remember talking about “sequencing?” Well I’ve decided to instead call it “the cycle” (kind of like The Cycle of Life). Update: I still call it “sequencing.”

And if anybody wants the two original two posts about the cycle and how it works, I’m happy to send it just let me know.

I’m taking a situation from my life years ago.

Default Sequence

• Situation (something super concrete): Fourth of July is coming up this weekend. (A “situation” is something concrete, yes, that’s a dog, yes, that’s a dishwasher, yet that’s my jacket).
• My thought: In my brain, the Fourth of July is meant for friends or family rafting on a inner tube down the river while trying not to get sunburned, and having a blast with friends. Later — again, in my mind — we’d BBQ in the backyard of a someone’s home, and then hang out at her pool all afternoon; once it got really dark, we’d watch fireworks light up the ebony-sky (in my fantasy we could see a beautiful show from the seats of her backyard. Finally, we’d return home happy-tired and slightly sunburned, we fall asleep easily. Thinking what a fantastic we just had.
• Feeling: Excluded, sad, and bummed about a holiday that would never include me.
• Action: sit in my studio apartment (which was super cool) with my two cats feeling left out.
• Result: I initiated nothing and nothing great happened for me over the holiday weekend.

I would love for you to create sequences on your own life; writing about something that’s bothering you currently is probably the way to go. You can write a sequence about something big like a cross-country move or smaller like you have ants in the house.

There’s a second piece to the sequences, but we’ll cover that next week. For now, write a sequence like mine below:

Situation

• Thought about situation.

• Feeling you have after your thought.

• Action you’ve taken b/c of feeling.

• Result of the action.

Try to write one cycle day. If you hit an obstacle, that’s a good thing; write in your journal and ask your unconscious to pour through your pen. Just start writing and the pen (our unconscious) will do the rest. ♥

Pearl Three

From today forward, I’ll keep Pearl 3 for something fun that I want to share

This week, I found the coolest cat “toy” that you can find and use immediately online for zero dollars. Max, my kitty, was sitting on my desk so I googled “cat games” and turned my laptop so the screen sits on the desk, (so upside down) and my cat watched and loves it. Now he shows up at my desk twice a day to see the bugs, butterflies, and string show.

Does it hurt the screen? Well, my specialized IT husband (aka The Scarfer) saw Max playing with the screen and he didn’t say a word (normally he’d have a heart attack). So I asked him, and he said it was fine. Believe me, if he thinks something bad is happening to the tech in our house, he practically writes a novel to my kids and me explaining Why We Shouldn’t Do Something.

So far, Max has patted at the bugs and string a few times. Once he sat on the screen trying to get a bug. I included a picture (a tablet would work even better). He really liked the fish. I think it gets frustrating for the kitty because they can’t really catch anything, so I always drag a string toy after the who.

If you’re a doggie-girl, tell your cat friends about the cat game. It’s adorable . ♥

Pearl Four

Books love us and want us to be happy!

America for Beginners by Leah Franqui. This book is a gem. AM New York praises the author he when he says, “A funny, feel-good cross-country tale… exactly the kind of story that we could use right now — people of different backgrounds coming together and realizing that they are more similar than assumed.” — AM New Yorks

“A tender, funny, wrenching, beautifully executed tale of three lost souls who traverse the chasms of cultural, generational, and geographical divides to forge some bonds strong and true enough to withstand life’s gut punches.” — Library Journal (starred review).

Absolutely. What they said.

America for Beginners is a perfect cold winter reading inside book. Loved it. If you guys are trying these books, I’d love to hear your thoughts on them. ♥

Pearl Five

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.”
– Malcolm S. Forbes ♥

Have a wonderful weekend indoors reading, in fact, tell me what you’re reading. I’m goaling myself to not eat any candy over Valentine’s Day (unless a kid gifts it to you; then you have eat and rave. Those are the rules.)

♥, 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. ♥

We’re certainly not hooked on All My Children watching daily with cat on lap (no offense to cats everywhere).

Pearl One

If you’re us, it’s so easy to slip into negative thinking, “been there/done that. I lose twenty, and gain thirty. That’s how the story goes.”

But it’s not “how our story goes” in this century.

Look what I found!

Last week while I was paging through the Wall Street Journal, this headline grabbed me and I haven’t been the same since.

“They’re Cover Girls. They’re in Their 70s.”

“Sky-high demand for older models—women in their 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s—is creating a silver wave in the modeling industry. They even get stopped at the supermarket.”

The photo beneath is Elon Musk’s mom (Maye Musk,75) wearing an elegant two-piece bathing suit in violet that joins its top to the bottom on one side. We’re talking snazzy.

The article goes on to feature:

• Frances Dunscombe, a 90-year-old who started modeling at age 82. 

• Helen Mirren, 77 (L’Oreal).

• Jane Fonda, 85 (L’Oréal).

• Joni Mitchell, 70 (Saint Laurent).

• Isabella Rossellini, 70 (Lancôme).

• And the aforementioned Maye Musk (Cover Girl and COVER of 2022’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue).

Why Does This Matter to Us?

I’m not suggesting that we become models, but I am saying that when luxury brands are seeking out women over 70 and 80 for modeling-work, paradigm shifts are afoot.

The “little old ladies” from our childhood are from another era.

Today we’re in the midst of normalizing that women over fifty shedding unwanted layers is a real thing.

Still, we know it’s hard work to lose and maintain for a lifetime.

We’re up for the challenge.

Let’s go. ♥

Pearl Two

The “Messy Middle,” how do you handle yours? I’ll go first. I’m currently managing mine badly because I’m bringing very little conscious thought to the middle of a wonderful project I badly want to see brought to life.

But, if I listen closely, I can hear myself getting critical and “bored” with the entire project. I’m great at the honeymoon, but terrible at the “messy middle.” Getting bored and feeling like “nothing ever works” are both ways that I disconnect.

I’m determined that things will be different this time around. This time I’m using the quote from an old Chinese proverb as my North Star, “The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”

I’m also meta-watching myself as I descend from the honeymoon to the messy middle. In other words, I’m not just allowing the messy middle “happen to me.” I’m noticing how I’ve given up in the past, and I’m watching what I’m thinking as I circle the drain today.

To date, I notice that I call what I want “stupid.” I say things to myself like, “this will never work.” “I’m tired of this project; it’s boring and way harder than I thought it would be; I’m ready to throw in the towel.”

I’m just a little ball of sunshine.

So, how to cheerlead myself out of ruining my project via the messy middle? I have no clue, but I do know that the solution begins with meta-watching exactly how I handle the messy middle in the first place.

How does the messy middle impact your life? ♥

Pearl Three

From today forward, I’ll keep Pearl 3 for something fun that I want to share

I saw this fun fact-headline recently:

McDonald’s brings back beloved dessert, Strawberry & Crème Pie, for a limited time

So, here’s where my brain goes when I see this bit of marketing:

Brand: the company has cache to its name – like Disney or Coke – and is happy to lead with it (whereas when I see the name, my hackles go up).

Strawberry: a lovely word that evokes spring or early summer (they must be so happy that we’re not into rutabagas).

Crème: this word is so cool that we add it for the Parisian-flair alone.

Beloved marketing words: the item has returned!!!

Limited time only: Dear, get a move-on or you’ll miss out!!

Nutrition Summary (from McDonalds):

280 calories

• 15 grams total fat (19 % of the pie so almost 1/5 of the treat).

• 34 grams carbs (12 % of the pie).

• 3 grams protein (well that’s something).

What’s not included:

25 grams of sugar (about 1/4 or more of the pie is sugar).

Bottom line: I never eat at fast-not-food outlets. It’s a habit that my mom instilled in me years ago and, while at my heaviest I often grabbed junk food in the drive-thru, I stopped the bad habit when I was losing the fifty-five pounds. Today eschewing fast-not-food completely is one way that I preserve my loss.

I always kept/keep my cold-tote with me filled with an ice pack, and — in the summer — real strawberries. ♥

Pearl Four

Again, these aren’t book reviews, I’m only highlighting books that I truly loved reading. Keep in mind, these books have to compete with peanut M&Ms.

This book is to be read when you’re not feeling so great. It’s like hot chocolate on a cold day. The book begins with a man’s loss of his beloved wife. He waits one year, and as he’s cleaning out her life stumbles onto a part of his wife that he’d never known about.

We watch as a depressed, “life-is-over-for-me” man goes on a hero’s journey returning refreshed and ready to live a more engaged life with his children.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick.

A snuggle-read. ♥

Pearl Five

We’re still living with the paradigm of age as an arch. That’s the old metaphor. You’re born, you peak at midlife, and decline into decrepitude.” ♥

Jane Fonda

This weekend, I’m starting a new book that hopefully will turn into a great book dessert recommendation for next Friday!

♥ 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. ♥

When we’re in it for the long haul: ice cream is gonna happen. It’s what we do next that matters.

Pearl One

It’s important that I woman-up and admit the truth: I ate a bowl of Kraft Mac & Cheese last night for dinner. I know, it’s highly processed crappazola, and yet, exquisite in its own weird-orange-powdery way. I’m currently at the low-end of my weight-window so I knew that if I had a small cup’s worth, I’d be fine. And this morning the scale said I was good-to-go, but what the scale can’t tell me is: how strong are my smart eating habits after I chowed mac and cheese? Did the mac and cheese help my habits or hurt them? (Well, duh.)

When I seriously detour off the smart eating path, the next morning I pull out my journal and ask myself “why” and “what” questions like why am I mad at myself this morning? Why do I feel unsuccessful today? Why am I feeling disappointed in myself? What does “slipping” off the smart eating path mean to me? What kind of importance do I put on slipping?

Our unconscious mind speaks through our pens and keyboards; after I write in my journal, I can feel space between my heart and the “bad” feelings about overdoing junk-not-food.

I write and write and write, and discovered that when I don’t have the ingredients in the kitchen to create quick grab-able food, I easily get lured to the dark-side. I share what foods I have to have at all times in the kitchen here: the Inspired Eater: Fed Up!.

Learning how to live within our mac-and-cheese world is merely a set of steps to take, a new habit to embed. Each of us have our mac-and-cheese moments, it’s how we guide ourselves through those moments that really count. ♥

Pearl Two

I think it’s important to work hard to dial down the “drama” that tends to descend on us after eating a full meal polishing it off with two slices of cake.

Let me give you some examples of of what I call “drama”:

• “I’m so fat and ugly’ it doesn’t matter what I do.”
• “Some people have fat DNA; smart eating is just hopeless for me.”
• “Women over fifty, can’t lose weight. We’re all just kidding ourselves.”
• “I got on the scale this morning and OMG!! It was a nightmare scale-number.”

See? All drama, nothing actually helpful.

It only makes the diet-cartel even wealthier when we swing back and forth between “I’m so fat and ugly” to “if I cling to this diet, I’ll get thin.” And when you gain again, you’re back to “I’m so fat and ugly.”

Thing is, nobody made it to their preferred weight by haranguing themselves.

Preserving my seventeen-year loss, I’m not all butterflies and unicorns, but I haven’t beaten myself up over the years either.

Instead, if I don’t feel confident about one of my habits or see a scale number that I’m not pleased with, I get curious asking myself: in the chain of events that lead to smart eating choices, where did I slip? (No smart food in the house? Went out to lunch with an eating-buddy? Don’t have a solid plan to rejoin the smart-eating world after I’ve deviated?). Write in your journal about what triggered the events that lead to inhaling the food.

Slowly, over time, when you hear yourself being dramatic, gently replace it with a helpful thought like, “Okay, I don’t love that scale number so much; I’ll write in my journal about where I swerved off-course.”

“Swerving off-course” is part of our new-normal.

Journal in-hand, we can do this. ♥

Pearl Three

In January, we’re talking stress-eating, and how we can walk it out of our daily.

For this pearl, I googled “stress eating” and here’s what I found (even at the Mayo Clinic): everyone’s “solutions” to emotional-eating are fabulous ideas to put into place like tracking your daily food, “decreasing stress”, or “have a hunger reality check.”

Developing the habit of tracking food or learning to manage your hunger are all wonderful, but they don’t address emotional-eating.

We know that stress eating starts with a trigger:

• A terrible day at work.
• An argument with your husband.
• A diagnosis you’re not fond of.
• Adult kids who don’t exactly act “adult.”

When I think of my past experiences with emotional-eating I think of bags of salty chips, gallons of ice cream, huge meals on the regular (assuming that my stomach is supposed to hurt after eating dinner. I once even buttered Saltines for a snack.

Eliminating stress-eating is a slow process, but there are concrete steps you can put into place that’ll mitigate the damage. Get comfortable at going slowly.

I talk about giving up sugar in this post, but the concept applies to any new habit. Create a well thought-out plan for exactly what you’ll do the next time an emotion-bomb goes off.

Pearl Four

Some weeks I struggle to find a book worthy to stand with the other “book-desserts.”

But this isn’t one of them. This week I’m writing Pearl Four first before I write the others. Last night, I started the book and read for over two hours (risking zombie-status the next day from lack of sleep). I was drawm into this story from the first sentence: “when people say ‘terminal’, I think of the airport.”

The two protagonists are thoughtful, funny, and wise. One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin is the book-dessert superstar fiction of 2024 (at least so far). ♥

Pearl Five

Frustration, although quite painful at times, is a very positive and essential part of success.” ♥

Bo Bennett

♥, 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 hope is that one day she’ll live in a smart eating world where making great choices is a snap.

Pearl One

One of the most “you’ve got to be kidding me” parts about shooting for the stars is that a lot of us can’t really handle success.

You’ve never been successful before, why would you be now?

But here’s the thing: when we’re working diligently on our stretch-goal, it’s easy to unconsciously feel out of sync emotionally with what we’re really going after. Your current sense of self is hitting up against the new-you sense of self.

I call this dynamic “drama.”

Humans do this.

We all have a default thought that goes: I just don’t see myself at that lower weight. It would be like winning the lottery, possible but a billion to one.

This is Your Brain on Affirmations

Affirmations are powerful; I can’t stress this one enough. Instead of telling yourself, I can’t do it, it’s like winning the lottery, tell yourself the following affirmations (bonus points for putting these affirmations on sticky notes to sprinkle throughout your day).

When you lose five to ten pounds, maintain for a month or more to allow your brain time to accept your new weight.

Breathe in and tell yourself:

• “I’ve got you”
• “It’s okay to be lean.”
• “I feel comfortable in my body.”
• “I can do hard things.”
• “This new weight is feeling more like ‘me’ every day.”
• “Holding is a great thing for my forever-loss.”

Talk to yourself daily about how you’re rolling the red carpet out for your new-normal.

When we’re shooting for the brass ring, we have to use everything in our arsenal. ♥

Pearl Two

One of the best food habits I’d ever developed hit the skids last year when I got braces. Crunchy food was out, soft and squishy was in; in the beginning whatever I “ate” had to go through a straw. The cavewoman inside of me was elated, because “vanilla shakes!!”

As I’ve mentioned, I stopped the vanilla shake situation before it went completely bonkers, but I’ve never reclaimed my amazing salad habit. It is totally poof, gone. (And you know what the study our of England said, , we need sixty-six days to put our new habit into our automatic thought-land! (The first sixteen days are hard, it get easier by week 3.)

Now I’m reestablishing the habit.

I’m using spring mix, adding in a bit of Feta cheese, and olives. That’s whatI started with when I initially developed my wonderful salad habit. I’m so excited for my new salad-habit to become automatic. ♥

Pearl Three

In January, we’re talking stress-eating, and how we can walk it out of our daily

We can talk about emotions – boredom, anger etc. – as purely separate feelings.

Like the time Lisa’s husband told his aunt about her diagnosis when she wasn’t around. Lisa was livid.

So, in this scenario, we’d assume that we’re dealing with anger, right? She’s really mad at him.

But usually it’s a whole host of emotions that are flooding our minds  — beyond being only angry at her husband — she likely has a lot of fear of her new diagnosis. She’s sad about her life changing. And she’s confused about what happens next.

Can you see that it’s rarely one feeling that we need “to deal with”, but a soup of emotions?

And that is where the gold lies.

First there’s the emotion of the moment. He told Lisa’a story, she’s mad.

Then there’s a new layer: internally Lisa’s scared of all that’s coming next because of this new diagnosis. And she feels super sad. She’s grieving the life she thought she’d have.

And then there’s a layer of how she responds to being overwhelmed by all the emotions — anger, fear, sadness, and confusion — at once.

I’m going to write a lot more about the layers, but for today: if you find yourself reaching for the cookies, have some. I’m serious.

But within the day, write in your journal about what emotion seems the most obvious. “She’s not taking my calls.”

And last write about all of the emotions in your soup and how you engage with the emotional soup. More to come on this topic. A whole lot more. ♥

Pearl Four

When Viet Thanh Nguyen blew the world away with his first book;  The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction). I vaguely knew what the topic was about, that involved a spy from Vietnan. OMG, the man can write. And I hadn’t realized that he’d come out with a companion book in 2021.

Ocean Vuong says about The Committed: A novel: “The Committed marks, not just a sequel to his groundbreaking predecessor, but a sum accumulation of his life devoted to Vietnamese American history  and scholarship. It asks questions to central both to Vietnamese everywhere – and to our very species: how do we live in the wake of seismic loss and betrayal? And perhaps even more critically, how do we laugh?”

The author is also a professor at UCLA. Like Min Jin Lee (Pachinko) Mr. Nguyen proves that aliens live among us. Five-stars.

Pearl Five

Normalize celebrating small victories along the way.” ♥

Timothy A. Pychyl

I’m taking more clutter to the dog and cat thrift store. Other than that, I’m just reading, reading, and more reading.

♥, 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. ♥