Pearl One

A well-built why changes everything,

Say for example you’re planning your own upcoming spring wedding. You’ve never been able to lose weight before, but this time would be different. You tell yourself that you will lose weight come hell or high water. The big day arrives and you slip into your dress twenty pounds lighter. What happened? Over the last year, nothing could get past your why.

With the bride in mind: if we don’t find ways to strengthen our why every week (I do every day) it loses its power to light a fire underneath us.

It’s our work to figure out how to jump-start our why and I think I’ve hit on a few ideas. I’m reminded of the time that I wanted to establish a three-times a week yoga habit. I drove to class thinking, it’s for the boys, it’s for the boys, it’s for the boys.

My initial plan had been exactly that: to remind myself why I was leaving my cozy comes-with-a-cat couch and driving to a yoga class in the late afternoons. In the beginning my kids were my reason for making it to a yoga, but eventually I came to love yoga because I liked feeling stronger. Then it was because I wanted to feel good in my bathing suit that summer.

As time went by, I was jamming to yoga three times a week to do yoga with my yoga-friends. You can see that within a few months, my why built on itself and became stronger in the process.

Turns out our “baby whys” need attention too.

So every morning I write at least two sentences about why I’m trekking the Matterhorn and why it matters so much to me. I’m always looking to get some of that “bride-like” magic for myself.

Let’s pretend that your grand kids are your why you want to lose forty pounds. You want to be lean and active for the fun years ahead. So these are my suggestions to strengthen your why.

• Keep photos of your grand kids front and center, not just in the living room. Keep their cute faces in the kitchen where she’d see them every day. She can amp why even further by bringing in more photos in the kitchen often. Go a little nuts and tape their picture everywhere: on your steering wheel, on your wallet that lives in your purse; be silly and tape photos everywhere. We’re visual creatures, use it to pump you up.
• Use smart-self talk and tell yourself that these photos represent why you’re putting in such effort to trek the Smart Eating Path up the Matterhorn. When the going gets tough, these pictures will take you back to your why
• Go “Oprah” on your why and create an online or IRL vision board about your why and keep it where you can see it every day.
• Write in your journal every day about your why. If you can’t do daily, I’d aim for five times a week. And you don’t need to write ten paragraphs about your why. You might want to write something short and simple like “the kids are coming in June and I’m so excited!”
• As you’re imagining your why, what do you see? What do you hear? Smell? Feel? Think? Consciously go deep into this imagery every day and/or think about this picture just as you’re falling to sleep at night.

It’s the last one that’s really transformed my why.

Realign with your why daily and watch the imagery spring to life. ♥

Pearl Two

Those Teeny-Tiny Cinnamon Roll Moments. It happens. We’re chugging along embedding smart eating habits and all is well until one day somebody leaves a plate of cinnamon rolls – still warm from the oven — on our kitchen counter.

Now what?

I call them “cinnamon roll-moments”: it’s those teeny-tiny moments in everyone’s day when we usually “cave” as in:

• “the meeting was so boring I ended up eating two donuts.”
• “I was at lunch with friends and it would have been awkward to order brown rice and streamed veggies.”
• “my toddler-granddaughter offered me a slice of birthday cake, of course I couldn’t reject her offer.”

These moments are called little because in the scheme of life, they sound tiny and unimportant but it’s really our cavewoman in deep disguise acting small and innocent. She’s not. Don’t be tricked. I mean, she’ll say that it’s “just one package” of crackers or it’s “just one Mexican dinner. These cinnamon roll-moments strike two or three times during a typical day. Attempting to see them in advance will only make you stronger,

The problem for everyone is that two glazed donuts can devolve into weeks of overeating and feeling badly about our-self. That’s where the danger is, these small moments that are a part of everyone’s day hve to be outed for who is really pushing donuts at you. Her name start with a “c.”

When you’re offered food-porn and you know that it doesn’t fit into your lifestyle anymore, it is actually a sign that you don’t need food-porn, you actually need food-food. (Eighteen years in and I have to remind myself of this every single day). ♥

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.

I based this sequence on a friend.

Sequencing

• Situation: I have MS and MS is a disability.
• Thought: I’m so sick and tires of having MS and needing help. I don’t need 24/7 care, but I could use ten hours a week of someone coming over.
• Feeling: So, so sad and mad. Hoping the MS wouldn’t progress, but it has.
• Action: I continue to feel rotten. And don’t look for a caregiver.
• Result: Everything is still crummy and I don’t have someone to help me.

A bridge thought goes here.

Chosen Sequence

• Situation: I have MS and MS is a disability.
• Chosen Thought: There’s so much I want to do in life and if an assistant helps me then come on over!
• Feeling: Empowered, a little giddy.
• Action: I start calling the caregiver people so that I can begin interviewing. I’ll find the right one.
• Result: My assistant drove me to the airport and I took it from there. Soon I’ll be sipping champagne and waving from my cruise ship! ♥

Pearl Four

Books love us and want us to be happy

“Reading was my first addiction” is the opening line in this book and I was hooked. I’m only a third of the way through this memoir The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin, but I’m loving it. Total book dessert. ♥

Pearl Five

 
Ninety percent of success is ignoring the voice in your head that tells you to stop.” ♥

Have a smart- eating week!

♥, Wendy

You know the scoop: I’m an Amazon affiliate. If you buy from a link in my post, I’ll receive money, but the arrangement won’t cost you a dime.

Are you new to the Inspired Eater? Welcome!! This blog won’t make much sense until you first read the Aunt Bea post (and you’ll find Aunt Bea on this page to the right under my short bio). On your cell you’ll see it immediately following the first post. After you enter your email address, the Aunt Bea article will be sent to your email’s inbox. If it’s not there, you might check the spam folder. And always feel free to email me at Wendy@TheInspiredEater.com and I’ll get Aunt Bea right to you!!

I am not an expert, 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.

Kisses and snuggles: 0 carbs, 0 calories..

Pearl One

It was a gorgeous autumn afternoon when we arrived at the Savannah, GA home where The Scarfer’s brother lives with his wife and their two young daughters.

That first afternoon The Scarfer was horsing around with both darling nieces in the family-room when the five-year-old stopped playing, looked up at him and sweetly asked, “Where did you get your tummy?”

We laughed – kids! — but I was thinking, funny you should wonder. It’s not that I blame Costco per se, but the giant warehouse and our local Aldis ice cream freezer figure prominently into The Scarfer’s tummy.

I’d known from many years together that he’d be more than happy for me to join him, but here’s how I save my own tummy!

• Every two hours I eat something small but substantial, like an apple or a banana with a teaspoon or two of peanut butter, a half-cup of cottage cheese, whole-wheat English muffins with an egg on top, avocado … you get the idea.
• This one is huge. Tor almost two decades now, I’ve kept a spiral pad and paper by my fridge and count everything I eat (I count points, others count calories, but whatever you do: count something. Studies show and so forth).
• Gently and with a smile ask your scarfer to please place all of his “special food” on the highest shelf where it can’t be seen or even reached by you without a step stool. (Good time to say: If you have a step stool in your kitchen, now is the time to put it in the garage behind several big items like bikes and yard equipment).

All three bullets are me on your average day: I eat every two hours, track my food and — all these years later — still have to request that food be out of sight. ♥

Pearl Two

If you’ve never found the time for these books, this is your sign lol. My joke is that I keep my book collection at the library, because lugging books on moving day is not fun. But I actually bought these two masterpieces. I think they’re the best our world has to offer on the subject of habit. I can’t pick one over the other because they’re both exceptional.

The first is the Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life by Charles Duhigg and the second is Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Ones & Break Bad Ones by James Clear. Both have spent a billion weeks on the New York Times and the Wall Street Journals’ bestsellers’ lists. (I hear from a reliable source that Atomic’s audio is a spectacular listen.) ♥

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 (be very concrete): I ate two bowls of ice cream last night.
• Thought: Is this “eating thing” ever going to resolve itself?!
• Feeling: Complete irritation verging on rage. I want to be mad at or blame somebody.
• Action:  I don’t think about smart eating.
• Result: I eat ice cream again tonight.

Chosen Sequence

• Situation (be very concrete): I ate two bowls of ice cream last night.
• Chosen Thought:  Two bowls of ice cream will not devolve into six months of food-porn eating.
• Feeling: Angry yet open to learning.
• Action: Every morning I make a plan with a focus on obstacles for the day and then solutions for each problem area.
• Result: I breath a sigh of relief that I didn’t let one bad evening turn into dozens. ♥

Pearl Four

Books love us and want us to be happy.

Please know that I’m not sharing books that aren’t worthy to be called a book-dessert. I often skim through several before I find a good one. I think I’m late to the party to not know the author Carl Hiaasen.

I’m loving his book out in 2016 titled Skinny Dip. It’s light-hearted, but I couldn’t say which genre it would fall into. Turns out the genre is “humorous crime thrillers.” I didn’t even know that was a thing. The story begins on a cruise and the wife gets thrown overboard, but survives. Apparently, Hiaasen loves to make fun of popular culture and he skewers cruising (one of my most favorite things ever. loll). But the book is all light and fun. A little bit it reminds me of The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared. Both phenomenal books, both perfect for book-dessert.♥

Pearl Five

“The advice I give for sustainable behavioral change, including diet, is that you make one change at a time” ♥

–Tim Ferriss

Have a wonderful week!

♥, Wendy

You know the scoop: I’m an Amazon affiliate. If you buy from a link in my post, I’ll receive money, but the arrangement won’t cost you a dime.

Are you new to the Inspired Eater? Welcome!! This blog won’t make much sense until you first read the Aunt Bea post (and you’ll find Aunt Bea on this page to the right under my short bio). On your cell you’ll see it immediately following the first post. After you enter your email address, the Aunt Bea article will be sent to your email’s inbox. If it’s not there, you might check the spam folder. And always feel free to email me at Wendy@TheInspiredEater.com and I’ll get Aunt Bea right to you!!

I am not an expert, 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.

Hi Thrivers!

We have new people – and  welcome!! – I’m sharing five super important posts to read below. Every Monday I send a newsletter to you and these posts will make the Monday 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 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

You Know More Than You Think You Do. Both you and I have space in our mind where our subconscious dwells and just like you wouldn’t rush at a frightened animal, we shouldn’t storm our subconscious either. She’ll speak to us through our writing, but first she needs to feel respected and valued before she’ll show up and share her wisdom. Once she sees proof that we’re one-hundred percent-in, watch the gems pour forth from your pen onto the page (laptops are wonderful too).

Knowing that my motivation has changed through the years, taking the time to explore why I’m still adamant about creating a lifetime-weight loss for myself has been crucial.

I wrote to these journal prompts this morning:

• What strengths do you bring to any endeavor?
• Do you remember a time (on any topic, not only food and weight) when you were super motivated and crushed it?
• Can you identify what drove you to success that particular time?
• Think of a second time when you were outrageously successful. Why did you pursue success as hard as you did? In your mind and in your journal, “stack” the two spectacular memories and memorize the stack. Wake up, go to sleep, bring the stack to life.
• In general, how do you keep your momentum up during the “messy middle?
• If someone were to call you obsessive, what are you obsessive about?
• What is the “fluffiest” reason you want a forever-loss?
• What’s one of the deeper reasons?
• Would it be catastrophic if you don’t lose/preserve at this point in life? Why or why not?
• What does “immersing” yourself in your why mean to you?
• Who/what means more to you than anything in the world and how are they connected to your forever-loss?
• And from Mark Manson: what pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for?

Realign your why every morning in your journal and watch the imagery come to life. ♥

Pearl Two

How to Strengthen Your Why. You’ve identified what’s motivating you, now take a moment to think about strengthening your why. What do I mean by strengthening? Let’s say that you identify your grand kids as being the reason you want to lose forty pounds. Your goal is to stay super active so that you’re able to take the kids to the beach to fly a kite or to Disneyland to stand in line. These are ways I strengthen my whys. If you have a fun way of strengthening, please share in the comments below.

• Keep photos of your grand kids front and center, not just in the living room, but in the kitchen where you’ll see their little faces every day. Use smart-self talk and say this photo represents why you’re putting in such effort to trek the Smart Eating Path. (When the going gets tough, this picture will immediately take you back to your why.) 
• Go “Oprah” on your why and create a vision board about it. (I still remember a vision board from thirty years ago. Vision boards work.)
• Write in your journal each day about your why. The goal: to keep what drives you front-and-center.
• Give yourself time each day to think about how pivotal the work you’re doing now will be for your grand kids in the future. As you’re imaging your success, what do you see? What do you hear? Smell? Feel? And think? Go deep into this imagery every day and/or think about this picture just as you’re falling to sleep at night. A dear friend did this exercise and said, “flying a kite on the beach with my granddaughter” was – and still is – her strengthened why. ♥

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 super concrete): I wasn’t able to buy the house close to my grand kids.
• Thought: Oh, no!!! The ideal home becomes available, and I didn’t move fast enough. Just great.
• Feeling: Anger. I’m so mad. Trying to buy the home from another state is hard.
• Action: I’m in a terrible mood.
• Result: I spend my entire day ticked off.

Chosen Sequence

• Situation (something super concrete): I wasn’t able to buy the house close to my grand kids.
• Chosen Thought: Darn it! I choose to see missing out on the house as it wasn’t meant to be mine. More houses will come along.
• Feeling: Understood.
• Action: I start looking at houses by my grand kids.
• Result: I stay patent and remind myself that the right house will along. ♥

Pearl Four

Books love us and want us to be happy

Still Alice by Lisa Genova is a story of a Harvard professor who gets early Alzheimer’s. Genova has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard and watched her grandmother descend into Alzheimer’s. she, wrote an amazing debut novel.

But – I know you’re wondering — can a science-y type really write an interesting book? This one sure can. Tasty book dessert. You might remember another neuroscientist who had a stroke and wrote about her experience in My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. Her TED Talk is excellent too. ♥

Pearl Five

Any time you sincerely want to make a change, the first thing you must do is to raise your standards.”  Tony Robbins ♥

A friend’s son — same age as my kids — is a biochemistry Honors student at a prestigious university and won a scholarship that covers one year of master’s study at the University of Cambridge!! Meanwhile my two are on the couch watching Wicked.

It would be wonderful that if you like theInspiredEater.com that you share with your loved one.

Have a smart eating week!!

♥, Wendy

You know the scoop: I’m an Amazon affiliate. If you buy from a link in my post, I’ll receive money, but the arrangement won’t cost you a dime.

Are you new to the Inspired Eater? Welcome!! This blog won’t make much sense until you first read the Aunt Bea post (and you’ll find Aunt Bea on this page to the right under my short bio). On your cell you’ll see it immediately following the first post. After you enter your email address, the Aunt Bea article will be sent to your email’s inbox. If it’s not there, you might check the spam folder. And always feel free to email me at Wendy@TheInspiredEater.com and I’ll get Aunt Bea right to you!!

I am not an expert, 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.

Pearl One

If – like me – you have an interest in making the weight loss trek up the over fifty mountain a smidge easier I have two words for you: rotation-food.

I have a handful of “meals” that I eat almost every day. There’s my apple blueberry oatmeal bowl, my brown rice and stir fry veggies (Costco, freezer section shouldering frozen strawberries) and cereal in the mornings. I wish I could tell you that I eat a bowl of Grape Nuts, but no, the cereal is Frosted Mini-Wheats.

I also rotate in a three-bean salad two or three times during the week for the protein and I add whatever produce we have around like sliced cucumber and baby tomatoes. (In other words, I don’t need greens to make a salad.) One more food I recommend: Costco’s balsamic vinegar is seriously yum.

In the summer I add a blueberry or strawberry smoothie. And if the crops are good I eat strawberries, red grapes and watermelon all day long. I love rotation-food because it requires no thought. You might prefer more variety, but adhering with my rotation-food works in making this part-time job of ours a tad easier.

Is my eating always this clean? Not in a million years. For example, every Friday The Scarfer brings home leftover food from a work meeting. Usually he walks in with bagels (I love the cinnamon raisin ones), and a couple of times he brought home donuts. (I save mine to have in the morning with coffee.)

I want you to keep the bagels and donuts always in mind; that I’m not a perfect-eater. That said, I’m currently below my four pound weight window (because of the flu), but when I was actively losing I’d daily try to hit my “personal best.” Back then and even today, it’s all about solidifying smart habits.

If you’re struggling to stay on the Smart Eating Path, make life as easy on yourself as possible: decide what your rotation-meals will be today thereby eliminating a hundred decisions about what you’re eating throughout the coming years.

Do you already have rotation-food? If yes, I hope you’ll share in the comments below.

We all need great ideas. ♥

Pearl Two

When someone – a doctor, a friend, family – suggests that you lose weight, they don’t realize that they’re asking you to become a different person. But it’s enough for us to know: this trek we’re on is no day at the beach. We’re doing a brutally difficult thing. We’re shifting our very identity from “I’m a comfort food eater” to “I know how to deal with food-porn and I live at the weight I choose.” ♥

Pearl Three

Knee-Jerk Sequence

• Situation (something very concrete): I’m not adopting another dog for a long while.
• Thought: Life will be barren a little buddy.
• Feeling: So sad, I feel like crying.
• Action: I cry.
• Result: I just feel bad.

Chosen Sequence

• Situation (something very concrete): I’m not adopting another dog for a long while.
• Chosen Thought: I’m making the choice to not adopt another dog as long as my 12-year-old kitty is still with us.
• Feeling: Determined.
• Action: I return to spoiling Max.
• Result: Max gets the love and attention he deserves. When my last baby was still with us, Max got short-shrift from me. He got a lot of attention from my sons, but they’re off living their lives now and Max would have nobody, so I put him first. And it’s so cute to see him revel in the attention. ♥

Pearl Four

I usually lean towards memoir or literary fiction, but I decided to be brave and try something new and I really loved this book. Titled Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty, it sucked me into the story right away. It opens with passengers on a plane, but no worries, the plane does not crash. It’s a story about women with a theme of would you want to know the date that you would die? But the story is light and friendly.

About Here One Moment, Anne Lamott said, “A riveting story so wild you don’t know how she’ll land it, and then she does, on a dime.” Did you catch Big Little Lies on the screen? So good if you need something to watch. Well, the original book was written by Moriarty. Great book-dessert for an 8 p.m. treat to keep you out of the ice cream. ♥

Pearl Five

Humans are creatures of habit. If you quit when things get tough, it gets that much easier to quit the next time. On the other hand, if you force yourself to push through it, the grit begins to grow in you.” ♥

Travis Bradberry

I have returned from the front lines of a terrible flu. There a flu out there that they think has one ten-day(ish) bout of flu and just as you’re feeling much better: another flu knocks you out.

Also, remember how I said that I’m looking for women over fifty who’re living with a scarfing husband? I realized that I wasn’t being very clear. I’d love to find women who have a partner at home who doesn’t make smart eating easy on her. The partner might keep cookies around or want a heavy dinner every evening. That kind of thing. If you’re partner isn’t onboard, I’d love to hear from you at Wendy@theInspiredEater.com.

Have a beautiful week!

♥, Wendy

You know the scoop: I’m an Amazon affiliate. If you buy from a link in my post, I’ll receive money, but the arrangement won’t cost you a dime.

Are you new to the Inspired Eater? Welcome!! This blog won’t make much sense until you first read the Aunt Bea post (and you’ll find Aunt Bea on this page to the right under my short bio). On your cell you’ll see it immediately following the first post. After you enter your email address, the Aunt Bea article will be sent to your email’s inbox. If it’s not there, you might check the spam folder. And always feel free to email me at Wendy@TheInspiredEater.com and I’ll get Aunt Bea right to you!!

I am not an expert, 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.

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 larger and you might feel 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. ♥