Pearl One

One of the strongest questions to ask yourself: what are my best wins that I’m so proud of?

In your journal write about your top four accomplishments, the ones that you most cherish. (Has to be an accomplishment that you wanted; it can’t be for youir mom). Now pick your favorite accomplishment and ask yourself the following:

• how did I make that happen?
• What talent and skills did I bring to the accomplishment? (Tenacity, a gut feeling that you were on the track, a super strong “why.”)
• What steps did you go through to bring the win to life?
• Why did shepherding that win so impressive to you?
• What do you appreciate most about the win?
• How did you handle the obstacles?
• What kept you engaged with the process?
• Pretend as if you’re explaining to someone else how you brought your accomplishment to life. What would you tell them?

Spend time with your journal and apply all that you learned from the win to living on the Smart Eating Lifestyle. ♥

Pearl Two

Counting on willpower to maintain a weight loss for a lifetime?

Hard no. Willpower is the honeymoon of weight loss. Sure, it’s fun and games in the beginning.

Until it’s not.

Then it’s just you and the Kroger ice cream aisle. Willpower doesn’t work. Willpower doesn’t work. Smart habits work and will have your back for a lifetime. ♥

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 is sequence is about The Scarfer

Automatic Sequence

• Situation (something very concrete): as a kid my mom would cook. I’d leave the dinner table hungry.
• Thought: It was “all men for themselves.”
• Feeling: I was accustomed to the situation.
• Action: Back then I would horde food and always made the most of dinner.
• Result: Same old, same old.

Chosen Sequence

• Situation (something very concrete): as a kid my mom would cook. I’d leave the dinner table .
• Chosen Thought: Now I know why I have food anxiety.
• Feeling: Acceptance of what was. Determined.
• Action: I don’t rely on incompetent people for food. I keep food with me at my desk at work, and maintain a packed kitchen.
• Result: I never go hungry. I make sure the everyone around me has the food they need.

Pearl Four

Books love us and want us be happy.

The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan is an amazing read. Great read.

Pearl Five

I’m trying not to get too excited, but my very annoying sciatica has virtually disappeared. I’ve been aware of pain in my jeans’s back pockets area since 2016. Over the last many years I learned to sit on ice-pillows or a heating-pad. But my kitty — Max — needed it more than me (he sleeps on my desk). So he’s snoozing on the heating pad as I type. And I’m virtually sitting pain-free on the office chair. This will be a huge health win for me,

Let’s click our coffee cups together to cheer having 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

Hello Thrivers!

I’m a true-blue library gal. But I’ve moved enough times to know: keep your book collection at the library. That said, I bought these two heavy-hitters:

The first is The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg (2012) and the second is Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear (2018).

Both have spent a gazillion weeks on the New York Times and Wall Street Journals’ bestsellers’ lists. (I hear from a reliable source that Atomics’ audio is excellent.)

Embracing these two books – and revisiting them on the regular – has played an intricate roll in my success at preserving my original loss. I can’t stress enough how much developing great habits did for my long-term success. I always say create smart habits and the weight will follow.

Let me give you an example of one heavy-hitter of a habit we all need to embed: morning planning.

Meet Lisa, an active grandma who understands the importance of smart eating habits but had a slip on this particular Saturday. Lisa is a grandma to two little girls, and it’s her plan to keep her weight down and stay as active as possible for her granddaughters.

One weekend Lisa’s five-year-old granddaughter is having her birthday party. Lisa’s been given the job of picking up the balloons (she has an SUV) but — at the last minute — her son asks Lisa if she could also pick up the cake at a Costco across town. She thinks, no problem. Lisa was happy to help because she loved being an involved grandma every day of the year, but especially on birthdays. She picked everything up and brought the balloons and cake to the party. All was going beautifully until Lisa’s hunger kicked in. She wondered when had she last eaten? Was it that cantaloupe and bagel she’d had at breakfast? Hours ago?

Her daughter-in-law mentioned that there was adult food in the kitchen, so Lisa made a beeline to the “adult food” and without haste began dipping Ruffles into a sour cream dip. She also ate four deviled eggs, and had a large slice of birthday cake. After the guests had gone home and they were cleaning up, Lisa had another slice before leaving for her own home.

What happened?

Lisa hadn’t factored herself into the day.

So, here’s how I suggest Lisa include herself in the future.

1) the evening before the party, we’d see Lisa pack a cold-tote full of healthy food she loves like sliced apple (sprinkle a little citrus juice on the apples so they don’t go brown), a little yogurt (with a spoon), a hard boiled egg, a bag of petite carrots and two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Why two? With all of the driving and running around to pick everything up and then the party itself, Lisa wouldn’t likely get home until five or six o’clock. She needs fuel-food to get all the work done.

2) the morning of the party, I’d suggest to Lisa that she write a specific plan for that particular day. She’d delineate where the obstacles would be and add solutions next to each obstacle.

3) Did you know that “car eating” “is a thing? Well it should be! I’d emphasize that food in her cold-tote would keep her well out of the chips and dip. In her morning plan, I’d even suggest she include what she’ll have for dinner when she arrives back home. The idea is to eat one peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the drive home so she doesn’t get home famished/

Our crazy busy days request one thing from us: a morning smart eating plan. ♥

Pearl Two

What are your thoughts on embedding a new habit this week? Is there part of your smart eating day that you’d like to fine-tune?

Here’s how I embed a new habit: I lean on the study out of England that concluded that it takes sixty-six days of purposely repeating a behavior before the behavior gets locked into the automatic part of our brain. I know sixty-six days might sound daunting, but I found that it’s the first sixteen that are really tricky.

For many, giving up the evening desserathon is what they most want to embed. Two years ago, I gave up eating everything after dinner. I can tell you from personal expedience the the sixty-six days nail a new habit.

Whether you choose a small or big habit to instill, plan to keep track on your calendar so you can record what day you’re on. (And to give yourself kudos along the way). If you’re playing along, share which habit you’re working to embed in the comments below. I’ll go first, since my smart eating is going well, I’ll go with keeping the downstairs’s bathroom spotless and smelling extra nice. Also in establishing a habit, if you “slip up” it’s no big deal, just get back on the giving-up-sugar horse and you’ll be golden.

You’ll slip. I’ll slip. Everyone slips. Plan to slip, but don’t take a slip as an easy-out. Our work is about getting back the horse and engaging with yourself around “messing up.” Slips are part of the whole shebang. How we respond to our slips while we’re on the way to establishing a new habit is what counts. ♥

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 situation is about a friend’s current circumstance.

Automatic Sequencing

• Situation (be very concrete): I play golf almost every weekend. My teenage son doesn’t like golf and won’t play.
• Automatic Thought: I thought that if I love the game, he’d love it too!
• Feeling: Annoyed, disappointed.
• Action:  I’ve had to stop myself from making passive-aggressive comments.
• Result: He and I are short with each other.

Chosen Sequence

• Situation (be very concrete): I play golf almost every weekend. My teenage son doesn’t like golf.
• Chosen Thought: My son isn’t into golf and that’s okay. It’s not what I’d expected, but my boy is really into his own sport which is what I want for my son: a sport he loves.
• Feeling: Happy that he’s not pattering his life after mine. He’s an individual with his own interests.
• Action: I spend one weekend watching him at skateboard parks. He’s gotten really good.  I’d had no idea how good.
• Result: A much better relationship with my son. ♥

Pearl Four

Books love us and want us to be happy.

The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman is a feel-good book that drew me in on the first page. If you need a happy, wonderful story this is your book. I’m always xcited because I found a new-to-me author. We’ll definitely be reading her again. The book starts out with our protagonist — Augusta — reluctantly agreeing that it was time to retire from her long held job. She leaves New York City to live in a retirement community in Florida (because as Seinfeld told us “it’s the law.”) One hundred percent book-dessert. ♥

Pearl Five

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

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

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

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

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

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

♥, 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.