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In Endless Summers

Earning Your Own Trust: The Daily Actions That Make Maintenance Possible

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As we take baby steps into lifetime maintenance we need to find the fun everywhere.

Pearl One

You’ve likely heard women say that reaching their goal weight didn’t make their problems disappear. While they did achieve the number they were aiming for, many emphasize, “Life is still the same at my new weight—I’m just thinner, but my challenges remain.”

Okay, kind of true, but hasn’t been my experience.

From deep in my core, I appreciate every single day that my body feels lighter and that I’m finally in control of my eating—especially in our food-gone-wild world. I never take it for granted. I spent decades overweight and miserable before I finally cracked the code on food and weight. For the longest time, it drove me nuts—why could I figure out so many other challenges in life, but not this one?

So nowadays I’m indebted to past-me who began to embed smart eating habits years ago. Occasionally, it still sneaks up on me — that jolt of joy knowing the weight is gone for good. I’ll be unloading the dishwasher or stuck in traffic, and suddenly think, wait — I did it. After years of yo-yoing, doubting, and starting over every Monday, I cracked the code. The weight’s not just gone — on my watch, it will never come back.

Since I started writing about my weight loss and maintenance trek, I’ve become hyper-aware of how differently I do life now. One thing that’s crystal clear: strong, supportive self-talk is the starting line. Every day, I notice the full range of benefits—from tiny wins to major shifts—that come from keeping the weight off for good. I also speak to myself with kindness. Like when I’m reaching for a cookie that’s not on my plan, I’ll gently say to myself, “No ma’am.” (Lol. Clearly, I’ve been in the South too long.)

Strong & Supportive Self-Talk

Lifelong maintenance begins with one powerful shift: choosing to speak to yourself with kindness.

I intentionally shifted my self-talk in a more positive direction—day by day, moment by moment. I start by noticing something great about being thin, then I turn that observation into uplifting inner dialogue. Here are a few examples:

  • What I notice: When a season is over, I don’t worry about whether my clothes will fit for the incoming season.
  • What I tell myself: Oh, it feels so good to slide into jeans that fit. Will I ever get used to this amazing feeling! No, I never will.
  • What I notice: Tempting food isn’t a problem because I know exactly how to curb my appetite.
  • What I tell myself: Heaven. It feels heavenly to know (in my bones) how to walk by the food-porn. This is so exciting!
  • What I notice: I wear white jeans now.
  • What I tell myself: this is SO COOL I’m actually making smart eating work for the ultimate pay-off: white jeans! I just have to hang in there until my habits are fully embedded.
  • What I notice: At the doctor’s office I never hear, “your back is hurting possibly from the extra weight you’re carrying.”
  • What I tell myself: Doctors can’t blame health problems on my weight. I love it!
  • What I notice: I don’t have the constant drumbeat in the back of my mind hammering I’m too heavy, I’m too heavy, I’m too heavy.
  • What I tell myself: Do I have a drumbeat at all in my head these days? Maybe if I have one, it’s more, let’s go on cruise, let’s go on a cruise, let’s go on a cruise.

Seth Godin says we “earn trust through action.” When it comes to developing lasting, smart eating habits, that means earning our own trust—day in and day out.

Show yourself you mean business by making small, intentional choices. For example, make a book-dessert a regular thing in your life, call fruit your dessert or save your dessert for the next morning to go with your coffee. (more on desserts for breakfast here.) And play your favorite music—whether it’s The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, or Cher — for some reason, when the music’s on, food becomes less important. Ultimately, shifting your self-talk toward kindness and positivity, minute by minute. It’s these daily choices that build the foundation for lasting success. ♥

Pearl Two

Writing prompts for your journal

  • How do I identify myself? I see myself as someone who . . .
  • What scares me the most about being in maintenance. . .
  • If the fear somehow drifted away, it would mean that I could . . .
  • What emotional triggers make maintenance feel shaky? How do I handle them now?
  • How do I bounce back after a slip? What’s my process for returning to the Smart Eating Path?
  • What triggers a slip?
  • What patterns from my old life try to creep back in—and how do I push them away gently but firmly?
  • What does “compassionate self-discipline” look like in real life for me?
  • If I imagined maintenance as a daily act of self-respect rather than a burden, what would I do differently? ♥

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. Apply to your own life.

Automatic Sequence

  • Situation (be specific): Claire has just left the doctor’s office after getting a cancer diagnosis. The doctor asked her to choose between surgery and lifestyle change with medication.
  • Her automatic thought: I’m not ready for this. This happens to other people, not me.
  • Feeling: Rattled from all of information that comes with a diagnosis, but mainly fear.
  • Action: Claire gripped the steering wheel and her fingers went white. She drove home and had glass after glass of chardonnay.
  • Result: Claire doesn’t have experience with self-soothing during terrible times and her fears compound as she moves forward.

Chosen Sequence

  • Situation (be specific): Claire has just left the doctor’s office after getting a cancer diagnosis. The doctor asked her to choose between surgery and lifestyle change with medication.
  • Her chosen thought: Okay, this is where life gets real. She breathed deeply. I have to own this.
  • Feeling: She feels more confident about making what can be a life-or-death situation.
  • Action: She gripped the wheel, not out of fear, but focus. She drives home and cuddles with her rescue-kitty and orders books from the library.
  • Result: She’s able to manage the complexity of handling such a difficult diagnosis. ♥

Pearl Four

The book-dessert pearl

What a great memoir I’m sharing with you today. I highly recommend this sweet read called The Boys: a Memoir of Hollywood and Family by Mr. Opie Taylor (sorry) by Mr. Ron Howard and his brother Clint Howard. Both were kid-actors and for once the origin story isn’t tragic. Malcolm Gladwell summed it up, “I have read dozens of Hollywood memoirs. But The Boys stands alone. A delightful, warm and fascinating story of a good life in show business.”  Much like The Andy Griffith Show itself, this memoir radiates kindness, simplicity, and decency. You’ll love it. ♥

Pearl Five

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.
–Albert Einstein (1879-1955) ♥

Share the Love! If this post helped you, please send it to your doctor or anyone in the healthcare field They might not know anything about weight loss/maintenance after age 50 — you could help them help others. Thanks for spreading the word!

Make it a smart eating week! And I hope to see you on Facebook.

♥, 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.

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In Endless Summers

Maintaining Weight Loss Without Getting Bored to Death

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Pearl One

Welcome to a five-week focus on maintenance (or what I call “preservation” (I’ll use both terms interchangeably until we all get used to the new word). Today in our first week we’re talking about how I’ve preserved weight loss for eighteen years to date.

So, you’ve done the hard work — the weight’s off, the jeans zip, the mirror gives a wink. But now comes the part no one talks about, the part where our eating plan gets boring, routines get stale, and you wonder if “forever” is really doable. Here’s the truth: weight loss maintenance doesn’t have to be bland, joyless, or rigid. In fact, it can sparkle — if you let it.

Maintaining Feels Like a Forever Job with No Excitement

I’m the first to say that one of the best habits I ever established was becoming super dedicated to tracking what I eat in a day. The habit is embedded into my heart and soul. I track on Christmas and on my birthday and on all travel. At the same time, I completely get that daily tracking, measuring, and looking for doughnut-substitutes over time becomes a major blah. Food can easily go from pleasure to tracking math to just giving up.

So let’s say that you’re now on the maintenance path. But once you’re well into your third month, the effort of maintaining feels boring, flat and pointless. I mean, who wants to preserve a thirty-pound weight loss?

(Yawn.)

Instead, it’s important to know that in our new, still young century we’re doing maintenance very differently than the last century where maintenance wasn’t even discussed.

I’ve learned that the most important part of preserving our original loss is making maintenance meaningful. We need to establish habits that feel natural to us, not performative. And to find ways to celebrate ourselves that feel enriching versus silly. Let’s build purpose and fun into our preservation-life. How to do it? The answers are inside our pen through journal-writing (see prompts in pearl two).

An example from my life: maintaining my weight loss became a done-deal after I had my babies. I knew that I didn’t want to go to the beach worrying about how I looked in my bathing suit and feeling uncomfortable the entire time because my jeans were cutting off my airway. I wanted my focus to be on my kids. The babies gave me purpose.

Today, I maintain for my one-day grandchildren, grand-dogs or grand-cats (a grand-bird would be wonderful too). I want to be fit and healthy enough to really be in their lives and not just watch from the couch. I also want to pass on to them how to deal with our food-gone-wild culture.

Maintenance isn’t about being perfect or having abounding willpower — it’s about being consistent, kind to yourself and curious. Some days you’ll feel like a rockstar. Some days you’ll just make it to bedtime. In either case, just continue on your Smart Eating Path. ♥

Pearl Two

The writing prompt pearl

The reasons for journal-writing are many but you’re looking to engage with your subconscious, to learn about new nooks and crannies inside of you, to examine your day-to-day and see what takes form. Based on pearl one, here are today’s writing prompts.

  • How have you engaged with maintenance in the past? Be as specific as you can.
  • What do you think about looking at maintenance from a new angle and a new century? Nobody talked about maintenance decades ago because nobody knew how to do. it. How do you think that impacted you?
  • A successful maintenance is about using the strength and flexibility of our minds to preserve our original loss. It was never about running ten miles every other day or eating only salad, it starts in our minds. What does this mean for your life?
  • How do you plan to manage the emotions that come from maintenance? Meaning how do you infuse purpose into your daily? How do you create an umbilical cord from your heart to your value system? ♥

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. Apply to your own life.

Automatic Sequence:

  • Situation (be super concrete): I’ve gained five pounds after losing thirty.
  • Automatic thought: I can’t believe it but here I go again. What is wrong with me?
  • Feeling: irritation and hopelessness.
  • Action: I react by overeating.
  • Result: I always will be back and forth on my weight. It’s my own fault.

Chosen Sequence

  • Situation (be super concrete): I’ve gained five pounds after losing thirty.
  • Chosen thought: I’m fine. I’m doing something totally new here. There will be no drama, just curiosity. This is what Wendy says is part of the lifetime maintenance process.
  • Feeling: empathy for myself and an interest in diving into what’s working well and what needs help.
  • Action: I take time to read carefully through my tracker that I keep in the kitchen.
  • Result: It takes two weeks, but I’m back inside the four-pound weight window I established for myself. ♥

Pearl Four

The book-dessert pearl

As I’ve mentioned I love memoirs, I joke that it’s because I’m nosy, but it really is more to do with feeling connected to others. The funny thing about Sally Field’s memoir In Pieces is that as the reader we get to know her better, but it soon becomes clear that the author has long valued privacy. In her story, she starts at the beginning with the women who raised her. She is open and vulnerable. I mean, who knew that an actress of her stature would have to go out on a limb to play Mary Todd in the movie Lincoln? In Pieces is a rich, lovely book-dessert. ♥

Pearl Five

You do not find the happy life. You make it.” — Camilla Eyring Kimball ♥

It would be wonderful if you tell your doctors about our site the Inspired Eater.

Let me know in the comments below what you’d to more of: maintenance? Getting started? Dealing with the messy middle? I would love to hear from you.

Make it a fun week! And I hope to see you on Facebook.

♥, 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.

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In Endless Summers

5 Concepts to Embrace for Losing Weight & Maintaining After 50

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Pearl One

A lifetime weight loss doesn’t just happen like one day we instantly find ourself on a Hawaiian beach. We know that a ton of planning goes into any trip. These five ideas are “must Journal-write about” prompts.

Take a close look at five ideas that has had my back.

Eating.

Write a daily mission plan that includes eating a big breakfast, a medium-sized lunch and a tiny dinner with two small snacks during the day. By “tiny dinner” I mean a cup of brown mixed with my favorite veggies (Costco’s Stir Fry in frozen next to strawberries. I add a smidgen of salt and low-salt soy sauce.) Then I take my book-dessert upstairs for a good read. If you find yourself struggling because you’re legit hungry have an apple or a banana. The whole “tiny dinner” thing takes time to establish. Remember the study that said it takes sixry-six days to establish a habit.

Plateauing.

The new plateauing is called “holding” and is — in modern times — considered crucial for lifetime maintenance.

Self-sabotage.

Did you know that if a newborn has hair he might pull it hard and scream at the same time? It’s all the caregiver can do to get the baby to release its iron-grip fist pulling his own hair. We can see the self-sabotage with the baby, but less so in our own self. A question for your journal: how am I pulling my own hair? Revisit this topic on the regular in your journal.

Recovery.

How do you pull yourself back onto the Smart Eating path? Everyone slips up. It’s just how human beings are built. We live in the land of massive junk-food and so, of course we might “slip” and overeat or eat trigger foods that send us into an overeating-mode for weeks or months to come.

Have a plan in place for getting back on the path.

A story about habits.

I know about a man who had an awesome habit of going to his fancy gym five or six times a week. Something happened health-wise and he couldn’t go in for two weeks. So, you know what he did instead? Every day he would drive to the gym and hang out in the parking lot for 15 minutes or so thereby maintaining his workout habit. Love this. His response to “two weeks off” was to show profound respect for the habit he’d taken time to embed.

I tell myself that I learn as I go. You and I are works in progress. ♥

Pearl Two

How should it look? Somewhere within our fad-diet culture we accepted the idea that weight loss should unfold in a linear style. You start at 200-pounds and get down to 130 in a couple months.

We’re accustomed to our world being somewhat A + B = C. We start college as freshman and finish as seniors four years later (hopefully). The December holidays follow Thanksgiving that follows Halloween (in the U.S.).

And that’s how we want our Smart Eating Lifestyle too. Picture-perfect, pristine, and — above all — linear.

Not only that, we demand that it be so. And if our experience isn’t linear, we beat up ourselves for not doing a better job. We have no willpower (nobody maintained a forever-loss on willpower.)

Having maintained a 55-pound loss for 18 years, I can assure you that it did not come off in a linear fashion. It was a small win among many fails. It helped that I’d embedded the habit of getting back on the horse.

It often comes down to instilling the right food habits. ♥

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

Chosen Sequence

  • Situation (be super concrete, something we all agree is true): My weight is stuck at 160 pounds and I can’t seem to nudge it.
  • Chosen thought: My weight isn’t dropping but I’m cool with the idea that I’m plateauing (or “holding”) and this is a good thing.
  • Feeling: I feel a little amped up thinking I can do this.
  • Action: I remind myself throughout the day that I’m in the holding mode and that is a wonderful place to be. My body is adjusting to the 160 weight which is important. If I drop weight too quickly, it’ll pile back on just as fast.
  • Result: I work on my habits. I’m currently embedding the habit of eating a small dinner around six o‘clock and taking a book dessert to bed. ♥

Pearl Four

Books love us and want us to be happy

I think this woman is hilarious and apparently, she knows how to write too. Unless I’m mistaken, Chelsea Handler’s debut book was My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands back in 2005 And it was such a hit that she went on to write many more.

I’ve read all of Handler’s prior books because she’s brutally honest and so open about her own life. She loves making money and loves and sharing it with her siblings and friends so that they’ll travel with her. Her latest book out is I’ll Have What She’s Having (2025).

Note: this is my time to say this website is very much NOT political, If a book works as a book-dessert it’ll be included as one. One Monday it might be Michele Obama in On Becoming, other Mondays it could be Hillbilly Eligy by JD Vance. Both are phenomenal reads.

Rather than political stance, I look for does this human love animals and which ones were their favorite? Or does this person like books? Or what is the person’s stance on pizza?

These books make for a light and fun summer of reading:

These books would a riot for the beach, the pool, the living room couch, plane and the like. ♥

Pearl Five

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.”
Thomas A. Edison ♥

Welcome to summer!! I remember summer sunburns and how hard it was to get sleep at night as a kid in the summer even with open windows and a good floor fan. Oddly enough, sunburns and floor fans are my fond memories.

What are some memories from your childhood? Share in the comments below.

Have a great week everyone!

♥, 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.

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In Uncategorized

How to Keep it Small & Sane As We Lose for the Holidays

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Photo and darling pumpkins by TildaLovesTeddy.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Losing weight for the long run. This time? We’re shooting for permanent results.

Pearl # 1

We’ve been told forever that a human being can lose two pounds a week safely. But we weren’t told what ultimately matters most: how do we keep the weight off for good?

From today until Thanksgiving we’re looking at nine weeks, and until Christmas it’s thirteen.

Given our culture’s two-pounds-a-week doctrine, we should be able to lose eighteen by Thanksgiving.

Eighteen pounds!! Doesn’t that sound awesome?

It does. Except it’s a snow job.

You and I are black belts at losing for something big – a wedding, a reunion, or in this case, a holiday – but as someone on the front-lines of maintenance knows two pounds a week is a lovely thought every now and then, but losing two pounds on the regular? You’ll end up gaining it back.

I lost an .8 ounces here, a pound there. I didn’t give any thought to the scale. I only focused on developing smart eating habits.

While we might be able to willpower ourselves into a large loss, we cannot willpower our way through maintenance. The only way to reduce for the long-game is in establishing rock-solid habits that we embed into our very hearts and soul.

The Gift that Keeps on Giving.

The holidays aren’t officially here for nine weeks. Let’s lose differently this year:

  • Lose slowly. Meaning don’t awaken the inner “I’m dying!” voice who notices fewer calories coming aboard and sounds the alert. Let’s don’t be hard on her, she’s only trying to keep us alive. By losing slowly we’re keeping her cozy and quiet.
  • Embed habits. Pick one – maybe two – habit(s) that you want to establish in your smart eating life this fall. For example, you might want to establish the habit of no eating after 6:30 p.m. Or that you’ll eat a veggie at every meal (mine).
  • Increase your ability to be patient (i.e. chill). Are you and patience on good terms? The most patient among us are the victors. When our “it’s taking too long” voice invariably shows up: have a thought in mind to whip out like: hey, a college degree takes four years. Or: a baby takes nine months. Or even: I’m strengthening my patience-muscle — it’s way too wet-noodle-ish.
  • My favorite way of beefing up my patience-muscle, is singing in my mind Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” The song nails it, you can stand me up to the gates of hell, but I won’t back down. ♥

Pearl # 2

Success-stack. Big or little, it doesn’t matter. Your success-memory just has to mean something wonderful to you. Maybe you scored the highest on the Pilates certification. Or you’re happy that you organized the cupboard under the sink after years of neglect.

Stack your five happiest successes and write them down where you can see them DAILY.

Most of us are champions at remembering the negative, but terrible at keeping the positive at the forefront.

Don’t be “most.” Be unique. Be proud of your successes. Own what you’ve brought to life. I homeschooled my two from Kindergarten through high school. And they’re crushing college. Dang right I’m proud.

Now you. ♥

Pearl # 3

Tracker vs. journal-writing. We have some lovely new readers to The Inspired Eater so I thought a quick primer on the difference between journal-writing and tracking would be helpful.

Tracking — Find a pretty notebook and a great pen, and install both in their home: the counter immediately next to the fridge. I’ve tracked my food since the late 90s. Studies shows that the most successful maintainers made tracking a solid habit. You want the habit to be like brushing your teeth.

Journal-writing — Whether done in a beautiful spiral notebook or on your computer (I love OneNote), make a habit of writing daily in your journal. I give regular prompts in these posts (prompts that I use on my own daily difficulties). There’s something magical about writing about various parts of our lives. And while I don’t literally believe in magic, I do believe that something unusual happens when we put pen to paper (or fingers to keys). You’ll learn so much about yourself as you evolve into “the upgraded you” who lives a smart eating lifestyle. ♥

Pearl # 4

Welcome to My Week of Self-Sabotage. The mean little voice that bugs me daily is such a sweetheart. This is what I heard this week:

  •  You can barely keep the kitchen clean, why do you think you can (enter your own project here) and maintain the momentum?”
  • You might call it ‘late blooming,’ I say never blooming.
  • You know how this works: the more committed you are, the harder you’ll fall.

My self-sabotage voice is so much fun. Muzzling her is a muscle that only gets stronger with use. When your self-sabotage voice shows up say to her:

  • I hear you, now go to the back of the line.
  • Your thought is noted, but your skills aren’t needed on this project.
  • You might be along for the ride, but you will stay quiet in the backseat.

Learning how to identify and ignore your self-sabotage voice is a superpower. ♥

Pearl # 5

“The secret of patience is to do something else in the meantime.”

Croft M. Pentz ♥

If you found this post helpful, I hope you’ll share with a friend or family member.

Health is hard, no doubt about it, but we can do hard things.

♥, 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. ♥

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