I specialize in helping women stop overeating for good. In my practice, I teach them the tools to change even long-established habits and patterns of eating.

Overeating is not just physically uncomfortable and it can also leave you with a feeling of shame and loss of control, wondering how to stop overeating.

The frustration and guilt is real! The cycle of trying to eat healthy snacks, moderate your food intake, and portion sizing often leads to rebound eating and weight gain. 

This is not fun my friends and can create chronic stress. And more stress is not helpful to your weight loss efforts.

How do you break the cycle of overeating and create a better eating experience for yourself?

For most women, the struggle with overeating is real.

We are surrounded by so many choices that it probably seems impossible that you could simply eat food, when you are hungry and not worry about gaining weight or being able to resist the foods you worry are going to make you gain weight.

It doesn’t have to be that way. You can enjoy eating, enjoy food, even comfort food, and enjoy the feeling of not being a slave to cravings or overeating.

This can be the first step to losing weight. A diet or plan will not on itself take away the urge to overeat. Sometimes even starting a diet can kick off a new round of overeating.

I offer a lot of losing weight information on this site. The most comprehensive post is Ten Powerful Tips to Lose Weight After 50.

How to Stop Overeating

Learning how to stop overeating does not involve dieting or depriving yourself. That kind of thing has been proven time and time again, to not work in the long term.

I also don’t think giving up on having a fit healthy body is a good option.

There is a way to have both! Be fit and healthy and NOT diet. It’s a matter of learning what are the causes of overeating and working with your mindset.

I’ll share my story, but it’s one that other women have experienced as well.

December 2023: At the age of 61, I am the author and creator of this blog, My Think Big Life and I contribute to a cooking blog as well. I’m a mom to three grown children.

I’m a grandmother to three granddaughters that I make time to see almost every week. I wake up every morning excited about the day to come!

For the past three years, I have been providing life coaching to women in midlife in private coaching. I use a neural somatic process that helps retrain your mind and body when it comes to food.

I teach women how to get away from willpower, diets, and restrictive eating as a way to manage their weight. Instead I change their reaction to food from the inside out!

But I wasn’t always like this.

How We Get Started with Overeating?

As a teen, I began to feel like I was too big when I was 13! To tell you the truth, I worried about it, well, ever since.

We are bombarded by the messages that we will never be thin enough. And for most of us, we are not going to be “thin.”

But I wanted to be! And I tried every diet over the years in an attempt to be thin. Later on, I focused on nutrition and accepted that I was never going to have the body I craved.

It wasn’t until I turned 50, that I decided to give up dieting for good.

In the 10 years since, I’ve been able to get to and maintain a nice weight for my body. Not only did this affect how I feel about my body, but it helped my skin and face.

Here’s what I think happened. I learned to eat in a way that didn’t depend on willpower at all and I learned to actually nourish my body.

Through my research and own experience, I learned what actually worked for women after 50 and even menopause.

Many women have a struggle with food, their body, and overeating. Food is required to live–it shouldn’t feel like a war you have to face every day.

How my Illness Led to Solutions

My personal journey started with being sick.

My digestive system was a mess for a couple of years before I even considered that food might be the cause. In a serendipitous moment, I had the idea that maybe it was wheat. And it was.

Literally within a few days of not eating any wheat-based products, every single digestive problem I had, disappeared. Not got better—went away completely. All the embarrassing issues that I had for two years were gone.

This did not cause me to lose any weight though I felt so much better!

A year or so later, I did a Whole 30. This really changed how I looked at food. Again, I didn’t lose weight. However, I wasn’t overeating, and I felt that I was truly nourishing my body.

At some point, I realized that I WAS losing weight. I wasn’t eating as much, and I was not eating in the evenings.

Effective Ways to Stop Overeating

At that point, I became more intentional about the timing of my eating. I realized that having a long period of time between my last meal of the day and my first meal the next day was very helpful.

This was long before intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating was a thing. Now you see information about it all over the place.

For me, it was the combination of eating real food and not eating around the clock that changed things for me.

I was pretty strict for a few years and rarely indulged in sugar and not at all in wheat-based products. I exercised almost every day. I was able to get thin!

That level of strictness was not really sustainable all of the time. And it’s not required for me to feel and look good.

I’ve let myself gain about ten pounds because that weight is EASY to maintain. I don’t have to be 100% strict nor do I exercise as much.

I just get to live my life, move my body in ways that feel good, and eat food that tastes good.

What are the Causes of Overeating?

We ascribe a lot of reasons to why we overeat. We are lazy. We have no willpower. There’s too much good food around. We don’t have time to eat right. It’s emotional eating.

I think the answer is something completely different.

I believe it starts with those kinds of thoughts and beliefs and because we don’t know different, we eat in ways that reinforce those thoughts.

Our overeating and lack of willpower are physical manifestations of our thoughts and beliefs.

When you believe you have no choice but to overeat, you aren’t motivated to make real changes.

Instead, you try diet after diet, and when each diet eventually fails, this reinforces your belief that overeating is inevitable.

How many times have you slipped up on your diet and that leads to the rest of the day being blown, or the rest of the week, or even years?

Yeah, I know. It’s happened to me before. It has happened to all my clients too.

How do I Stop Overeating Once and For All?

It is possible to not overeat.

My clients all stop overeating. 100% of the women I work with are able to not just stop overeating, they rarely think about it anymore.

I overeat so rarely, that the last time it happened, I got the idea for this post. I had bought some chips. Sometimes I really crave potato or tortilla chips. Most of the time, it’s not a big deal. But on this day, I ate the whole bag.

As I looked at my empty bag in dismay, I also laughed. Because, it caught me off-guard and I decided, I better not buy those darn chips again.

But I didn’t hate myself or tell myself that I had ruined anything! I threw the bag away and I didn’t give it another thought until today.

In the meantime, I’ve just been doing my usual thing of eating in a way that nourishes and supports my body. And not overeating.

Why Do You Overeat?

People overeat because they are hungry for something. Often women are hungry because they don’t eat enough real food, that they like, and nourishes their bodies.

Overeating is sometimes a physical response to emotional pain. Sometimes you know what you are eating to numb and sometimes it is not obvious.

Other reasons for overeating is because some foods are designed to override our sense of fullness and create cravings for more of that food.

I think the reason we over eat is because we don’t allow ourselves to really enjoy eating. We either restrict ourselves too much or we eat things that don’t nourish our bodies.

Believe it or not, when I work with women, I usually start by having them eat MORE not less. Most women actually need more nutrition.

When you learn to eat enough to not be hungry and you mostly eat good food, then you begin to lose your cravings that drive you to overeating. There ARE effective ways to stop overeating.

Effective Ways to Stop Overeating

This is a process folks! It’s not an overnight solution.

Only eat when you feel hungry!

This sounds so simple to be almost like a joke. But it ain’t no joke! Most of us are not in tune with our hunger. In fact, many of us don’t even trust our bodies anymore to let us know when to eat and how much.

The first step to not overeating, is to wait until you feel actual hunger.

No, you don’t have to wait until you feel overwhelming hunger–just wait to eat until you can feel some hunger signals.

Don’t worry if this feels difficult at first; that is totally normal. We are not used to eating because we feel hungry.

Stop eating when you’ve had enough

This is the second part. Eat when you are hungry. Stop when you’ve had enough.

This might take some practice. If you’ve been overeating, it will take some practice to stop when you feel like you’ve had enough. You don’t have to stop when you still feel hungry.

I recommend eating a little more if you are nervous about getting hungry too soon. This isn’t a diet, so there’s no plan to tell you the exact amount to eat.

That’s for you and your body to figure out. And it might be different every day.

Remember, you can eat again when you feel hungry.

Limit processed foods

Processed foods such as breads, pastas, junk food, chips, and sugary foods can be a problem in midlife because most of us either eat too many of them or we have insulin resistance.

What I see a lot is that it doesn’t take very much of these kinds of foods to throw our bodies off. So if you aren’t losing and doing the above things, you might consider limiting sugar and processed foods while increasing protein and vegetables.

It doesn’t mean you can never have them but eating them can put stress on the body and eating them can also cause you to want more of them. You get a physical and neurological reaction from them.

For me, I know they create more cravings for more, so I usually just avoid them.

For meals, you can add vegetables and healthy fats to keep you satisfied, so you won’t be as tempted to eat between meals or at night.

Another way to keep cravings for processed foods lower is to eat complex carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, winter squash, fruit, and beets.

These types of carbohydrates taste great and also provide fiber and essential nutrients. 

For my clients that eat a lot of processed foods, we don’t try to eliminate them all at once. We start with what feels easiest. And I almost always recommend eating more food, more: protein, vegetables, or fat.

One note, if you drink soda, sweet tea, or other drinks with a lot of sugar, I recommend weaning yourself off that stuff. It has no benefit and it is damaging in all ways.

Eat more healthy fats and oils

These days I am comfortable eating lots of healthy fats such as olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, and even butter. These types of fats and oils help control my appetite, keep me full, and make food taste amazing.

Fat is a nutrient–it’s not optional and it certainly isn’t bad for you. It is required for your body to operate at its optimum. You need fat.

Most of us grew up being told fat was bad. We grew up with very unhealthy fats and oils. These days you can get really good fats and oils.

It might sound weird at first that you may need more fat at your meals but a lot of women do. This is not the same as eating high fat foods such as pizza or ice-cream. There is a place for pleasure foods but you also need to intentionally eat nutritious fat with your meals.

Start adding a tablespoon or two of a fat like olive oil, butter, or avocado oil to all your meals. Your food will taste so much better!

And you’ll be feeling satisfied and full for much longer.

Eat two or three meals

Food has a purpose beyond tasting good. It is nutrition and the more foods I ate that provided nutrition, the better off I would be.

Before you eat, it’s a good idea to wait until you feel some hunger. This is really helpful for being able to notice your fullness cues as you eat. This helps you know when you are full.

It is important that you eat enough food at your meals, that you don’t snack or eat at night. You eat enough food and healthy fats, that you can easily go for many hours between meals.

I remember as a child that we only at at meal times. I had plenty of energy and I stayed slim until I got older and started snacking.

As an adult, I had to relearn the importance of not eating around the clock. About six years ago, I gave up snacking and eating between meals.

This was life changing!

There is such freedom in not needing snacks on hand or in being able to get from one meal to the next. I used to FEAR hunger! I would do anything to avoid feeling those hunger pangs!

If you find yourself wanting to eat between meals, check in with yourself. Are you hungry? If you are, then have something to eat.

If you aren’t hungry, check in with your emotions. It could be boredom causing you to crave that ice cream. It could be anxiety that has you wanting to eat some chocolate.

When this is your pattern, instead of a diet, what you may need is a way to process and understand your emotions.

Now, I love the gradual building of hunger. It doesn’t come on fast, nor does it result in stress. It feels good.

I especially recommend not eating after dinner and fasting until your first meal of the next day. This long period of not eating is great for your body. Here’s an introduction to Intermittent Fasting.

Tips to Control Your Appetite and Quit Overeating

• If possible, wait to eat until you feel the body sensation of hunger
• Stop eating when you feel like you’ve had enough.
• Limit sugar and processed foods.
• Limit wheat and limit other grains.
• For your food choices, eat real food: eggs, meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and healthy fats. I do eat some high carb vegetables every day such as potatoes, beets, carrots, or winter squash instead of bread or pasta.
• Eat two or three meals a day.
• Limit snacking between meals. (if you are getting hungry—eat more at your meals or add more fat.)
• Try to get about 12 hours after your last meal of the day before your first meal of the next day.
• If you have a treat, have it with a meal, not in-between.
• No food is 100% forbidden, but limit the things that will create cravings.
• Make most of your meals at home.

Love and Accept Your Body

I want to end this with talking about accepting your body. Most people, do not love their bodies! Not only that, but we resent that we can’t just whip them into shape.

Our bodies are designed to be stable, to maintain a normal-for-us weight. Years of poor eating habits have left many of us with bodies that are not in a range that we are comfortable with.

It takes some time to implement new eating habits. It takes time for your body to adjust. You can’t do this for a week and expect everything to change.

I am 100% serious. It can take months or even a year to begin losing weight. Whether you lose weight right away or not, your body still needs its nutrients!

Body acceptance and love means feeding your body and treating it right—no matter how much you weigh. It also means being patient with it, while it is adjusting to new foods and ways of eating.

While you are improving your eating habits, remember to move your body. Walks, yoga, stretching, and other exercise gets you in touch with your body. Begin to appreciate all the great things it is already doing.

Feed it, move it, and most of all love it!

The post How to Stop Overeating appeared first on My Think Big Life.

Why is it so hard to lose weight? Women tell me all the time that this is their biggest struggle in life.

It’s not your imagination; it is hard to lose weight. While many people will say it’s easy or that you should do this or that, the fact remains that losing weight and keeping it off are difficult.

This is my reminder that no matter how tempting a diet sounds–the likelihood of it being successful long-term is only about 5%.

May 2023 Update: I just turned 61. I wrote this post four years ago before I became a life and weight loss coach. What I’ve discovered is that it is difficult to lose weight when we are trying to do it with misleading information that is presented as the truth.

Diets do not work long-term. They feel terrible to be on and everyone dreads them. Even when a person loses weight they often gain it all back. And this cycle repeats.

And no one questions what the problem is!

We think the problem is us. That we lack whatever it is that we should have so we can stick to a diet.

The problem isn’t you my friend. The problem is the diet industry and our medical industry isn’t much better.

Why is it so hard to lose weight?

It’s because your body doesn’t want to lose weight.

It is not designed to lose weight or to make it easy to lose weight. Your body wants to stay at a stable weight and its complex system of hormones fights your efforts to drop the pounds.

This is actually a good thing when you think about it. This mechanism that keeps our weight stable for the most part is essential for our survival.

And remember, that for millions of years, our bodies were desperately looking for food. It is only recently that humans have ever needed to lose weight!

This is a mismatch of what our bodies are designed to be like and the world we live in now.

Our body miraculously maintains a fairly steady weight for you if you don’t mess it up with diets and too much of the foods that can cause you to gain weight.

I know that doesn’t sound like good news, especially if you are feeling overweight right now.

Did you know though, that the categories of being overweight and even obese were arbitrarily set?

Ideal BMI and the categories of overweight and obese were simply created by a mathematician in Belgium almost 200 YEARS ago for men.

It doesn’t take into account anything about YOU or your body.

Just weight and height. We are so much more than that. It’s a mathematical formula that was used to help one county allocate rations two centuries ago.

Here’s another thing. You could be overweight by this formula and actually be more muscular than fat! Or you could have larger, heavier bones and be considered overweight.

Yet, we all know people, and may be one yourself, who is at a weight that is considered above ideal and be perfectly healthy, inside and out.

So, as you contemplate losing weight, you have to think, do I really need to?

Here’s something else you don’t hear often. Our body sizes might be as individual as say, our height or hair color. We don’t all come in one size and it’s ridiculous to think we should.

Yet, we do. And in the pursuit of a weight that is not our true body, we often set in motion something that makes us bigger than we really should be.

Diets, my friend, rarely end well.

If you are above the age of 30, you have seen, pretty much everyone you know lose weight. And gain it and more back.

I’ve had it happen! And it happens without any fanfare. But it happens steadily and stealthily without the person knowing why.

Let’s talk about our normal weight for a minute.

Most of us have or had a normal weight. Looking back on pictures we can see proof, we had a normal, perfectly nice weight. But we got bamboozled by something that said we were too big.

And we began the cycle of trying to lose weight.

Now in our 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and beyond we are still trying to lose that weight.

We see our own bodies and even the food we eat as the enemies.

For your own health, stop trying to lose weight for the sake of losing weight.

Having fat on your body, does not make it unhealthy.

I know plenty of really thin people that have one health problem after another.

Now I am not saying that carrying more fat than is comfortable is healthy either. Some of the things that make you fat—are simply not good for you and cause inflammation and that is the basis for a lot of health problems.

And I’m not saying being thin is unhealthy. I’m saying that you can be healthy either way. Or not healthy.

Many thin people eat the things that cause inflammation too and they suffer the same consequences. It’s not the fat on your body—it’s what is going in it. Or things beyond your control.

Why Is it So Hard to Lose Weight?

Because for some of us, we don’t even need to lose weight. For others, we are looking at our bodies as problems to be solved. As, in my body is the problem. No the problem is what you’ve been taught.

The things you have been taught are what makes losing weight so hard!

You’ve been taught a lot of BS when it comes to your body, food, and your weight. We’ve been bamboozled into believing that the problem is something wrong with us.

We’ve been told this something is so wrong, and that our body is so wrong, that we should be punished for it.

And that punishment is a diet. Our culture has taught us to loathe our bodies and if they don’t fit into a very narrow view, we should suffer.

We shouldn’t even have enough to eat to not feel hungry. And if you aren’t willing to suffer then you must be lazy and lack willpower.

I’m calling BS on all of that. Instead you deserve so much more!

Here’s what you deserve as a woman.

• To eat food that tastes good.
• To not be hungry.
• To not feel ashamed of your body.
• To enjoy food and see it as the nourishment to your body it is.
• To be free from craving for junk food.

This is true self love. It is possible to live in your body, eat food that is good for you and that you love. It’s even possible to sometimes eat that shit that we think will make us feel better.

But Sara, I still want to lose weight!

Fair enough. But first, learn to feed your body. Learn to limit the things that cause inflammation and pack on the fat.

To find your body weight, your natural body weight, you have to actually feed your body and give it the good stuff.

You need to limit the things that cause it to gain fat unnaturally. This is totally doable and will give you freedom like you’ve never had!

What Gets in the Way of Losing Weight?

Besides, your natural body size, your hormones have an impact on your weight. Not just at that time of the month or in menopause but every day, all day long.

Your hormones run the weight gain and loss show. Too much insulin and cortisol. You gain weight. Sugar and foods that act like sugar cause your insulin to be too high. Too much cortisol, and you also gain weight.

Insulin can be controlled with food. Cortisol is a little trickier since it is stress-related too.

My best advice. Eat real food, limit insulin-raising foods, and do exercise that releases stress. It’s not the fanciest advice but it won’t hurt your body and it will help you take care of your body for a long time.

I truly believe that restoring healthy eating habits and overcoming cravings is the only way to manage your weight in a long-term way.

What to Do Next to Lose Weight

I work with women one-on-one to lose weight without dieting. You can know all the things you should be doing and it still be difficult. That’s because we aren’t just bodies, we are also our thoughts and emotions.

Trying to take action without using your thoughts and feelings is like trying to drive a car without gas. You just aren’t going to get anywhere.

To get you started on something right now, I have this whole blog full of information that I’ve been discovering over the past few years.

I share everything I’m doing with the public through my blog and emails. I’ll never hold back what I think is helpful information. Besides, most of it is out there for you to find yourself.

I even share my processes for how I work with clients.

With all that information available, why work with a coach?

Because a coach is the best way to discover what is really going on when it comes to food. All of us, myself included have blindspots. We just can’t know what we can’t see.

Additionally, a coach creates a sense of accountability while you are learning new habits. It’s not because I’ll ever shame you–but sometimes knowing you’ll be talking to your coach can create enough of a pause that may make a choice that supports your overall goals.

My goal is to help women stop dieting, learn to eat well, and to love their lives. Join me by reading the blog, subscribing to my email list (that pop-up), or scheduling a free consult with me.

The post Why Is it So Hard to Lose Weight? appeared first on My Think Big Life.

Every where I turn, I hear the word Keto. It’s seems everyone is giving keto a try and looking for keto recipes. It’s made me wonder, is keto for me?

At this very moment, I have several friends and family members who are eating in the Keto way.

Eating Keto as they call it. To be honest, when I hear about the pounds they’ve lost, I think maybe I should do Keto? It promises almost effortless weight loss.

But I don’t because in the end, it is a diet and I don’t do diets. But so many people are doing Keto these days that I want to share some of my thoughts on it. I’m old! I’ve seen every diet come and go at least twice.

What is Keto?

In the simplest of terms, eating Keto means eating very little carbohydrates in your diet.

Back in the day, Atkins was the name of this type of eating. But this diet has been around even longer, there were versions over a hundred years ago. It’s not new and it has been studied extensively.

There are some medical reasons to consider eating keto. Eating a strict keto diet is beneficial to people who have epilepsy as it helps reduce seizures. Diabetics can manage their disease by keeping carbohydrates extremely low.

Especially because of its use with epilepsy, keto has been studied over the years.

And some people do lose weight very quickly eating like this. Some don’t. Believe it or not, eating lots of fat and low carb is not all fun and games.

Like any other diet, it takes restricting something and it takes the discipline of making good choices.

What I Like About Keto

I like that keto restricts sugar, grains, and processed food. These are good foods to limit or eliminate all together. Most people eat way too much of this junk and it’s horrible for your body.

The name Keto comes from the word ketosis which is the state you try to get your body into to start burning that fat! The other thing I like about keto is that you are allowed to eat fat and healthy fat is a good thing.

However, many people don’t worry about the type of fats they are eating. If losing weight is the ONLY goal, and you don’t eat healthy fats, you can be doing more harm than good!

I’ve written in the past about the health benefits of fat and how to get your body to start burning fat. Fat itself does not make you fat. With keto, because you aren’t filling up on carbs, you do need to eat fat to get full.

So, the two things I like: Eliminate sugar and grains. Add in more fat.

If you are doing a more moderate version of keto that allows some higher carb vegetables, then it’s a better way of eating than the standard American diet.

What I Don’t Like About Keto

It’s a diet and at some time, you will have to get off it. Diets such as this are very effective for losing weight.

They are. However, they are no more effective for long-term maintenance than any other diet. They all fail eventually.

Some versions recommend really low amounts of carbohydrates a day. While that may be initially great for losing weight, it is not so great for long term sticking to a way of eating.

Remember, health is about eating for nourishment rather than just losing weight.

We forget that because we see skinny as equal to good health. As I am getting older, I am seeing so many of my thin, fit friends getting cancer and having other health problems.

Being thin is not protective in itself. And often the things women do to become thin, are not good to their body. So, while losing weight also remember that you are feeding your body too.

Let’s Talk About Your Body

Bodies have a mind of their own. Our weight literally has a mind of its own and it is very difficult to get it to change its mind.

We can force it into submission sometimes, but as we all know, that weight almost always comes back.

That’s because we are programmed to keep a steady weight. Not too fat, not too thin. This is good news if you like your weight. It is bad news if you aren’t as crazy about your weight.

We have a sophisticated system of hormones that regulate our weight and believe me, they have to work hard these days.

If You Want to Try Keto

Keto has some good habits to incorporate. Eating a wide variety of protein and incorporating healthy fats into your diet is great.

Avoiding sugar is fantastic. I recommend not replacing it with any other artificial sweeteners. Let your sweet tooth go! Other keto-friendly sweeteners, while not adding carbs do keep your sweet tooth going and can confuse your body.

Try a moderate carb amount. Most people do not need to keep their carb amounts super low. An example of extremely low is 20 grams a day.

I never feel good on that low amount. While you probably don’t need a whole potato with a meal, a fourth of a sweet potato can make a huge difference to your energy and your mood.

Keto can be a way of learning some new eating habits that are foreign to you. Most people have never contemplated living a life without sugar, bread, or pasta. Keto can be a way to learn to eat different cuts of meat and eating sufficient amounts of healthy fats.

Keto can get your body burning, rather than storing fat. That’s a great feeling too.

I am definitely not a hater! (Here’s a resource to get an idea of the kinds of food you can eat on Keto)

However, if you look at it as a diet only for the purpose of losing weight, then you might not see the bigger picture of building a healthy lifestyle for life.

Is Keto for Me?

Maybe. Forget the promise of effortless weight loss and look at it as a way to learn new eating habits for life. The types of foods you eat is pretty good though a little limited as far as all the vegetables and fruit you can eat.

If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Keto can be an effective way to lose weight, but it is a diet. And after years of diets that leave you hungry, keto can sound like a miracle.

I encourage you to read about it from multiple sources and make your own decision. If you do nothing else though, give up the sugar and processed foods and add some healthy fats to your diet.

Stay healthy my friends!

The post Is Keto for Me? appeared first on My Think Big Life.

Learn how to get started with intermittent fasting in an easy, realistic way. Simple steps, benefits, and tips for women over 50 who want more energy and better health.

In this post, you’ll learn:

• Why intermittent fasting works for women over 50
• The benefits you can expect (beyond weight loss)
• How to start fasting gently with a 12-hour window
• How to extend to 14–18 hours without discomfort
• What to eat so fasting feels easier—not miserable
• The most common mistakes and how to avoid them

If you’ve been wondering how to get started with intermittent fasting or whether it’s even realistic for a woman over 50, let me reassure you: it’s simpler, gentler, and more powerful than you think.

Intermittent fasting became one of the most life-changing tools I’ve ever used, not because it was extreme, but because it worked with my body instead of against it.

I didn’t set out to “try a fasting plan.” I stumbled into this way of eating long before it had a name. And for the first time in my adult life, my weight began to shift without dieting, depriving myself, or obsessing over food. My energy improved, my cravings calmed down, and I felt like myself again.

Eight years later, I still practice intermittent fasting because it continues to be one of the simplest ways to support weight management, lower insulin, and feel more in control of your eating.

If you’re curious how to begin, this guide will show you exactly how to get started with intermittent fasting in a way that feels doable, nourishing, and sustainable

Here are two posts where I write in further detail how I use it in an overall eating plan:

10 Powerful Tips to Lose Weight After 50

3 Things You Can do to Stop Gaining Weight

With a foundation in counseling and years of experience as a life coach, my focus is on helping women understand their bodies and feel alive again. What I share here is inspired by both personal experience and research from trusted sources such as The Obesity Code, The Diabetes Code The Big Fat Surprise, and Fast, Feast, Repeat.

Questions About Intermittent Fasting

1. Is intermittent fasting safe for women over 50?
Yes, for most women it’s very safe, but check with your doctor if you are pregnant, nursing, underweight, have blood sugar issues, or have a history of disordered eating.

2. Will I feel hungry when I start intermittent fasting?
A little hunger is normal, but it should not feel extreme. Balanced meals with protein, vegetables, and healthy fats make fasting surprisingly comfortable.

3. What can I drink during my fast?
Black coffee, plain tea, and water are all fine. Adding cream, milk, sugar, or artificial sweeteners will break your fast.

4. How long should my fast be?
Start with 12 hours and slowly work up to 14–19 hours daily if it feels good. You don’t need long fasts to see benefits.

5. Do I need to count calories or track macros?
No. Fasting works best when paired with real, satisfying meals, not restriction.

6. Can intermittent fasting help with weight loss?
Yes. It supports lower insulin levels, reduces cravings, and helps your body use stored fat for fuel.

The Real Benefits of Intermittent Fasting for Women

If you’re curious why intermittent fasting works so well, here’s the truth: it gives your body the break it’s been begging for.

When you stop eating for a period of time, several powerful things happen behind the scenes:

• Blood sugar naturally drops to healthier levels
• Appetite decreases because your hunger hormones rebalance
• Mental clarity improves, this was one of the biggest benefits for me
• Digestion gets a break, allowing your body to burn stored fat more efficiently
• Inflammation decreases
• Weight loss becomes easier (not magic, but easier)
• Key hormones like insulin, ghrelin, and leptin regulate more effectively, which supports fat metabolism and steady energy

Just to be clear, intermittent fasting isn’t a magic way to “get skinny.” It won’t override your genetics or erase a lifetime of habits overnight.

But it can help you lose weight, maintain a comfortable weight, and most importantly reduce blood sugar and begin healing insulin resistance.

How I Discovered IF (Before I Even Knew What It Was)

I’ve been using intermittent fasting for almost eight years, and I actually stumbled into it long before I knew it had a name.

Back then, I simply wasn’t eating at night, and I waited until I felt hungry the next morning.
I didn’t think anything of it until my clothes started getting loose.

I lost weight without trying, and when I dug into the research I realized what I had been doing naturally was intermittent fasting.

And honestly? My body felt better than it had in years.

I had more focus, more energy, and my cravings dropped dramatically.

Once your body begins using stored fat for fuel, hunger feels different: calmer, steadier, and much more manageable.

IF Isn’t a diet It’s a lifestyle for life

The beauty of intermittent fasting is that it’s not about restriction or perfection.
It simply builds a period of “not eating” into your day so your body can catch up, clean up, and reset.

You already fast every night while you sleep. IF just makes that fast intentional.

Most women get great results by:

• Not eating after dinner
• Waiting until they feel hungry the next morning
• Creating a daily 12–16 hour fast that feels easy and natural

IF or time-restricted eating can deliver many of the same benefits without feeling deprived or hungry.

Who Should Avoid Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting isn’t right for everyone.
Avoid it or talk to your doctor if you:

• Are underweight
• Are pregnant or nursing
• Have a history of disordered eating
• Do intense endurance or high-volume physical activity
• Are under extreme stress
• Have a diagnosed heart condition
• Experience blood sugar crashes, dizziness, or hypoglycemia

IF is powerful, but it needs to be used wisely.

I talk more about hunger in this post. But in general, hunger is NOT a problem with this type of fasting.

How I Discovered Intermittent Fasting By Accident

10 years ago, I lost quite a bit of weight without really trying. I was on my own, newly divorced, and not cooking a lot.

About a year after I lost the weight, I wrote about the experience here and I thought I had figured out the reason why I lost the pounds effortlessly. I knew it had something to do with not eating at night until late the next morning.

At that time, I didn’t have a name for it, but I’ve referred to it in every post I’ve written since about losing weight. Now I know it’s called intermittent fasting or time restricted eating.

If you are like me, anything with the word fasting in it sounds scary. But I started doing it without knowing what it was, much less that it was healthy too. As it turns out, fasting is actually great for your health.

While, I didn’t know it this at first, fasting is good for you. Most people eat way too often, all day long.

However, I really didn’t understand how healthy, not eating for longer periods daily was. At first, I was just happy that it helped me manage my weight because I also knew that diets simply did not work.

Does Intermittent Fasting Make You Hungry? What to Expect

Here’s the honest answer: you’ll feel some hunger and that’s actually a good thing.

Natural hunger (the kind that comes on gently, not the panicked “hangry” kind) is simply your body saying, “I’m ready for my next meal.”

Most women haven’t felt that kind of clean hunger in years because constant snacking keeps insulin high and hunger signals confused.

With intermittent fasting, here’s what you can expect:

You won’t feel uncomfortable hunger if you’re eating well

When your meals are balanced with protein, vegetables, and healthy fats, your body stays satisfied longer.

That awful, shaky, desperate hunger usually comes from low-calorie meals, low-fat foods, or eating mostly processed carbs not from fasting.

Once your body begins using its own fat for fuel, hunger becomes:

• steadier
• calmer
• easier to handle
• and surprisingly enjoyable

This comes as a surprise for many people.

Eating enough at meals is the real secret

Most women are chronically under-eating protein and healthy fats. When you fix your meals, fasting becomes almost effortless.

I tell my clients to:

• Add extra vegetables
• Add a tablespoon or two of healthy fats
• Make lunch and dinner substantial enough to carry them for hours

When you do this, your blood sugar stays stable and cravings drop.

A little hunger will start to feel GOOD

This is the part no one expects. Once your hunger cues normalize, that gentle “it’s time to eat” feeling becomes reassuring not scary.

You feel more in tune with your body.
More grounded.
More clear-headed.

And yes… healthier skin, steady energy, and fewer cravings are very real benefits. People ask me all the time what I’m doing and fasting is always part of the answer.

Intermittent Fasting vs Dieting: Why Diets Fail

Diets really don’t work in the long-term, though most can facilitate short-term weight loss. Most people I know attempt to eat healthy. But most are still eating with bad information.

Low-fat, high carb eating is really bad. Eating, ultra processed and fast food is bad for you. Sugar and foods that act like sugar are bad for you. Artificial sweeteners are bad for you.

These types of food are not good in any quantity. Yet, these are still recommended for weight loss and health.

I feel confident that you will never ever suffer any type of health problem by giving up any of those foods.

Why? Because they are horrible foods that cause horrible consequences.

Yet, eating the right kinds of foods isn’t always enough to reverse our weight gain and fat storage.

It is a step in the right direction and eating good food that nourishes the body is necessary. However, there is a piece to the puzzle that is overlooked.

It’s not a diet; it is a way of timing the eating of your meals and it is about as easy a way to manage your eating as anything I’ve ever tried. It’s called intermittent fasting or time restricted eating.

Here’s the exciting thing. Restricting calories slows your metabolism and you will have trouble losing after a while. Fasting does not slow your metabolism down. In fact, your body begins to tap into your fat stores so you lose what you really want to lose, FAT.

What Intermittent Fasting Is and How It Works

Don’t let the name scare you. All intermittent fasting means is that you are going for a period of time without eating.

In simple terms, think of it this way. You finish dinner at 7PM. If you don’t eat until 7 AM, you’ve fasted for 12 hours.

That is why breakfast is BREAK-FAST. You have fasted, and you are breaking it in the morning. Going 12 hours is pretty simple and easy. Most of us do that without even trying.

What research and real-life anecdotal stories are telling us, is that fasting used consistently and on a regular basis works.

Not only that, but it appears that the weight lost with intermittent fasting is fat and not muscle. Instead of making us weaker, intermittent fasting makes us stronger and leaner.

Top Reasons Women Love Intermittent Fasting

• It’s much easier than trying to diet
• You feel better, improve your health and lose weight
• It is backed by solid research
• It helps reverse health problems related to high blood sugar and inflamation

How to Get Started with Intermittent Fasting (Step-by-Step)

First of all, we fast all the time when we sleep. Sleeping seems to be the only thing that keeps us from eating these days! If you don’t eat in the evening, then your fast is even longer and that’s a good thing.

To get started, don’t eat for 12 hours. Don’t eat after dinner! If you finish eating at 6PM, then don’t eat until 6AM. If you are used to snacking at night, that’s the first thing to work on. Quit snacking!!!

If you find yourself getting hungry in the evening, you probably are not eating enough of the right kinds of food at dinner or not eating enough. Good quality proteins, vegetables, and plenty of healthy fats will get you through the evening and night.

If you eat a lot of ultra processed carbs you may find yourself craving more in the evening. Learn to eat real food that keeps you full and satisfied.

I’ve found it’s very easy to do a basic 12-hour fast. Even if I finish eating at eight PM, it’s easy to make it to eight AM.

However, most recommendations are for 14 to 19-hour fasts. So, I work at eating earlier and pushing my first meal of the day back.

If I finish eating at 7PM, then I don’t eat until 10 AM. I do have coffee, black to not break the fast.

If you drink black coffee or tea—then that’s perfect. You can have those in the morning.

Is Intermittent Fasting Safe? What Women Need to Know

Your body needs this break in eating. It allows so many healthy things to take place. Fasting during the night and morning actually allows your body to heal much more effectively than by medication or even diet.

It helps heal insulin resistance. When you fast on a regular basis, you lower your insulin levels, and this improves your insulin sensitivity.

Insulin is THE hormone that regulates our weight and fat storage. It is critical that it be able to work well in your body.

What kills your insulin sensitivity? Eating the wrong kinds of food, all day long, day after day.

If you eat every few hours, your insulin is always up. Eventually, it is unable to do its job correctly and you get fat and even worse, you may get diabetes.

Unexpected Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

There are several things that I like about fasting. I feel more alert in the morning and I have more time since I’m not worried about trying to fix and eat a meal first thing.

I often get up, have coffee, do a little reading or working on the computer before I go to work.

If I’m doing a longer fast, then I don’t have to worry about lunch either. I’ve found that I am more energetic and alert when I’m not eating. Even healthy foods can cause that energetic slump we often feel in the afternoon.

Is it Hard to do Intermittent Fasting?

Not at all, especially if you are doing 12 or 14-hour fasts. These are easy because a very natural schedule for our bodies. Finish eating by 6PM and you can eat breakfast at 8AM.

You might feel a little hunger, but it shouldn’t be out-of-control, and it will come and go. In fact, feeling a little hunger feels good. It helps you appreciate your first meal of the day.

Is Intermittent Fasting Safe?

From everything I have read, it seems very safe. Like I said before, we naturally fast at night. But if you have any doubts about whether is is safe for you–check with your doctor.

Most of us who are eating in the so-called normal way are:

• eating too much
• have health conditions from our diet
• have insulin resistance to some extent
• weigh more than we want
• are tired, sluggish, not feeling great

My point is that what you are doing now is for sure not healthy if you have any of the above.

With fasting, you can improve your fat-burning and body healing functions. And longer fasts are required to do this. Most of the magic happens after the 18 hour mark. Don’t worry, you don’t have to start there. Really, get used to not eating after dinner and establishing a 12-hour fast EVERY day.

Consistency is key here.

Ideally, you are still eating plenty of healthy nourishing foods during the period of day when you are eating.

While I discovered intermittent fasting by accident, I have stuck to it by intention.

Now mainstream doctors and health studies are praising its benefits. It might seem to be the newest diet fad of the day, but I believe that it is more than just a fad. In fact just this past week, the Wall Street Journal had a big article claiming that it was REAL not a fad.

One of my favorite books, the Obesity Code and this book claims that intermittent fasting might be the only way to reverse obesity too.

But as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, intermittent fasting is not safe for every person, so check with your doctor first.

How to Get Started with Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting doesn’t require perfection, willpower, or a rigid list of “good” and “bad” foods. It asks for something much more powerful: consistency, curiosity, and a willingness to work with your body instead of fighting it.

If you start with a simple 12-hour fast and gradually extend as it feels good, you’ll quickly learn that fasting isn’t uncomfortable; it’s actually freeing. You feel lighter, clearer, and more in tune with your own hunger and fullness signals.

And if you want support as you create eating habits that feel peaceful and sustainable, I’d love to help you.

You don’t have to figure this out alone.

Book a free consult and we’ll look at what’s going on with your eating, your cravings, and your body—and what will make the biggest difference right now.

The post How to Get Started with Intermittent Fasting appeared first on My Think Big Life.

If you are looking for encouragement, inspiration, and lots of love, you’ve come to the right place!

If you’re a woman over 50 and feeling stuck in a cycle of dieting, frustration, and constant weight fluctuations, this post is exactly what you need.

With a foundation in counseling and years of experience as a life coach, my focus is on helping women understand their bodies and feel alive again. What I share here is inspired by both personal experience and research from trusted sources such as The Obesity Code, The Diabetes Code The Big Fat Surprise, and Fast, Feast, Repeat.

The typical weight loss advice just doesn’t work for us anymore, and you deserve a better, sustainable way to feel great in your body again. In a conversation recently with a doctor who works with women to lose weight, she shared that even when women are doing the right things it can take some time for the body to adjust and begin releasing weight.

In this post, I’ll share the seven powerful tips that have worked for me over the past 10 years and have helped countless women over 50 do the same. In addition to clients I work with, I get emails from women who are using these tips on their own to lose weight.

Forget the endless dieting and deprivation. It’s time to embrace a lifestyle that supports your health, confidence, and enjoyment of life.

These simple yet effective tips can help you not only lose weight but keep it off for good, all while feeling empowered and energized.

Why It’s Important to Do This Right

Life is way more fun when you can just eat, eat foods you like, and eat enough you don’t feel miserable. I’m a certified life coach and I help midlife women learn to eat and live the way they want to.

My clients experience freedom and confidence when it comes to food. They experience so many benefits beyond just from what the scale shows.

• They become more confident about everything
• They enjoy going out to eat without worry
• They go on vacation without worrying about gaining weight
• They stop binging or compulsively eating
• They don’t agonize over every bite they eat
• They get more energy and their bodies feel better
• Their face slims down and the like what they see in the mirror
• Their relationships become better
• They create better life work balance.

After losing enough weight at 53 to feel amazing in my body, I started writing about that journey. I hadn’t worn shorts, dresses, or a bathing suit for about 20 years.

Back in my forties, I felt like my body was the best it ever could be and I was doing everything I could to maintain that. I learned to stay a steady weight and I definitely didn’t want to gain weight. But I had given up hope that I could lose weight.

However, life had a different plan for me. At 52, I lost weight and had the cutest body I had ever had in my life.

I had lost weight a few times in the past and every single time, I gained the weight back, usually beginning as soon as I was at my goal weight.

That was so discouraging. But this time, I spent time understanding how I had lost weight and how I could maintain this loss. So here I am 10 years later, still talking about it.

Why These Tips Can Help You Lose Weight and Keep it Off

Do you know what is more important than losing weight?

It’s being able to sustain and maintain your weight loss and eating habits. I ONLY support ways to eat that are sustainable, good for your body (and mental health), and that you can live with. 

Losing weight is useless if we are only going to gain it all back, along with a few extra pounds. That’s what I love about these tips. While my weight fluctuates a little, I have never gained the weight back.

Nine years–all through my fifties and now early sixties! For the most part these are easy lifestyle changes that you can fit into your life.

I wrote this post six years ago and these tips really have stood the test of time for the most part. As I’ve worked with more women, I have written many more posts, but this one still resonates with a lot of women.

My clients love that they can incorporate these easy lifestyle changes into their lives and eat food they actually enjoy!

This is a great place to get started. So we’re going to dive right in to the 7 tips. .

If you want to explore more after that, I’ll share some of my favorite follow up posts below.

Tips to Lose Weight After 50

Sometimes people will say life isn’t worth living if you have to give up this or that.

That’s silly talk. Life is worth living when you love the body you have, it feels great, and you can do all the things you love to do.

Remember, you can’t do the same things you’ve always been doing and expect results you like better.

You have to change things up! In a nutshell, my method is about changing the kinds of foods you eat regularly and changing the timing of when you eat. This powerful combination allows your body to work the way it is meant to work and helps you lose fat.

So, here we go!

Set the Intention to Lose Weight

Right on the heels of believing it is possible to lose weight, you have to set the intent to have a healthy weight loss. 

You can’t do the same thing you’ve been doing and expect to lose weight. To maintain or lose weight, you know you are going to make some behavior changes. 

I hate crash diets and dieting, so I am a huge fan of “not dieting” but instead, making behavior changes that help me manage my weight.

I’m not skinny and I wasn’t built for skinny. But I do like being active and feeling comfortable in how my body looks.

Not many people can eat anything they want, anytime they want and keep their weight in a healthy-for-them range.

A year ago, my weight began creeping up because, I wasn’t doing anything conscious to keep it where I like it. I was traveling a lot and not worrying about it too much.

In addition, I was nibbling on candy and snacks. I was eating the bread at restaurants. I was drinking coffee in the morning that was the nutritional equivalent of a milkshake.

I was eating late at night. I was only exercising sporadically and not doing the things I know work.

You name it. I was breaking every rule I had!

However, from the moment I set the intent to lose this extra weight, I began making better decisions and within a few days, I felt better, and my body felt better.

My decisions to help lose weight after 50 were:

• To not eat bread, candy, or other insulin-raising foods and snacks.
• To do regular physical activity throughout the week including strength training 
• To fast after dinner and not eat until my first meal of the next day.
• To add more variety to my meals in terms of vegetables, healthy fats,  and protein.

Even though I have had a nice weight and body for years, it’s still possible to get off-track. When I really took a look, it was obvious why I was gaining weight.

Not sure what you are doing to gain weight? Write down everything you eat, all day, every day. Write down not just your meals but every little bite you take here and there. And don’t forget anything you drink. Even diet drinks.

And I wasn’t gaining just because of my age! It was my not having any conscious intention to manage my weight.

Practice mindful eating and definitely set the intention. And intend to never give up! We’re looking for ways that you can eat for the rest of your life, safely, comfortably, and sustainably.

Move your Body

My second tip is to move. And by move, I mean just move. You don’t have to run a marathon, join Cross Fit, or do anything hardcore. But it’s important to include regular physical activity daily. 

Here’s the thing. Moving your body, connects you to your body in a positive way. Yep, I am recommending exercise as a way to get to know your body.

Walk a couple of miles a day. Do a little yoga or Pilates. Dance to your own tune. But move every day. Get your breathing going.

To be honest, I go for things that make me feel good. After 50, research shows that exercise doesn’t help us lose weight anymore. 

However, it is still an important part of our lives! Moving gives us energy and vitality.

We can develop strength, balance, muscles, and flexibility. These are what we need for our third act in life!

Moving on a regular basis feels great. And I truly look better and maintain my weight when I’m exercising on a regular basis.

Even with my moderate exercise, I can hike up mountains for hours and ride a bicycle for 30+ miles. Even better, I can walk pretty much anywhere, and I can play and do fun things with my grandchildren.

Moving doesn’t just help with your weight, it helps with your life!

Here is an excellent resource for FREE exercise videos for women to help you lose weight. I put this together based on how I work out. How to Workout for Weight Loss.

Limit Sugar and Processed Foods

This is probably the best news of this whole post. This is one of the most effective things you can do to help your body release excess weight.

I have no idea how you can be a healthy weight if you are still eating lots of sugar and ultra processed foods. Limiting sugar and processed foods also helps keep blood sugar levels lower. 

There are women that get away with eating this stuff when they are young but that doesn’t work for all of us.

I am so grateful that I gave up most sugary stuff 20 years ago. My skin and body thanks me every day! Sugar and processed foods cause inflammation and that is not good for your skin either.

For most of our lives, we treat these foods as treats, but they are hard on our bodies.

They affect our fat-storing and fat-burning hormones. This is really important to understand.

Sugar and foods that act like sugar tell our bodies to do the opposite of what we want them to do.

Instead of burning fat—we store fat.

It seems counter-intuitive to our fat-phobic culture, but fat is not making you fat. What is making you fat is the effect that sugar and processed foods have on your hormones.

This list of foods is way too long to list. Of course, you know that cake, cookies, candy, and other sweet treat foods are sugar-based foods. But there are a lot of other common foods that act just like sugar in your body.

This includes instant oatmeal, pasta, all breads, fat-free yogurt or milk, energy bars, fruity smoothies, breakfast cereal, and pretty much all other commercial snack foods.

These kinds of foods can make you gain weight and they keep you hungering for more.

And it doesn’t take all that much to throw your body off. These foods don’t provide any real nutrition beyond what a scientist has added, so you don’t need them at all.

Even a little in your diet each day, can keep you from losing weight. Even if you aren’t overeating, eating foods that raise your blood sugar, will keep the pounds on.

Not only that but they cause overall inflammation that damages your skin and other systems in your body.

That temporary hit of sugar or processed foods is just not worth the long-term damage it causes.

My body can tolerate some treats but not every day. So, do have treats once a week or so but don’t build your meals around them.

To help with this, I wrote a post about dealing with sugar cravings.

Quit Snacking to Lose Weight

Most of us have been told for years to snack or to eat every couple of hours.

There may be certain medical conditions that require this but for most of us—we don’t need to eat every two hours.

Research suggests that the snacking habit can double the amount of calories we take in each day! This one change makes a huge difference and makes everything else much easier.

In fact, if you eat enough of the right kinds of foods at your meals, you won’t need to snack at all. You won’t even get hungry between meals.

You know what makes you hungry between meals? Snacking on foods that raise your insulin and create additional cravings. Eating around the clock keeps your blood sugar elevated all the time meaning with your body’s access to ready energy it never needs to touch your fat stores.

You know what used to leave me hungry? Eating cereal or oatmeal for breakfast.

Now that I eat eggs, vegetables, some grains and beans, and healthy fats, I don’t get hungry for hours! We’ve been conditioned that we need to eat “breakfast” foods in the morning.

You can eat whatever you want in the morning. Have some ground turkey seasoned like sausage if you want that breakfast taste. Or just eat leftovers from dinner the night before.

You can even just skip breakfast and have a longer fast.

The key is to eat real food in sufficient quantities with sufficient fat that you won’t get hungry.

Eat more Fat

Eating fat is not what makes you fat.

Yet, people are still loathe to give up the idea that butter, olive oil, and even animal fat is not what is making them fat.

It’s not! And the fact is that by eating more of the right kinds of fat with the right kinds of food, you may even lose weight.

I do want to note that things like cake or your typical fast foods are NOT the kind of fat I’m talking about. Bad fat combined with sugar or foods that act like sugar will not just make you fat, they damage your body.

The fat in your body is not your enemy. It actually is an amazing organ that is essential to your survival.

Good fats are good for your body and actually help your body do what it’s supposed to do. In case you aren’t sure of what good fats are, here are some examples:

• Olive oil (I know you all know that one!)
• Butter or ghee
• Fats from animals that are grass-fed or pastured
• Coconut oil and full-fat coconut milk
• Nuts
• Avocados

Here’s how to eat enough food at a meal to not need to snack. Fix yourself your favorite protein and all the vegetables, especially non-starchy ones that you want.

Have a little bit of starch, say a small sweet potato or some winter squash. Then add a tablespoon or two of butter, olive or coconut oil as well as some avocado. Add enough those healthy fats that it all tastes delicious.

Of course, you want to pay attention to your body. As I’ve gotten older, I can’t eat too much fat, but a tablespoon or two with a meal is fine.

I can’t tell you how many times I have seen women eating a big salad with their little bit of dressing on the side, dipping their lettuce gingerly into the dressing. Those women are hungry about a minute after they finish eating.

But add some chicken or eggs to your salad, along with a couple of tablespoons or so of good oil, and it will not only taste good it will keep you satiated until you are ready to eat again.

Cheese and dairy also have fat. Some people cannot tolerate dairy and if you are eating a wide variety of vegetables and protein, you aren’t missing out nutritionally if you can’t eat it. If you like it, it’s fine to have some with your meals.

Cook at Home

I recently heard that cooking at home is better for your health than any other change you can make.

From my own experience, I know that the more of the food I eat, that I prepare myself, the easier it is to maintain a healthy weight.

When I prepare my own meals, I know exactly what I am eating.

I know my ingredients. I control what goes into my meals. I know that I am eating the best protein I can find and afford as well as eating good-for-me fats.

When you eat out, you will usually eat more food and more of the kinds of food that cause you to gain weight.

Plus, I don’t know about you, but when I go out, my good intentions just disappear.

It’s much easier to be satisfied with wholesome food, when I’m at home. However, eating out can be fun and doesn’t have to be avoided.

Tip: I eat out twice a week, and I order what I want. However, I quit eating when I’m full. This is a great way to maintain your weight.

Use Intermittent Fasting or Time Restricted Eating

I saved the best for last. Using fasting and the timing of meals to support weight loss is super helpful. Despite the fancy name, this simply means having a period of time between your last meal of one day until the first meal of the next day.

Fasting is generally known to be safe and people have used fasting forever. At one time, fasting was a way of life since food wasn’t always available.

Fasting can be especially helpful if you have stubborn fat or insulin resistance. For this post, I’m concentrating on intermittent fasting which is using the period of time between your last meal of one day until your first meal of the next day to allow your body to use up all the glucose in your blood and begin tapping into your fat.

I wrote about How to Get Started with Intermittent Fasting that includes more information and some cautions.

For me, I don’t eat after dinner and I wait until I feel hungry before I eat the next day. I like to have at least 13 hours between these meals.Most of my clients do eat breakfast. However, they don’t eat after dinner, so they get a good fast.

If you love breakfast, you can eat your dinner earlier to create the time period that works for you. You get to decide if you want to eat two or three meals each day.

Depending on your job and lifestyle this can be super easy, or it can be challenging. I first discovered the power of this several years ago and wrote about it in Can You Lose Weight After 50?

I discovered on my own, through my own experience that when I was living alone, I tended to eat an early dinner and not eat until mid-morning. The weight seemed to just melt away.

Yet, it’s more than just my opinion. I’m seeing lots of articles and research about intermittent fasting these days.

Most things I’ve read recommend 12 to 19 hours between your dinner of one day and your breakfast the next day.

It’s easier than it sounds. Let’s say you eat at six tonight, then tomorrow you wait to have breakfast at eight. That is very doable! You can have an easy 14-hour fast and not give up a meal.

Some articles I’ve read say that doing just this one thing can help you lose a few pounds without even changing your diet at all.

My two favorite books on fasting:

The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung: This is the book that really got me interested in fasting and I did my own thing for 10 years, which worked until it didn’t as well.

Fast, Feast, Repeat by Gin Stephens: Gin’s work on fasting is more than just her opinion. She’s dug deep into the research and offers a plan (and lots of tweaks) on how to use intermittent fasting as the foundation for improving your health. Weight loss is just a bonus.

Do These Weight Loss Tips Work?

In addition to this blog, I work with real clients. These tips work. Every single woman I work with is able to stop unwanted eating, create better eating habits, and lose weight too.

Losing weight is challenging. But when you have an effective mindset in place–it is so much more doable! 

If you are reading this, right now, I’m thinking of YOU. I know how desperate many of you are. Nothing you’ve tried in the past is working and you feel like you have tried everything at this point.

I hear you!

The reason women decide to work with me is that I am a real woman. I am! And I have a lot of experience working with mindset and emotions and I understand a lot about how our bodies work.

Losing weight is more than just about taking in fewer calories or monitoring your intake of carbs. It is so important to take care of the whole YOU!

I 100% believe that the only way we can take care of ourselves is by learning what is best with our own bodies. Dieting is not a solution on it’s own. Miracle drugs have horrible side effects and I believe will endanger your overall health. Do your research!

To read my more up-to-date tips, go read this post too. It has an expanded version of the tips and they are organized to walk you through the process.

10 Powerful Tips to Lose Weight After 50

I wrote this post 6 years ago. In that time, I’ve maintained my weight loss and I’ve gone on to be a life coach for women. After hundreds of hours of working with real women, women who:

• are in menopause
• have tried every diet in the book
• who never had weight problems until their fifties
• who have battled up and down weight for years
• who have been stuck for years
• who can’t lose no matter what they try
• who have thyroid problems

What I know now is that these tips do work. My clients who lose weight, usually incorporate several of these habits over the course of our work together.

Every woman I work with is unique and needs their own blueprint for weight loss, but in general these tips are the foundation and can be very helpful.

For example, it can take four to six months for the body to respond and there is a lot of mental work that goes into healing your relationship with food and your body. This is important to know!

But many women also start losing weight immediately when they start using these tips.

In most weight loss plans, most women give up within a few days or weeks if they don’t see the scales move. It takes time and consistency to change your body.

But the women who are successful focus on the following things first:

• Eating enough at meals, which often includes eating more
• Not snacking at night or between meals
• Limiting sugar, foods with sugar, and processed foods
• Eating based on hunger and fullness

I’ve begun to believe you have to convince your body to lose weight by building trust with it. You have to first NOURISH your body.

Without the love and trust in your appetite, food, hunger, and your body–these tips are just another diet and nobody needs that!

Your mindset, compassion for yourself, and patience will always be essential.

Here’s the thing. Most research states that only 5% of people that lose weight will keep it off. The diet industry is the biggest scam out there. If any other business had the same results we would never go for it.

Yet, almost every woman I know or have known, longs for a body that she doesn’t have. Diets promise you can have it if only you had enough willpower and discipline. Crash diets promise you can do it in a few weeks.

It’s all bullshit. Sorry but it is. Diets in general have a known failure rate of 95% because the weight is gained back once the diet is over. 

Instead, let’s focus on healthy eating habits, positive behavior changes, regular physical activity, and tending to our emotions. 

This will lead to 10 X the benefits of dieting alone!

Can You Lose Weight Without a Diet?

I write about weight loss as honestly as I know. I absolutely know you can lose weight without going on a traditional diet.

And you can eat a wide variety of foods. You can eat food you like every single day. In fact, I encourage you to only eat food you like.

I work every day with women who are in pain about their bodies and weight. I am able to help women change destructive eating habits and begin building healthy habits by first helping them build healthy thinking habits.

Being a bigger size is not unhealthy if you eat in a healthy way. Starving yourself, binging, and other destructive eating habits are much worse for your health.

Who Are These Tips to Lose Weight For?

I first wrote this post about four years ago. I still do these things as part of my daily life. However, I know that WHAT we do is only part of the equation. The thoughts and feelings that we have about ourselves are also powerful.

As a life coach I know that you can know all the things and not be able to do it. I also know that many women secretly overeat or binge and that just trying to change what you eat will not help.

You may feel like food controls you. You might feel like you can never stop over-eating or binging. Learning to have a better relationship with food is the first step.

If you are currently over-eating and/or binging, then I would start with the mindset posts I mention and link to at the bottom of the post.

Another diet will not be in your best interest.

If you feel like you don’t overeat and you still can’t lose weight, then some of these ideas may be helpful as they have been with me. They aren’t intended to be medical advice or the only way to lose weight.

This grandmother is 60 now and loving it. I feel better about my weight and body than I ever did when I was younger.

Don’t Follow Old Advice About Losing Weight

Most of the advice out there tells you to create a “calorie deficit” to lose weight. Strictly speaking, this is not always true.

The types of food you eat and your timing DO matter for many of us. After age 50, we can’t depend on our old diet tactics of starving ourselves or working out extra hard.

And restricting food is the worst way to try and lose weight. Restricting only perpetuates the cycle of overeating/binging and then restricting.

Restricted calories and eating are what lead to binging and overeating. I recently wrote a post about how to lose weight without dieting that goes into more detail about that.

That old tired advice, that is often just regurgitated over and over is USELESS. You do not need to diet or count calories. You don’t need one other person telling you to create a calorie deficit!

I get it. These types of articles promise a quick fix–but they are not sustainable and they don’t address the whole you.

The you, that by birth is actually allowed to EAT food that you enjoy and in amounts that satisfy you.

I am a certified life and weight loss coach and I’ve been writing for midlife women for years. If there is one area where women consistently beat themselves up about–it’s their body and the food they eat.

I’m not going to add to that! You are already doing enough of that. I want you to delve deeper and really discover how beautiful you can look and feel. From the inside out!

I am 60 and I’m more comfortable in my body than I was in my thirties. Back in my thirties, I wouldn’t even put on a bathing suit! Now I can enjoy pool time with my kids and grandkids.

You don’t have to be skinny, diet, or deprive yourself to look and feel better.

Focusing on eating foods that are actually good for you makes all the difference. Some of the benefits of eating to nourish your body are that you skin looks better and your body feels better.

But here’s something else. You can eat foods that YOU like and enjoy and still lose weight. My clients plan for treats that they love and they have said bye-bye to any guilt.

I just wrote a post about 7 Diet Myths you don’t need to believe anymore.

This is really important. Making peace with food is the first and most important step.

Going on a diet without resolving your relationship with your body, the food you eat, and how you eat is just going to lead to more frustration! 

If you only diet without changing your brain around food, weight, and your body–you will not be able to maintain the weight loss.

I’ve been using these tips since I was 53 to maintain my weight and to look the best I ever have.

Here is a recent comment from a reader who used these tips with success! 

“I am 65 and have followed your guidelines of cutting sugar, walking daily and eating healthy for several months. I have dropped 25 lbs and feel better than I had in years. It’s a mindset and worth every minute of my life to feel this good.”

Another reader wrote:

I can tell you now that I follow its rules, and I haven't gained any weight. Thanks! In one year, since I discovered you and read your articles, I managed to lose an excess of 11 kg. And I keep trying. 

Way to go!

What You Need to Know About Weight Loss After 50

I wrote this post and all the posts on losing weight after 50, to help you discover a better way to not just lose weight but to regain your health and vitality in this part of your life!

We all grew up with the low calorie, low-fat, suffer to do it, diet mentality. That way never was effective and research now shows it is detrimental to health too.

We weren’t meant to starve ourselves, deprive ourselves, punish ourselves, or go hungry.

Eating is one of our most basic needs and is meant to nourish us, give us energy, and make us feel good.

When was the last time, you truly felt good about food?

My goal is to show you that you can eat real food, enjoy that food, and be a weight that you feel good at.

I also want you to enjoy the life you have right now. There isn’t another amazing life later–it MUST start right now!Picture of Sara sitting outside. 7 easy tips to lose weight after 50

What Losing Weight After 50 Isn’t About

Losing weight isn’t going to solve your problems or make your life wonderful. But the process of losing weight can teach you a lot!

Being comfortable in your body is way more than your size. Diets don’t work–because even if you lose weight, you still have to deal with everything else in your life.

I’ve been at a size I like for five years–and I still have to love the reasons that I eat like I do! Since it is not a diet, there is no “end.” 

Losing weight after 50 isn’t about hating your body. You may not even really need to lose weight. However, what we all need is more love for our amazing bodies, no matter what our size is.

Even though pretty much everything you read says you need to lose weight to be healthy, that is not true. Being healthy is based on many things and in many cases, your weight simply IS NOT one of them.

Getting thin with deprivation is not healthy.

Also, our bodies are much more than just a size or weight. Our true health and vitality comes from eating the best foods for our needs, in the right quantities, and at the right time.

These tips will give you some ideas about what you can do.

Your body may work a little different than mine and that’s fine. Keep in mind that this isn’t a diet and it never is going to end. The plan is to find something that you can do forever.

These will help you understand how your body can find a weight that feels good and will help minimize the psychological cravings too. I recommend that you try these and not worry about losing weight at first.

This is your time to learn to love your body and learn to truly feed it, maybe for the first time in your life.

Why These Tips to Lose Weight After 50 Work

These weight loss tips are based on science and research. Losing weight after 50 can be a challenge and it is not because you are lazy, unmotivated, or even that you eat too much.

Many women are confused about what to do but they know they need to being doing something.

The other day, I saw on social media, a guy, who was about 30, telling everyone what they need to do to lose weight. In my mind, I called BS.

Anytime someone tells you, that WHAT you eat doesn’t matter, they really don’t understand how our bodies work and what is best for us long-term.

And what works for a 30-something male, is probably not what you need!

As a certified weight loss and life coach for women over 50, I help women use their MIND to get the results they want.

Your Body Has Its Own Needs

Anytime someone says some version of the message, “Eat less and exercise more,” they also don’t understand how POWERFUL our brains are and how powerful our fat is.

Body fat has a mind of its own and it is way more powerful and stubborn than people give it credit for. Body fat is not bad either. Our body fat is an essential part of our body!

Anyway, what works for a 30-year old dude, is not necessarily the advice you want to follow!

And as you’ve probably figured out, what worked for 30-year old you, probably doesn’t work now either.

When clients come to work with me, they already are trying to eat healthy and look good. The problem is that the traditional methods and advice do not work for them anymore. 

In addition, we’ve been taught that it is almost impossible to lose weight after 50 because of changes to our hormones and aging in general.

But I want to give you HOPE that it is possible and that YOU can become the best version of yourself.

As a companion post to this, How to Succeed at Weight Loss After 50 can give you more help and information.

One thing about eating this way, is that you will begin to look better. All my clients lose that worried, stressed look along the way.

Even before you lose weight, people will see it in your face and start asking what you are doing. Your skin and face will love eating like this!

It is NOT impossible to lose weight after 50 and it really is up to you to understand why what you’ve been doing doesn’t work and what you can do instead.

Is it Harder to Lose Weight After 50?

In some ways, yes BUT not because it is harder. You already know that what worked 20 years ago does not work now. 

Every time you eat, your food affects your body in more ways than simply going through your digestive system and providing nutrition.

The food you eat, affects many different hormones. The master hormone is insulin, and it is responsible for fat storage and for regulating the hormones that tell you that you are hungry and when you are full.

Over time, your body simply cannot effectively handle the high amount of sugar-like foods (bread, pasta, grains, sugar) you eat and the around the clock eating most people do.

Your hormone insulin is the master hormone. When we overeat processed foods and foods high in sugar, our insulin does its best to clear the excess sugar out of our blood.

However, when we overeat these types of food, our insulin can’t keep up. That’s when you see weight gain, insulin resistance, and food-related diseases such as diabetes type II.

In fact, research shows that it is sugar and foods that act like sugar (refined carbohydrates) are the foods that cause weight gain and related diseases!

At that point, it may feel like everything you eat is turning into fat–even though you may not even be overeating. But dietary fat itself is not the problem.

Even a piece of bread or cookie a day can affect your weight.

These effects can be difficult to reverse. That’s why it can seem more difficult to lose weight after 50.

What happens is that the hormones that deal with your hunger, how you store and use fat, and how your body handles blood sugar all go haywire.

Your hormones quit working the way they were designed to work.

You eat more than you need. You don’t feel full even after you’ve eaten plenty. You feel hungry too soon and too often. Your body stores fat like crazy.

Does any of that sound familiar?

In addition, diet culture promotes weight loss at any cost. That cost is usually being hungry, not enough food, and not enough nutrients. When women are “successful” with these diets, they often may become thinner but actually look worse.

You’ve also been sold a lot of fat-producing ideas. The grocery store is filled with food that is designed to override your body’s natural signals and that is making you gain weight like crazy.

Why We Get Fat

We get fat, when we eat when we aren’t hungry, when we eat too much, and when we eat too often over a long period of time. 

It’s not because we are bad people! Our bodies and brains are a little haywire around food.

One of the things I’ve observed is that women will wait to find the right diet, or something that will work quick. So instead of even stopping the weight gain, women will gain gradually year after year. 

While cycling between depriving ourselves and overeating, we also mess up our metabolism which makes losing weight even more difficult.

Fat storage on our body is way more complex than we’ve been led to believe. I believe that taking care of our bodies is a life-long endeavor. Sure you can have weight loss goals, but just as important is the prevention of gaining more weight.

Is it too late to lose weight after 50?

These tips aren’t that difficult, but they may challenge your thinking. I used to think I couldn’t lose weight after 40! I was so wrong. Losing weight in my fifties changed my life.

Since then, I have grown so much more confident and my life has expanded in amazing ways. I used to think my best years were behind me. Again, I was SO wrong!Picture of Sara in the park. 7 powerful tips to lose weight after 50

I’ve written over 40 posts on how to lose weight after 50! I’m excited to share a new page, where I’ve pulled my favorite posts and put them into an order that you can use to get started. Check out my GUIDE TO LOSING WEIGHT AFTER 50.

If you have given up, thinking you have seen your best days in the past, that will not help you a bit.

At 60, I really feel my best and I definitely look my best. I don’t look back at me at any age and think I looked better.

Okay, that might not be true for all of you. But still—I love that I can be over 50 and think it’s my best time ever.

The key to that sentence is that I think it’s my best time ever—I feel I look my best right now at this age.

I don’t have any assessment to tell me that. However, because how I feel about myself is reflected in my energy, in my eyes, in my attitude—other people seem to think so too!

And the other good news is that you don’t have to try and match any artificial expectations. You don’t have to be skinny.

You just need to be a weight and size that you feel good at. I don’t feel comfortable in a bikini, or really ANY bathing suit. But I can find lots of other clothing that makes me feel great.

If you feel overweight, even losing a size or two can boost your confidence.

If you want, pop over to my new 10 Powerful Tips to Lose Weight After 50

Easy Tips to Lose Weight After 50

Being a healthy weight really should not be hard. But in today’s world of fast food, convenience foods, and such, it really can be a challenge to make positive behavior changes. 

I encourage you to explore these ideas, experiment with them, and experience how you feel while doing them.

Pick one or two to do consistently for a few weeks. Then add another. Learn to really take care of your body for the rest of your life!

These tips are easy but weight can be hard to budge sometimes. Yet, it is possible and you’ll have to experiment to find the right combination for your own body.

Have Fun After 50!

Being over 50 doesn’t mean you can’t look great and have a fun life. I have two at-home businesses and I am an active grandmother.

Not only that but I have biked 143 miles through Vermont, hiked beautiful mountains, visited state parks, and roamed through NY wine region.

Recently (Oct 2020) I went to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming all by myself. It was a dream I’ve had for a while.

I hiked 14 miles over 3 days and got to see the most amazing views.

Now that I know what I’m capable of, I can’t wait to do more adventures!

Get More Help to Lose Weight After 50

Sign up for my email list. If you see the pop-up to get a video, that also puts you on an email list. I write helpful up-to-date content for women every week. My readers tell me how inspiring and motivational it is and that it continually gives them hope.

Get one-on-one coaching with me. I’ve been where you are and I know how hard learning to not over eat can be. I’m a certified life and weight loss coach and I am interested in the whole person–not just the number of pounds you weigh.

I have so many favorite posts you can explore for more ideas!

10 Powerful Tips to Lose Weight

How to Convince Your Body to Lose Weight

How to Stop Gaining Weight

The post 7 Powerful Tips to Lose Weight After 50 appeared first on My Think Big Life.

Is bone broth really good for you? The benefits of bone broth include better skin, improved immunity, and healthier joints, bones, and teeth. I have had great results that I’m excited to share.

In a funny twist of fate, I look and feel better at 55 than I ever have in my life. In fact, people ask me all the time what I am doing to look younger every time they see me!

It makes me wonder, is bone broth really good for you? I’ve included an easy bone broth recipe below.

January 2024: I’m 62 now and just made a batch of my bone broth this week. It’s still an important part of my diet and I try to have some every day. I often buy it already made but I still believe homemade is best.

Is Bone Broth Good for You?

I began my immersion into the world of bone broth eight years ago. I’m not a dip-your-toe in kind of person. I usually read a lot, decide if I want to try something, and then go for it.

I was fascinated by the claims I had seen and read about the benefits of bone broth and had made a few batches here and there.

(Read my update The Health Benefits of Bone Broth too)

Bone broth is made by simmering bones, usually either beef or chicken for long periods of time.

Then after cooking, the broth is strained and you use it as a nutritional drink. I’ve included an Easy Bone Broth recipe at the bottom of the post. 

As someone who promotes good skin care practices, I was especially curious does bone broth really work.

Does Bone Broth Really Have Benefits?

After reading that bone broth was good for your skin and body, I decided to start making batches on a regular basis and drink a cup or two every day. Along the way I got a lot of teasing.

As usual, the converts were minimal. But that’s okay.

I like my bone broth and I’ll probably have the last laugh someday when I have the bones and skin of a sixteen-year old at 80.

So Why Drink Bone Broth?

The biggest claim that bone broth makes, is that it’s better than Botox. It’s supposed to be great for your skin.

That is really what caught my eye. I love things that promote real beauty as a result of real health. I’ve read that bone broth delivers collagen, nutrients, and gelatin in an easy to absorb form.

So, yes, it makes sense that the skin would improve with bone broth. To be fair, this is not an open and shut case—but I’ve been happy with it.

I’ve had some positive results that I’m going to share, but first here are some of the claims that convinced me to give bone broth a serious try.

Why Bone Broth is Good For You

Bone broth provides collagen in a bioavailable form that your body can use. This is huge, because collagen is a huge business. Folks are spending billions (yes billions!) of dollars to get collagen in pills and topical treatments.

Bone broth is a rich source of collagen and gelatin. After about age 40, our body’s collagen production begins declining. Animal protein is the only food source of collagen though plant food sources can all help the body produce it.

The Health Benefits of Bone Broth

Bone broth fights inflammation and boosts Immunity through the amino acids it contains. These amino acids have anti-inflammatory, protective, and healing functions.

Bone broth is a good source of glucosamine and gelatin which strengthens bones and teeth and helps the joints.

Bone broth hydrates the body by providing essential electrolytes. I have found it to be the perfect pre-workout drink though others prefer it after their workout.

It doesn’t fill me up like food, yet I always have the energy to get a good workout.

Bone broth has many other reported benefits but these four caught my eye and to some extent, I thought I would be able to tell a difference from drinking bone broth.

Is Bone Broth Good for Your Skin?

I’ve been making and drinking bone broth for 8+ years now. I’ve had enough positive results that I plan on continuing my bone broth consumption. I’ve got my system for making and storing it and I think it’s worth this bit of trouble.

Want more tips on being beautiful? I share my story of how I learned to feel beautiful here!

Does Bone Broth Really Work?

Did my skin improve by drinking bone broth? This one is a little tricky for me. When I announced the Bone Broth Project, my son-in-law said it would be hard to tell since my skin was already pretty good.

However, my pores seem to have disappeared and I feel like my skin is staying naturally soft; I hardly have to use any moisturizers on my arms and legs.

The other thing I can’t miss is that my cheeks are full and I don’t have a single wrinkle.  People are asking me all the time what am I doing?

I’ve actually had two people question whether I am actually using Botox!

My Experience with Bone Broth

Did my nails get stronger? I don’t have any way of knowing what’s happening inside but I can report that my nails look and feel great. I don’t like to get manicures and since drinking the bone broth, I haven’t needed one.

My nails grow easily, even on my right hand which just didn’t happen before. Even the cuticles look nice. I used to have to use cuticle cream on them all the time and now I don’t. They feel very strong.

Did bone broth boost my immunity? I rarely get sick and I still don’t so it’s hard to say but I have really good endurance and energy.

Do I heal faster? I think so. I have had three moles removed on my face in the past year. Two were before I was drinking bone broth and one after.

This last one, which was the trickiest and the one my dermatologist warned me would leave a little scar, actually healed the fastest. In fact, after adding bone broth to my diet the first two scars disappeared.

I also just had a little dental work and it seems like it is healing super fast. While in these healing situations, I did up my daily consumption to two cups and added a little extra gelatin/collagen to my broth.

The Surprise Benefit of Bone Broth

I kept a journal for the first few weeks. There was a surprise benefit for me that I had not read about from other people. In fact, it wasn’t until I was reading over my notes that I realized that I kept saying the same thing.

“Mood mostly good.”

“My mood is very stable. I am able to better handle stressful things. I would say mood/emotions much more steady.”

“My mood continues to be steady. No other way to describe it.”

“I look for the good in things. I give people the benefit of the doubt.”

So for me the surprise benefit was that bone broth seemed to improve my overall mood and sense of well-being.

Of course I had hoped to have the physical benefits too. But seeing weeks of notes expressing how good I felt, I was pleasantly surprised by that.

Now, back to my daily cup of bone broth!

How to Make Bone Broth? An EASY Bone Broth Recipe

You can make my bone broth in an Instant Pot as well. Here’s How to Make Bone Broth in an Instant Pot.

Also, I usually make chicken bone broth these days. I use the remains from store bought rotisserie chickens and add uncooked chicken legs or wings.

Into a large stock pot with heavy bottom, add:

• 3-4 lbs. beef or chicken bones. The cleaner the better.
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 onion peeled and quartered
• 2–3 carrots
• 10 peppercorns
• 1 ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ cup of cider vinegar
• Water to cover

I throw everything into the pot at once and bring to a simmer then let it simmer for 12 hours. Then I let it cool until it’s easy to handle.

How to Store Your Bone Broth

After the broth has cooled, I remove all the bones and vegetables and throw away. I set up a canning funnel and strainer over a jar and pour the broth in.

A layer of fat will form. This is a good thing! The fat will harden and seal the broth.

When you are ready to have a cup, remove the fat layer and throw away. Fill your cup and warm in the microwave or on the stove. Once the fat is removed, it’s best to consume the broth within a few days.

The broth can be frozen.

I use a 12 quart stainless steel stock pot to make my broth. I make it once a week and this size is perfect for me.

The post Is Bone Broth Really Good For You? appeared first on My Think Big Life.

Is it impossible to lose weight after 50? Not at all. Here is how to lose weight after 50 or any age without dieting or being hungry. I lose weight in my early fifties and have kept it off for almost 10 years now.

October 2024 Update: This is still what I do. I’m 62 now! What I’ve learned since losing my weight and maintaining my loss for nine years is that it is never once and done.

I wrote this post eight years ago and I still practice what I wrote about. However since then based on my experience with working with real women, I’ve expanded and refined my system.

There’s over 40 posts in my blog and I recommend checking a few of them out, especially the newer ones. The one I recommend for everyone is 10 Powerful Steps to Lose Weight After 50.

Also, managing your eating is a mind game as well as a physical challenge. As a certified life and weight loss coach, I also write about the mindset strategies you need to change your relationship with food.

I don’t have any gimmicks or quick fixes or secret ways to get a flat tummy.

What I do offer is another way to think about our bodies. I’d much rather walk around in my body as it is for the rest of my life rather than wrecking my healthy trying diet after diet and never succeeding.

The Truth About Women and Weight Loss

Two-thirds of women age 40 to 50 are overweight and half of these are obese. In their 50’s and 60’s, women gain an average of 1.5 pounds per year.

These statistics imply that weight gain is a normal part of aging.

I believe it is more complex than simply aging and what used to work doesn’t really work anymore.

At this point, you may be confused about what to do. You may feel like you are always giving up and falling short with your diet.

You probably know you should be doing something, but at this point you just don’t know what that is.

And worse, if you’re like me, even if you are NOT an overeater, you might find yourself easily gaining weight.

I CAN HELP.

I’ve written over 40 posts on how to lose weight after 50 and I’ve been working with women over 50 in my private life coaching business.

It’s a common myth that losing weight after 50 is impossible for women. I did it though. I was a size 14 through my forties but for the years after 50 have stayed in the size 8 to 10 range.

I think losing weight and maintaining that loss is tricky at ANY age.

I don’t remember it being any easier at 20 than it is at 50. So, I’m going to share how to lose weight after 50. (or any age for that matter)

For me, it’s easier to maintain a healthy weight after 50 because I understand food and how it affects my body. I know what works for me and what doesn’t.

And now I understand how our hormones affect our weight and our health at the same time.

Let’s clear one thing up. I don’t care about weight just for aesthetics. I care about weight because the food I eat affects my health—not just today but for what I hope will be a long healthy life.

I recently wrote How to Lose Weight After Menopause because so many people still believe that it’s impossible to do. But we can eat nourishing foods, no matter what our age is!

Losing weight in an unhealthy way is no better than staying overweight in many cases.

Based on my reading and now being at an age where a lot of people are getting sick with serious diseases, I believe that the ways we’ve been taught to lose weight may actually be causing people to get sick.

One of my trusted sources is Nina Teicholz, who spent nine years digging into the original diet research from more than 50 years back.

It’s not just that diets are failing us; it’s that diets are actually not good for us at all. Restricting too many calories and fat is not healthy!

And it really can be hard to lose weight and especially to maintain that loss.

Before I talk about what I believe is the best way to approach weight loss, here are some important things to keep in mind as you read.

Losing weight after 50 isn’t about getting skinny

Being skinny is not a goal I promote. Despite what you think is true—being skinny or thin is not correlated with good health.

Trying to be thin; is trying to achieve, for most of us, the impossible. Most women carry a little protective fat on their bodies.

At one time or another, most of us got to a “thin” weight. We thought we looked AMAZING. We bought those skinny-sized jeans. And then what happened?

How long could you keep it? For me, it was usually just a couple of months. Then I would begin to put the weight back on.

No diet I ever did to lose weight, helped me keep it off. Diets ALWAYS end. and when you quit dieting, you gain the weight back.

Research shows that diets are almost always unsuccessful long-term.

So, what do you do instead? What should your goal be?

The goal is to feel good in your body and to be able to do the things you enjoy. That size, shape, and weight is different for all of us.

I’m not skinny. A couple of years ago at my thinnest, I fit into my 11^th grade prom dress. I was wearing size 6 pants.

It felt a little surreal but it didn’t create any sense of a better life for me.

In fact, I was very unhappy because of other things and being thin didn’t change that at all.

After a few months, I gained a few pounds back and that is where my weight settled and I could maintain it.

Not All Calories are Created Equal

We’ve all been taught that it’s all about the calories we eat and that it doesn’t matter if we eat all junk or vegetables as long as we keep our overall calories low.

This just isn’t true.

Different foods affect our bodies in different ways. It isn’t just how many calories a food has, it’s about how different foods affect our hormone systems.

The types of foods you eat do matter

What you eat and when you eat it, does affect your weight.

The types of food you eat affect your hormones and your hormones control whether your body effectively burns fat for energy or ineffectively stores it making you fatter.

I explain your digestive hormones HERE. Working with your hormones allows you use fat rather than just storing it in your body. This is a huge part of maintaining a healthy weight and fat-metabolizing system.

You Can Get Fit with Exercise You Enjoy

For many of us, we think of exercise as a way to punish our bodies for overeating. We have these fantasies of working out hard and achieving imaginary sculpted bodies.

It doesn’t work that way. Many people can work out religiously and still not achieve picture-perfect bodies.

I created a reference page of The Best Workouts to Lose Weight. It includes 10 FREE videos you can do from home and a sample workout plan for the week. This is how I stay in shape!

I love walking and it has always been the most effective exercise for me to stay in shape and lose my muffin top. (How to Walk to Lose Weight and Belly Fat)

Yet, I rarely walk without seeing many people attempting to run who really could benefit more from consistently walking.

Walking is not a runner-up exercise. It’s just a different exercise and one that is safe and easy for most people to do on a regular basis.

In addition, I work out at home–never in a gym. I love in-home workouts and detail the exact ones I use here.

I’m expecting my body to get me around for another 40 years or so and I want all my parts to work. That means choosing exercise and movement that makes my body feel better and that will not injure it.

Even more important I want a body that allows me to do the things I want to do! For example I love hiking and I love spending time with my granddaughters. Being fit allows me to have a fun and active life!

You Need to Eat More Fat to Lose Weight After 50

When I say you need to eat more fat, I’m talking about protective healthy fats: olive oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, eggs, avocados, and nuts.

Go ahead and ban all vegetable, canola, and other common oils. That stuff is toxic and combined with sugar and processed grains—it’s truly horrible stuff to put into your body.

But fat itself is healthy, protective, and necessary to have a healthy weight. One of the problems with modern dieting is the whole idea of cutting calories.

The first place people did this was with fat. This bad mistake from the 1950’s totally derailed the diets of the next few generations.

When fat was removed from food—so was taste and that feeling of being satisfied. Fat makes food taste good, it’s good for you, and you often eat less when you are getting enough of the right kinds of fat.

You Need to Eat More REAL Food

Real food is the kind that is minimally processed. Think proteins from animals (meat), eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and healthy fats. These types of food are nutritionally dense and our body needs them to be healthy.

Things like bread, pasta, cereals, rice, and other grain-based foods provide little nutrition and they raise your insulin and cause the body to store fat rather than use it as fuel. You do not need any of these types of food for health.

The Timing of When You Eat Matters

This is true for me. I do much better when I stick to two or three meals a day and no snacking in between or in the evening.

To be able to do this though, I have to eat solid meals that fill me up. I try to eat a protein, some vegetables, and a tablespoon or two of fat at every meal.

I also eat carbs such as potatoes and winter squash because that makes me feel better too.

When I eat like this, I don’t get hungry between meals or in the evenings.

Even though it might seem like it would be fattening, to eat that much fat, overall, I eat much less than I did when I ate lots of empty foods like bread or pasta.

Also for me, eating lighter in the evening helps. I can tell a big difference when I go out too many evenings or eat too many big dinners.

So, how do you lose weight after 50?

You work with your body—not against it.

No willpower—check out why. Working with your body to give it real food that nourishes it while keeping it satiated is what works. Eating real food and plenty of fats helps curb cravings for fake foods.

Modern food and eating habits unfortunately have wreaked havoc on our bodies and health. Obesity, diabetes, and other diseases are common place in people at younger and younger ages.

Sugar and processed foods not only make us crave them more—they totally screw up our fat-metabolizing hormones.

Most of the common food now eaten is not benign; it’s actually damaging your body and health.

The proliferation of processed foods that are full of junk ingredients, sugar, and killer fats has created the first generation that is not expected to exceed the life expectancy of their parents’ generation.

It makes me sad, knowing that my children and grandchildren may not have  my life expectancy because of the way people eat now.

It’s not all gloom and doom though.

When I was a kid, though I didn’t have access to lots of the junk food available now, my diet wasn’t perfect. Hydrogenated oils and margarine were commonplace. I ate cereals, breads, and pasta.

Today, I have access to good vegetables and fruits all year long. Healthy fats and oils are available in almost every grocery store.

It’s got a ways to go, but it is possible to get humanely raised meat. We truly have access to good and healthy food.

Sounds good, but what about the cost of eating healthy?

Lots of people think it’s more expensive to eat healthy. It’s really not. And even if it is, wouldn’t it still make sense to feed yourself food that is nourishing and good for your body?

If you plan your menus and cook at home, it’s usually costs no more to eat fresh food than the processed and take-out food that most people eat.

The Best Part about Losing Weight After 50?

The best part is that you can look and feel your best without feeling deprived. Eating real food most of the time is pleasurable—not miserable.

The other bonus? Your skin will love you eating this way! My skin looks better now than it ever has. Here’s how to look YOUNG naturally.

I know it might seem impossible to live life without bread, pasta, or rice at every meal but I go days without eating those foods and I actually feel better without them.

However, I’m a human and I have many years of eating and craving those foods behind me so once in a while, something gets the better of me.

But here’s the truth. For the most part, I don’t even think of foods like cupcakes, cookies, breads, candy, or other kinds of sweets or junk food.

It just doesn’t cross my mind and I don’t have to exercise willpower at all to avoid most sweets and junk food.

I buy and eat the foods I do because I genuinely enjoy this way of eating and I can eat until I’m full and still maintain a healthy and attractive weight.

How to Lose Weight After 50

Very few people can eat anything they want and stay thin, fit, and healthy.

Even if it doesn’t show in weight, poor food choices do affect health eventually. Let’s face it, for most of us to lose weight we have to restrict something.

Diets have been proven again and again to not work. Weight lost, rarely stays off and often it comes back with a vengeance. Most overweight people have a lot of experience with diets.

Restricting sugar and grains does help because it helps your hormones do the job they were meant to do and it reduces your cravings.

Adding in healthy fats, plenty of vegetables and proteins gives your body lots of nutritional love.

Get one-on-one coaching with me. I’ve been where you are and I know how to get results for you. I’m a certified life and weight loss coach and I am interested in the whole person–not just the number of pounds you weigh. Sign up for a free 50-minute strategy call. Learn not just what to do but how to do it. It’s time to quit struggling and start changing! You can change more in a few weeks or months with coaching, things you’ve spent years trying to change.

I didn’t come up with this on my own. I read quite a bit over several years to figure out what made sense and worked for me. During my forties, I was a solid size fourteen.

Obviously, I am passionate about staying healthy and eating right and to me that means way more than going on a temporary diet. I want everyone reading this to love eating, moving, and experiencing joy in life.

Diets are NO fun! Eating real food and feeling good is fun. It is possible to lose weight after 50.

So, here’s to better living through eating better my friends!

The post How to Lose Weight After 50 appeared first on My Think Big Life.

Willpower is not enough to make you thin. In fact, willpower might be the worst way to try and lose weight because it relies on a motivation that diminishes over time.

December 2024 Update: I originally wrote this 7 years ago. After working with women trying to lose weight for the past five years, I am even more convinced that willpower isn’t the problem.

This is because most women have lots of willpower. But food, our bodies, and our weight is more complex than just how many calories are you eating.

I teach women to mange their eating and dissolve eating problems without willpower, beyond the small amount we all have available each day.

Your weight loss motivation often begins with good intentions. You’ll begin a healthy eating plan, eat high quality foods, and establish a weight loss goal.

And the assumption, that if you just have enough willpower this time, you are going to avoid temptations and create new healthy habits.

​Sounds about right?

Research shows that this so rarely works, that it’s kind of unbelievable anyone tries to diet anymore. About 95% of diets fail meaning you quit or you end up gaining the weight back.

Not only that but many women secretly engage in binge eating and other dangerous habits.

So what is the problem and why isn’t your willpower the answer?

It’s very common for people to think that it’s their lack of willpower that is the reason that they are overweight or just can’t eat in a healthy way.

The problem with this is that the toxic thought behind this is that there is something wrong with YOU if you can’t stick to a diet.

We all know or have read about people that apply willpower to the task of losing weight with some success. It used to leave me feeling like the most undisciplined person in the world. It seemed so simple; eat less and exercise more.

There is nothing wrong with you. The problem is with the entire premise of dieting. It is a system that just does not work long-term and often not even in the short-term.

Instead, what works is to take care of yourself using consistency in building healthy habits. 

Why Willpower is Not Enough to Make You Thin

If you blame yourself because you don’t have any willpower you are not alone. Most of my clients start with the idea that there is something wrong with them and that’s why they can’t lose weight or change problem eating habits.

I can remember feeling that it was hopeless to even think about losing weight. I didn’t feel like I was overeating but I still couldn’t budge any weight off for over eight years. I was resigned to being overweight forever.

Then a few years ago, I discovered that I could lose weight and I could do it without dieting or crazy exercise regimens.

If you are feeling hopeless, I want to share some hopeful news. It really is possible to eat in a way that not only makes you feel good; it can help you maintain a healthy weight.

To do that, it’s helpful to understand why willpower is NOT the best way to make you thin.

Long-term weight loss or management has to begin with a new way of understanding your mind, your body, and even your spirit/heart.

Our relationship with food is absolutely mental, physical, and emotional.

Most diets only look at the physical part. Eat this, don’t eat this and you’ll lose weight.

But the available mind power is only about 5% of your total power and this is where your willpower is and it just can’t power you through a sustainable behavior change.

Your mental health is important as well as stress management. Diets tend to make us more stressed and feel more negatively about ourselves. 

Many people still believe that to lose weight, it’s all a matter of willpower and self-control. In fact, willpower is more often cited as the reason people can’t lose weight or create positive change than any other reason!

To get started making changes, you will need to have some intention and a plan. Your mindset is important and it will help you determine what healthy behaviors you want to create.

But as a life coach, I am also interested in a healthy lifestyle for you. What do I mean by that?

Most of us are familiar with the ideas of calories and creating a deficit of calories. But our bodies are way more complex than that.

Your body is designed to hold on to weight and fat. That meant survival back in the days when food was not readily availabe.

Now we are faced with way too much food, and much of it is designed to make us crave it and overeat it. 

Modern food literally messes up your brain!

Not only that but it affects our bodies by screwing up our hunger hormones and insulin which plays a key role in our weight management.

You are up against a food culture that promotes fast food, non-food, and horrible information about what is healthy or not. 

In addition, we have outdated ideas about how to diet. We think we should deprive ourselves for months, lose weight, and then somehow keep going with a process that was very unpleasant and unsatisfying.

We all know women, and perhaps we have been her, who lost weight, looks fabulous, gets a ton of compliments and then just gradually puts all the weight back on.

Your brain will keep telling you that you’ve got to get back on that diet again and won’t do things that will actually work long-term.

That short-term win, even though it was years ago, will keep calling your name.

Finally as part of your overall healthy lifestyle, we have to look at the part our emotions play in our attempts to manage our weight.

We use food to cope with our lives.

And it is very difficult to remove the thing that seems to help us cope with life. Food is, a way to bypass our painful emotions that come from work that is too hard, relationships that are unsatisfying or painful, and from this underlying feeling that we aren’t enough in some way.

What Works Better Than Willpower?

I believe in your and in your overall self-control. You have used it to create so many good things in your life that it seems crazy that you can’t make it work with food.

As I’ve said, the food we live with and are surrounded with is created so that you can’t contril yourself around it.

In addition, you are stuck on the idea that you have to deprive yourself with a special diet.

And you are using food to cope with painful parts of life.

Honestly, the very thing you need is to feed yourself. Almost every overweight woman I have ever worked with doesn’t eat enough–at meals. 

Number one, is eating real meals.

Number two is developing the mindset that you can eat and eat food you like and not gain weight. 

Number three is actually feeling your real emotions instead of pushing them down with food.

These three things, though simple can be difficult. However, they are not impossible and will change your life in profound ways.

When you take care of your basic need to eat and be nourished; you will begin to take care of yourself in other ways as well.

Why Willpower Doesn’t Work

Here are some of specific ways that modern life gets in the way of self-control working in regards to lifestyle changes around food and eating.

I encourage anyone reading this to have compassion for yourself and your experience. We cannot know what we don’t know or haven’t been exposed to. 

Part of the problem is most of what you will read online or even what your doctor will tell you is just old diet culture sound bites. 

You cannot solve this problem with the old ideas that created the problem. Another tired old diet will not create the shift you need.

Here are five things that make your attempts to change how you eat much more difficult.

Modern Food Culture

Most of us accept that fast food and non-food are normal parts of the human diet even though we know they can be bad for us if we eat too much of them.

So many of you, instead of eating a real lunch will graze on candy and snacks or worse not even take time to eat and end up pigging out after work on whatever you can get your hands and mouth on.

Or you might run through a fast food drive through for a “real” meal. Even though most of us eat things like pasta, crackers, yogurt, bread, and things like this; these things provide little nutrition. 

To go with our non-food things we drink beverages that are filled with sugar and other unhealthy things. I see shelves devoted to soda and energy drinks. Trust me–these are not providing anything good for your body.

Another product of diet culture is the restrictions we place on our meals. We try to satisfy ourselves with low calorie foods or we don’t eat enough to fell full.

This undermines all our attempts to at healthy eating. 

Foods that Create Cravings

Part of the problem with trying to use willpower to control our eating is that we are trying to limit foods that have been created in laboratories to induce cravings. That’s right, the chips, pasta, breads, and other foods are designed to make you want to eat MORE.

When you are eating these things; it is hard to quit eating them. Not only do you want to eat more, you will keep eating even when you know good and well that you are not hungry anymore.

This isn’t you not having any self-control. This is you eating foods designed to make you not have any willpower! The fatigue that comes from trying to resist these foods is real.

These foods trick your brain and your body into eating more and they take away your natural ability to quit eating when you are full.

That’s right. Your body really does have the ability to know when it’s full and to remove that feeling of wanting to stuff your face when you’ve eaten enough. But when you eat foods that create cravings and override this system, you overeat and can’t understand why.

If you are trying to reduce cravings, here’s a post on how to eliminate cravings.

Restricting Fat

Sixty years ago, our country had a crisis. Men were dying of heart attacks at an unprecedented rate. It the effort to fight this, something really bad happened. Medicine, science, and the government decided for the first time in the history of humans, to recommend a diet for all people.

It advised things like eating only lean meats, not eating saturated fat, and removing things like eggs, butter, and cheese from our diets.

Most of you reading this will probably see nothing wrong with that recommendation since we have all grown up hearing that this is how we should eat.

The only problem is that is was wrong. No research ever showed that this way of eating would be helpful. Not only that, but much research showed that it was actually harmful. Look around. Obesity, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease run rampant in our society.

In fact, no one is surprised by any of these conditions any more. We all accept that it is a part of aging. Except that it is not. It is a condition of a science experiment going horribly wrong.

One takeaway is that fat isn’t bad. Fat is one of the most important foods you need to eat to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight. Let that sink in.

Here are some examples of healthy fats: fat from meat that is of good quality, coconut oil, butter, eggs, olive oil, avocados, and nuts.

So, instead of pasta have some squash with butter. Eat your salad with a delicious fatty dressing. Leave the skin on your chicken. Buy the higher fat ground meat. Add avocados and nuts to your meals. Eat whole eggs.

You Don’t Understand Your Body

Our body is a complex collection of systems that are regulated by hormones. Unfortunately our lack of understanding our hormones has turned most of us into fat-storing bodies instead of fat-burning bodies.

Our bodies are designed to use fat as energy. While our hormones systems are sensitive and complex, working with them is not. You have to limit foods that raise your insulin. Unchecked eating of processed carbs literally wrecks havoc with your hormone systems.

Your body goes haywire inside and instead of using fat for energy it continually stores it. That’s why even if you are watching what you eat and perhaps even eating low-fat to stay thin, you find yourself gaining more and more fat each year.

Here is a link to the Fat-Burning Secrets that Everyone Needs to Understand

Not Understanding the Big Picture

Here’s the big picture. We are here to live healthy active lives into our 80’s and beyond. We’re not here to try and have a skinny body for a few years and then be in horrible shape from our 50’s on.

On some level we know starvation and fad diets are not the way to go but we just can’t trust ourselves enough to eat real food.

We restrict at our meals and then we go overboard on snacking. Snacking alone can double our daily calories!

And we keep on doing these things even though year after year they do not work!

I see women starve themselves to try and get themselves into an unrealistic body shape. How many women still lament that they can’t fit into the jean size they wore in high school?

The big picture is take care of yourself now in a way that will get you through your entire life in a way that keeps you active and happy. Eat real food. Exercise. Learn about the food you eat. 

Take care of yourself. Take care of you physical, mental, and emotional health. You are way more than a body.

Often to make significant changes in how you eat, you must address the rest of your life and understand your own big picture.

Seriously. Make decisions today that will build a solid foundation for the rest of your wonderful life. Don’t believe for a second that everyone is going to get sick and need lots of medication when they get older.

Why Willpower is Not the Best Way to Lose Weight

Willpower is only a way to lose weight in the short term. In the long-term, you can harm your metabolism and set yourself up to be overweight and sick. It’s so much better to eat real food.

To help you with that, I’ve written a lot on the subject. I don’t care if you are skinny or how you look in a bathing suit. I care that you have a happy healthy life and that you are fit enough to actually enjoy life.

Eating good foods is not deprivation my friends. It is freedom.

Here’s to real freedom my friends!

The post Why Willpower Is Not Enough to Make You Thin appeared first on My Think Big Life.

Every January, women everywhere commit to eating better and exercising more. And every year, most of those resolutions fizzle out by February. It’s not because women lack willpower. It’s because the advice they’ve been given is often outdated, ineffective, and in some cases, harmful.

In this post, I’m breaking down five common diet myths that sabotage weight loss and keep women stuck in endless cycles of restriction, frustration, and rebound weight gain and what actually works instead.

Why So Many Diets Still Fail Women

In January, it seems like everyone resolved to eat better and exercise more. We all seem to agree that vegetables and fruit are good for us and that we need to exercise. Beyond that, there are so many differing opinions.

Later in the year, despite your best efforts, not much has changed.

Recently, I was sitting in the coffee shop with my surgeon friend. He operates on a daily basis and he literally sees what people’s bodies look like on the inside.

It’s not pretty but by the time a patient gets to him, he described bodies full of fat. He blamed this fat on people eating too much fat and too many calories. I tried to share what I believed but he was stuck on his beliefs.

However, despite being a surgeon who operates on people who are too fat, he believed it was because people didn’t have willpower. The irony that he was also fat, did nothing to dissuade him of the idea that losing weight was not just about willpower and cutting calories.

The way we eat, wrecks not only the outside of our bodies; it wrecks the insides too.

It’s obvious when you look around that what we are doing to lose weight is NOT working for the majority of people.

That’s because the same tired old advice is still being given and taken. Even doctors who should be on the cutting edge of the effects of nutrition are still spouting out the mostly USELESS and quite often HARMFUL advice.

There is good information available. There are doctors and dedicated researchers who are studying the effects of food on our bodies and writing about it.

Over the years, as I’ve read and studied nutrition myself, I have come to believe that there are 5 diet lies that make you fat.

Myth #1: Diets Work

Looking at the food you eat, only through the lens of getting thinner, is short-sighted and ultimately and counter-intuitively going to keep you from your goal of getting thinner and fitter.

Your body doesn’t strictly care about what you weigh. It doesn’t care if you can fit into the jeans you could fit into in high school or before you had a baby or two.

So, when that is your goal, you may actually be working against your body.

To achieve lasting (and what other kind of change should you be looking for) weight loss and a healthy fit body, you have to work with your body.

This means feeding it in a way that works with its natural systems rather than against them.

I see old information everywhere online. Yes, calorie restriction or a calorie deficit can cause you to lose weight. But just losing weight isn’t a good enough goal. Most of us want to lose fat and keep our muscle strength and bone density.

However, diets or any method you use that only focuses on scale weight may not be healthy overall for you.

Most diets don’t give you enough food, of the right kind, at the right times, in the right amounts.

While dieting seems like it makes sense—it doesn’t. It may work in the short term but it rarely is sustainable for the long term.

Eating real food, in real amounts is what you need.

Myth #2: Fat Makes You Fat

Over and over, I see in recommendations to still use low-fat products and eat lean meats. My friends, the low-fat diet is dangerous! (unless you must for certain health conditions.)

Fat doesn’t make you fat. The idea that fat makes you fat, has been debunked. Fat is a crucial nutrient for health and survival.

On the surface, it would seem reasonable to think that eating fat would indeed make you fat.

But it doesn’t. During the hey day of low carb eating, it was proven again and again that fat does NOT make you fat.

For the record, I do not advocate very low carb diets at all! But they did demonstrate that eating fat, does not in itself, make a person fat.

Fat is an ESSENTIAL nutrient in the health of our body and eating plenty of fat can actually help us lose weight. Fat makes food taste good, provides a feeling of satiety, delivers nutrition, and helps us eat less.

Healthy fats are fats such as coconut oil, olive oil, nut oils, some animal fat, butter/ghee, and avocados. You can also eat other fats and oils but these are especially tasty.

Where fats get their bad reputation is when they are combined with processed, high carb food.

That’s why food such as a hamburger with a bun or pizza are considered fattening. It’s true. When you combine that kind of fat with processed food such as bread, you have a highly fattening food!

However, a roast chicken with its skin on, combined with veggies topped with butter will not be fattening in the same way.

This is because, it is elevated levels of sugar and insulin in your system that make you fat, not fat itself. I explain this in several posts that might be helpful for you to read. (Read why fat is so important here)

Myth #3: Moderation Works for Everyone

We have all heard, at times, we can eat whatever we want, as long as we eat in a moderate way.

Strictly speaking, I guess this could be true. However, we all have foods, unique to us, that are difficult for us to consume in moderation.

For example, if I buy potato chips, I have a hard time eating only a small serving. I will go back for more and more until the bag is empty or until I throw it away. For other people, it may be cookies, or mac and cheese, or French fries.

We all have THAT food.

These are foods that are almost impossible for us to eat in moderation.

That’s because modern foods are designed to make us eat more and to override our natural hunger. They are designed to make us over eat!

Seriously, there are labs and scientists, who are devoted to figuring out the perfect proportion of fat, sugar, and salt to make you overeat that food, turn off your satiety signal, and make you crave it more.

That’s why moderation of modern food doesn’t always work. Smart people have created foods that you will want to overeat and in fact believe that you can’t resist them.

I say, that knowing this, it makes sense to avoid these foods almost completely. Moderation is not going to work with all foods. And by overeating these foods, you increase your cravings and desire to eat even more of these types of foods.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have treats. I keep ice-cream and chocolates in the house at all times but I rarely eat them. Occasionally I’ll have a small serving. Moderation works for these. I’m just more careful to not keep foods that are a problem for me in the house.

Myth #4: A Calorie is a Calorie

There are quite a few people who believe it doesn’t matter what you eat, as long as you stay within a certain number of calories. And I know that to some extent this works for some time.

But all food is not created equal and calorie counting only works for a while.

The problem with focusing on calories rather than actual food and nutrition is that in an effort to reduce calories, dieters often restrict nutrition as well.

I remember my experience with Weight Watchers. As my points decreased, so did my ability to eat REAL food in sufficient quantities to keep me comfortable and nourished.

I white-knuckled it through many days and lost weight. But eventually, I just couldn’t sustain that deficit in calories. I gained all the weight plus more back. Not fun. Not fair.

Food is more than just calories!

When counting calories, food becomes an enemy. Food that has fat and substance becomes something to be avoided.

Counting calories can cause you to avoid nutritious, good-for-you food and eat lower calorie stuff that is lacking in nutrition.

Basing food choices on calories is not helpful. It’s better to base your choices on what your body needs.

Your body needs so many things! It needs protein, carbohydrates (think veggies and fruit, not pasta and bread), and fats/oils. It needs enough of these foods to run all the many processes going on in your body.

Feed your body well now—and you’ll look and feel better for a much longer time.

Myth #5: Exercising Harder Makes You Thin

I love to exercise and try to work activity into my daily life. Walking is my favorite form of exercise but I also do stretching, toning, and some higher intensity workouts. It’s fun and feels good to move my body.

That being said, I’m not an elite athlete, nor do I have a “bikini body.” I like to move because it makes me feel and look better and it relieves some stress.

Often on my walks, I see people running that are obviously not enjoying it. If you love it—go for it. But if you don’t—don’t sweat it. You don’t have to run or do exercise you hate to be in shape.

I do think exercise is helpful in living your best life. I love the definition in my shoulders and legs. Exercise definitely makes me look better. However, I have a pretty laid back approach to it.

• I hate gyms—so I don’t go
• I feel like running hurts—so I don’t run
• Cross fit looks like torture—so I avoid it

Yet, I’ve found enough types of exercise that I DO like, that I am able to consistently work out almost every day.

• I love walking—so I make time almost daily for a walk outside
• I love to stretch—so I have found home workouts that get all the kinks out
• I love to see some muscle definition—so I do some strength training (Sara Style)

Experiment with different types of exercise. I use a combination of walking with strength that I describe in this post. I share the stretchy/strength exercise routines I use here. Explore on YouTube. Try walking. Dance. Whatever.

Exercise is most effective if you do it often, consistently, and with intention. That’s what makes it work for you. You don’t have to do difficult, painful, and potentially harmful exercise to lose or maintain your weight.

Exercise helps your heart, your brain, your muscles, your bones, and your mood. It’s definitely worth the time and effort to fit it into your day.

Why This Topic Still Matters

I know in writing; I sound like I am militant in my eating. I’m not. I do eat the way I write about most of the time.

I will admit to being passionate about eating this way though. Since I’ve started eating primarily just real food, I’ve totally changed the way I look and feel.

Some things I discovered on my own. Others I’ve learned from reading and participating in online forums. I don’t believe any one things is perfect for everyone.

Yet, so many people dismiss eating real food because they believe it would be too hard to give up some types of food.

All I can say, is that I was overweight for almost 10 years. About 4 years ago I began eating only real food and over 2 years ago, I lost 25 pounds and I have kept it off ever since. If you are interested in my story, here’s the story.

How to Move Forward (Without Dieting)

It’s my wish that everyone can feel comfortable in their body and happy with food. This is what has worked for me for a significant period of time.

On the few occasions when I have dieted, I always gained my weight back within a year. I’m now into year 10 of maintaining a weight loss and it is without struggle, eating food I enjoy.

These are the diet myths that sabotage weight loss. I know many of you  are struggling to lose pounds and that’s why I keep promoting diets made up of real food.

The best way I can help is by working with you one-on-one. This way, you can custom design your own eating plan incrementally, while learning to manage your brain around losing weight.

If you’ve been caught in the cycle of dieting, frustration, and rebound, you’re not alone—and it’s not your fault. These myths have been repeated for decades, and they keep smart women stuck.

The good news is that real, lasting change doesn’t come from more restriction. It comes from working with your body, not against it, and making small, sustainable changes over time.

If you’re ready to stop chasing diets and start creating a way of eating that actually works for your life, I’d love to help. Schedule a free coaching consult here and let’s talk about what’s possible for you

The post 5 Diet Myths That Sabotage Weight Loss appeared first on My Think Big Life.

Eliminate food cravings for good. Believe it or not, this is possible. Instead of being at the mercy of food cravings, teach your body to eat and love real food.

I have no brakes when it comes to junk food and I never dreamed I could banish food cravings for good. But I did!

How did I go from loving cakes, cookies, and candy to hardly being aware that they exist?

How did I banish food cravings for good? These days, I rarely eat cake and other goodies and I don’t miss them. Heck I usually don’t even notice them!

2025 Update: I wrote this post almost 10 years ago. Recently I finished a new post, How to Lose Weight Without Losing Your Mind, and to some extent my message is the same. What is different is that I was much stricter with my diet back then. I literally wasn’t eating cake or cookies!

In addition, I earned my life and weight loss coach certification and in my work with midlife women I understand so much more about food and how it affects women.

These basic tips are really the foundation of the “HOW” of losing weight. Our beliefs and mindset are what helps us follow through.

Here’s How I did it!

To do this, I learned to eat in a way that eliminated my cravings for sweets, breads, and pastas.

I was never able to do it with willpower alone. It might seem like I am disciplined but really I have learned to work with my body and get the results I want.

About 13 years ago, I did a Whole30, which is a type of elimination diet that you do for 30 days. After you finish, you gradually add foods back in to see what foods cause you problems.

One of the things you don’t eat is sugar or artificial sweeteners. This was when I really lost my sweet tooth. At the time I was using a lot of artificial sweeteners for desserts. After my W30, I hated the taste.

I also lost my dependence on wheat and other grains.

Since that time, I don’t expect my clients or even myself to live that strictly. However it truly helped me understand food and its affect on my body and my brain in a way I had never done before.

Why I Don’t Eat Cake

The last bite of cake I had was on 6 months ago at a birthday party for my son-in-law. The last bite before that was months ago at a wedding).

So it’s not perfectly true that I NEVER eat cake but it’s definitely a rare thing and at special occasions.

Weird? A little. But when I gave up wheat, that was kind of the end of cake for me. I had already cut out almost all sugar long before that. The thing that is so difficult for people to believe, is that I really don’t miss it.

And even stranger, I don’t even notice these kinds of things most of the time.

I was on a date once with a very fit guy. We were talking about food and shopping in Whole Foods.

He asked me how I resisted the cookies there. I asked him, “What cookies?” I had never in six months, noticed any cookies at Whole Foods!

Those two times when I had a little cake? I enjoyed a bite or two but I didn’t need any more.

When you finally get off sugar and wheat for a period of time; that stuff just doesn’t taste that great any more. And that’s a good thing!

Cake no longer seems like a forbidden food or even a treat to be looked forward to. I can appreciate the artistic beauty of some cakes but I don’t lust after them.

Why I Gave up Sugar

I first learned how bad sugar could be for you over 25 years ago when I was pregnant. That’s older than some of you!

But seriously, if you can kick the stuff now; you will be THANKING me in 30 years when your skin still looks amazing.

When it comes to sugar, quantity is everything. A small piece of chocolate even daily is no big deal. You can of course eat carbs.

The problem with sugar is that it tastes so delicious when combined with fats and flour. This is where it can get out of control. You can easily eat way more carbohydrates than your body needs and this can end up being stored as fat.

Also, it can be hard to quit eating even when you are full.

Overeating sugar can cause inflammation in your body as well. Sugar doesn’t have to be totally avoided, but it is something to be intentional about.

How Bad Can a Piece of Cake Be?

In theory, a small piece of cake is not all that big of a deal, in an otherwise healthy diet. Our bodies can handle occasional treats like this.

But for me and for many people, foods like this can start of a string of cravings, overeating, and even a period of binge eating. I have called cake and donuts, “gateway drugs to really bad things.”

On occasion, in the past, eating one donut or a piece of cake has led to eating something salty after, then something sweet, then what the heck, let’s have pizza for dinner, and so on.

It’s not the piece of cake that’s so bad, it’s the cravings it creates.

This is Not Deprivation

Not eating cake really is just a part of living a mostly sugar and wheat free life. It’s not a deprivation at all.

Mostly, I feel very blessed that I don’t have these kinds of cravings anymore. Eating right is really difficult when you are fighting cravings as well as trying to make good decisions about your food.

Most people are not battling cravings for broccoli or green beans. No, the things we crave are things that typically make us crave more.

Or if we overeat one kind of craving like a sweet treat, then we next want to eat a salty food. It starts a cycle that is difficult to break. It sometimes takes DAYS to reign in the cravings!

Common Food Cravings 

SWEETS: candy, cookies, cake, muffins, ice cream

SALTY SNACKS: chips, pizza, pretzels, crackers, popcorn, tortilla chips

GRAIN PRODUCTS: bread, pasta, buns, tortillas, rice

How to Eliminate Food Cravings

Eliminate sugar and foods that act like sugar in your body

These foods provide no nutritional value and can be safely eliminated. They tend to disrupt your normal fat and sugar metabolizing process and lead to fat storage rather than fat burning.

These include the usual suspects such as cake and other sweet treats as well as pastas, breads, rice, and other grains. It also includes all artificial sweeteners!

In addition, these can lead to disease and breakdown in your body. I don’t think there are really any safe amounts of these foods. Even a little bit can lead to eating more.

Add healthy fats to your diet

In a world that is characterized by more people being overweight than ever, it might seem odd to suggest eating more fat.

However, most people are eating too much of the wrong kinds of fat with foods that lead to fat storage.

An example of this would be a fast food hamburger. The bun that you eat with this burger, skyrockets your blood sugar and leads to the storage of fat.

But fat, itself, does not make you fat. And eating healthy fats makes healthy food such as proteins and vegetables taste delicious.

Fat is essential for your body’s functions and even for good skin. Healthy fats include: olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, avocados, and eggs.

Use good fats for cooking and add a little extra to your finished dish. This will keep you satiated and satisfied until the next meal.

Quit Snacking

Snacking has been encouraged by food producers, to promote the purchasing of unhealthy foods.

Think of all those low fat yogurts, breakfast bars, and 100-calorie packs. These again, provide little or no nutrition. You can safely eliminate all of these from your diet.

Snacking seems necessary when we don’t eat enough at our meals to get us to the next meal. That’s why it is important to eat enough food with enough fat to get you to the next meal.

Even healthy goodies like nuts and fruits can be a little troublesome as a snack. These are good foods!

But they work best as an addition to a good meal as opposed to a stand alone snack. However, if you are really hungry and nuts are all you have—go for it.

Eat Enough at Meals

This is actually easy to do if you eat a decent portion of protein, plenty of vegetables, and have at least a tablespoon or fat with each meal.

I follow the template that I learned through my Whole30 experience. I eat a protein, several vegetables, and a tablespoon or two of a healthy fat. I add nuts or fruit as a little extra flavor or texture.

Eat Healthy Carbs

In the past, I tried low carb eating. I hated it. I never felt quite right. Several years ago, when I quit eating wheat and most other grains, I really learned the value of eating carbs.

I eat a moderate amount of high carb fruits and vegetables with my meals.

Some of my favorites are potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, and winter squashes. Eating higher carb produce keeps my energy in the right place and I don’t ever feel deprived because I’m not eating pasta or bread.

Don’t eat at night

The body needs a moderate fast each day. Don’t eat after dinner!

Eat your dinner, eat early in the evening, and eat enough to leave you satisfied. Of all the things I do to maintain my weight, not eating at night seems to make the biggest difference.

In fact, when I eat at night, I wake up hungrier the next morning!

But by eating three meals during the day, I’m able to go to bed nourished and not hungry. The next day, I wake up craving-free and ready for a healthy start to my day.

Eliminate Food Cravings and Improve Your Health

Eliminating food cravings is a process. This post talks a lot about what not to eat and what not to do. Eliminating food cravings isn’t an overnight event nor does it happen without a commitment to living life like this.

All I can say is that I’m enjoying being in the best shape of my life with the best skin. I can keep up with all my kids and grandkids. I’m enjoying life to the fullest because of decisions I made about my diet YEARS ago.

I don’t think anyone is too young to do this or too old. I’m close enough to the older generation to see the results of poor diet on people.

Seeing bodies wrecked by 50 or 60 is sad and totally preventable! I have an oncologist surgeon friend. It is not pretty what happens on the inside either!

I’m Not Perfect

As much as I’d like to eat this way 100% of the time, I don’t. I like to go out to restaurants and eat at friends’ homes.

I do attempt to avoid wheat and sugar because my body really doesn’t like those.

Sometimes I’ll have tortilla chips or rice. However, eating this way most of the time really helps and I have no desire to ever eat like a “normal” person.

The key is not perfection; the key is consistency. For more information, here are some other posts that are helpful.

10 Powerful Tips for Losing Weight After 50

7 Reasons to Give Up Sugar

Why Not Losing Weight After 50 is Not Your Fault

The post How to Eliminate Food Cravings appeared first on My Think Big Life.