DAY 15- Different Approaches w/ The Scale

January 15, 2015January 17, 2015 | Robynn Coates

Everyone is unique, which means we are all motivated by different things. Check out how Lara and Robynn have completely different approaches to setting boundaries with their scales…

Lara’s Approach to the Scale
To be completely honest, often times I have to ask my husband to hide my scale. Yes. HIDE it. I have a complete love/hate relationship with the scale–I love it when it shows me the number I desire–but I hate it any other time. Not to mention, I hate the way it determines my mood for the rest of the day. If I weigh in as soon as I get up and, before I step on the scale I feel great, but then a number flashes that is higher than expected, I instantly go from feeling great to horrible. This not only causes me to be in a bad mood the rest of the day, but my smart eating goes out the window. At that point, I’ve lost all peace because I am FRUSTRATED!! I especially feel this way if I devote several days to being more physically active and then the scale shows no movement or a gain. Talk about wanting to LOSE IT!!

When I can tell I am feeling this way with the scale, I’ve learned I need to step away from it for a while. I know what is required to maintain my weight–I just need to eat in a way that I have peace and continue to stay as active as I do every day. So why throw a scale in the mix and mess with my emotions when I already know what is needed to successfully maintain? And why chance putting myself in a situation that may cause a throw-in-the-towel moment, leading to inactivity and porking out for days?

The scale has too much influence on me…in a bad way. When I start losing peace with it, I go ask my husband to hide it until I feel like I can handle it again. Call me crazy, but that’s what works for me! By not knowing my weight# I actually feel better and make smarter choices on a daily basis. That being said, I do think the scale can be a good “reality check” so I don’t eliminate it from my life entirely. I just don’t let it control me on a daily or weekly basis.

Robynn’s Approach to the Scale
My approach to the scale is different than Lara’s. Whereas, she loses peace if she is around it too much, the scale serves as an accountability partner for me. Daily I check in with it. And daily I either get to celebrate or cut my losses and move on. Stepping on the scale for me gives closure to the past and a new beginning for each day.

That’s what works for me and what gives me peace – my approach. What’s yours?

Posse Discussion: Do you have a magic weight# in your head of when you think your life will be perfect? How realistic is that number?

Click Here for Day 16!

DAY 14- Insanity with The Scale

January 14, 2015January 17, 2015 | Robynn Coates

How many times have I begun a diet, calendar in hand, marking off three months? For some reason that was always the magic number. I just knew that my dieting efforts would reap the desired results in just three short months. And what started off the first time as three months actually turned into decades! How did I not see the insanity there?

What gets me is the time I wasted. The moments in life I passed by because I was chasing the diet-myth carrot stating diets are the end-all, be-all to weight problems. For years I put my life on hold because I couldn’t really enjoy life until I was a certain number on the scale.

Those days are over. So, now I am focusing on #PEACE. Yes, I still know the optimal weight zone that makes me feel the best, (it’s actually about a 7 lb. weight range) but one thing I have learned the hard way is this:

A number on the scale has no power to give you peace.

Turns out I was doing things in reverse. Trying to get the number first so that I could have peace later.

Flawed thinking. It wasn’t until I settled the peace issue that I could get to my optimal weight zone and do so in peace.

Are you like I was and doing things in reverse? Do you think that if you could just get down to a certain number, peace would naturally be the result? If so, I hope you’ll go for #PEACE. Then and only then will you be able to really enjoy your optimal weight zone when you finally get there. 🙂

Posse Discussion:

Part 1: What is your current level #peace with the scale?
Part 2: How would your life change if you replaced your focus from the number on the scale to the #peace?

Click Here for Day #15!

DAY 13- How to Have Peace with Your Body

January 13, 2015January 14, 2015 | Robynn Coates

There are many ways to have peace with your body and today we are going to share four of them:

#1: Realize that everyone has to deal with imperfect circumstances. We thought we’d share this video to encourage you that, although things may look perfect on the outside, they may not be as they seem.

#2: Focus on your uniqueness and eliminate comparisons with others. Often what steals our peace is comparing our body image to others. We can relate to this! Read Robynn’s story about her obsession with Carrie Underwood Thighs, here!

#3: Keep the balance of your peace across the board. Working out seven days a week may give you peace with your body, but at the expense of other areas of your life (such as family time). That being said, how can you find a compromise to avoid your peace being off kilter in other areas of your life? Could you have peace with working out 4 days a week (even though you won’t have as toned of abs) but also keep the peace at home by using the 3 other days as “family time”?

#4: Use words of affirmations to retrain your thoughts. If you want to reprogram how you feel about yourself you will have to change your negative self-talk by replacing it with positive affirmations. What do you want your life to look like? Begin speaking your desires for your life rather than all the negative things you dislike about it. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “We become what we think about all day long.” This is a powerful habit that can literally change your life! When creating your own affirmations begin with “I am . . .” or “I have . . .”, keep it in the present tense, and keep it positive. An example would be, “I am living at peace with food and have a healthy and fit body I love!”

You could use also use the serenity prayer. See our examples below and then create your own serenity prayer…

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change:
For Robynn, help her accept that her drumstick-shaped thighs won’t be exactly what she wants.
For Lara, help her accept her larger-upper body since some of it is genetic.

courage to change the things I can;
For Robynn, give her courage to be okay with the body results she gets in exercising no more than 30-minutes a day (the amount of time that brings her peace)
For Lara, give her courage to have confidence in the arms that she has, as she is not willing to invest the time required for toned arms.

and wisdom to know the difference.
Help me accept my imperfect self and focus on the most important things in life.

Posse Discussion:

Out of the 4 suggestions we give to finding peace with your body, which one do you think will be most helpful and why?

Click Here for Day 14!

DAY 12- Week of Body Image & Scale

January 12, 2015January 14, 2015 | Robynn Coates

This week we are talking about body image and the scale. This is an important aspect of Peace with Food because what we eat impacts our appearance and the number on the scale. So how to we get peace in these areas?

For starters, we need to end the Insane Cycle. You know–that crazy cycle we get on when we obsess about an area of our body or a number on the scale. We get so fixated on these things we don’t think clearly anymore! We experience extreme highs (such as finally hitting a goal weight) and then extreme lows (such as gaining all the weight back after reaching our goal weight), and then we make ourselves go on another extreme diet in hopes we’ll have a better outcome next time.

Or how about every time we look in the mirror and have feelings of disgust as we stare at areas of our bodies that we hate? This extreme focus on our physique causes us to pass up opportunities to go swimming with our kids or a double date with our friends from work. It causes us to miss out on life. with Body

There are things about a person’s body that they can control, and others that they can’t. They can lose the weight–and we’ll help them do that–but part of having peace means accepting areas of their body that may be unrealistic to change. For example, if they are always envying girls that are tall with long legs, having peace will mean letting go of the fact that they are only 5’3″.

We have always been goal-oriented people but when we finally realized–by accepting imperfections about our bodies–we could actually eliminate the daily pain of always wishing for something different. Once we did this, we began to have more peace in our lives.

We are not saying you need to give up on yourself or use what we say as an excuse to eat crummy. What we are saying is often times we can get so focused on something that we don’t zoom out and realize that some of the things we are chasing are either unrealistic or too big of a step for now. You will have to get rid of the All-or-Nothing mindset and be willing to tackle small, achievable, goals in order to have long-term, realistic success.

So this week, we encourage you to “zoom out”and figure out what is a realistic, bite-sized goal you can make to achieve your weight-loss success.

Posse Discussion:

1: What is one area of your body that you wish you could change?
2: What is your current level #peace in regards to your body image? (Record date and # in your notebook)

Click Here for Day 13!

DAY 11- Recap on FOOD

January 11, 2015January 13, 2015 | Robynn Coates

This week we talked about food. Here is a summary of the posts from this week’s discussion (click on underlined words to read that post):

-Making calories count by using a tool we call Don’t Waste Your Calories.
-The importance of Knowing Yourself when it comes to food.
-Participating in The Peace Dare by taking a closer look of the foods in your kitchen.
-Learning new eating strategies by how Lara eats.
-Learning new eating strategies by how Robynn eats.
-How to Disarm the Foods That Control You. with Food

On Day 1, we had you rate your level #peace in regards to food. After discussing food this week, we want you to rate your current level #peace again.

Posse Discussion:

In regards to food, what was your level #peace on Day 1? What was it today? Has your number increased or decreased? Why?

Join us tomorrow as we dive into Body Image and the Scale!

Click Here for Day 12!

DAY 10- Disarming the Foods That Control You

January 10, 2015January 11, 2015 | Robynn Coates

Have you ever had foods that you just couldn’t get out of your mind? Foods that had a hold on you and controlled you?

Been there.

For years it seemed that I was tormented by my favorite sweets. Cookie dough, dessert bars, and other confections were my downfall. I just loved them. But they controlled me and I hated that.

Then one day, I had a breakthrough moment. It was an Aha Moment for me and the beginning of learning the skill of disarming the foods that controlled me. Let me share with you the secret I discovered.

At the time I was on a date ball kick. I think I had seen someone on the Food Network make them and was hooked. In case you’ve never had date balls, I’ll describe them. They are this gooey sweet treat made with melted butter, sugar, candies dates, pecans, and rice crispies. Because you make this confection on the stove and not in the oven they are accessible throughout the preparation and cooking time.

So there I stood at the stove, with a pan full of gooey-ness and easy access. Of course I was taste testing the entire time. My experience was similar to Lara’s in Bite #1 vs Bite 21: Bite #1: AWESOME! Bite #2: YUM . . . need I say more? But by Bite #10 (or probably even before that) I should have been finished, but I just couldn’t stop.

This scenario was played out too many times to count, but on this particular day I had had enough. I literally said out loud, “Date balls you will not defeat me! I will defeat you!!!” It was game on.

Right then and there I came up with a plan to get victory over these date balls. Instead of making the full recipe I cut it down to a fraction of the original recipe. I did this by deciding how many points (Weight Watchers) I wanted to consume and then made only that amount. Let me tell ya, it worked like a charm.

The next time date balls called my name I was able to make them, eat them all, and do it all guilt-free. I got closure, met a need, and best of all won a victory.

So, why not try it out? Next time you are faced with temptation try cutting it down to a portion that is moderate and will give you peace. With enough practice you will begin developing new habits and perfecting the skill of disarming the foods that control you.

Posse Discussion:

Part 1: Name one food item that controls you
Part 2: Rate your current level #peace with that food item (see Peace Chart below)
Part 3: Describe how you can disarm that food item (make a smaller batch, order a kid-sized meal, split a meal with someone, etc)

Click Here for Day #11!

DAY 9- How Robynn Eats

January 9, 2015January 11, 2015 | Robynn Coates

When it comes to finding what works for you in regards to eating, let me just say that experimenting is the name of the game. Now, you might be one of those people who nails it on the first try, but if you’re like me, it would be more like the 134th try.

I won’t say I’ve tried everything, because who could possibly do that? But I have tried a lot of different things. I’ve done high protein and no carbs, but that was too restrictive for me. And I’ve tried to just listen to my hunger cues and eat only at those times I was truly hungry, but that didn’t fit either. It was too loose.

The thing that has proven to work best for me is having some boundaries as to how much I can eat (a no-brainer in any weight-loss approach, right?), but freedom in what I eat. Using this as my parameters, Weight Watchers has been the best fit for me.

Some of you may be asking, “Isn’t Weight Watchers a diet? I thought you kissed dieting good-bye?”

Although Weight Watchers is often lumped into the diet category, I don’t consider it a diet because it doesn’t dictate to me what to eat. Weight Watchers gives me an allotment of “points” per day, but they don’t tell me what I can and can not eat. In fact nothing is off limits – food wise – in Weight Watchers. They do give recommendations as to how many carbs, proteins, fruits & veggies, etc. you eat each day, along with a few other recommendations, but that’s it.

So, the majority of the time I am staying within my points. But there are times when I deviate and go over my “points” on purpose such as on holidays and special occasions, but as soon as these are over I get right back on track. I know I probably made that sound easy, but it really is a skill – the skill of resetting– that I have been working on for nearly three years and am just now getting good at it.

Awareness of how much (or should I say, how little) food my body really does need to function optimally was one of the first steps I had to take on the path of Peace with Food. Knowing myself in this area was shocking at first because turns out I was eating about 2 to 3 times more food than what I actually needed. But, then, and only then, could I begin to improve myself in this area.

If you are new to healthy eating and living at Peace with Food you will want to have this reality check. Find out how much food your body really needs. Many health and wellness websites can tell you the amount of calories* you actually need each day.

But I will warn you (with a twinkle in my eye!) be prepared to be shocked! The truth hurts, but it ultimately will set you free. You may find out that you are eating much more than your body needs resulting in that extra weight. Our society, in general, consumes way more food than our bodies actually need – hence the obesity epidemic.

After the shock wears off, however, you can begin experimenting with eating approaches to find the one that works for you. And that’s when you really begin to experience peace.

There you have it! That’s how I eat. Now it’s your turn. What works the best for you?

Posse Discussion:

What would give you a greater level #peace:

A) A pre-established eating strategy, such as Weight Watchers
B) Tweaking a pre-established eating strategy, such as Weight Watchers
C) Creating an eating strategy all on your own

Click Here for Day #10!

*Many weight-loss approaches don’t focus on calories at all, but rather serving sizes along with the type of food you eat. Initially it may be helpful to count up the calories you typically consume and compare it with the recommended amount of calories recommended for a person of your age, sex, and height. This will give you an idea of how much you are eating compared to what your body really needs.

DAY 8- How Lara Eats

January 8, 2015January 11, 2015 | Robynn Coates

Show & Tell Hey Friends!

Wanted to share a thought…I used to never like carrots. In fact, most of my life I cringed when I saw a carrot! It reminded me of my days as a child, when I would go to my Mom and say, “I’m hungry!” She would usually reply, “Go have a carrot.”

It’s not that I hated how carrots tasted–and my Mom was only trying to offer me a healthy option–but now that I am an adult, and have learned how to apply PWF by eating foods I LOVE, I now do this:

I eat carrots, but allow myself to have them with ranch dressing. Turns out, I LOVE it.

In my dieting days, having “unhealthy” ranch dressing with my carrots would be a “No-no.” Due to this, I would avoid carrots altogether and turn to unhealthy food because I figured if I can’t have ranch dressing I might as well rebel and eat junk! How silly is that?! But if allowing myself to add a little bit of ranch to this snack is going to help me LOVE it, I think it is a better option than going for potato chips or sweets, don’t you?

Watch the video below for another way I eat healthy by pairing it with what some would consider a “No-no.”

Posse Discussion: Is there a healthy food that you would eat if you could pair it with something that is considered “unhealthy”? Share with your group!

Click Here for Day #9!