diets don’t work

DAY 29- Peace Dare: Funk Survival Kit

| Robynn Coates

One of the things that we have on hand during a funk day is our survival kit.  We each have our own selected items that help us make it through these uncomfortable and unpleasant times.  Take a look and then begin creating your own!

Survival Kit

Lara
-Cell phone to call Robynn
-Stopwatch for a “timed task” (timing myself to complete a dreaded task in a small amount of time)
-Scentsy melts to burn
-Inspiring and motivating books on tape
-Graph paper to write a checklist to complete in a certain amount of time

Robynn
-Cell phone to call Lara
-Inspiring Bible verses
-Graph paper to write a checklist to complete in a certain amount of time
-A list of errands to help make the time pass

Here are some things that do not help us on funk days:
-Surfing Facebook
-Running to the pantry
-Wearing sweatpants

Now it is your turn. Take the Peace Dare for today…

Funk

Posse Discussion: Do the Peace Dare above and share with your group.

Warmly,

lara-robynn1 (1)

DAY 16- What We Obsess About (But No One Else Thinks About)

| Robynn Coates

What weIn college, I took voice lessons every semester as part of my music education degree. In order to graduate, one of the requirements was a senior recital. This concert consisted of a solo performance lasting over thirty minutes. Just the idea of singing that long makes a person’s throat hurt, and standing alone in front of a crowd with all eyes on you can bring one to even more of a panic!

My voice professor told me, “When you are up on stage, don’t worry about the audience and what they are thinking. Believe it or not, they won’t be thinking about you. People are too consumed thinking about themselves, they won’t focus solely on you for very long.”

I had never given it much thought, but what he said seemed to be true. When you step inside someone’s new house, you typically think to yourself how you wish you had the same house or perhaps you compare it to your own home. If you see a child acting out in the grocery store, your thoughts immediately focus on how you, “hope my kids don’t do that to me when I’m in public.” Rarely do we pick apart the other person without eventually turning the focus back on ourselves.

The same applies to body image. Despite the stress of singing in front of a crowd, the one thing I was paranoid about during my recital was how chunky my arms looked in my performance gown. If I had asked every person in the audience what they were thinking as I stood on stage, I could almost guarantee no one would have mentioned my chunky arms.There is

We become so paranoid with certain areas of our body we forget that no one thinks about our bodies the way we do. If you lose weight, people look at you and think, “Oh…I need to hit the gym.” The focus on you may only be for a second but they are mostly thinking about how they need to eat better or improve a certain part of their physique.

So next time you are in a panic over a couple-pound increase, or a specific area of your body, remind yourself that no one else will even notice.

Keep calm and carry on. There is no need to fret over something no one else is even thinking about.

Posse Discussion: This week we talked about areas of our bodies in which we are self-conscious.  Are you ready to “let go” of that area?  How can you have peace with this part of your body?  i.e. accept it, work to change it, change your perspective, etc.

Click here for more ideas on how to have peace with your body.

Your Lara

 

 

 

Click Here for Day 17!

DAY 6- How Should I Eat?

| Robynn Coates

how should i eat

As you begin this journey, you may be asking yourself, “How should I eat?”  One thing you will find in Peace with Food is that we don’t dictate to you how you should eat.  Remember, Peace with Food is a step-by-step customized lifestyle, tailored specifically for you and that is going to involve you experimenting.  That being said, you can relax because we won’t keep you hanging.  We’ll share with you how we eat and help you find the perfect fit for you.

Initially your head may be spinning.  Should I follow someone’s food plan? Should I go low-carb?  Should I count calories and if so how many should I eat daily?  Someone, please just tell me exactly what to eat!

Although we won’t tell you what to eat, we will give you some guidance and point you in the right direction.  Are you ready?

The first step to Peace with Food (or peace in any area for that matter) is this:  Know yourself to improve yourself. Answer the following questions to help you examine yourself in regards to food:

  1. What eating approaches give me the most peace?  (i.e. high protein – low carb, counting calories, eating only when I am hungry, etc.)
  2. What eating approaches steal my peace?
  3. Do I prefer an approach that is “tight”, “loose”, or somewhere in between?
  4. Do I prefer coming up with my own eating approach via trial and error or would I like to “shop around” for other proven approaches that might work for me with some adjustments.
  5. Do I or any of my family members have restrictions in food due to health conditions?
  6. What does my landscape of eating look like? (i.e. regular family meals, eating out regularly for business, working around food, other temptations that are prevalent in my life, etc.)
  7. What eating approach could I do for rest of my life?
  8. If I could create any eating approach I wanted to it would look like:
  9. What are my comfort foods?
  10. What are my Love-It foods?
  11. What are my Leave-It foods?
  12. What eating occasions give me peace?
  13. What eating occasions bring me sadness, discomfort, or guilt?

Once you answer these questions you can then begin experimenting with the data you have received.  If there is any eating approach that does not give peace, put it aside.  Find the approach that gives you the most peace and then begin “trying it on for size.”  After you have tried it a time or two it’s time to evaluate.  Did it give you peace?  If not, what part of it didn’t give you peace?  Can you tweak it or do you need to pitch it and try something new?

This will help you begin eating in a way that gives peace with food.  Whatever you do, don’t get discouraged. Remember how we said that we failed, and failed, and failed?  As long as you are experimenting, you are making progress, so hang in there.  You will move forward to greater peace if you do not quit!

Posse Discussion: 

Pick and answer a question from the above list and share your response with your posse.

The Peace Coaches

 

 

 

 

Click Here for Day 7!

Peace with Food is…

| Robynn Coates

WHAT IT IS: 

Peace with Food is a step-by-step, customized lifestyle, tailored specifically for you!

WHAT TO EXPECT:

  • Principles!  Unlike diets that focus on rules, Peace with Food relies on principles that will help guide you like a compass.  Follow the peace principles and they will lead you directly to peace!
  • Tools! In order to have Peace with Food you have to find what tools work best for you. We have A LOT of them to share and some will work for you and others won’t. This is okay! Peace with Food is all about finding what speaks to you. Take and tweak what we share, and above all do whatever you need in order to have peace. That is the most important thing!

PWF is...

  • New Life! Because Peace with Food is so different than what you would expect from a diet, you won’t be given a list of requirements of tasks you have to do. We will offer guided questions and thoughts to help you discover what your customized lifestyle to Peace with Food looks like. At times you may feel uncomfortable since the norm is to follow a very specific plan. But remember, we are not lab rats. Each of us is unique so we have to figure out a lifestyle of food, tailored specifically to each individual person.
  • Pep-Talks! You may have moments where you want to rush through our process because the “quick fix” would be so much easier. We had those same feelings. When you catch yourself gravitating back toward the diet mentality, remind yourself of what that future looks like by reading 10 Reasons Diet’s Don’t Work. We will also be there every step of the way, to support and encourage, so you don’t lose sight of what you are fighting for: PEACE.
  • A Game Plan! If the scale fluctuates when you get started in this process, don’t panic. This happened to us, but at the time we had no idea what we were doing! Hopefully, by learning from our mistakes, you can eliminate the amount of fluctuation we experienced. BUT, if you do face this, we encourage you to have a game plan by asking yourself this question: What do I have to lose?  When you really think about it, diets help you lose the weight initially, but then you gain it all back (often times, gaining even more!) Because of this, diets actually take you deeper in the hole.  Peace with Food will allow you to see improvements with every step you take, weight included! So it is worth it, even if the beginning may feel out-of-the-norm. So what do you have to lose? Nothing, because the long-term outcome will be worth it!
  • Ownership! You are the expert of your life. No one knows you better than you. We will ask you to be your own scientist taking a new look at your life by experimenting and observing your likes, dislikes, what will keep you in the game, etc. You will be the expert at knowing yourself , and before long you’ll be able to coach others to do the same!

WHAT TO DO NOW:

Take the 30-Day Peace with Food Peace Challenge by clicking here!

The Peace Coaches

 

Why Diets Don’t Work: Reason #3

| Robynn Coates

Reason #3:  Diets don’t last.

Let’s admit it. Diets are horrible at giving us a plan that will keep us in the game for life. Sure, we may be able to stick to a diet for a few months, but even if we do, it never sticks because we get tired of the control it has over our lives. Remember the popcorn and water diet that Lara went on in college to lose a few pounds? A week later she threw her hands up in defeat because the diet actually caused her to GAIN weight! That’s right, gain! And when this happens don’t you want to scream, “So forget it!” and turn to food out of frustration? There it is, another diet that didn’t last…

Or how about those times you were 100% committed–you were diligent with your workouts, healthy eating, and calorie tracking, and you were able to shed a significant amount of weight. Life was good in regards to dropping pounds, but then what happened? If you are anything like us, you were ready to start having a “normal” life once you lost the weight, but once you got there, you had no idea how to do it. It left you at at a dead-end.Diet Maze

Diets don’t give you the tools to succeed, they just give you the quick fix to lose the weight, leaving you empty-handed, LOST, on how to maintain the weight for life.

So, if diets have no staying power, no ability to keep us in the game, how can we win at a game we are not playing?

We can’t.

Time for a new game plan.

Something we can do for life.  And something that we can be happy about doing.  That’s Peace with Food.  

Are you ready to let go of dieting and try something you can do for life?  Reclaim your life and get back in the game!

lara-robynn1 (1)

Take-Home Message:

Peace with Food is something you can do for life and it is also something that will give you peace and happiness.