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 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!

DAY 3- You Deserve This

January 3, 2015January 11, 2015 | Robynn Coates

A couple days ago we talked about rating your peace. To some it may seem like too simple of a concept, but let me warn you, don’t underestimate its power. When I began taking a deeper look at my life in regards to food, and honestly rating my level of peace before, during, and after I ate, I noticed a shift in my life. I would be like a kid on Christmas morning, rubbing my eyes because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing before me–something special, something magical–a change for the better.

For once, it wasn’t a diet or rule telling me how or what to eat. This time, it was my inner self that suddenly started making different choices. And surprisingly, the decision to continue trying various PWF Tools wasn’t very difficult either. I actually wanted to give them a try, because I knew the results may give me even greater levels of peace. To this day, some tools work better for me than others, but that is the beauty of trying them. You get to tweak and adjust them, based of the level of peace they give you, and you can alter them to work to your advantage. You deserve this

Now as great as all of this sounds, it is important to address that some of you may still be a little timid to keep trying Peace with Food…because you are scared. Scared…to see a change. I want you to know that those feelings are completely normal. I was there at one time too. You feel vulnerable because you don’t know what the outcome will be and you’ve tried so many things over the years that have let you down. Failure after failure with weight-loss attempts continue to haunt you, so why try this?

All I can say, dear friend, is I am taking the time to write you today because this has changed my life. And it’s not like I’ve only lived it out for a short couple of weeks. It’s actually coming upon 4 years that I’ve lived this way and I am still so “awed” by it that I have to share it with you. So for what it is worth, please, come join me, and invite others to come along too. Give it a chance. I want to do this with you because I know it can improve your life too…

Posse Discussion: What reservations do you have about trying the 30-Day Peace with Food challenge? Why? Share with your group.

Click here for Day 4!

Carrie Underwood Thighs

December 9, 2014January 10, 2015 | Robynn Coates

One of the things Lara and I have learned in this process of Peace with Food is that if you want to walk in peace and freedom you have to get real.

Real with yourself. Real with others.

And we also realized that if we wanted to help others experience the peace we now have we would have to be transparent.

So, hopefully that is what you’ll find here.

The truth.

Not doctored up.

Not watered down.

But real, raw, and brutally honest.

And speaking of brutally honest, have you ever noticed that diets and weight loss programs rarely talk about some of the more . . . what shall I call it . . personal stuff? Sure, they will talk about what to eat and how to exercise, but when it comes to self image and the way you perceive your body, it is . . .

Cricket.

But not here. So let me share with you a snapshot of my self-image and my body.

Most of my life I was not happy with my body. My biggest area of contention?

My thighs.

I had always wanted pencil-shaped thighs, the ones like Carrie Underwood and many of the models you see in magazines, not the drumstick shaped ones I was blessed with (yes, I now actually see them as a blessing!).

So, off I went – pursuing my mission of pencil-shaped thighs! I went on many strict diets (obviously before PWF) and finally lost a significant amount of weight getting me down to an all-time low. And here is the crazy thing. I actually loved the way I looked, the way I fit in my clothes, and the way I felt. But because I was so obsessed with getting those pencil-shaped thighs I couldn’t even enjoy the body I had. Talk about missing the forest for the trees!

My all-or-nothing mindset (which by the way I overcame via Peace with Food – yet another perk of PWF!) would not allow me to enjoy my life and my body. It saddens me to think of the parts of my life I wasted because I couldn’t enjoy my life unless I was “perfect”. And it makes me all that more determined to help others break free from this insane cycle.

It took me getting down to the bottom of my BMI to realize that I would never have Carrie’s pencil-shaped thighs, but it was Peace with Food that got me to the point where I don’t care about those thighs anymore. I have learned to accept me “as is”. Sure, I’ll strive to change those parts of me (both inside and out) that are within my control, but I’m not going to extremes and I’ll only do what gives me peace.

What is your version of Carrie Underwood thighs? If you were given one wish and could change any part of you, what would it be?

Own up to it. Admit. And be honest.

Is it within your power to change? If so, will the requirements to do so bring peace?

If not, I hope you’ll let it go and learn from my lesson:

Life’s too short not to embrace your imperfect self and get back to the most important things in life.

Take-Home Message:

Get real about your self-image. Change what you can change and let go of the rest. It is time to embrace life!

Why Diets Don’t Work: Reason #7 and #8

December 5, 2014January 10, 2015 | Robynn Coates

Reason #7: Diets Are Not Transferable to the Rest of Your Life

Reason #8: Diets Focus on the Distant Future

Guess what? When we started having peace with food we quickly realized something: Other areas of our life were improving as well! It was crazy—not only were we experiencing peace with food but, without realizing it, we began applying the same principles to other areas of our life. Before we knew it, we could see the quality of our relationships and experiences increasing. Life, overall, just kept getting better and better!

We have to admit, realizing that our Peace with Food concept was spilling over into other areas of our life took us by complete surprise. When we decided to kick diets to the curb a few years ago, we really had no idea what direction we were headed. We just knew the outcome we wanted: to be able to live in peace and no longer let someone (or something) take control of our lives.

So how did we get there? We experimented. With every day, we tried, and tweaked, and tried again—committed to find a way to break free of the leash that had us by the ankles for years. Every time we felt restricted or uneasy, we dissected the situation to see how we could make changes to have more peace. This process became so normal that we naturally did it in all areas of our life. Day by day we continued to adjust and make changes, and with every step we began to feel more liberated.

This brings us to another cool thing about Peace with Food. From the moment you decide to embrace its lifestyle, you instantly feel your internal peace-gauge go up simply by saying good-bye to that old restricted way of life. Diets, on the other hand, instantly force you to give up savored aspects of life because their rules don’t accommodate them. They focus on giving you happiness in the distant future—whenever it is that you actually reach your goal weight. Sadly, most of us never even get there, so we never get to relish in that state of happiness.

Gladly, you don’t have to worry about that any more. Peace with Food can set you free the second you decide to allow it. Better yet, your entire life will improve because of it. All you have to do is take the first step and we’ll help guide you the rest of the way. More to come…