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.

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!

This week we are talking about FOOD. Yes, food! So to get started, I am going to share with you my #1 favorite and most helpful tool (a.k.a. skill) when it comes to food. I call it Don’t Waste Your Calories.

Initially you may be thinking that I’m meaning you need to count your calories and stay within a very specific calorie intake. Well, not so fast. Not wasting your calories, to me, is actually only eating foods that 1) Absolutely love OR 2)Benefit me nutritionally–that’s right, healthy foods!

You may be asking, “People only eat food they love, don’t they?” (Unless, of course, they are on a diet.)  Well that’s what I used to think! But once I started asking myself the following questions after I put something in my mouth, my perspective changed a bit: Do I really LOVE how this tastes? Do I just like it? Or am I just eating it because it is available?

Let me give you some examples of ways I used to waste my calories:
-Eating leftover food from my kids’ plates as I cleaned off the table.
-Grabbing a few cold french fries as I get up from the table at a restaurant.
-Pizza crust (I never really realized how much I don’t LOVE pizza crust!)
-Random candy I found in the house or that kids left on the counter.
-An unopened bag of chips while I was cooking dinner.
-I am not hungry, but I head to the kitchen to try to “find” something that sounds good.
-Eating food that is easily available (food that is right there), not because I actually love it.

I have actually gone so far as to spit stuff out if I taste it and realize I didn’t love it. For example, I might take a bite of a cookie and notice it is stale as soon as it hits my tongue. There is no need to consume 50 calories of a stale cookie–that would be 50 calories I could use on something I actually enjoy!–so in that instance I would usually spit it out in a napkin and throw it away. 50 calories here and there could really add up. Over the course of a month, look how many calories you could avoid simply by cutting out the foods that don’t meet your love expectations!

Obviously there will be situations where you need to eat certain foods that you may not love, such as at a dinner party when it would be rude to spit it out.  But majority of the time you have the ability to stop or throw away what you are eating if it isn’t meeting your qualifications 😉 And remember, only you can decide what your taste buds desire the most.

So there you have it! To utilize the Don’t Waste Your Calories tool, make every calorie count by either making sure you love how it tastes or it provides nutrition for your body (or adjust this tool by defining it in a way that gives you peace!).

Posse Discussion:

Part 1: Name one food item that you have been wasting your calories on because you mindlessly eat it.
Part 2: If you were to eliminate this food item, what #peace would it give you (Use Peace Chart below)? If completely eliminating this item brings no peace, what can you do that would give you peace?

Click Here for Day 5!