This week we welcomed our daughter, Charlotte, into the world! 

She captured our hearts instantly and we're overjoyed she's here safe and sound. 

Watching Charlotte is the perfect reminder that we're all born worthy. 

Worthy of love. 

Worthy of respect.

Worthy of equal and fair treatment.  

We're also absolutely, positively perfect just the way we are and we don't have to do anything to be more deserving of love.  Isn't that a relief? 

Let that soak in this week.  You are loved, you are worthy, you belong. 

February is here.  The month of love, dark chocolate, Valentine's and Bachelor episodes where we'll wonder who is going to accept Peter's rose.  

This month is also filled with messages about the importance of loving yourself.  Self-love has gone mainstream and is the answer to all of your problems, especially when it comes to your body’s size!  Experts warn that if you don't have self-love, you can't get a smaller body, your mate or your dreams come true. 

Some argue that the best idea would be to get the body you desire first before going for your mate or your dreams.  So you might think you're loving yourself by dieting, but the truth is, you can't permanently alter your body in a way that's based on self-love.  Dieting and self-love don't go together like the Bachelor and red roses. 

Dieting inherently involves restricting your intake to dangerous levels, denying your hunger, exercising to extremes, ignoring your body's hunger...

The diet industry wants you to believe that if you just rewire your brain to stop desiring food, then food will never be a source of stress. Sounds simple enough: “Ditch your desires and you’ll never want to eat chocolate or ice cream again!”

Nice try, but that’s just about as flawed as telling a smoker who is trying to quit smoking, “Just make your brain not want cigarettes anymore and you’ll be set!”.

Yes, urges and desires around food come from our brain, but those urges and desires stem from a very complicated network that is really, really, REALLY hard to override. This network is comprised of our genetics, our environment, our hormones, and so much more. Most importantly, this innate, complex system is controlled largely by biology -  and not our thoughts.  As much we may *think* we can control our food with our mind, our biologically driven needs and wants will win every time. 

The diet industry also wants you to...

Our kids had two weeks off school over Christmas. At the beginning of the break everyone was hopped up on freedom and anticipation, but by the 2nd week, the excitement had fizzled.  

Life is rough for this crew.  Yes, they were just showered with Christmas gifts and had a house full of things to do, but they still managed to be bored.  One of the kids even asked if she could email the principal to convince him to start school early.  

What do kids do when they're bored?  They ask for extra screen time or to go somewhere or to have more things.  I’d say no to most of it, but If you have kids, you know that saying no once isn't enough. Our kids are no fools, and they will try to beat me down with their continuous requests--ahem demands.

Can I please, please, please do, have, go (fill in the blank). The final plea usually sounds something like everyone else gets to do, have, go (fill in the blank), why won’t you leeeeeeet...

I’m in the home stretch of my 6th pregnancy.  

I won’t miss the heartburn or thigh-high compression socks, but I will miss being pregnant.  

As I continue my anti-diet journey, my pregnancy has helped remind me of an important lesson about intuitive eating.  

One of the 10 principles of intuitive eating is to honor your hunger.  Truly honoring your hunger at any time, much less during pregnancy, can feel scary for anyone who's dieted.  

Like many others who try intuitive eating, I mistakenly used this principle in a way that kept me with a dieter’s mindset for a long time.  I thought that I was doing it "right" by turning this principle into a strict rule that meant I could only eat when I was hungry. 

If I did eat when I wasn’t hungry, I felt like I had failed.  This is what the conversation in my head sounded like: 

What’s wrong with me? 

Why can’t I stop doing this?

Can’t I...

I love this time of year!  The holidays are over and there's a small window of time for everyone to slow down, recover and think ahead about the New Year (and decade!).  For many years, I used this time to solidify the goal that usually held my number one spot year after year which was some form of body control, weight maintenance, food elimination or weight loss.  I was like most American women in thinking that this wasn't just an optional goal, but my duty as a female in our thin obsessed culture.  

What I know now that I wish I would've known then is that dieting and long term weight loss simply don't work.  Studies show that 95% of people who go on a diet will regain the weight they lost and 2/3 of these people will actually gain back more weight than they originally lost. While many diets do work in the short term, the long term results that people want are only achieved by less than 5% of dieters. This so-called successful 5% of...

Can you believe we're in the final stretch of a decade? I don't know about you, but looking back, I think this past decade will forever hold some of my biggest accomplishments.  Owning a Pilates studio, selling my Pilates studio, getting certified through two life coaching programs, teaching yoga and Pilates in various locations and starting my own coaching business.  Most importantly, adding 3 babies to our already family of 4 (plus one more on the way) all while moving 5 times (once across an ocean).  If you haven't taken a moment to think back on your decade, get out a pen and paper and take some notes! 

I've been writing my Monday love letter to you since March and wanted to share a list of the top 10 hits from this year.  Maybe you want to re-read the posts or read them for the first time. 

In the new year, I'm wondering if you'd like an audio version of the weekly letter as well as the written version.  Hit reply with a 1 if...

My top 10 tips for feeling sane around food and your body this holiday season!

It’s December 2nd and here we are in another holiday season. Already there’s been a flurry of activity this past week with thanksgiving and all the Black Friday sales.  This year, Christmas is coming in just 3 weeks (Hanukkah, too) because Thanksgiving was so late in November.

While you might be looking forward to some parts of the holiday season, if you’re feeling crazy around food or embarrassed about the way you look, you’re very likely feeling anxious as well.  For some of you this may not feel like the most wonderful time of year.  

I get it. I’ve been in your shoes and I want to give you some ways that will help ease some of your anxiety.  I hope these tips will help you find a little more joy and allow you to feel a little less stressed.

1.  Remind yourself that your body shape and size has been largely predetermined by your genetics and...

When people make comments about your body.

On a typical day, how many times do people make comments about your body? 

Pick a random day of the week. Listen to the convos surrounding you. See if you can count how many body-related comments you notice. 

People talking about your body. 

People talking about their bodies. 

People talking about how your body compares to theirs.

People whispering about other people’s bodies, too.

“You look amazing! Have you lost weight?”

“Ugh, you’re so skinny—meanwhile, I feel like a fat cow.”

“There’s only a couple of skinny bitches here.”

“I love that dress on you. Where did you get it? It’s really flattering.”

“I can’t believe you’re 40! You look great. What’s your skincare routine?”

{hushed tones} “Cynthia has gained so much weight this year. Wow. What happened?”

It can be pretty startling to realize how...