Robyn Spurr

Personal Health and Weight Loss Coaching For Women

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You Probably Won’t “Conquer” Emotional Eating – and That’s Okay

Many of my clients tell me they want to eliminate emotional eating forever.

As someone who has struggled with emotional eating, I completely understand the desire to make this behavior go away forever. To never feel compelled to turn to food for soothing or stress relief or out of boredom again.

Some people get there, but most don’t – and that’s okay. You can make mountains of progress without conquering emotional eating altogether.

In my opinion, it makes more sense to work towards less frequent and less intense episodes of emotional overeating. Attempting to “end” emotional overeating once and for all sets us up for disappointment. Any time we overeat, we feel as though we’ve failed. And feeling like a failure is not motivating.

When we work on our emotional overeating from a place of compassion + “aim for a little better”, here’s what tends to happen:

* We build better ways of coping with stress in general. We start adding tools to the toolbox. Instead of JUST eating, we have many more options, even if we still keep eating in the toolbox as one choice.

* We start organizing our lives to remove the stressors we don’t need and can control (e.g. whether we write the holiday letter this year).

* We start realizing that we are less helpless, hopeless, and powerless than the story we told ourselves in the past.

* We cope less with food.

When we DO cope with food:

* We’re consciously aware of it and stay much more “checked in”.

* Eating episodes are less epic and less intense. We eat one chocolate bar instead of three + we’ll often be able to stop well before the point of fullness. We’ll often get to a “that’s enough; I got what I needed” place much more quickly.

* We’re able to recover from any eating episodes more quickly.

* We bring more gentleness, kindness, and compassion to ourselves in our difficult moments.

Rather than “I’m a weak sack of crap”, we think “Hey friend, you’re having a rough time right now, huh? What can we do to calm down and feel better? I’m here with you, you’re OK, we’ll get through this together.”

So rather than “all or nothing, conquer this forever”, shoot for “a little less, a little better, a little bit at a time”.

And maybe you WILL conquer emotional eating forever – but if you don’t, it’ll be way better than it was. 

💙 Robyn

Interested in a one-on-one coaching relationship with me? It would be an honor to work with you if and when the time feels right.

To learn more about Personal Health Coaching click HERE. 

To schedule a Discovery Session click HERE.

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Eliminating Triggers

The path to changing our behavior has very little to do with resolve.

We achieve control, not through willpower but by finding ways to take willpower entirely out of the equation.

The central force for eliminating bad habits, according to social psychologist Wendy Wood, author of “Good Habits, Bad Habits,” is friction. In other words, making bad habits inconvenient.

She cites the ways in which increased friction has produced a decline in smoking: laws that ban it in restaurants, bars, airplanes, and trains; taxes that have helped triple the price of cigarettes in the U.S. in the past twenty years; the purge of cigarettes from vending machines, and of tobacco ads from TV and the radio.

We can apply the same concept to eating behaviors. But first, I think it’s important to explore the science behind cravings.

In an ideal world, your desire to eat would only be triggered by the internal signals that come up from your body to your brain.

Hungry. Seek food!

Except we no longer need to seek food. And our desire to eat is triggered by so much more than physical hunger. We’re bombarded with food all day every day and images of food wherever we turn.

The main problem we face is that seeing + smelling + thinking about food creates an effect that mimics what we experience when we’re physically hungry.

When you see + smell + imagine food, all the same processes that happen when you need food occur. The signals that reach your brain through your senses activate a neurological cascade that result in a surge of insulin + a drop in blood glucose. Lower blood glucose tells your brain you need to eat. Additionally, your stomach relaxes so you have a bigger space for food + need more to make it feel full.

This happens in response to simply seeing, smelling or thinking about food. Which was super helpful back when food was scarce. Today though, not so much.

If you’ve ever wondered why using willpower to overcome a craving feels like pushing a boulder up a hill, this is why. When we don’t respond to the cascade of biological events with food – it feels kind of terrible. Even when we don’t need food.

The most effective way to control our cravings is to eliminate triggers as much as possible.

Since Halloween is just a few days away, here are a few tips specific to Halloween candy.

  • Don’t buy candy until the day before Halloween (or the day of)
  • Have someone in your family hide it if it’s already been purchased
  • Buy something you don’t like
  • Leave the leftovers in a bowl outside at the end of the night (they will ABSOLUTELY disappear)

Bottom line, make healthy options convenient + visible and unhealthy options inconvenient + out of sight.

💙 Robyn

Interested in a one-on-one coaching relationship with me? It would be an honor to work with you if and when the time feels right.

To learn more about Personal Health Coaching click HERE. 

To schedule a Discovery Session click HERE.

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The Potential BENEFITS of Weight Cycling

For years we’ve been told that losing + regaining weight might be detrimental to our health and metabolism.

In 2016, a New York Times article about weight regain among The Biggest Loser contestants went viral.

Many lost hope.

However, little is known about hormone regulation and body fat composition after multiple episodes of weight cycling.

Today, a University of Washington team released a first-of-its-kind study, published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology—Endocrinology and Metabolism that highlights the potential benefits of multiple weight loss attempts.

Repeatedly losing and regaining weight may lead to improved insulin levels and lower body fat percentages in the long term, even during weight regain phases. 

This was not a study funded by Slim Fast or Weight Watchers. The American Journal of Physiology—Endocrinology and Metabolism is a peer reviewed + highly reputable scientific journal. The lead researcher is a medical doctor and fellow at the University of Washington.

While the study was conducted on rats, not humans, there is much to be optimistic about.

After the first cycle, when compared with the controls, the weight cyclers ate less during the weight regain periods and had lower body fat mass and insulin levels. In addition, there was no difference in levels of leptin and ghrelin—hormones that control hunger, appetite and weight regulation—between the two groups, which suggests the stability of hormone levels even throughout periods of weight cycling, the research team explained. “The improvement in fat mass as well as improvement in glucose tolerance seen in our rats that had undergone weight cycling implies metabolic benefits to the periods of caloric restriction, despite the stress of the weight gain times,” the researchers wrote.

Let’s be honest. Very few of us lose the weight + keep it off on the first attempt. I sure didn’t. But eventually – I did. And this new study ought to restore hope for those who’ve bought into the notion that it’s nearly impossible to lose weight for good.  

Believing you can is half the battle.

💙 Robyn

Interested in a one-on-one coaching relationship with me? It would be an honor to work with you if and when the time feels right.

To learn more about Personal Health Coaching click HERE. 

To schedule a Discovery Session click HERE.

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Once I Lose Weight

Most of us think our weight is the main problem that needs to be solved.

I wholeheartedly disagree.

When our obsession with our weight is front and center, we’re unable to focus on any aspect of self-care that doesn’t involve shrinking our bodies.

I’ll be kinder to myself once I lose weight.

I’ll start walking (or go to a yoga class) once I lose weight.

I’ll buy quality clothes that fit well once I lose weight.

I’ll eat what truly feels good in my body once I lose weight.

I’ll book that vacation once I lose weight.

I’ll stop starving myself once I lose weight.

Essentially, we’re neglecting our basic needs and desires until we feel we “deserve” it by losing weight.

This is incredibly unhelpful.

What leads to a healthy body image and long-term healthy behaviors is not a lower weight, but an ability to practice self-care no matter what your weight is.

If you’re wrapped up in hate and shame around your body, you’re not very likely to want to truly take care of it. At least not long-term.

A far more helpful approach is to focus on feeling your best in the body you have now. It’s starting with the end point – practicing daily behaviors that you know make you feel better.

We cannot “control” our weight. But we can shift the focus to practicing healthier habits – a much more attainable goal.

Weight loss is simply a likely side effect of healthy behavior change and consistent self-care.

Starting from a place of kindness and compassion boosts your chances of creating results that stick.

💙 Robyn

Interested in a one-on-one coaching relationship with me? It would be an honor to work with you if and when the time feels right.

To learn more about Personal Health Coaching click HERE. 

To schedule a Discovery Session click HERE.