Robyn Spurr

Personal Health and Weight Loss Coaching For Women

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A Kitchen Must Have

My hubby and I aren’t the type to go overboard with gift giving during the holidays. We have LOVE, and that’s the best gift of all. Yep, I’m a big old sap.

However, a few years ago Brett bought me the BEST Christmas gift ever. He handed it to me along with a disclaimer. Something like, “I know most women don’t like getting domestic gifts, but I thought you might like this.”

Say what? Like it, I LOVE it! By the way Brett, you can buy this chick stuff for the kitchen all day long.

Want to know what it was? A Thermapen. And I have no idea how I survived all those years in the kitchen without it.

What’s a Thermapen? It’s a super rad cooking thermometer. Here’s a description from the website:

The Super-Fast Thermapen™ is a professional tool (originally designed for commercial kitchens, labs and manufacturing plants) that has become the top consumer cooking thermometer for home use. It’s popularity among celebrity chefs, cooking magazines, top foodies, bloggers and competition BBQ teams have made the Thermapen™ into an essential tool in the best-equipped home kitchens and backyard BBQ rigs.

They cost about $89 and you can purchase one from my favorite store, Amazon.com. Now go and get one Chickadee. It’s absolutely worth the price and you’ll never, ever overcook a steak again. And that steak better be grass fed.

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Join the Perfectly Imperfect Club

Once upon a time, I convinced myself that I needed to weigh 125 pounds without a single trace of cellulite on my ass, BEFORE I could launch my personal training business.

What a crock of shit!

If you want success and happiness in this life, the actions you take must be fueled by feelings of excitement and curiosity.

If I still believed that original thought, the one fueled by insecurity, I surely would have given up by now. That kind of destructive thinking, the type that causes you to feel BAD, it’s pure poison my Chickadees, and it only leads to BAD results. Every single time!

 Give this a try. Next time a negative thought pops up, and it will, choose a new and better feeling thought. Check it out:

  • Negative Thought: “Would you look at those stomach rolls”
  • Feeling: Shame, Disgust…
  • New Thought: “This is my only body and I choose to accept it as it is right now”
  • Feeling: Acceptance, Peace…

Below are some other replacement thoughts. Try them on for size. If they don’t fit, go ahead and create your own.

  • “I don’t need to weigh (xyz) to be happy, I can choose happiness right now”
  • “Without this body, I couldn’t hug or laugh or sing”
  • “I am perfectly imperfect and that’s okay” My personal favorite!

You make it seem so simple Robyn.

It IS simple, but it’s NOT always easy. Those negative thoughts, the ones you’ve been playing over and over in your head for years and decades, they’ve worn some pretty deep grooves. Like super-highways in your brain. New thinking can feel like you’re moving boulders and trees, just to make way for a hiking trail.

But over time, that hiking trail becomes worn and easier to navigate. After years of practicing your new, better feeling thought, it too will become a super-highway. And the destination will be a much happier place.

Wondering about that old highway? You won’t use it anymore. It’s too full of potholes and weeds now.

Remember, your thought must hold true for you and make YOU feel good when you think it. Go ahead, give it a try. Perhaps one day, (maybe today) you’ll decide to stop beating yourself up and become a member of the Perfectly Imperfect Club. Life is good here.

 

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These Parsnips are Delicious!

Back when I was beginning my weight loss journey, I would stumble upon health articles spewing “nonsense” like, once you start eating a healthy diet, you’ll no longer crave junk food.

Really? My thoughts at the time were something like…

“You’re a wacky health nut, nobody actually craves that stuff.”

or

“Seriously, you must have some mutant health food loving gene or something.”

Well, I’m going to share some news with you. Once you get used to eating REAL food and eliminate the processed crap for long enough, you really DO stop craving the junk. Seriously!

Now, I am not a girl who was raised on health food. Most of the veggies I consumed as a kid came from a can, usually green beans or creamed corn. In my teens and 20’s my diet looked something like: pizza, pasta, ice cream, french fries, nachos, those cheese filled pretzel things and beer.

Yesterday, after cooking up a batch of Roasted Root Veggies, the following words came out of my mouth:

“These parsnips are delicious!”

My hubby immediately started laughing and said, “those are four words you just don’t hear very often.” He’s right. But they WERE delicious.

So here’s the deal Chickadees, healthy food CAN be delicious! One of the assignments I do with my Weight Loss Coaching clients is to have them identify 10 healthy meals that they would enjoy eating. Guess what? They come up with 10 and usually keep on going.

I’ll be posting a video of me whipping up a batch of roasted veggies in the coming weeks, but until then, check out this recipe from nutiva.com and give veggies a chance.

 

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“Husband Approved” Veggie & Goat Cheese Quinoa Patties

veggiequinoapatties

Think quinoa is a “girlie” food – think again. My hubby couldn’t get enough of these quinoa patties. Must be the goat cheese.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups cooked quinoa
  • 1 carrot, shredded or finely diced
  • 3 green onions, finely diced
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon thyme
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs or panko
  • 3 oz softened goat cheese
  • 1-2 tablespoons avocado oil (feel free to use olive oil if you don’t have avocado)
  • sliced avocado (for garnish)
  • your favorite hummus

Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl combine the first 5 ingredients (quinoa, carrot, green onion, salt, pepper) and mix well.

2. Stir in the beaten eggs, bread crumbs and goat cheese until well blended.

3. Form into patties about 1 inch thick (I got about 8)

4. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add patties. I can usually fit about four at a time.

5. Cook for ~8 minutes, or until the bottom is golden. Flip and cook on the other side until golden (~5 or 6 minutes)

6. Remove onto a paper towel to absorb excess oil.

7. Heat another tablespoon of oil and cook the remainder of the patties.

8. Top with a dollop of hummus and some sliced avocado or your garnish of choice.

*Inspired by this recipe over at Seaweed & Sassafras.

Robyn Spurr is a Certified Health Coach, Weight Loss Coach, Personal Trainer and founder of Chickadee Weight Loss. She helps women reach their healthy, natural weight and stay there without all the diet craziness.

For more information on Weight Loss Coaching, click here.