Awareness

September 11, 2014 By Robyn

Please, Don’t Ever Give Up on Yourself

“The secret of life…is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” -Paulo Coelho

What’s going on in your mind can either make or break you. I can’t stress that enough. Reaching a goal has everything to do with your beliefs and your attitude.

And one of the most destructive (and common) thoughts I hear when it comes to weight loss is…

I can’t do this.

If we believe that we can’t do it, we won’t. Once we attach ourselves to can’t, there is absolutely no way we’ll do what it takes to reach our goals. We’re done. Checked out. Time to throw in the towel and break out the donuts.

This type of thinking comes in a variety of flavors…

I’ll always be fat.
Nothing else has worked, so why bother.
I know I’m going to fail – again.
This isn’t going to work.
This is too hard.

Most of my clients have been on a slew of diets. They’ve invested countless dollars and hours in pursuit of their goal – permanent weight loss. And they’ve often created buckets of evidence for failure along the way.

Tried Weight Watchers and failed.
Tried Atkins and failed.
Tried working out like a crazy person and failed.
Tried the green smoothie diet and failed.
Tried Nutrisystem and failed.

So the minute things don’t go as planned, it’s easy to jump right back on the defeatist bandwagon.

I didn’t lose weight this week. This isn’t going to work.

I binged on cookies. I’ll always be fat.

I stopped journaling after only three days. I know I’m going to fail.

I’m not losing weight fast enough. I can’t do this.

Want to guarantee failure. Keep on believing that you’re going to fail.

You don’t have to choose defeatist thoughts love. When you notice the failure talk running rampant in your mind, try on one of these beauties instead…

I will never give up on myself.
I’m worth the work.
I’m willing to try.
I know this is hard, but I can do hard things.
Change isn’t easy, but nothing is harder than staying stuck where you don’t belong.

I personally tried to lose the weight for good twenty, maybe twenty five times before finally succeeding. Heck, I joined (and quit) Weight Watchers on at least five different occasions.

I want you to know that you can keep trying. I want you to know that you are worth the effort. Even if you’ve tried and failed thirty or forty times or FIFTY times…

…please, don’t ever give up on yourself.

XO Robyn

If you want to learn more about what it’s like to work with a Weight Loss Coach, simply contact me and we’ll set up a FREE Discovery Session. No sales pitch. No gimmicks. No shenanigans. I can’t wait to hear from you.

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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.

August 28, 2014 By Robyn

What’s Your Story?

Have you ever taken the time to listen – like really listen to the story you’ve been telling yourself? If the answer is no – you’re not alone.

We all have a story – – – a collection of thoughts we believe to be true about ourselves.

Some common stories I hear from my clients are…

I’ll always be fat
I’m not worthy
My body is disgusting
My life sucks
There’s something wrong with me

Most of us are totally unaware of our story – it just plays in the background – which is unfortunate, because our story is incredibly powerful.

Our story drives the results we get in life.

I see you. You’re rolling your eyes and thinking this is a bunch of woo – I get it. I felt the same way once. Until my body and my life began to transform. So stay with me Chickadee. Hear me out.

What do you think about yourself on a regular basis? Take a few minutes to peek inside your mind. Go and grab a notepad. I’ll wait.

Now let me share some great news. Your story is not set in stone. It can be changed. And you may not agree with me right now. You may want to hold on to your story for dear life – even if it’s not serving you. That’s a totally normal response.

But consider for a moment, what your life would be like if you stopped believing that something is wrong with you or that you’ll always be fat.

You can let your current story play without interruption, or – you can begin to tell you mind what you want it to think. You can teach it how to do its job well. You can feed it the thoughts you want it to practice.

New Thoughts = New Feelings = New Actions = New Result!

When I first started this work, I uncovered a few powerful beliefs that were driving my negative emotions and destructive behaviors. So I began feeding my mind the thoughts I wanted it to practice and get good at.

Old Belief – I’m broken

New Belief – I’m a human being

Old Belief – I hate my body

New Belief – I have a body

Old Belief – I’m doomed/I’m exactly like my father

New Belief – I get to make my own choices in life

This is important – your new story needs to be believable to you. If you currently believe that your body is disgusting, then telling yourself that you’re perfect in every way is too much of a stretch. Your brain will spit that one right back at you. Sometimes a neutral thought is the best first step.

When we choose to think better feeling thoughts, we begin to experience more positive emotions.

And food just isn’t as appealing when life tastes better.

If you want to learn more about what it’s like to work with a Weight Loss Coach, simply contact me and we’ll set up a FREE information session.

August 20, 2014 By Robyn

How to Process Negative Emotion (without food)

I think there’s a misconception out there that we’re supposed to feel happy all the time.

Think happy thoughts. Stay positive. Turn that frown upside down.

There is room in this life for every emotion. It’s healthy and normal to experience negative feelings. Nevertheless, many of us go to great lengths in order to avoid anything that feels uncomfortable.

We choose distraction via food over feeling – time and time again. We think feeling our negative emotions will be so unbearable that we’re willing to risk our health. Push it down. Cover it up. Resist. Distract. Pretend. Binge. Pass the wine.

If you do nothing else but make the decision that you will be willing to feel your feelings instead of eat, you will lose weight.

Let that really sink in.

If you continue to eat, you will continue to bury your feelings and teach yourself that the way to cope with a negative feeling is to eat.

Or – you can put out the welcome mat. Invite the feeling in. Offer it a chair and some tea. Get to know it better.

If you do this over and over – you WILL lose weight.

So why do we choose to eat instead of feel?

Most of us believe that exploring our negative feelings will suck us into a big black hole of despair – and we’ll never get out.

Most of us believe that inviting the negative feelings in, means they will stay with us – forever. Like a perpetual and horrible houseguest.

Most of us believe that feeling the fear or shame or uncertainty, will inspire the most epic binge eating episode we’ve ever experienced.

How do I know?

Because it’s what I thought, until I tried it. It’s what most of my clients think, until they try it – and get amazing results.

Negative emotions are going to happen. They’re part of the human experience.

Negative emotions aren’t the problem. The problem is our resistance to feeling them.

And the more we resist – the more we’ll eat.

Click here to learn how to process your negative emotions. Seriously, if you’re trying to lose weight – you’ll want to check this out. There are no angry mobs or hungry crocodiles on the other end – just a bunch of awesome stuff to help you lose the weight for good.

XO ~Robyn

Robyn Spurr is a Certified Health Coach, Weight Loss Coach, Personal Trainer and founder of Chickadee Weight Loss.

She helps women learn to manage their emotions without food and reach their healthy, natural weight without all the diet craziness.

August 14, 2014 By Robyn

How We Sabotage Our Success

Last Saturday – while enjoying the sunset and a nice glass of wine with my husband, I found myself thinking…

Life is good.

Such a lovely thought, right? Who doesn’t want life to be good? Heck, there’s an entire clothing line devoted to it.

Well, here’s how it went down. Immediately after thinking, life is good – my brain jumped straight to…

It won’t last!

And if we believe that our happiness won’t last, we’ll take actions to ensure we get what we’re wishing for.

Because we will always try to prove ourselves right.

That’s why we have to be vigilant and pay very close attention to our thinking.

Truth is, I’ve had a bunch of practice with things not going well. I’m kind of awesome at dealing with things not going well – dysfunctional childhood, a decades long weight struggle, an eating disorder, family drama, debt – yada, yada.

But things going well – a happy marriage, a successful business, fulfilling work, peace with food and my body – this is fairly new territory.

I’ve sabotaged my happiness and success more times than I can count. When struggle has been our default mode – we’ll find ways to create struggle. Why?

It’s human nature.

Our brains like to do what they’ve always done. They like to speed along the super-highways created by decades of practicing the same thoughts and behaviors. Thinking and acting in a new way forces the brain to work harder – it has to create new connections and pathways. That’s why change can be so difficult.

The good news is that change is absolutely possible if we’re determined and willing to keep practicing until the new habit is formed.

So here’s my new thought – because I’m done with the self-sabotage nonsense…

I can be as happy as I want to be.