Robyn Spurr

Personal Health and Weight Loss Coaching For Women

Weight Loss Coaching

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Trying to Do It Perfectly (+ a peek at my food journals)

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When I introduce a new weight coaching tool to my clients, they sometimes feel compelled to do it perfectly – right away. And it usually always backfires.

Take the Hunger Scale for example (please click here if you missed last week’s post on this topic).

The purpose of the Hunger Scale is not to do it perfectly. In order to get really good at something, we have to be willing to be a beginner. For example – it’s just not possible to rock out a competition worthy tango after our first ballroom dance class, right?

When doing it perfectly is our main objective – it’s easy to become frustrated and give up. But when the goal is to learn – we simply cannot fail.

To recap, the purpose of using the Hunger Scale is to…

  • get acquainted with our natural hunger and fullness cues
  • recognize when (and why) we want to eat to satisfy emotional hunger
  • notice how our bodies feel when we eat smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day
  • notice how much food it takes for us to feel satisfied (3/4 full)
  • notice how we feel when we eat to satisfaction vs how we feel when we eat until stuffed
  • help us discover the way of eating that works best for our unique body

For the past few days, I’ve been keeping a food journal using the Hunger Scale. I like to revisit the tools I teach to my clients on occasion – and I’m ALWAYS amazed at how much I learn. Every.Single.Time.

There is no finish line when it comes to self awareness and development – and that’s a good thing.

Now listen up my sweet perfectionist Chickadees…

If you’ve been trying to do it perfectly or you’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to start, then pretty please (with a cherry on top) consider approaching this work with knowledge and awareness as the goal.

You can use the Hunger Scale without changing a single thing about the way you eat. Let me say that again – you can use the Hunger Scale without changing a single thing about the way you eat.

Just start applying the scale to your eating – and I promise you will learn SO MUCH about yourself and your relationship with food. This isn’t a diet. There is no right or wrong. No good or bad.

If you’re learning and becoming more aware, then you’re already doing it perfectly.

*****

Curious to see what a food journal using the Hunger Scale looks like? Then click here to view my actual food journals from this week (+ food pics and self coaching notes). 

Spoiler alert – there is not one single day where I eat from -2 to + 2 all day long – and that’s okay. In fact, it’s perfect!

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.

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Be Willing to Suck at It

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Wouldn’t it be nice if we could be experts right away – without all the flopping and floundering and failing?

Or would it?

Last week, I gave my very first webinar. It required stepping WAY out of my comfort zone.

Let’s just pretend that my comfort zone “boundary” is the state of Colorado. Well, giving a webinar (WITH my oh so experienced and brilliant mentor) required me to venture past the Colorado state line and travel to – oh, I don’t know – Mongolia.

I’m not exaggerating. Okay, maybe a teeny bit, but…

…as a child, my shyness and social anxiety were so severe that my first grade teacher recommended I see a therapist. I’ve come a pretty long way since then.

But here’s the deal. I was willing to fail, to suck at it, to make mistakes – because it’s the ONLY way to improve and get better.

Growth isn’t easy. We have to be willing to experience some discomfort. There is no short cut. We can’t go around. We have to go through.

The good news – knowledge and confidence and success are on the other side of that temporary discomfort.

I say this to my clients all the time.

On Tuesday, I gave my second webinar. And it was so much better.

And one day, when I’m a webinar rock star – I’ll be so glad that I was willing to suck at it.

***

To listen to my second webinar on weight coaching, click here. And if you REALLY want to hear the first one – – – oh hell no, it’s been locked away in a vault – in Mongolia.

***

Robyn Spurr is a Certified Weight Loss Coach, Certified 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 Coaching, click here.

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Airports, Anxiety and Overcoming Emotional Eating

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A few weeks ago, I found myself standing at the baggage carousel at Denver International Airport – overcome with anxiety.

It was Monday – and I had just returned home from a funeral in New Jersey – but the anxiety had nothing to do with the funeral.

In the past, I likely would have dashed into the nearest convenience store and bought three or four candy bars.

Snickers. Three Musketeers. Milky Way. Twix.

I would have locked myself inside a bathroom stall and scarfed them all down – one by one.

There would have been no savoring – just a frantic attempt to distract myself from the discomfort of the anxiety.

That’s not what I did.

Instead of devouring candy bars, I focused on what I was thinking…

“I just want to go home.” 

“I wish I didn’t check my bag.”

“If I didn’t check my bag, I’d be on the road already.

“I’m so tired.”

My thinking was causing my anxiety. 

Our thoughts always create our feelings.

I chose to feel the anxiety, rather than bury it in chocolate. Like I always did in the past. When I was obese.

So I stood there and repeated…

This is anxiety. I feel anxious because I’m thinking thoughts that are causing anxiety. Anxiety can’t kill me. It’s only a feeling. 

And I took a few deep breaths.

My bag finally arrived and I headed home.

The truth is – we overeat because we don’t want to deal with what we’re feeling. 

We’d rather distract ourselves with food (or wine or drugs) than feel. We make a conscious decision to distract – to cover up – instead of feel. 

And that’s okay – but be honest with yourself. Stop blaming the delicious food or your lack of willpower or the situation you’re in for your overeating.

You must understand why you’re overeating before you can overcome it.

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.

If you’re interested in learning how Weight Loss Coaching can help you overcome Emotional Eating, consider signing up for a one hour Discovery Session. 

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How to Have Fewer Problems

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There’s an ugly old beige car parked on the corner of my block. One of the windows is busted out and covered with plastic. It’s been there for weeks or months – I’m not sure. Sometimes it goes away – but it always comes back – to the same spot.

And I don’t care.

A few years ago, the car would have driven me nuts.

I would have carried on about it to my husband. Complained to the neighbors. Gotten pissed off every time I drove by.

But I’ve learned so much in the past few years.

I’ve learned that trying to control the world and the people around me is a monumental waste of time and energy.

All it does is create suffering in the form of anger, resentment, disappointment, and sadness.

And the reason so many of my clients overeat is to escape their suffering.

When you can let things be how they are – and not how you think they should be – you can release so much unnecessary suffering.

If you stop making things a problem, they stop being a problem.

Fewer problems, less suffering – decreased desire to overeat.

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.