Robyn Spurr

Personal Health and Weight Loss Coaching For Women

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Who Succeeds at Losing Weight (for GOOD)

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I’ve been counseling women on weight loss for a number of years now. Those who succeed have one thing in common. They are whole-heartedly committed to becoming a person who lives a healthy lifestyle. They are committed to transforming their identity – not just their dress size.

If you want to lose a significant amount of weight (for good), you must become a healthier person. You must fundamentally change the way you think about yourself. And changing the way you think about yourself will drive actions that support your new identity.

Permanent change happens when we go all in – when we want to become a person who has lost the weight for good more than anything.

Ask yourself, am I embracing my weight loss journey or cursing it? In other words, do you view the process of losing weight as a necessary “evil” that needs to be endured, or an adventure that will ultimately result in a healthier and happier you?

To obtain success, you must value the process of transformation even more than the destination. 

Geneen Roth sums it up beautifully…

“Ask yourself if you are in this for the long run – if it’s only your weight you want to change or if you are willing to use your eating patterns as a portal to the inner universe. And if the answer is the latter, then there is no end to what you can learn, be, understand, become.” 

If the answer is the latter, then let’s chat Chickadee. 

XO

~Robyn

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.

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How to Process Negative Emotion (without food)

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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.

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Why Fat Happiness is the Key to Losing Weight

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There’s a tagline after my signature on every email I send. It says…

You can’t hate yourself healthy. Healthy is a place you get to with love.

So many of us want to lose the weight so we can escape the pain of being in an overweight body. But here’s the truth – it’s what I had to really “get” before I was able to lose the weight for good.

Ready?

You won’t accept your body – no matter how much weight you lose, until you learn how to accept your body right now.

Did that kind of blow your mind? Yeah, me too. Let me explain.

When we think we’ll be happier when we’re thinner, we block ourselves from enjoying life fully right now. We lock ourselves in a prison and the only way out is to become physically smaller.

Can you see how painful that situation is and why it might not be the best way to inspire weight loss?

Try this. Recall a time when you stumbled upon an old photo of yourself and thought – whoa, I looked soooo good back then. But did you think you looked good in that moment? Or were you wishing you were thinner?

You don’t need to be smaller in order to be happier. Now that doesn’t mean you give up on losing weight. But losing weight in order to escape pain doesn’t work. Your problems will follow you – you can’t melt them away on the treadmill.

My mentor, Brooke Castillo summed it up perfectly on her most recent podcast:

“If we can’t learn to appreciate this moment, we won’t appreciate the future moments either.”

Let that really sink in.

Your capacity for joy is the same today as it will be a year from now – or 10 years from now – or 50 pounds less than now.

Happiness doesn’t magically materialize because a number finally appears on the scale. Happiness shows up when we make a decision to accept ourselves and make the most of our lives. Happiness shows up when we stop waiting for that future “better” moment to arrive.

  • When I can retire
  • When I can rock a pair of skinny jeans
  • When this project is over
  • When the kids move out
  • When I find the perfect man

Losing weight from a place of acceptance and joy is SO MUCH EASIER. You don’t have to wait until you have that elusive thigh gap or the perfect job or a house on the beach to feel good.

You can still want all of those things – go out there and rock your goals – but stop telling yourself that you’ll be happier when you have them.

If your happiness is dependent on a big goal, you are cheating yourself out of feeling those emotions during the journey towards reaching your goal.

And once you really understand that – once you start living instead of wishing and grasping and waiting – you’ll finally be able to release the extra weight. Losing weight will no longer feel like a never ending battle.

You’re not hungry for more cookies – but you’re probably hungry for more love, more peace, more inspiration, more contentment. And you can have all of those things – right now – no matter what you weigh.

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.

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Doubt and the Art of Getting Unstuck

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Heck, even a “life” coach can get a little lost at times.

A few months back, I found myself wondering…

Am I on the right path?

Questioning our path isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It can lead to validation, inspiration or a new, more appropriate path.

On the flip side, questioning our path can also lead to a state of debilitating doubt.

And I was stuck – unequivocally stuck – until I remembered the wise words of one of my mentors.

Our circumstances don’t cause suffering. WE create suffering with our thinking.

It was time to get to the bottom of my doubt.

When we feel a little lost, our first inclination is usually to blame the path we’re on.

Maybe I need to move to Argentina.

Or become a chef.

Or sell it all and travel the country in a Winnebago.

Sometimes a radical change in our path is exactly what we need – but making big decisions while feeling emotionally charged will usually lead to a negative result. Most of the time, we’re simply trying to escape the real issue – and the real issue will pack itself in our suitcase and follow us to Argentina.

It was time to get clear on what was causing my doubt before making any big decisions. I suspected an underlying toxic thought was the culprit, so I scheduled a self-coaching session with myself and got to work.

Step #1 – Find the Emotion

How was I feeling?

  • Stuck
  • Not enough
  • Wishy-washy

Step #2 – Identify the Thought

What was I thinking that was causing me to feel these emotions?

In that moment of reflection, I discovered the three poisonous words behind my doubt and suffering.

I NEED MORE.

Yikes. What a big, fat lie!

The good news – if I can cause suffering with my thinking, I can also undo suffering with my thinking.

It was time to find a new thought to replace the lie I had bought into.

Step #3 – Create a New Feeling

How do I want to feel?

  • Sure
  • Satisfied
  • Grateful

Step #4 – Find a New Thought

What new thought will create these desired feelings? 

I have everything I need.

Do I believe this thought?

Oh yes, I believe it!

Our minds are capable of creating misery. We think thousands of thoughts each day. Plenty of them are true, while many others are lies.

When we believe the lies, we can cause ourselves great pain.

That’s what I did.  And I’ll do it again. And so will you.

Next time you find yourself paralyzed by doubt or fear or worry, look for the lie.

Because you don’t have to believe everything you think.

~XO Robyn