Robyn Spurr

Personal Health and Weight Loss Coaching For Women

Simplify

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Shame Free Eating

Healthy eating does not mean eating “good” foods and avoiding “bad” foods.

I wholeheartedly recommend you toss those labels out with the trash. Rubbish – be gone!

Food means different things to different people. Food can be…

  • fuel
  • reward
  • punishment
  • escape
  • shame
  • freedom
  • a way to bond with others
  • a way to check out

For me, food is mostly about information.                                          

Every time you choose to eat one thing over another, you’re voting for what’s really important to you in the here and now. That’s all. No good or bad. No right or wrong. Just a choice based on what matters most to you in that particular moment. Information about your current priorities.

We might choose one food over another…

  • to connect with loved ones
  • to fit in
  • to truly nourish our body
  • to honor our heritage or family traditions
  • to take the edge off a tough day
  • for straight-up joy and pleasure
  • because it’s convenient
  • etc. etc. etc.

No judgement here. You get to decide on your priorities. And sometimes other things win out over nutrition.

Instead of judging your food choices as good or bad, consider the reason behind them. And if that reason is to eat for pure pleasure, own it. Slow down and truly savor what you’re eating.

Whatever you decide to eat, drink, or do – choose with intention. When you own your choices instead of judging them, shame and guilt begin to melt away.

XO ~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 one-on-one Health Coaching click HERE. 

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Environment Matters

Why?

It’s 10:00 in the evening, the kids are finally in bed, you’ve been going non-stop since sunrise and you want a snack.

You open the fridge. There’s a container of leftovers, a granny smith apple, some red grapes and aha! – a package of Hostess Cupcakes.

You reach for the cupcakes.

While most of us strive to eat well, the actions we take don’t always sync up with our goals.

We don’t set out to overeat – or choose unhealthy foods. No one wants to become overweight. So why are two thirds of Americans classified as overweight or obese?

Your brain is to blame.

The problem doesn’t have to do with a lack of willpower or not knowing what to eat. Our neurological response to food has evolved over millions of years. During most of that time food was difficult to come by. Today, by comparison, we’re bombarded by cheap + highly palatable food everywhere we turn. And our brain chemistry is such that it prefers the sugar + salt + fat over the apple.

So what can we do? Because living primitively just isn’t an option.

The very best way to regulate these instincts is to design your environment in such a way that it nudges you toward making healthier choices.

In other words, keep healthy stuff near you and convenient.

Make your routines and environment work for you, rather than against you.

Keep unhealthy stuff away from you and inconvenient.

Make it hard for unhealthy stuff to get to you. If it doesn’t help you reach your goals, you don’t need it near you.

When faced with the choice between a cupcake and an apple, our brain will ALWAYS favor the cupcake.

If you want to lose weight and maintain that weight loss, a kitchen makeover is perhaps the best way to set yourself up for success.

Here are some steps you can take…

1. Consider purchasing smaller quantities of (or getting rid of) “red-light foods.” Red-light foods are foods that are just bad news for you. Maybe they make you feel sick, or they trigger you to eat too much, or you know they’re an unhealthy choice for you. If it’s not there in the first place, you won’t have to resist + use willpower.

2. If you or members of your family aren’t ready to part with certain red-light foods, consider putting them in hard to reach or out of the way places.

3. Keep the treats that others like, but you don’t find to be an overeating trigger. (e.g. if your spouse likes strawberry ice cream, but you’re not a fan, consider that a potential win-win situation.)

4. Stock up on healthy foods + snacks that you like. Put them in places where they’re easily accessible.

Most of our food decisions have nothing to do with physical hunger, but are determined instead by what and who is around us, along with our habits and familiar routines.

By changing your environment — even just a little bit — you can set yourself up for success.

XO ~Robyn

I work with women who want to learn how to create real + lasting health changes. We’ll use a sustainable, practice-based approach to build healthy habits into your life, one day at a time for an entire year.

As your coach, I’ll provide accountability + direction + support every step of the way. I’ll help you stay consistent, no matter what life throws at you.

If this approach resonates with you, CLICK HERE for details on how to work with me.

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Stress Management + Movement During Perimenopause

A study from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests that estradiol fluctuations common during the menopausal transition may enhance emotional sensitivity to stress.

If you’ve noticed mood swings and more frequent feelings of rejection, anger and irritability as you approach menopause, you’re not alone.

In other words, you’re not losing it, you’re just perimenopausal. Your tolerance for stress has diminished.

Stress isn’t just a feeling of being pulled in too many directions. Stress comes in many forms…

  • Exercise (too much or too intense or none at all = metabolic stress)
  • Nutritional deprivation and obsession (counting every calorie or macros, not eating enough food to fuel body processes, obsessing about non-GMO or gluten free)
  • Sleep deprivation
  • Life changes (a new job, losing a job, moving, sick parents)
  • Parenting stress

If you’re doing everything “right” and not seeing results on the scale, stress is the likely culprit.

How do you know your body is under stress? Here are a few indicators…

  • You’re hungry all the time
  • You have lots of cravings
  • You have low energy

If this sounds like you, stop being a dieter. In other words, stop letting food and exercise be your only weight loss tools.

Eating less + exercising more (the usual approach) is not going to give you results. It may work in the short run (maybe). But if stress is high, that’s the essential piece to focus on.

The body deals with all types of stress the same way. It doesn’t differentiate.

  • Too much exercise = stress
  • Being sedentary = stress
  • Too much food = stress
  • Too little food = stress
  • Obsessing over calories or macros or points = stress
  • Not enough sleep = stress
  • Commuting in traffic = stress
  • Teenagers = stress

Eating less and exercising more is exactly what your body DOES NOT need if your metabolism is already stressed out.

Instead, give your metabolism a vacation. Let it soak up some sun and read a trashy romance novel.

What does a metabolic vacation really mean? It means doing more rest-based or pleasurable activities. One activity per day is the goal. That said, start where you are – and build on.

Ideas…

  • Walking at a leisurely pace
  • Sleeping more or napping
  • Tai Chi
  • Massage
  • Sauna
  • Bath
  • Meditation. Seriously, this is life changer. Don’t know where to start? Check out this book or this one or this podcast or the Buddhify app.
  • Coloring, painting, drawing, woodworking, knitting
  • Restorative or gentle yoga
  • Turning off the news while you eat and listening to calming music instead
  • Drinking tea
  • Spending time in nature
  • Funny movies
  • Sex (yep, I went there)

Get off the internet. Turn off CNN. Don’t look at email. Give your brain some downtime.

The easiest way to do this? Walk every day. A nice slow leisurely walk. Walking relaxes the nervous system and provides beneficial movement.

If you like to “kill it” at the gym, consider scaling back metabolic or CrossFit type workouts to two days a week. Add more movement (walking, hiking, taking the stairs) and decrease intense exercise. Remember, intense exercise is perceived by the body as stress. We want to find that sweet spot. Not too much, not too little.

I can’t say what’s best for you, but here’s the plan I’ve been following based on the latest research…

  • Walk for 45-60 minutes as many days as possible
  • Two 30 minute metabolic workouts/week (boxing)
  • Two strength training sessions (split squats, pullups or dumbbell rows, pushups, overhead press x 2 sets)

Sometimes the boxing or strength session gets swapped out for yoga – depending on how my body feels.

Now this is a lot. I get it. I’ve been exercising regularly for years. If it all feels way too overwhelming, just walk. Start there. Walking is perhaps the BEST way to take care our body + mind.

Once you’ve developed a solid walking habit, add a strength session or metabolic workout. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

As we get older, stress management and movement (not exercise) become more important. As our hormones begin to shift, we need to shift our priorities.

Work with your body, not against it.

XO ~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 one-on-one Health Coaching click HERE. 

To schedule a Discovery Session click HERE.

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What’s the Rush?

Have you seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?

It happens to be one of my all-time favorite movies. My childhood best friend Jaimee and I know every line + every song.

Do you remember the awful Veruca Salt?

Guess what? She’s the embodiment of our default brain setting.

Yep.

We evolved as a species to seek immediate gratification.

Just like Veruca.

Our brain isn’t wired to give a hoot about our long-term health. It only cares that we survive long enough to get our DNA into the next generation (and get a Golden Goose).

The journalist (and meditation student) Dan Harris summed this concept up beautifully in a recent episode of his 10% Happier podcast…

“We are not naturally inclined to do things like exercise or eat healthy or get enough sleep or all the stuff we know from the science is good for us because it’s not the mind that was bequeathed to us by millennia of evolution.”

So are we doomed? Should we just throw in the towel on all this improving our health stuff?

No way. We can override the primitive + want it NOW part of our brain. We simply need to approach behavioral change a little differently.

The #1 reason we struggle to change our behavior for good is because we give up on ourselves too easily.

We don’t want to wait a year or two or three for results.

We don’t want to keep trying.

We want what we want and we want it NOW! Dammit.

Two months to a new you!

Six pack abs in six weeks!

Take a moment to ask yourself, “What’s the rush?”

Really. What’s the big freakin’ rush?

Let’s say you’re 40 years old – and it takes you three years to build a bunch of healthier habits into your life – would you do it?

If you live until 85, that’s 42 years of healthier living. Of feeling better. Of looking better.

A damn good tradeoff in my opinion.

But most of us aren’t willing to wait.

My current mantra when it comes to behavioral change is, “it’ll take as long as it takes.”

It’s been a GAME CHANGER.

I’ve been able to build new healthier habits into my life with this approach – like eating veggies with breakfast and doing yoga nearly every day.

Here’s the recipe for success.

  1. Focus on only ONE habit at a time (keep it SIMPLE).
  2. Keep going until it sticks – for as long as it takes.
  3. ENJOY the journey. Laugh at yourself. Celebrate progress. Learn from setbacks.

We don’t get mad at a toddler when they stumble and fall while learning to walk.

We don’t rush them.

We cheer them on.

We encourage them.

Your health journey can be like this too.

Wholehearted + humane behavioral change is where it’s at.

If you’re ready for a new approach to behavioral change, click here and let’s chat.

XO ~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 one-on-one Health Coaching click HERE.