Robyn Spurr

Personal Health and Weight Loss Coaching For Women

Research

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Hacking Instant Gratification: Strategies for Lasting Behavioral Change

Have you ever found wisdom in unexpected places? For this post, it came in the form of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – a favorite from my childhood. Together with my best friend Jaimee, we practically memorized every line and melody.

Do you remember Veruca Salt?

🎶 Pink macaroons and a million balloons and performing baboons and – give it to me. NOW! 🎶

Veruca Salt embodies our primal inclination for instant gratification – a trait deeply ingrained in human nature. This impulse, honed over our evolutionary history, once ensured our survival.

Instant gratification, as a survival mechanism, played a crucial role in human evolution by ensuring immediate fulfillment of essential needs for survival. In the ancestral environment, resources such as food, water, and shelter were often scarce and unpredictable. Therefore, humans developed instincts to prioritize immediate rewards to satisfy these basic needs and increase their chances of survival.

While modern society provides abundant resources and opportunities, our instinctual drive for instant gratification remains deeply ingrained, influencing various aspects of our behavior and decision-making.

Our brains aren’t wired to prioritize long-term health; survival and instant satisfaction reign supreme. As Dan Harris eloquently put it, “We are not naturally inclined to do things like exercise or eat healthy or get enough sleep… because it’s not the mind that was bequeathed to us by millennia of evolution.”

Does this mean we’re destined for defeat? Should we abandon our pursuit of better health? Absolutely not. While we can’t change our brain’s wiring, we can alter our approach to behavioral change.

The primary reason we struggle to adopt lasting change is our penchant for giving up too soon. We crave immediate results, unwilling to endure the journey of transformation. But let’s pause and ponder: What’s the rush?

Let’s say you’re 40 years old and it takes you three years to build several healthier habits into your life. Would you do it? If you live until 85, that’s 42 years of healthier living!

Here’s the winning formula for hacking our inclination towards instant gratification:

1. Focus on one habit at a time – simplicity is key.

2. Persist until it becomes second nature, regardless of the timeline.

3. Embrace the journey – find joy in progress and resilience in setbacks.

Just as we cheer on toddlers learning to walk, let’s extend the same compassion to ourselves on our health journey.

đź’™ Robyn

Interested in a one-on-one health coaching relationship with me? It would be an honor to work with you if and when the time feels right.

To learn more about Personal Health Coaching click HERE. 

To schedule a Discovery Session click HERE

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Harnessing the Power of Ozempic + Health Coaching

The world of weight loss has changed dramatically since I was certified as a Health + Weight Loss Coach back in 2010. Currently, half of my clients are taking GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic, Mounjaro, or Wegovy, while working with me.   

Given how effective the medication is for weight loss, you might be wondering why they want to work with a coach.

To start, incorporating healthy habits into your daily routine while taking GLP-1 medications for weight loss can significantly enhance the likelihood of long-term success should you decide to stop taking the medication.

The benefits of combining healthy habits with GLP-1 agonists for weight management include:

Ensuring Proper Nutrition:

A Health Coach can ensure that you are receiving proper nutrition while on GLP-1 medications. While these medications are extremely effective for weight loss, maintaining a well-balanced and nutrient-rich diet is paramount for overall health.

Enhanced Weight Loss:

Ozempic (+ Mounjaro + Wegovy + Zepbound) already have weight loss superpowers, but when you team them up with healthy habits, it’s like giving it a jetpack! When combined with healthy habits such as a balanced diet and regular exercise, the weight loss effects of Ozempic can be further amplified, leading to more effective and sustainable weight management.

Boosted Energy Levels:

Regular exercise and a balanced diet can do wonders for your energy levels. Physical activity releases those feel-good endorphins and gives you a natural energy boost. And when you provide your body with the right nutrients through a balanced diet, you fuel it for optimal performance.

Sustainable Lifestyle Changes:

Building healthy habits while taking Ozempic sets the stage for a sustainable lifestyle. Instead of relying solely on medication for weight loss, you’re creating a foundation for long-term behavior change. When you incorporate nutritious foods and regular exercise into your daily routine, you’re setting yourself up for continued weight management even if you discontinue use due to side effects or cost.

Overall Health Benefits:

The perks of healthy habits go way beyond just weight loss. They have a positive impact on your overall health and well-being. By adopting healthy habits, you can reduce the risk of chronic conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure, and certain types of cancer. On top of that, you’ll likely experience improved sleep quality, better mental clarity, a stronger immune system, and a longer, healthier life.

If you’re currently using semaglutide or tirzepatide and are in search of assistance with nutritional guidance and cultivating healthy habits, I am here to offer support. Partnering with a health coach offers a unique opportunity to receive personalized guidance in tailoring your diet to meet your specific health needs and goals.

With a commitment to maintaining a limited clientele, I work with a maximum of ten clients at a time, ensuring that you benefit from individualized, comprehensive support. Your journey to better health becomes a collaborative and focused experience, enriched by accountability and unwavering support when you choose to work with me.

đź’™ 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 Personal Health Coaching click HERE. 

To schedule a Discovery Session click HERE.

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Eliminating Triggers

The path to changing our behavior has very little to do with resolve.

We achieve control, not through willpower but by finding ways to take willpower entirely out of the equation.

The central force for eliminating bad habits, according to social psychologist Wendy Wood, author of “Good Habits, Bad Habits,” is friction. In other words, making bad habits inconvenient.

She cites the ways in which increased friction has produced a decline in smoking: laws that ban it in restaurants, bars, airplanes, and trains; taxes that have helped triple the price of cigarettes in the U.S. in the past twenty years; the purge of cigarettes from vending machines, and of tobacco ads from TV and the radio.

We can apply the same concept to eating behaviors. But first, I think it’s important to explore the science behind cravings.

In an ideal world, your desire to eat would only be triggered by the internal signals that come up from your body to your brain.

Hungry. Seek food!

Except we no longer need to seek food. And our desire to eat is triggered by so much more than physical hunger. We’re bombarded with food all day every day and images of food wherever we turn.

The main problem we face is that seeing + smelling + thinking about food creates an effect that mimics what we experience when we’re physically hungry.

When you see + smell + imagine food, all the same processes that happen when you need food occur. The signals that reach your brain through your senses activate a neurological cascade that result in a surge of insulin + a drop in blood glucose. Lower blood glucose tells your brain you need to eat. Additionally, your stomach relaxes so you have a bigger space for food + need more to make it feel full.

This happens in response to simply seeing, smelling or thinking about food. Which was super helpful back when food was scarce. Today though, not so much.

If you’ve ever wondered why using willpower to overcome a craving feels like pushing a boulder up a hill, this is why. When we don’t respond to the cascade of biological events with food – it feels kind of terrible. Even when we don’t need food.

The most effective way to control our cravings is to eliminate triggers as much as possible.

Since Halloween is just a few days away, here are a few tips specific to Halloween candy.

  • Don’t buy candy until the day before Halloween (or the day of)
  • Have someone in your family hide it if it’s already been purchased
  • Buy something you don’t like
  • Leave the leftovers in a bowl outside at the end of the night (they will ABSOLUTELY disappear)

Bottom line, make healthy options convenient + visible and unhealthy options inconvenient + out of sight.

đź’™ 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 Personal Health Coaching click HERE. 

To schedule a Discovery Session click HERE.

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The Potential BENEFITS of Weight Cycling

For years we’ve been told that losing + regaining weight might be detrimental to our health and metabolism.

In 2016, a New York Times article about weight regain among The Biggest Loser contestants went viral.

Many lost hope.

However, little is known about hormone regulation and body fat composition after multiple episodes of weight cycling.

Today, a University of Washington team released a first-of-its-kind study, published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology—Endocrinology and Metabolism that highlights the potential benefits of multiple weight loss attempts.

Repeatedly losing and regaining weight may lead to improved insulin levels and lower body fat percentages in the long term, even during weight regain phases. 

This was not a study funded by Slim Fast or Weight Watchers. The American Journal of Physiology—Endocrinology and Metabolism is a peer reviewed + highly reputable scientific journal. The lead researcher is a medical doctor and fellow at the University of Washington.

While the study was conducted on rats, not humans, there is much to be optimistic about.

After the first cycle, when compared with the controls, the weight cyclers ate less during the weight regain periods and had lower body fat mass and insulin levels. In addition, there was no difference in levels of leptin and ghrelin—hormones that control hunger, appetite and weight regulation—between the two groups, which suggests the stability of hormone levels even throughout periods of weight cycling, the research team explained. “The improvement in fat mass as well as improvement in glucose tolerance seen in our rats that had undergone weight cycling implies metabolic benefits to the periods of caloric restriction, despite the stress of the weight gain times,” the researchers wrote.

Let’s be honest. Very few of us lose the weight + keep it off on the first attempt. I sure didn’t. But eventually – I did. And this new study ought to restore hope for those who’ve bought into the notion that it’s nearly impossible to lose weight for good.  

Believing you can is half the battle.

đź’™ 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 Personal Health Coaching click HERE. 

To schedule a Discovery Session click HERE.