Self Care

June 13, 2013 By Robyn

You Are Good Enough

The phrase “honor your body” gets tossed around frequently in the wellness world. So much so that the power of this message may have become diluted.

Honoring your body is the key to healthy and happy living.

This simple phrase may represent different things to different people – but to me, it means treating myself like the most sacred and precious being on the planet.

And if you think that sounds unbelievably selfish, I’ll have to respectfully disagree.

People who feel good tend to do good. They take care of others and spread joy.

We only have one body. One shot at this thing called life. Why not make it the most glorious life possible? A life filled with love, harmony, kindness and vitality – instead of shame and self-hate.

Am I practicing what I preach 24/7? Oh heck no. Just ask my husband.

But as each year passes, I spend more time honoring and respecting my body and less time diminishing it through negative self-talk and unhealthy actions.

As a once obese girl who battled an eating disorder for nearly 10 years, I can promise you that honoring your body feels so much better than being at war with it. It changes everything.

I can also tell you that self-acceptance is a choice we make and an act that needs to be practiced daily and forever. An act I will never stop immersing myself in.

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…eat when my stomach is rumbling instead of ignoring the hunger. Starving myself thin never worked out well for me (or anyone).

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…move my body in a way that feels energizing.

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…take a break from the gym when my muscles are screaming and ignore that whole push through the pain nonsense. I’ve found that “pushing through” is a direct route to bigger and more debilitating injuries.

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…nap when I’m exhausted.

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…recognize that my body is a miracle and that I am in the exact body I need right now in order to be me.

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…treat my body with understanding and kindness.

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…let go of worry.

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…do not allow other people to steal my joy.

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…say yes to things that excite me, fill me up and expand my horizons and no to those that will likely deplete me.

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…surround myself with people who respect me, challenge me, make me smile and lift me up.

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…savor the occasional piece of chocolate or glass of fruity Merlot – without guilt.

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…make time for monthly massages.

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…forgive myself and others freely.

When I’m honoring my body, I…

…know that I am good enough, just as I am.

May 7, 2013 By Robyn

Top Tips For Healthy Road Trips

I love road trips! When I retire, you’ll find me criss-crossing this beautiful country for weeks and months at a time – perhaps Australia and New Zealand as well. There’s no better way to explore in my opinion. Must be in my DNA – Dad worked in the trucking industry for nearly 40 years.

This past weekend, my husband Brett and I took a quick trip from Denver to Omaha to attend the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting (Brett is in the finance industry and I love to tag along and hear what Warren Buffet has to say). As I was preparing the cooler, this post started coming together in my head.

Just a few short years ago, road trips provided the perfect “excuse” to binge on all sorts of stuff I’d never eat while at home – burgers, fries, shakes, candy bars, Pop-Tarts – you name it. I’d return home with a bit more “baggage” than I left with.

With some good planning and smart packing, you can enjoy your adventure and continue to eat healthy by following a few simple tips.

1. Invest in a Good Cooler

Get yourself a quality cooler. I love our Coleman Extreme which keeps it’s contents cool for up to 5 days. We line the bottom with frozen Figi water bottles, which we reuse each time we travel.

2. Fill Your Cooler

For our most recent trip, I packed our trusty Coleman with sandwiches (Ezekiel bread, turkey, avocado, hummus & spinach), pre-sliced apples & cheddar cheese, hard boiled eggs, baby carrots & hummus, greek yogurt and some leftover turkey meatloaf. Not once did I have to rely on fast food or gas stations for nourishment.

3. No Cooler?

No worries, if you need to stop at a gas station or fast food restaurant, you can still make decent choices.

Gas Stations:

Skip the Funyuns and Kit Kats and seek out yogurt, bananas, apples, milk or string cheese/cheese squares. If you’re in the middle of nowhere and fresh choices are limited, look for sunflower or pumpkin seeds, nuts, energy bars (Clif, Clif Builder, Balance, Luna, Larabar), jerky, dried fruit or cereals high in fiber.

Fast Food:

You’re likely to find a McDonalds in most off-highway towns. Here are my recommendations for best choices if the golden arches is your only option.

Grilled Chicken Sandwich – lettuce and tomato only

300 calories
27 grams protein
3.5 grams fat
41 grams carbs
730 grams sodium

Premium McWrap Grilled Chicken & Ranch – hold the cheese and ranch sauce

340 calories
27 grams protein
8 grams fat
40 grams carbs
950 grams sodium

Premium McWrap Sweet Chili Chicken (Grilled) – as is

360 calories
27 grams protein
9 grams fat
44 grams carbs
1030 grams sodium (eek)

Angus Mushroom & Swiss Snack Wrap – hold the cheese and mayo

320 calories
17 grams protein
16 grams fat
25 grams carbs
620 grams sodium

Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken – add Newman’s Own Low Fat Balsamic Vinaigrette, hold the tortilla strips and lime glaze

240 calories
26 grams protein
7 grams fat
19 grams carbs
910 grams sodium

I don’t have to tell you to skip the soda, shakes and fries. Instead, add apple slices to your order for only 15 calories and and a whopping 94 grams (160%) of Vitamin C.

Another option is to zip by Taco Bell and try out their new Fresco Menu featuring 7 items with less than 350 calories and under 10 grams of fat.

4. Water

While I must confess that I drink more coffee than I should on the road, water is a must have. Save money by bringing along reusable water bottles and buying gallon jugs of water for refilling at gas stations.

5. Feed Your Head

All those hours on the road provide a perfect opportunity for learning. Keep your brain busy and download some podcasts (Radiolab is great and Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History is another favorite) or an audiobook – and I promise, the trip will fly by. My husband and I listened to Into Africa – The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone during our 16 hour roundtrip journey to Omaha. Highly recommend!

There you have it. No excuses – plan ahead, make smart choices and enjoy guilt free road-trips all summer long.

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.

March 29, 2013 By Robyn

6 Simple Steps For Managing Your Emotions (without turning to food)

I’m a pretty even-tempered chick. On a scale of 1 to 10 – Ice Princess being 1 and Drama Queen being 10, I’d say I’m around a 3 or 4. Over the years, I’ve learned how to keep my emotions in check…

…but that doesn’t mean I don’t have an occasional drama queen moment. Au contraire.

Last week, after a series of pesky annoyances, inconveniences and disappointments – one event finally pushed me over the edge. I found myself in front of the fridge stuffing down leftover grilled bison dogs with tears streaming down my face.

Yes, bison hot dogs. Clearly I don’t keep chips, cookies or ice cream around.

While devouring bison dog #2, I suddenly took a step back and thought – what the heck are you doing Robyn?

It’s been a long time since I found myself in the eye of an emotional eating hurricane. After backing away from the fridge, I walked straight to my office and got to work on properly dealing with the frustration and anger I was experiencing. I knew exactly what I needed to do.

Whenever my mind goes a little bonkers, I use the following method to pull myself out of Crazy Town and head back to Rational Land. Because scarfing down 250 or 500 or 2000 calories certainly isn’t going to fix the problem. Food can only fix one problem – HUNGER.

6 Steps For Turning Around Negative Emotions

1. Identify the dominant negative emotion you’re feeling (e.g. anger, frustration, overwhelm, shame).

2. Find a piece of paper and write the following words at the top – I am (insert negative emotion) because…

3. List every single thing you can think of that may have contributed to this emotion. Be careful not to filter or over-think, just write.

Example:

I am frustrated because…

I never get my way.
I always have to compromise.

Keep going and don’t stop until you’ve got it all out.

Note: In the heat of the moment, your thoughts will seem perfectly rational. Upon reflection you’ll realize your brain was temporarily taken over by aliens – and that’s okay.

4. Look at your list. Read each thought and ask yourself the following question – is this really true?

Example:

I’m frustrated because I never get my way.

Is this really true? Not a chance.

You’ll find that most of what you’ve written is what I like to call mind sludge – thoughts that aren’t really true and keep us stuck in our misery.

5. Determine if it’s possible to change the circumstance causing the negative feeling (I couldn’t). If not, decide how you want to feel about the situation. Clearly, the new emotion should feel better than the current one. Since frustration was cutting it, I decided on acceptance. Much better.

6. Find a thought that will give you this new, more positive feeling. My new thought was – it was meant to happen this way.

Negative emotions serve a powerful purpose. They can open our eyes to thinking and behaviors that are not supporting our greater good. Dig into those negative emotions and you’ll find a valuable lesson every time.

Once I arrived safely back in Rational Land, the lessons became clear…

I can’t control everything – and that’s okay
I can’t always have it my way – and that’s okay
I was one who needed to practice compromising

We can live our lives wallowing in mind sludge and negativity or we can make the most of what life hands us. We can yell and pout and cry and stuff our faces – or we can look for the lessons.

The choice is ours.

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.

February 11, 2013 By Robyn

Reclaiming Your Sparkle

On November 26th of last year, I had foot surgery. My second in two years. I’ve written about it quite a bit, because you know – surgery is a kind of a big deal. Especially when it renders you unable to walk for a month.

But this post isn’t about surgery, it’s about sparkle. Losing your sparkle and reclaiming it.

Let me begin by clarifying my definition of sparkle…

A spring in your step
Your inner light
Effervescence
Feeling vital and vivid and in technicolor
Your bam, boom, kapow and razzle dazzle (like Superman meets Bob Fosse)

When you’ve lost it, things feel a bit of grey and blah. I’m not talking about depression – more like a lack of pizazz.

So, I have a theory. On that cold and gloomy day in November, the anesthesiologist didn’t just put me in a deep state of sleep – he extinguished my sparkle. Bad anethesiologist!

Here’s the thing about sparkle or mojo or whatever you want to call it – it’s easy to lose. Kind of like a power outage – the lights go out “poof” and then they may flicker on and off for awhile before shining brilliantly again.

We all lose our sparkle from time to time – but how do we get it back?

The golden rule of reclaiming your sparkle is that you can’t force it or will it to come back. I know, because I tried. I really, really tried.

Sparkle is a finicky little bugger – it’ll come back when it’s good and ready. However, there are a few things you can do to coax it along.

Don’t disconnect. Feeling a little blah tends to make us want to tune out and disassociate from ourselves and from others. This is a sparkle killer! Spending hours in front of the TV with your face in a bag of chips is anti-effervescent. Even though you may want to sit on the couch in your flannel jammies for days on end – this will not help. I repeat – this will not help.

Create a delicious list. A what? A delicious list. Write down all of the things that make you feel delicious. The things that energize you and fill you up. My list includes goodies like singing loudly to my favorite tunes, cooking, getting massages, doing nice things for others, chatting with my Mom and being around or listening to people who inspire me. Stuck in an unsparkly funk? Go and do something on your list right now – and tomorrow – and the day after.

Be patient. You can’t force your sparkle. The more you try to force it the more discouraged you’ll become. Your sparkle WILL come back. Maybe not today or next week, but one day.

Don’t lose hope. It’s easy to become hopeless – to think that you’re destined to live in a world of feeling fizzled out forever. Try this – think of a time you landed in this state before. Did you stay there indefinitely? No, of course not.

This too shall pass.