Robyn Spurr

Personal Health and Weight Loss Coaching For Women

Self Care

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The Heavy Backpack (Managing Difficult Emotions)

Last Thursday my husband and I made the impossibly difficult decision to put our sweet Hope down after she experienced what we’re pretty sure was a stroke.

She was sixteen and half years old and lived a good long life with humans that loved and spoiled her.

One of the skills I teach my clients is how to make decisions that are aligned with their goals and values in the face of difficult emotions.

It was my turn to walk the talk.

The day after we put Hope down, I went out for a walk (just like I do every day). When I returned, my husband said he was surprised I went. So I shared a tool called The Heavy Backpack with him.

We can think of our difficult emotions like a heavy backpack. Now that backpack might be weighing you down and inconvenient and uncomfortable, but you can still go about your day and do things that move you closer to becoming who you want to be.

You can still take actions that are aligned with your values.

You can go for a walk. You can nurture relationships. You can help your clients. You can eat nutritious food. You can hug and love and laugh.

All while carrying the load.

Or – you can carry the backpack and spend your time thinking about how much you hate the backpack. What a burden it is. How uncomfortable you are. How you wish you could just set it down or make it go away.

You can distract yourself from the heavy load with wine or cake or pizza or Netflix.

You can get angry – or succumb to despair.

You can avoid and resist – or you can ALLOW.

When we act in a way that isn’t aligned with our values, we simply add more layers of difficult feelings to the mix (anger, frustration, regret, guilt).

Taking actions that make us feel good + proud helps to lighten the load on our backs (and in our hearts).

After sharing this with my husband, he immediately said, I think I’ll play hockey today.

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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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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Is Hiring a Weight Loss Coach Worth It?

Having someone you can turn to, someone who has done what you want to do, is perhaps the most powerful way to fuel change.

As your coach, I’ll provide accountability, direction and whole-hearted support every step of the way. I’ll help you stay on track, no matter what life throws at you.

One of the reasons I became a Weight Loss Coach is because I saw firsthand how valuable working with professionals was in healing my own food and body issues. Working one-on-on with my coach allowed for a customized experience based on where I was in my journey.

More than that, though, a coaching relationship creates a sacred + safe space in which to work through your internal roadblocks in a compassionate way – beyond what usually takes place when you work things on your own. No shaming. No judgment. Ever.

Best of all? I’ve been there. 

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 Personal 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.