Episode #22:

Stop Stress Snacking with Robin Ola

How often do you find yourself reaching for the Cheetos without even realising you’re doing it? If you’re anything like me, that would be a lot! But have you ever thought about why you’re eating? Are you hungry or is there something else going on?

Certified Personal Trainer, Weight Loss and Life Coach, Robin Ola, joins us this week to explain the reasons so many of us overeat. She talks about how she uses her professional history of helping people manage their health to assist women in addressing the anxiety and worries which cause them to overeat, and how to stop doing it, once and for all!

Tune in this week where we’ll discuss why stress is a huge factor in eating patterns and why our thoughts may not be serving us. We’ll learn three steps we can use to stop ourselves from overeating and why it’s the little things we do which over time ensure we keep the weight off once and for all!

WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER

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Why you get to decide your thoughts.

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Why you’re eating junk even when you know you shouldn’t be.

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How to combat stress and anxiety.

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How to cultivate habits to stop you from overeating.

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Why analyzing your thought processes can help you lose weight.

FEATURED ON THE SHOW

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Check out more episodes of the podcast here!

TRANSCRIPT

Susan Crockett: Welcome to Becoming Virtuosa, the podcast, with Dr. Susan Crockett. You are listening to episode number 22: Stop Stress Snacking. This is an interview with fellow Certified Weight Loss and Life Coach, Robin Ola. This episode is dedicated to Robin’s dad who passed away about eight years ago. He was the epitome of faith, health, work and family balance, and he would have loved a practical tool.

Female Announcer: Welcome to Becoming Virtuosa, where women learn to love their lives. Do you find yourself frustrated by society’s expectations? Looking for practical advice on how to discover your talents and level up your life? You’ve found the right place. Here’s your host, US News top doctor, robotic surgeon and Certified Life Coach, Dr. Susan Crockett.

Susan Crockett: Hello, my virtuosas. I am your host, Dr. Susan Crockett, you can call me Sue, because I’m not acting as your doctor today. And we are in the midst of a series of interviews with my life coaches. My life coaches, the coaches that I am so fortunate to work with as part of Virtuosa Coaching. I am so grateful to be able to bring this podcast to you. We have a really fun episode today.

We have had a couple of pretty heavy episodes going on, this one is a lot more fun, it’s about one of our favorite topics, which is stress snacking, and how to stop doing that. And, Robin is so much fun, you guys are going to love meeting her.

But I wanted to talk with you all just a little bit about my week last week. I was in Florida, so actually the quality on this podcast today may be a little bit different than you’re used to because I was actually doing it from a hotel room with Robin. And I didn’t have my normal equipment, so I apologize if there’s a change in the quality of the recording this week. But I think you’ll love the content, where it was such a fun podcast and we got some actionable items this week.

So I was in Florida because I was doing a different kind of coaching. So as most of you know I am a GYN physician, OB-GYN Board Certified and my specialty is in minimally invasive GYN surgery, we call it MIGs, M.I.G.s. And what that means is I do a lot of robotic surgery. I am completely committed to making really big complicated surgeries for benign diseases like fibroids and endometriosis and all that stuff, easier for women to get through, to make it as easy as possible.

So I have been doing robotics for over 10 years. And as part of that I occasionally get to teach other doctors, which is fabulous because I can only do so many one-on-one. So I work with Intuitive Surgical, which is the company that developed the da Vinci robotic system that I work on. And on occasion they need a newer physician to be proctored.

And what that means is in order to become trained on the robot you either go through a residency program or fellowship program after residency to become better at it. Or you do like I did before this was part of residency programs, and you are a physician in practice. Most of us who transition into robotics have very strong laparoscopic surgical practices and surgical skills. And you go through a series of education courses and labs, and simulator training until you are adept at the equipment.

And then for your first four or five cases, depending on where you’re getting your privileges, you need to be proctored, which means you need a robotic surgery coach. So I got to do that with a wonderful physician in Florida this week, it was so much fun, you all, we all had such a good time.

The reason I’m telling you all about this is because we learned something that’s really applicable to what we’re talking about today on the podcast. I did two hysterectomies with her, actually she did the hysterectomies. So my job as the coach is not to come in and tell her how to do everything, she’s supposed to have her own way of doing that, and there are systems and all that. But technically getting everything right and making robotic surgery easy and efficient for the patient and the physician takes a lot of little tweaks, it’s like having a recipe.

We actually have what we call cards which are all the preferences of the surgeons for surgery. So her first hysterectomy that we did together took a long time, it took about an hour and a half to do the case itself. And there was another hour of set up and figuring out, which way we want to do the robot, how many arms, all the, you know, what’s the angle of the patient, all the detail ahead of time. So the case went super well, everything was great, but it took a really long time.

And so the rep and I sat down with the surgeon at lunchtime in between the cases and we said, “Okay, this next case, this second hysterectomy is a little bit more complicated, it’s got a little larger fibroid. But our goal is to help you become more efficient and faster on the second case.” And so the surgeon got really excited and we told her we’re going to make just little tweaks, we’re going to make some little adjustments. And so we went and did the second case and she did it in 45 minutes. And it was so much easier and it was so much more fun.

And the rep asked me afterwards, she said, “What do you think was the most important thing that we changed that helped her go to get that efficient so quickly?” And I told her, I said, “It’s not just one little thing, it’s all the little things.” And it’s really true.

So I was meeting with my coach this morning, I have a coach that I work with every week, and we were talking about coaching. And she does a lot of weight loss coaching and she said, “Wow, that’s such a great story, because that’s exactly what coaching for the brain is, you’re coaching them for robotic surgery. But what we do when we do live coaching or weight loss coaching is exactly the same idea. We’re teaching people to look at their brains as a whole and the coach is able to find those little tweaks, those lots of little things that add up to make the whole program successful.”

And I thought, wow, that’s awesome, that’s the value of having a coach. So I did robotic coaching this past week. I got to do this interview with Robin Ola today. So, today we’re going to talk about the tiny little tweaks, one of the really tiny little tweaks that’s very effective and a lot of fun. We’re going to talk with Robin Ola about how to stop stress eating. And she actually went to the effort and made up a worksheet for you guys, which is listed in the show notes afterwards. So you can have a little worksheet to help you with this.

But let me tell you a little bit about Robin, first. She is a certified personal trainer and health coach, and she has been doing that long before she became a life coach. So she’s a Certified Weight Loss and Life Coach, through The Life Coach School with me. But she also has a long professional history of helping particularly women with weight loss. And her special gift is in helping women address anxiety and worry that cause people to overeat. And so I hope you really enjoy the interview today. We really had a great time doing it.

Make sure you download the worksheet at the end of it and I will see you at the end of the podcast.
	
Hey, Robin, how are you doing today?

Robin Ola: Hey, Sue, I’m great.

Susan Crockett: I am so excited to have you here today because you know what, we’ve had a series of some kind of heavy podcasts lately. And not that this is fluff that you’re talking about, but this is going to be fun. Like you have something really fun and actionable for our virtuosas, and I am so happy to talk with you today. Where are you talking to me from anyway, where are you coming from?

Robin Ola: I am not far from where you live, I’m in Horseshoe Bay outside of Austin, Texas.

Susan Crockett: Sweet. Another central Texan, I love that, I forgot that you live there, that’s so fun.

Robin Ola: Yeah.

Susan Crockett: Tell me your story about how you came to be a life coach, how did that happen for you?

Robin Ola: So I have been a personal trainer and a health coach for many, many years, many years.

Susan Crockett: Cool.

Robin Ola: Yeah. And so…

Susan Crockett: We’re not going to say how many, but just that you’re experienced.

Robin Ola: Yeah, let’s just say many. Yeah, so at some point, actually I’ll tell you when it was. I was in yoga teacher training, because I was kind of – we had moved here from Houston and I was kind of trying to figure out what I was going to do with my health coach personal training. And I was in this yoga teacher training and it’s like my head got cracked open just a little bit into the, oh my gosh, thoughts are optional, that kind of thinking. And then I just got obsessed with it and really realized that that was the difference that my weight loss clients were missing.

And I started really researching and reading, and I got really into Byron Katie there for a little while. But anyway, I found The Life Coach School through that and so that’s kind of how I incorporated all that into my personal training and my health and wellness career.

Susan Crockett: So you had that career with the eating way before the coaching, that’s kind of interesting, because that’s different than a lot of our coaches. And so you found the life coaching like the missing piece, that’s where you started seeing success with your clients a little bit more.

Robin Ola: Exactly, it’s like most of my clients and you and probably most of our listeners know what to eat and what to do. It’s just that why don’t I do it part that really…

Susan Crockett: There is the kicker, right. Okay. So tell us about this worksheet, I’m dying to hear about it.

Robin Ola: Okay.

Susan Crockett: Tell me about what it is and why you decided to do this, it’s totally fun.

Robin Ola: Okay. So, so many of my clients I would say – I don’t know what the percentage is, but a big number is stress eating, emotional eating is a thing. We know that we don’t want to feel the feeling and so we eat. And it’s like conceptual and everybody gets that and I can tell you all day long, “Don’t try to get rid of your feelings by eating.” And you’re like, “Okay, Robin, whatever.”

Susan Crockett: [inaudible]

Robin Ola: This is kind of how it went too, it’s like for example, my son was at work and he was super stressed out. And he was saying, “Oh, I’m so stressed.” I’m like, “Let me give you some tools.” And he’s like, “Don’t even talk to me about any tools, I’m too stressed.” And so I thought, what we need is to think about what we’ll do when we’re stressed before we’re stressed.

Susan Crockett: Right, we need a plan in place, yeah.

Robin Ola: Because when you’re in the middle of it you don’t want to try to learn a technique. So I think developing like a worksheet where you can kind of look at it and know what’s on it when you’re not stressed, helps you be able to prepare to use it. In fact, this is how I use it, whenever people are struggling with emotional eating, I’ll have them do two things.

And the first thing is always the, I call the interrupt. So when you come home from work, you come home from work, you’re stressed out and you’re heading for the pantry. And before you know it you’ve got Cheetos in your hand.

Susan Crockett: Yeah. Oh, those Cheetos, I love those Cheetos.

Robin Ola: Yeah. So the first thing is there’s got to be an interrupt. So any time we go to the pantry, it’s like I like a two step interrupt, a deep breath, which always calms, the long exhale always calms the body. So the long exhale and then one question, “Am I hungry?”

Susan Crockett: Yeah, that’s a good one, yeah.

Robin Ola: So there is your interrupt. If you can get in the habit of doing that every time you go into the kitchen or go for the snacks, exhale and, “Am I hungry?” And then the next part is the replacement. So if the answer is – oftentimes it’s, “No, I’m not hungry.” This is how you know, “Am I hungry, will a piece of broccoli or a chicken breast solve it?”

Susan Crockett: Yeah, is it really hunger or is it craving? Okay.

Robin Ola: Yeah. So that’s how you know. So often it’s no, so then you work on the replacement, what do I do instead? There’s a few things, I mean two of my favorites are going for a walk.

Susan Crockett: Just get out of the influence of it.

Robin Ola: Get outside, clear your head. But the other thing that I like to recommend now is this worksheet, because we’re causal coaches, so these worksheets digs in and helps us figure out why, why am I stressed? And we’re trying to try to resolve it, so that’s where the value is.

Susan Crockett: A novel thought, awesome, cool, okay.  So just so our listeners know, I should have mentioned this earlier. This worksheet, the link for it is going to be in the show notes from today. So there’ll be a PDF file, it’ll be posted on the Virtuosa Coaching site. And we will have the link listed below in the podcast notes for you, so cool. This looks like fun. Okay, Robin, tell me a little bit about this worksheet here.

Robin Ola: Yeah, you don’t have it with you, you can just jot it down, so it’s three steps. Number one is, I call it examine the stress. So stress is like a very general generic kind of emotion. “I’m so stressed, I feel anxiety,” people say that. But really there’s usually more to it, what are you really feeling? So I’ll have you like go through, is it here? Are you – what are you afraid of exactly, is it maybe irritation? Who are you irritated with? Are you embarrassed? Are you ashamed?

Susan Crockett: So we will often say we’re stressed, like a garbage pail diagnosis, like a wastebasket, just I’m stressed, and then what you’re suggesting is not everything that we say is stress is the same thing. Let’s drill it down a little bit and really get to what’s going on there.

Robin Ola: We’re really examining. And then we kind of look at the surrounding thoughts about it. So really it’s like maybe you think I’m not really stressed, I’m really overwhelmed, I have too many things to do. Or maybe you think, I wonder what so and so’s going to think when I do this. So we have a whole bunch of lines on the worksheet where you can really kind of put it out there. So there’s two great reasons for this. One is to really just to learn what really it is.

And two, there’s some science behind getting it out of your brain because your brain wants to hold onto it, because it think it’s important, but if it sees it written down there it can more easily let it go.

Susan Crockett: And that’s a good point because you know what, I know a lot of my listeners like to journal and jot things down and they’re real like planners and everything. I am not, I don’t like writing stuff down at all, because I have this little thing about going back and reading it and judgment and all of that. So I am somebody that’s really resistant to journaling and this kind of stuff. But I can see how this would be really helpful, like with the Cheetos, I could be like want.

I can think of five different scenarios where I would say I’m stressed and go for Cheetos, and they’re all different. And without that awareness of it then it makes it a lot more difficult to just kind of go, “I don’t really need the Cheetos.” Okay, so write it all down, the details, got it, awareness.

Robin Ola: So write it all down. Then we go back and reevaluate it, so after we’ve examined it, we further evaluate it. So this is what we do, we label each thing that we wrote down, either past or future. I like to put a P or an F beside it, I actually like colored pens because I’m kind of a school supply nerd, but anyway. So everything, all the thoughts that we’re having are either about the past or about the future. So this just gives us a way to just really kind of just analyze it a little bit more. So it’s like either why did I say that or why did he do that?

Or maybe they’re about the future, like what if this happens or what if I don’t get all this done?

Susan Crockett: Wow, yeah.

Robin Ola: So just marking it down, put a P for past, put an F for future. So now we’re just digging in a little deeper with that stuff. And the second part of this is circling the things that we’ve written down that are facts. And then underline the rest, which we know is our story that we’re making up.

Susan Crockett: Which are our thoughts, so we’ve talked before in the podcast and our listeners, kind of they’re working on learning how to do this separating thoughts from facts. I never thought about it in terms of this. So if I’m getting ready to grab some Cheetos, I usually don’t take the time to separate out. And this doesn’t look like this is a really long worksheet.

But even if I just have five minutes away from the urge to grab the Cheetos by filling out this, even if I’m just doing it in my head and kind of thinking about it. That may also be enough to distance me a little bit from immediate gratification. That’s cool.

Robin Ola: Yeah. It’s so funny that you say that because a lot of my clients, I’ll have them do like an agreement with themselves. It’s like any time you have that urge for that snack when you’re feeling stress, you either have to go for a walk or do this worksheet, just make that agreement with yourself. And sometimes, this is not exactly how I intended the worksheet, but they’ll say, “I just didn’t have the snacks, I didn’t want to do the stupid worksheet.” So that’s not exactly what I intended but it still works.

Susan Crockett: [inaudible], that’s funny. Okay, so we’re going to circle the facts and underline the non-facts or the story from it.

Robin Ola: Right, right, so that’s just recognizing that it’s just how much we make up. It’s like the times I do this worksheet rarely do I have any facts to circle, honestly. So it’s kind of interesting, yeah, right.

Susan Crockett: Yeah, because what facts are going to support me reaching for Cheetos, honestly?

Robin Ola: Right.

Susan Crockett: There’s no reason, there is no fact.

Robin Ola: Yeah. And so much of what we’re thinking in our story is like about the past is not really true. And so many things we’re projecting onto the future may or may not happen. So really, yeah, it’s just recognizing that can stop us in our tracks too. So there’s one more step, and that’s kind of deciding what we want to do with the stress. So now we know kind of what’s exactly causing it, exact thoughts, exact stories. So one thing we can do is…

Susan Crockett: Wait a minute, you mean we actually get to decide, it doesn’t decide to be there?

Robin Ola: Craziness.

Susan Crockett: That’s fascinating.

Robin Ola: You get to decide.

Susan Crockett: What we want to do with it.

Robin Ola: Yeah.

Susan Crockett: You think it’s just there, right?

Robin Ola: Yeah. And I think is we’re mostly trained from a young age to get rid of those kind of emotions. So the easiest thing is Cheetos.

Susan Crockett: Yeah, and that fixes it.

Robin Ola: But one thing you can do is just resist it, that pushing away of an emotion, it makes it bigger, so that’s not a great option, right?

Susan Crockett: Yeah, when I do that I leave the Cheetos on the shelf in the pantry. And then I walk away and all I can think about then is how badly I want those Cheetos and how good they would taste, that’s resisting.

Robin Ola: Yeah. So resisting doesn’t work. We can avoid it and sometimes that’s just an easy way out. And the walk is kind of an avoidance, but really where all the power is, is the processing, it’s the being with it.

Susan Crockett: There that goes again, okay, tell me what that looks like, because that, we don’t learn that [inaudible].

Robin Ola: That is, yeah, that’s the part, so there’s two ways it can go at this point. So once you’ve kind of identified all those thoughts, sometimes you can just look at them and you can just release the stress because you’ll realize, I’m making all this up, it’s just not worth it. And that’s actually just really changing your thoughts at that point, and that can eliminate the stress. But a lot of times we can’t just immediately do that, because you know this is all learned skills and it takes practice.

So a lot of times you’ll go through this whole thing and you’ll recognize what’s causing it, but it’s still there, so that’s how we learn how to just be with it. And it’s not like being with it and that it’s just painful, it’s just a feeling, just recognizing that, okay, this is how I feel sometimes. Sometimes I come home from work and I feel overwhelmed and just being accepting of it, and just learning to kind of let it be there, without having to get rid of it or do something about it.

Susan Crockett: Yeah, just being able to go, “Okay, this is what overwhelm feels like and it stinks and I don’t like how it feels.” And realizing that it’ll pass.

Robin Ola: Yeah, I know that I’m creating it with what I’m thinking, this story, I can’t seem to quit thinking this story, so I’m just going to have to recognize that it’s going to be here. And I don’t have to get rid of it, and Cheetos are not going to help it. Yeah, so just recognizing that you have the choice of what to do with it and looking at your options and really thinking about it ahead of time. I’d like for you to picture yourself after a stressful day in front of the Cheetos and picture yourself either taking a walk or doing this worksheet.

Start visualizing yourself not reacting to the stress with Cheetos. And I think just start processing and preparing and just kind of creating that vision of yourself doing that ahead of time is where the value is too.

Susan Crockett: That’s really awesome, you know what, you totally busted me on the Cheetos. So we’re on a podcast, and I’ve talked about Cheetos before [inaudible]. I really love how salty and yummy they are but I’m not one of those overeaters that eats a whole bag of chips or binges on a whole thing of ice-cream. And I don’t even consistently eat poorly all the time. I just have these little things over time, so I’m a little overweight. And it’s frustrating to me because I don’t like the weight on it and I don’t have like some big dramatic, like I don’t need to go see a psychiatrist.

I’ve done all the Weightwatchers and all that stuff, but what you’re teaching here, this little skill is getting to the little things, how do you lose the last 10 pounds or 20.

Robin Ola: Exactly, exactly.

Susan Crockett: Like I don’t have a 100 pounds to lose, but I’d like to get 20 off, well, Cheetos in their moment, that little bag of Cheetos, they don’t seem like that much. But obviously over time it’s keeping me from being able to get to the goals that I want. And I think a lot of our listeners are like that too, I think this is a really practical tool. Because you’re not talking to the people – well, it will work for the people that have a 100 pounds to lose too. But this is a great interrupt for like mindfulness, just for that, just little things.

Robin Ola: Okay, so you can cut this out of the podcast if you want, but I’m going to have you look at just a couple of thoughts that came on just then, like…

Susan Crockett: You can totally do that, yeah.

Robin Ola: Yeah. So yeah, you said, “They’re so salty and yummy.” So you know that thought just creates desire.

Susan Crockett: I know, I know.

Robin Ola: Right.

Susan Crockett: And I don’t have any in front of me right now, I am someplace where I don’t have access to them at all, so I’m doing the avoidance thing, but that thought is there.

Robin Ola: Yeah. I would try to maybe get rid of that one and also you said, “The bag of Cheetos, they just seem so small.” And so innocent, you know?  Like okay, that’s a thought that really might not be serving you too. Isn’t that interesting?

Susan Crockett: It’s totally not because I’m also not somebody that bounces their weight a whole lot up and down. I’ve been really consistent for many, many years, and without really trying, it just kind of sits there. I mean I’ll do my little five pound thing, but it’s amazing how stable our bodies are within those habits that we have. So I think there probably is a bit of power in the littler habits. And I’m so used to thinking, we’ve got to do the whole huge big thing. Well, maybe if I just start with the little habits then I’ll…

Robin Ola: For sure, for sure, yeah. Our bodies are like that, that homeostasis, it wants whatever it is it wants to stay there. It doesn’t really want to grain, it doesn’t really want to lose, it just really wants to stay there. And so that’s why we have to really drill down to the little things, because it wants to stay where it is.

Susan Crockett: That’s perfect. Alright, so at the end of these interviews we always do the little nugget of what is the take home for the listener, I think you just nailed it right there with the it’s the little things, it’s getting down to these little things.

Robin Ola: Yeah. But – and changing the little things, like just stopping yourself and taking a deep breath and saying, “Am I hungry?” That little part right there is big, you know, just if you consistently do that you’ll be surprised how many times you can just walk away from whatever [inaudible].

Susan Crockett: That’s awesome, that’s so cool. Thank you so much, Robin, this was so much fun talking with you today. I know our listeners are going to get a lot of value out of this and yeah, you all can download the worksheet. Drop me an email, drop me an email at sue@virtuosacoaching.com and let me know how this went.

So, Robin, if my listeners want to find you, I know they can find you through Virtuosa Coaching because you’re one of our coaches, but do you have any other links like Facebook or your personal?

Robin Ola: You can find out more about me at robinola.net has a little bit of my information, robinaola.net, so yeah.

Susan Crockett: We’ll put that in the show notes too. Thank you so much for being my guest today, it was totally fun, fellow Texan.

Robin Ola: Yeah, so fun, let me know how it goes with those Cheetos.

Susan Crockett: Thanks, Robin, bye.

Robin Ola: [inaudible], bye.

So what I’ve shown you today, we’ve shown you today this fun practical tool to help you interrupt that stress snacking, given you something really actionable, a little worksheet you can download for free. And what I want you to think about going into this next week is the little tiny adjustments, the little tiny tweaks that add up to the final result. And it takes practice, just like the surgeon who’s learning robotic surgery, takes lots of practice. This practicing the little tweaks that will add up to you getting to the healthy weight that you want, it takes practice, so be gentle with yourself.

So now we’re getting to my favorite part of the show, which is what we’re listening to and reading. And Robin and I came up with some really great ones, actually, Robin came up with most of them this week. So first what she’s listening to, we’re listening to Andra Day, who’s known for the song, Rise Up, probably all of you have heard that. But we chose a different one, she chose the song, Make Your Troubles Go Away. And I hadn’t heard this one before, so I went on YouTube and listened to it, it’s beautiful.

But there’s a lyric in there that is so perfect for today’s podcast, it goes like this, “You’ve been looking for the quick fix and it’s leaving you helpless.” Oh my gosh, so perfect. So remember, little tweaks, it’s not a big quick fix, like the robotic surgery thing, I couldn’t just like walk in there and scramble it all and make it all work, it wants its practice and looking for the little tweaks to practice to get to where you want to be.

She’s reading a book by Jen Hatmaker called Fierce Free and Full of Fire. This is available on Amazon, we’ll put it in our notes. And then when I asked her what she’s watching it was kind of funny because most of the time we get Netflix binges or a really good movie. She picked one of my favorite things ever which is any TED Talk by Brené Brown. So Brené Brown, TED Talks, that’s what we’re watching this week. You can find them at tedtalks.com.

And so next week our next podcast is with life coach, Sally Hanson, she is really interesting, she has a marketing background and a her own marketing company. And she specializes in coaching women over 50, and she’s going to talk about what it’s really like during and after a coaching session, in case you’re curious and you’ve never done it before. I think this will be a really fun topic for us.

Okay, my virtuosas, have a wonderful week. Love always, Sue. And I will see you next week in episode 23.

Female Announcer: Thanks for listening to this episode of Becoming Virtuosa. If you want to find out more, come check out virtuosacoaching.com. That’s virtuosa - with an A - coaching.com. See you next week.

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