Maybe I Can with Debbie Weiss

Ep. 91: Healthy Living with Robyn Polk

• Debbie Weiss

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In this episode we'll explore the inspiring transformation of Robyn, a Healthy Living Coach who once believed weight loss was an impossible feat. Hear how Robyn, after years of struggling with her weight and facing health challenges, shifted her mindset from "I can't" to "maybe I can." Through her own journey of self-discovery and healing, Robyn unearthed the tools and strategies that led her to shed 70 pounds and maintain her success for over seven years. Now, she passionately guides women over 50 to break free from limiting beliefs and embrace their potential for vibrant health and lasting weight loss. Tune in to "Maybe I Can" and discover the empowering message that transformation is possible, no matter your age or past experiences.

Robyn Polk
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Debbie Weiss:
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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to Maybe I Can, exploring possibilities, one sprinkle at a time. If you've ever found yourself asking is this all there is to life, then you're in the right place. I'm Debbie author, speaker, entrepreneur and coach, and every Tuesday I'm here to share a sprinkle of hope and inspiration. Together, we'll uncover the more of hope and inspiration. Together we'll uncover the more More joy, more fulfillment, more prosperity, more fun. We'll share stories of transformation, actionable tips and that little nudge you need to take the next step. So let's embark on this journey of discovery and say maybe I can to a life filled with more, ready to find out. Let's get started. The Maybe I Can Show starts now. Well, hi everyone, welcome back to the Maybe I Can Podcast. I'm your host, debbie Weiss, and today I have a wonderful guest. Her name is Robin Polk and we're going to be talking about I guess I'd call it my favorite topic and my least favorite topic all at one time, because it has been a personal lifelong struggle, journey, obsession of mine since literally, I think, the day that I was born, and I think it is something that many women struggle with. For me, it's been a lifelong struggle, but we'll find out more when we start talking to Robin. So, without further ado, let me introduce you to her.

Speaker 1:

Robin is a healthy living coach for women over 50, as well as host of the Sweet Freedom Over 50 podcast Love that title, by the way. Her weight struggles began early on, but everything changed when she hit 50 and her back went out. This incident pushed her to make a choice back went out. This incident pushed her to make a choice either stay the same or make a change, opting for transformation. Robin delved into a journey of self-improvement. During her transformation journey, she uncovered years of metabolic challenges, discovered emotional eating tendencies, faced addictive food habits and had a deep affection for sugary treats. Sorry, who doesn't? I added that that's not part of her bio. Shedding 70 pounds and maintaining it for the past seven years, robin now guides women over 50 on healthy living, having more energy, mobility, confidence, with weight loss as the byproduct, using her signature Polk, that's P-O-L-K method framework. This method involves teaching women to pause for mindfulness, open their mind to heal their heart, listen to their body signals and to keep at it. Keep going to maintain simplicity for long lasting results. Robin, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much, Debbie. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, absolutely. So I have to begin with the question that I ask everyone, and I think I might know the answer. But don't feel forced, it doesn't have to be the answer Up to you. Tell us about a time when you went from a defeated I can't mindset to an empowered. Maybe I can't mindset to an empowered. Maybe I can mindset.

Speaker 2:

And that actually was weight loss for me, because, you know, I've been on numerous diets throughout my entire life. I've been overweight all of my life. I really wasn't obese until I became a mom and married, but that and that's when it was really out of control. But I've been overweight all my life and when my back went out, it it became real for me. I had a four month old grandson at the time.

Speaker 2:

I couldn't lift him, I couldn't hold him, I couldn't go to work, I couldn't clean my house, and it I just had to decide, you know, do I want to lose weight, can I lose weight? And the first thing that I thought was you know, no, I knew I needed to lose weight, but could I? I tried hundreds, thousands of times, but this time was different because I had a grandson and he was four months old and not being able to hold him and knowing that more grandchildren were coming, hopefully, at the time. So it really inspired me to, you know, take the journey, take the leap. Once I got healed it took a few months, of course, for me to heal, but really to really delve in and go for it, because I said I've got to get this right this time.

Speaker 1:

And I've got to guess that there had been other times in your lives where you were motivated. I mean, what about when you were a mom of young children? I mean, there's a perfect time. I can remember when I was first a mom and it worked for me. This motivation, for a little bit, is I didn't want to be the fat mom on the playground. If I'm being honest, I wanted to be able to spit down the slide with my kid on my lap Right. So did you have those feelings at that point when you first became a mother?

Speaker 2:

I don't think I did. Debbie, just as you said this, I, you know, I did want to play with my children. I did want to get down on the floor with them, but I didn't want to do the work that it took to lose the weight. I just have to be honest, I didn't mostly ever want to do the work it I knew it would require so much more out of me than just the food and that was it. So no, it did not motivate me at all. I don't know why it did not.

Speaker 1:

You know, I think, like you said, we're on hundreds, countless number of diets and they didn't work. Countless number of diets and and they didn't work. And I think that it somehow just has to be when something in your head hooks up right, when it just sinks and it would make sense. I can name a whole bunch of things that you know I had. I had actually a back problem, but I required having a spinal fusion when I was in my mid thirties and at that point I think I weighed 265 pounds and I had to have the spinal fusion before I could go through in vitro fertilization.

Speaker 1:

Wouldn't you have thought those would have been enough? Just like you know, maybe your children would have been enough. Like, for each of us, it's our own time, and I think it's interesting. I mean, for me too, 50 seemed to be a pivotal number. I didn't have grandchildren because I was so old when I had my kids, but I don't know, do you think it was also, or was it anything to do with that number for you as well, or it was just the grandchildren idea? Not that that isn't enough.

Speaker 2:

I don't know. You know, maybe it was a little bit of the number because I have become a different person over the years. You know, I wasn't the same as I was when I was a young mom. I didn't have the all the things going on in my life that for the kids you know, running them around and doing all the things for them. So I had my life and it was maybe that was a little bit easier because I was 15. We were empty nesters then and it could be an option at that time. So I now that it's funny that you just said it and it really was. Maybe it was 50. I mean, my back had gone out and it had to get real.

Speaker 1:

But yes, and so how did you approach the weight loss differently that time than you had all the previous times?

Speaker 2:

Well, really, when I started Debbie, I just I had decided I knew I'd had some metabolic issues. I had always from the time I started my period at 13 or 14. I always had issues so that, as I spent my time healing from my back injury for about eight months that's what I did I was really trying to figure out what could work for me to lose weight for ever. That's what I wanted. I wanted something that way and I knew that sugar was a and more I would say more of an addiction for me, because I had a lot of trigger foods. So I always felt like sugar was that trigger food that always made me go back for more. So really, that that probably was it for me.

Speaker 1:

Interesting that you say that, because I don't think that I ever felt that way, even though I mean, I'm not going to lie Ice cream is my favorite food and still is, and anytime that and this is just me personally. So I'm just wondering how it works. I know people say when you go completely cold turkey right, that that addiction and that craving goes away.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, right, maybe so maybe.

Speaker 1:

Oh okay, you know, I really actually wouldn't think that.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I would say, debbie, though once you start taking it out of your life, the the urge for that just doesn't come back. If things, foods I feel like this if foods trigger you, if sugar triggers you, like chocolate chip cookies for me, if I know I'm going to go down that tunnel of lost in sugar land forever, then I'm just, I don't have that and I don't think we always have to take foods out of our life. But if it's a trigger for you and you know that you are going to want more and need more and just going to keep going with it, then at least for the time, maybe omit it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, like I just said before, ice cream is my thing, although chocolate chip cookies is definitely close second but if there was ice cream in my house, it spoke to me right. I mean, I knew it was there, it didn't matter, I could not think about it. Nobody was allowed to bring ice cream into my house. If you were going to have it, you had to have it. You know, go to the ice cream store one and done and not have it in the house, because I didn't trust myself, just like you said. And it's interesting, so many years later and just a couple of weeks ago, I think I realized this because my younger son, ben, is also an ice creamaholic. Right now he doesn't have to worry about his weight, but I keep telling him you're young yet Anyhow and I realized that he and his girlfriend keep pints of Haagen-Dazs or Ben and Jerry's in my freezer and I don't think about it anymore, or Ben and Jerry's in my freezer and I don't think about it anymore. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't love it and that I don't want it, but I think that for me, over the course of a similar amount of time of you seven or eight years that I've just come to an sugar and ice cream and I have come to an understanding, and for me and I'm curious to know how you feel about this is that I had that perfectionist mentality. Ice cream is bad. I cannot eat ice cream at all ever again. Well, that just made me want it all the more right Now. It's a conscious decision. You know what?

Speaker 1:

The other day, just two days ago, my cousin and I were at the beach and I had been thinking about wanting ice cream for so long and I said to her you know what, on the way home, she asked me she had something in the cooler, some healthy snack. She said do you want this? I said no, I don't want this. On the way home, I want to stop and I want to get ice cream. And we did. And you know, I had a small cup with, of course, my rainbow sprinkles on them. It was more than satisfying, which in the past, a small that would have been like ridiculous. And it did the trick. And I can't figure out. Was it time, was it the mindset change? When did it all? How did I get from A to B? Have you, do you know what I'm saying? Have you had a similar experience and and have you cut foods out and then been able to add them back in?

Speaker 2:

and I would 100% agree with you. Yes, because when you start something, if something is a trigger for you, pull it. So you were very good about not having the ice cream in the refrigerator, so it wasn't even accessible to you. And then the time, and also the mindset you've you've learned, going through a process, that it's not necessary for you to have that ice cream. It's not. You haven't, um, like, been in that, uh, that fiendish mode that I gotta have it, and having that mindfulness around it, I'm sure it's been a journey for you. It's not something that you went from yesterday to you know, you've said it's been years, but it doesn't necessarily take years to do it. It's been years, but it doesn't necessarily take years to do it. It's the mindset work in between that needs to be done, that gets you from that I you know I have to have it to. I can have it, it can be in my house and it's not a necessity for me.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, and I think that for me, what came along with those feelings was a lot of anxiety over food. Right, every decision you made was anxiety ridden. Is this good, is this bad? Does it have too many calories? What am I going to eat later, when I step on the scale tomorrow? Is it going to show?

Speaker 2:

I mean, oh, my goodness, what we do to ourselves in our heads, right, and this can be so overwhelming. And you know, really stepping back to really take your time when you're ready for a weight loss journey. You have to be ready. You just can't say you know, okay, I'm just going to do this. It has to. You have to know I'm going to do this and revisit it every single day, maybe even several times a day in the beginning, especially when you're going through this journey.

Speaker 2:

Because if this is something that you really want, if transformation is what you want, you have to revisit it a lot, and I had a client shared with me that she said that the most frustrating part for her is you know that she has to think about it all the time. But if you really want something, if anything with any kind of lasting anything, a relationship, you know if you want a friendship, you have to put effort into that friendship or else it's not going to work, and the same is with weight loss. So, especially if it's a struggle for you so if you know it is, it is something you will have to deal with.

Speaker 1:

at least you know quite a bit at the beginning and just keep revisiting it until it does become easier, because it really does become easier become easier because it really does become easier, and especially for those of us who went through this journey or the journey for the last time, being 50-ish or over. It's 50 years of old habits right, that's a lot of years of habits that we have to retrain our brain to get used to. So why would we think it would happen overnight? We want it to happen overnight, but it's not realistic, would you agree?

Speaker 2:

It's not realistic and you know I think that's a lot of times where the anxiety does come in is because we want it to happen overnight. And if I don't lose these three pounds next week, you know that that being on that hamster wheel of thinking about it and just berating yourself, I think that's a lot of it to just going through those motions and really just easing into a weight loss journey and taking it day by day.

Speaker 1:

And when you were going through your own journey, how did you deal with when the scale didn't give you the number that you wanted to see?

Speaker 2:

or you maybe ate something that afterwards you thought I shouldn't have done that a lot of forgiveness and grace with myself, and this was something I never gave myself before learning how to really love myself. During this journey, that's probably one of the biggest things I had to learn, debbie, because I didn't love myself and that's what I came to know during my transformation is, you know, it's not just about the food, it's about so much more and really being kind to myself, being nice to myself, learning how to be my best friend, and, you know, because the mistakes are going to come, the imperfections are going to come, the cheats are going to come, but being okay in those moments that it's like, and really moving past that. And then with the scale, for me, I did get to a point where I put the scale away because I just didn't want to see that's, that's something that it just doesn't matter, my clothes are fitting, I'm feeling better. Those are the things that matter the most, not that scale. So I would say put the scale away if it's frustrating you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I remember. For me, Weight Watchers seemed to be you know I don't want to say the answer, but the thing I've been most successful with in my life. And I, in the beginning, I would be so frustrated you know I was perfect. I can't believe that the scale didn't show. Be so frustrated, you know I was perfect. I can't believe that the scale didn't show. You know I gained a pound. Are you kidding me? I might as well go home and eat all that ice cream and like, why am I suffering like this?

Speaker 1:

Until one day I don't even know what it was and I thought to myself does my body know that it's Saturday, my weigh-in day, and that this scale better reflect what I'm looking for? Or is there maybe something I ate? I'm retaining water, and then whatever it was. And when I realized that and again, to me it's so much about mindset, because it's just looking at it a different way, right All of a sudden it was like, oh, no big deal, it'll happen next week or it'll happen the week after. And the other mindset piece to me is what you said earlier. I'm not in a rush, of course. I'm in a rush, right, we're all in a rush, we want to blink our eyes and the weight is gone. But in the grand scheme of things, if I want this to be a lifelong habit, then hopefully I have a lot of years and I'm not in a rush. So why am I putting that pressure on myself and on the number on the scale?

Speaker 2:

I love that so much. It's so true and just really relaxing into a weight loss journey. Because this is you. You can't think of it as a diet. This is just going to be the way you live. This is my lifestyle Now. This is the way I'm choosing to feed myself nutritionally. I want to feel amazing and good in my clothes and I want to hold my grandkids and I want to, you know, go for a walk and feel good every day.

Speaker 1:

And it's as simple as that, debbie Yep, and just All right, so let's get down to the specifics of what the Polk method is.

Speaker 2:

The Polk method is Okay. The P is to pause for mindfulness, to really that's it, just be mindful, think about it each time. Sometimes we have to think about it when we're eating. Pause and think about it, what you're eating, really, pausing for meals, to enjoy a meal, to think about your food, food, not be doing other things while you're eating. The o is to open your mind, to heal your heart, because there's there's a lot there that we need to heal, that it's like, like I said, it's not just the food and the l, listening to your body for body cues, because our bodies do tell us the foods likes, doesn't, like our body really does let us know. And then the K is to keep at it, to keep going, because this is our journey just going to keep going and tweaking it as you go. And it's. It's not perfect, it's, but it can happen. And it can happen after, after 50, because I started my journey at 51. I'm 58 and I feel better than I have ever. Debbie.

Speaker 1:

I love that, and it's funny that you said the 50, because I was just going to ask you. You know, so many of us say oh well, once we hit menopause or after 50, then it makes it next to impossible. Obviously, you're living proof that it's not next to impossible. Is there some biological thing that really is true about that, or are we inventing something in our heads?

Speaker 2:

It may be a little bit of both, but I think when we invent it in our heads, we're just giving up. We're already just saying you know, this is the way it is and that way I don't have to do it. If you really want to do it, you have to make the conscious effort to do it and get in action, and it can be done. I'm proof, and so are you, Debbie.

Speaker 1:

This is true. I'm heading towards 61. Can't even believe it and I think I can say the same thing looking back and thinking how I felt. And besides all of the physical attributes, I'm always in awe, I have to tell you, of the whole body positivity movement because, I have to admit, I didn't feel that way and I'm embarrassed and I wish this weren't the case. I can still see that I don't feel that way even now and which, by the way, I still have never hit my weight loss goal. I don't know, Maybe it was a fictitious number. I have just decided. Whatever it is, it is and it is just a number and it is how I feel.

Speaker 1:

But the confidence because of that, it was such a lack of confidence in everything in my life and I think that once I've and I never want to say I've moved past the weight loss issue, I have to say my cousins and I, who've also struggled, are like nope and we lovingly use the word fat. I'm always fat, I will always be a fat girl and I don't see anything wrong with that, because only someone who struggles can relate. And even when we say, oh, we're past it, I'll never be past it right, because it's who I am. I've learned, but it's almost like smoking. I quit smoking when I was 27. If someone told me that it wasn't gonna be dangerous for my health, hand over those cigarettes. You know I would go back in a heartbeat. Same thing with food. So how did it change your confidence? Or did it Were you the kind of person who had the confidence, regardless of your weight?

Speaker 2:

I did not have the confidence whatsoever. It held me back from everything in my life. And am I still? I'm, I feel like I'm still at the point with you, but I do have the confidence now because I I didn't, and I think that just it wasn't just the way it was, from learning how to love myself and being comfortable in my skin. So that is the biggest gift, isn't it just being able to be confident in who you are as a person, and that that end up being like ultimate goals.

Speaker 1:

So and once you felt that way, is that what started you, giving you the confidence that you were able to coach other women and help them do the same thing and achieve what you have?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, Because I wouldn't have been able to help other women had I not helped myself through this portion, because I didn't know what to do. I didn't. And once you, once you get going and once you start transforming and once you start feeding your body, well, things kind of just fall into place.

Speaker 1:

And I'm sure that you've heard and you can relate to your clients and the struggles that they face and things that they're sharing with you. I'm sure that everything might not be the same between all of us that struggle, but I'm sure that there's a lot of common denominators there.

Speaker 2:

There's so much in common and it's a very vulnerable thing and I'm grateful that we're able to share it together, that we know that. You know we're not just the only ones. Exactly, yeah.

Speaker 1:

All right. So I have to ask you quickly before we sign off, because half hour goes way too fast, and hopefully I'm not putting you on the spot, but I saw that you had an Instagram post that said four simple changes you can make today to start losing weight. Even if you don't have all four, give us a few.

Speaker 2:

The first one is to speak positively to yourself. So I would say that. The second thing I would always start your breakfast off with a high protein meal. I think that is very satiating. It'll hold you over for the day or till your next meal.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, are you one of those people? Cause, uh, someone else. My workout lady. She's like eat chicken for breakfast and I just can't do that.

Speaker 2:

I don't need chicken for breakfast, but I do eat protein for breakfast.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right. Well, we've shared a little bit, and very quickly. So where can anybody find you who wants to learn more about you and your method and work with you? Where can they get to you?

Speaker 2:

They can find me on Instagram at robinpolk and over on TikTok at robinpolk, and you can reach me by email at robin at robinpolkco.

Speaker 1:

And I can assure you that her Instagram posts are fun and informative, so make sure to go and check her out. And, robin, I can't thank you enough. We will have to have you back for part two, because I feel like I did more talking, because, you know, maybe I should have been a weight loss coach. Now I leave it to people like you. You're better at it than me. I've got other things to handle, all right. Well, thank you again for being a guest on our show and to everyone else, thank you so much for listening and I can't wait to see you next week. Take care.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for spending part of your day with me here on Maybe I Can, exploring possibilities one sprinkle at a time. It's been great having you and I hope you're leaving with a spark to light up your journey to more. Remember, every big change starts with a single maybe. If you're ready to kickstart that change, but not sure where to begin, I've got just the thing for you. Head over to download my free guide the One Critical Step to Kickstart Change and take that all-important first step. Let's make those maybes into reality, one sprinkle at a time. Catch you next Tuesday at 4 pm Eastern, 1 pm Pacific, with more stories, tips and that extra push you might need. I'm Debbie saying goodbye for now, but always remember maybe, just maybe, you can.

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