Robbie's Chronic Empowerment Movement

Could your mindset be the key to overcoming chronic illness? This episode uncovers the transformative journey of Robbie, an autoimmune empowerment coach who turned his battle with Crohn's disease into a mission to uplift others. From a star gymnast to a certified personal trainer, Robbie has now dedicated his life to autoimmune-specific coaching. Learn about his passion-driven initiatives like the Chronic Empowerment Movement and Spoonie Redefined, which inspire positivity and resilience within the chronic illness community.

Join us as we explore the complexities of managing autoimmune conditions beyond the realm of medical treatments. Discover why mental resilience and a positive outlook are essential allies in the fight against chronic illness. Through compelling success stories and actionable strategies, Robbie explains how intentional actions and mindset shifts can significantly enhance health outcomes. Hear about his clients' journeys, who have found renewed hope and vitality through a focused mindset and nutritional strategies.

Get the inside scoop on the upcoming Thrive and Revive Challenge—a six-week fitness program tailored to individual needs starting July 15th. Learn how you can participate, access an empowering community, and upgrade for personalized coaching. Don’t miss our plans to document this journey live on Instagram, ensuring you stay motivated and inspired. This episode promises a wealth of insights and heartfelt stories that will leave you feeling empowered and ready to tackle any challenge.

6-Week Challenge Waiver (jotform.com)

Robbie Kocks | CPT Autoimmune Empowerment Coach (@autoimmune_coach_robbie) • Instagram photos and videos

Hi, Jen here! We are so glad to have you back. I want to personally thank those that have signed up with Rare Patient Voice recently. We love your support of the podcast, and this is another way that you can by signing up with Rare Patient Voice through our referral link. Remember, we're here to support you every step of the way. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Autoimmune Empowerment Movement Spoonie Redefined
• 13:07 Empowering Mindset and Health Success
• 20:37 Power of Community Support for Spoonies
• 26:45 Thrive and Revive Challenge Explanation
• 31:34 Follow My Challenge Journey on Instagram

Transcript

Jen: 0:08

Hi, spoonie, sisters, it's your Gracefully,Jen, and well, as per usual, as I always say, I'm so excited to introduce our next guest. So this is Robbie. He's . Thank autoimmune coach you for being our guest today. How are you today?

Robbie: 0:25

Yeah, thank you for having me on. I'm doing great. Yeah, it's a great day.

Jen: 0:29

Well, can you share a little bit of your personal journey with autoimmune disease, and then we'll dive into everything else.

Robbie: 0:37

Yeah, absolutely so. I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease back in 2014. And I mean, that was pretty life changing for me, obviously, like it is anybody else. You know, during that time, I was a men's gymnast who specialized on rings, and so, prior to my diagnosis, I had had the best season of my entire life. And then hearing this news, obviously, like, going through all the symptoms and everything, it was pretty devastating.

Robbie: 1:12

But through all of that, you know, there's a lot of details, obviously, that I had to go through to get through that, but I came out a lot stronger. However, obviously, the longer you have an autoimmune condition, the more struggles that you're going to have to face, things that you don't even think are factors. You know, over the last 10 years, I've had to go through my own personal struggles, such as, you know, experiencing like severe side effects from, like a medication that I was on that took several years to figure out what, what was going on. So I got over that and you know, really like the the most pivotal moment in my life, which which sparked the inspiration to do what I'm doing today, is, I mean, the the fact that you know I was given this diagnosis.

Jen: 2:13

So, yeah, Okay, so let's dive in just a little bit. And what inspired you to become an autoimmune empowerment coach and can you explain kind of what that is?

Robbie: 2:25

Yeah, absolutely so. Right after I was diagnosed with Crohn's, that sparked my inspiration and motivation to become a certified personal trainer, because I wanted to help people and I knew obviously, like through doing gymnastics, that I loved, you know, not only working with people but also loved fitness. Started that in 2015, where I was, where I got certified through the American Council on Exercise, and after that throughout the years, out of all of the different types of clients that I worked with, I felt the most connection with those who had autoimmune conditions. I just felt like it was, I felt like I was doing more and and so through that, you know, I just felt like I could make a bigger impact and I saw that there was an obvious, significant lack of specialized coaches in the chronic illness community, autoimmune community, and so I kind of took that as a sign A little bit of that inspiration right there.

Jen: 3:49

Okay, and how long have you been doing this for now?

Robbie: 3:53

Autoimmune specific coaching. Yeah, so I. So I started officially right around February to March of this year of solely focusing on, uh, autoimmune like coaching online. Now, prior to that I was a nutrition coach, you know, for kind of on and off about the past a little over two years I actually worked at a local pharmacy here in Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, where when I was there, we had a majority of our clients there actually had autoimmune issues and so we had like a specific protocol that we would put them on. And so that was where I started like my nutritional coaching journey with working specifically a majority of the time with people with autoimmune conditions. So, but as far as like working specifically with autoimmune, like people with autoimmune conditions, you know, just kind of sporadically here and there throughout being a certified personal trainer at several gyms here in Lincoln, so, yeah, that's pretty much it.

Jen: 5:20

Well, I thank you for joining. I can hear some lovely birds in your background. I'm trying not. No, it's great. It's great, I'm sure it'll. It'll cut out, probably, but I think your story is surely going to resonate with our listeners.

Robbie: 5:35

And.

Jen: 5:36

I would like us to expand a little bit on this autoimmune empowerment movement and also the Spoonie Redefined. Would you mind expanding on that a little bit for us?

Robbie: 5:48

Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. So the Chronic Empowerment Movement is something that it's so, essentially, it's a campaign that I created. It's a social media campaign where it's all about empowering our lives when dealing with a chronic illness or an autoimmune condition. Illness or an autoimmune condition because what I've found over the years is that and this was this was apparent like when I first started, or like when I was first diagnosed with Crohn's disease Sorry, I had to let my dog and like.

Robbie: 6:27

So, because because when you go online on social media, you know there's a lot, of, a lot of accounts out there and a lot of groups out there that, like you go in there and it's it's a lot of, it's a lot of negative feedback and you know, while, while that is you, you do absolutely want to validate that and you don't want to disregard that because, like, people are struggling, while that is the case, I felt that that there is, like there has been a significant lack of like the other end, right Of a large group, like literally trying to uplift people with chronic conditions. So, and I'm very passionate about talking through, going through different types of struggles and coming out the other side being a better person, and so, through all of that. That was what sparked the inspiration for the Chronic Empowerment Movement, and the idea behind it is I want people to be able to take a look at their lives and at, like, essentially every, every aspect about themselves and every aspect that they've been going me Right, and instead thinking of it as OK, like how is this, this negative event happening for my benefit? Right, and it's so hard to do that. It is extremely difficult to do that, and some people will tell you that that's just not feasible, right, but if you are able to do that, then I promise you you'll find like a much better, happier version of yourself than thinking, obviously, the negatives.

Jen: 8:42

I absolutely agree and I think that's why I reached out to you and I asked okay, let's redefine Spoonie. So let's work on this, Spoonie redefine.

Robbie: 8:52

So Spoonie redefine. So I'm sure a lot of listeners on here know about the spoon theory. So spoon theory obviously states that we have a limited number of spoons every single day and based on that, you know that gets contributed to our energy sources. But the the spoon theory was originally designed to explain to people who don't have chronic illnesses, to explain to people who don't have chronic illnesses what it's like to live with a chronic illness. However, over time, what I've noticed it's turned into is it's turned into this thing that we use to tell ourselves that we are limited and that we are going to be limited for the rest of our life. Right, and if that's, if that's what we tell ourselves, then that's going to be the fact, because we're going to believe what what we tell ourselves, right?

Robbie: 10:07

I found out about this theory, which, to be honest, was earlier this year that I found this out, I don't know, I just didn't agree with it. And because there's so many different things that we can do to give us more spoons and to make us start feeling at least a little bit better, right, if we truly look at our lives and ourselves and what we're doing. You know there's there's a lot of different factors that go into play that we can ultimately control.

Jen: 10:36

Yeah, I, I absolutely agree with you. And, and what's funny is, you know, as as your reels were popping out and people were starting to talk about all this spoon theory stuff, I had someone reach out to me and they were like, well, how are you taking this? Because they thought that I was going to be offended because, hello, the name of the podcast is my Spoonie Sisters. And it's like, ok, I could be offended, but I'm not, because I agree with Robbie.

Jen: 11:03

You know, there might be a day where my spoons feel limited, and so maybe that's a way I want to explain to somebody. You know, my energy isn't just not right, it's just not what it was yesterday. So I'm limited today, but tomorrow is going to be a new day and it's all about my mindset and what I choose to try to do for myself. How am I going to fuel my body today and what am I going to do to make tomorrow a better day? And so that's part of why I reached out to you and I was like, let's redefine what a spoonie is and let's spread this.

Robbie: 11:36

Yeah, absolutely, I love it.

Jen: 11:38

So what are some common misconceptions about living with an autoimmune disease that you aim to dispel through your work?

Robbie: 11:46

Sure, common misconceptions is that, obviously, what we just talked about about being limited, because there's so many different people, including medical professionals, who tell us that we are limited, medical professionals who tell us that we are limited.

Robbie: 12:03

So that would be one misconception.

Robbie: 12:14

Another misconception is the fact that, quite honestly, when we do find out we have an autoimmune condition like when I found out I had Crohn's my doctor told me that the only thing that's going to help it is medication, like you're going to have to be on meds for the rest of your life and that's the only thing that's going to make it better, and that's just simply not what happened.

Robbie: 12:34

Instead, I, after several years of hopping from biologic to biologic different biologic I eventually started experiencing severe neurological side effects as well as a whole bunch of other symptoms, and until I was on bed rest for several months and it took about two years for them to figure out what was going on Medication that they told was going to help me, you know, unfortunately didn't. Now, I'm not saying that to scare anybody, obviously, because that's a very small percentage of the population that that happens to. However, the fact of a medical professional telling me that this is the only thing that's going to make you better, you things that are not going to trigger our inflammation in the body, as well as focusing on our mindset overall, because there's a significant connection between the mind and the body that truly affects what types of neurotransmitters and different one of the biggest factors that goes into play when we have an autoimmune condition.

Jen: 14:30

Well, and I think something that's really important to recognize too is they say they have our best interests at heart and most of them do. I truly believe most of them do but at the same time, they're there to make money and they're not always treating everything. I think a lot of us when we were first diagnosed.

Jen: 14:49

We have this belief in our minds that somehow there's just a magical pill that is going to cure me. I'm going to be cured, I'm going to be fine, or I will take this every day and I will be fine because I take it every day. But each time you take in that new pill there's new side effects you're going to have to look out for and it might trigger something else in your body. I mean, there's just so much more to think about.

Robbie: 15:16

Yeah, absolutely, and I think that's.

Robbie: 15:20

I think that aspect, along with the social media aspect of focusing on all those negatives, like it, just it turns into something where and I talk about this in a couple of my reels it's called learned helplessness, where you start to because, like you're, you're being told that you have no control over your condition and that the only control that you have is this external thing that is going to heal you, but then it doesn't heal you, or it does in a way, but then you get additional side effects, you know, and and then, and then, in addition to that, you still feel bad, right, and so it's just kind of this like spiral downward and you kind of just put your hands up and you're just like I don't know what to do, like Like I don't, because I'm trying to listen to these specialists who, like in in society's eyes, are absolutely supposed to be helping us, which you're right Like I know that a majority of people, like a majority of doctors, medical professionals who go into the field, like that a majority of people, like a majority of doctors, medical professionals who go into the field, like I know that their intentions are good, but it's that's just not how the medical field and, like the pharmaceutical field, operates on a larger scale.

Robbie: 16:59

Yeah, yeah, there's just so many things that play into it. So yeah, and I think we could go on for hours.

Jen: 17:02

You know, there's just so many things that play into it, yeah, and I think we could go on for hours. You know, there's people fighting for their medication right now, having to be switched because of big pharma. I mean we could go for hours.

Robbie: 17:13

Mindset and mental resilience. I mean really with any type of goal that you're looking for, honestly, and the goal can be just to feel better, or just to feel like, just to find a good like medication that you're trying to trying to go on, or or that right medication. Right, you know, maybe, maybe you get to the point where you've tried so many different things whether it's medication, whether it's I've tried so many different, you know, low inflammatory diets, I've tried to exercise, I've tried to like, feel bad, like, feel better, mental health wise that, because we fail so many times, like, we get to a point where we end up giving up. And the biggest aspect when it comes to mindset and mental resilience is you, like your how, how your outcome ends is is determined on how strong your mental resilience is and it's determined on how long you're willing to truck through the mud and willing to hold on to this idea, this vision that you have for yourself to start feeling better.

Jen: 19:48

And it's hard, it's really hard, and and yeah, and that's why Absolutely, and I think at the end of the day, you have a choice. To look at your cup Is it? Is it half full or is it half empty? And if it's empty or if it's full, what are you filling it with? Because because whatever is flowing out of your cup is what you're putting into it too. So if you're putting the work into it, that's going to show.

Robbie: 20:16

Yes, absolutely, it comes down to intention.

Jen: 20:19

Absolutely, and so I guess my next question for you is could you share some success stories with us?

Robbie: 20:28

Yeah, of my clients, yeah, absolutely. So first one I will share, I'd say, is one of the biggest. I'll share a couple of my biggest. So Ruby, she went through my first.

Robbie: 20:42

It had been in remission for several years, up until January of this year, and she had some. I'm not going to go into the details of it, but she had some severe, like severely stressful events happen in her life around the fall time of last year, and I'm talking like extremely stressful, and so she was just in that like fight or flight zone, like just trying to manage everything Right, but then come January everything just kind of collapsed and that was when her ulcerative colitis symptoms started coming back and they came back with a vengeance. Like it was terrible, like she, she literally had to like switch her jobs to working from home. She was having 20 to 25 bowel movements a day and in addition to that, obviously, a whole bunch of other symptoms that come along with having inflammatory bowel disease. But this had been going on all the way up until early May when I started communicating with her. I when, when I started communicating with her and she had been working with different doctors, different functional doctors who were trying different types of diets with her. Essentially nothing was working. So after only four days of us working together, like literally the only thing that we focused on was mindset and nutrition, after four days she had zero symptoms, zero. And the biggest aspect about that was obviously, like her mindset, which she had been working on prior to us working together, but it was the nutritional aspect, and I could go into the details of that, but that would last about like 10 more minutes. But so, so, yeah, that's, that's one amazing success story.

Robbie: 23:07

Another one real quick, I don't want to take up too much time, obviously, but very recently, jacinda, who goes by Virgo, just like a little bit less than seven weeks ago, she was in the ER and they were contemplating having surgery for her gallbladder, for her gallbladder, and after that, like she was like I've got to make a change and so we started working together. Um, six weeks ago and I actually just posted a, posted a story, uh, yesterday I believe like, want, like, wanting to run up these like double sets of stairs, not just once but twice, and then going back up there and doing like 40 squats, and that was not in her program at all. She wanted to do that, like that was something that she had enough energy for not just to like get through the program that I have laid out for her, but like to like want to do more because she feels good, and it's just amazing the transformations that you see as a coach.

Jen: 24:25

Absolutely, and we love Virgo. In fact, she was on the podcast. I'm trying to see if I can find what podcast number she is. It's here somewhere. Well, I'm not seeing it, but she was on here last year. Here it is October 1st of 2023. She is Season 3, episode 6. So if anyone wants to go check out Jacinda slash Virgo, that's where she's at and she is such a hoot and a treat. Yeah, I'm so glad she's working with you. I love her to death I know she's so fun.

Jen: 25:01

So, okay, my next question for you is what role does community and support play in the journey of someone with an autoimmune disease, and how can spoonies find or create these supportive networks?

Robbie: 25:14

Yeah. So I think community is absolutely essential, which is why both you and I are doing this right, because it just it brings. When you, when you get like-minded people supporting each other and trying to help each other work through all of these difficulties and challenges, like sometimes, sometimes what I say to one person is not going to click, and you know for for a coach to say that like I like, sometimes it's just not because some people are just not receptive to you. Know, whether it's the way that you say something or what you say, or you know, maybe it just doesn't click at the time because of things that you're going through. Maybe somebody like somebody else out there and their story and what they did, you know, maybe maybe that is just that final like puzzle piece that you need to finally like, have it click and realize, like what you actually need for yourself.

Jen: 26:26

So definitely and I think you know it's something important for people to recognize is sometimes, well, it's not a one size fits all, so not every coach is for every single person, not every support group is for every single person. You need to keep looking for what is the best fit for you and go from there, and that's okay. So the next thing I want to bring up is you have a challenge coming up again.

Robbie: 26:52

Yeah.

Jen: 26:53

So tell our listeners all about it.

Robbie: 26:55

Yeah, got the six-week Thrive and Revive Challenge. It starts on July 15th, so this coming Monday, a week from today. I don't know when this episode's going out, but I can push it out early. Sweet. So essentially it's. Do you want me to talk about the investment for it too?

Jen: 27:19

Yeah sure, yeah, sure.

Robbie: 27:21

Yeah. So to get access into the program, it's just $99. That gets you the base access of the fitness program, which is based on your fitness level as well as your condition. In addition to that, there's going to be a Facebook group, so Facebook community, specifically focusing on the challenge itself. In the Facebook group I'll be doing live streams weekly going over mindset stuff you know more specifically that mindset aspect and then possibly anything else that you know I need to bring up, and then we put in some recipes in the Facebook group as well.

Robbie: 28:03

Now there are like upgrades or add-ons as well, and those are like $75 per upgrade.

Robbie: 28:09

So if you want to, if you want that low inflammatory meal plan specifically for you, if you want a customized, more of a customized fitness program, that would be another upgrade.

Robbie: 28:24

One on one, like virtual personal training sessions, and then the last one is one on one mindset coaching calls and the last one is one-on-one mindset coaching falls. So the focus of the challenge is obviously to thrive and revive. If you're in a place where and it doesn't matter what fitness goals you're trying to focus on if you're just trying to feel better in general, if you're trying to lose weight, if you're just trying to decrease inflammation, if you're just trying to feel better in general, if you're trying to lose weight, if you're just trying to like decrease information, if you're just trying to move more like this is the, this is this challenge for you and it's it's just one of those, one of those things where we're building that community, like, little by little, we're continuing to build, build up more of a sense of community and more of that empowerment. You know what better way to do that than throwing challenges?

Jen: 29:23

Because I'm going to end up killing myself doing this, but it's fun, I love it, I love it, I'm here for it. So if somebody wants to join, what do they need to do?

Robbie: 29:33

So all they need to do is what do they need? No, I'm just kidding, so just come to my Instagram page. So that is autoimmune. Underscore Robbie. Underscore Cox. Robbie's R-O-B-B-I-E Last name is K-O-C-K-S. Robbie's R-O-B-B-I-E Last name is K-O-C-K-S. And right on, like in my bio, I've got the six-week challenge application in there. So that link on my bio will take you straight to the application and waiver for it and all you have to do is fill it out. Literally takes less than five minutes to do and after you do that, I will be reaching out to you within. It should be within 24 hours. And yeah, that's pretty much it.

Jen: 30:24

And is there a cutoff date in which they need to get this done by?

Robbie: 30:27

Yes, so we'll cut off date, preferably Sunday, so this coming Sunday by Sunday July 14. Okay, if somebody is yeah, if somebody's like my gosh, I really want to do this like. I will probably be making this up like an exception, so yeah you can fit them in there somewhere.

Jen: 30:51

Okay well, that sounds great and I think people are going to be super excited to join. I'm sure I have a million more questions for you. We're going to have to bring you on again. But for listeners also, I want to remind you, if you have not signed up for the Cabana app yet the Spoonie support group that normally is through Zoom we've joined and partnered up with Cabana and so that starts well today, but nobody's going to hear this yet.

Jen: 31:20

So the next one is for July 16th. You can join Megan and I for support group and uh yeah, if you have any questions, reach out to me. But as far as Robbie goes, we are going to have all of your links and all of your information in the show notes. Thank you for joining. This was such a pleasure. We're going to have all of your links and all of your information in the show notes. Thank you for joining. This was such a pleasure. We're going to have to do this again and we're going to have to go live on Instagram as well. But follow along everyone. I will make sure I share my journey as I do this challenge with Robbie. I will share it all over so you can follow and see what I do All right listeners.

Jen: 31:54

Until next time, don't forget your spoon.