Hey yall!! Happy Thursday! Hope this finds you having a good day! So recently I was asked a question that kinda stopped me in my tracks. It was in a counseling session, we talk about A LOT in there, lol. But this day we were talking about changing from Health and Wellness Coaching to a Christian Non-Diet Body Image Health Coach and I was saying that I wanted to get connected more in a particular way but that I was really struggling in that because it can be a little triggering to me to be around groups of people talking “diet-y” For example, “I can’t eat this or that so many calories, or if I eat that I will have to work it off a week” etc, the list of comments can go on and on lol. I know you know exactly what I’m talking about, if you’ve been in a group of women you’ve heard all those comments. We’ve prolly all done it. Well…..she asks the question “Did I think there may be some jealousy when others lose weight?” BAMMMM! Right upside the head, LOL. She can do that to me, we all need people in our lives that will speak truth and/or ask the hard things to us. We kinda teased it out a little but I’ve pondered on since then as well. The flesh, the human side of me says “Well, yea that could be some of it” but the other side of that, the spiritual side, the wisdom side says that’s not good for you Nicole. Taking diet sups, or diet medicine for me would not be good. Starting another diet, restricting, over exercising can take me right back where I was and friend that was a very, very dark place. I never want to go back there again. Today I can “weigh” (pun intended lol) out my options and choices and for me it’s important to choose life.
In one hand, I can start “another diet” restrict foods to try to met the standards of the world, knowing the bar will be raised time and time again. In my own experience if you meet your goal, you will always say I can do more. I need more. Just 5 more pounds, just 20 more pounds and THEN I’ll be happy. The happiness may come, but it’s not long term.
Then on the other hand, I can stand firm in the truth, wisdom, and freedom God has taught me to walk in. But friend, that freedom has nothing to do with a size, or number, or a plan.
See, I know what I had to do to stay a certain size or to keep trying to obtain a certain size and it was not loving and caring for my body. No, I was poisoning and harming my body. I was abusing diuretics and laxatives, I was restricting food, binging or over exercising. I was in bondage.
If you have to penalize or harm yourself for eating a cookie or a piece of cake, or if you have to exercise an extra hour or 2 because you ate some fries or candy, then I would say checking our motives might be in order. We may have an idol in our life. If you have fear of eating food, or fear of not exercising today, it might warrant taking a look at why we are behaving in this manor. If you can only eat this extreme way and nothing that might be satisfying, then there might be a problem worth investigating. I’m not a doctor but if you do some of these practices like I did, you may fall into the category of disordered eating or an eating disorder. I’ve been there in all of these scenarios. For me, I thought clean eating was the gospel. I thought low carb was the gospel. I thought weight watchers was the gospel. Only to find I was in bondage time and time again. Certainly, there is a place for lower carb living for diabetes, but there is still freedom and balance even in that.
Diet culture has tried to attach moral value to food and exercise. But if food were righteous then I believe God would allow and provide for us all to eat the same and in a certain way. But there are poor people who can’t eat clean, or keto, or weight watchers. (I’m not picking on these, these are just ones I did.) If certain people can’t afford that, does God think less of them or love them any less? Does God think more of you because you have this “righteous” strict, rigid diet plan? Are those that can’t afford these lifestyles less qualified by God because they can’t eat that way? Does God find you more qualified? Absolutely not! God loves them just the same. Just like He loves you and me just the way we are. These are healthy questions to ponder.
WHEN YOU HAVE AN IDOL IN YOUR LIFE
The idol of thinness.
My body, my idol.
A few questions to ask yourself:
“-Do I think that having a new body size, shape, or “part” will bring me joy, peace, or rest?
-If I “don’t have” a certain body size, shape, or “part” — would that devastate me?
-Do I spend too much time worrying about my body size, shape, or a specific body part?”
☝️☝️☝️ Heather Creekmore- Author of Compared To Who
If you find yourself in any of these categories it’s worth exploring. Heathers book ‘Compared To Who’ is an EXCELLENT resource! Also, her new book ‘40-Day Body Image Framework’ is AMAZING. I have done coaching with her and it was incredibly helpful to me. She is simply AMAZING.
CHASING THE PERFECT BODY
Chasing after the “perfect body” or a certain size or weight is like running on a treadmill with no end in sight. Oh, it’s so exhausting to live this way. You look in the mirror and pick yourself apart day after day. Your thoughts are constantly on yourself, food, the scale, perfecting our bodies. Our bodies have become projects to change instead of bodies to love and be in harmony with. That right there friend, keeps us trapped in a cycle of comparison and self-doubt.
Truth bomb 💣 time!! Sweet one, you are already enough, just as you are. Right in this very moment, you are enough.
Today, let’s begin checking our motives, and tearing down the idols that diet culture has helped erect in our lives. You are not alone in this. There are so many women who struggle in this area, everywhere we turn we see and hear “You are not enough” that we need to chisel and new tone body. Oh, the messages, You may be 50 but you can look like you’re 25 if you do “THIS” particular thing. When does it stop??! When can you finally love and accept yourself and be comfortable in your body, and see yourself the way God does?
Sweet one, it’s time to ditch diet culture!! It’s time to do the hard work of getting free, and getting ourselves off our minds and putting our eyes on Jesus instead of the scale and onto the great plans and purposes he has for us. Live life as an audience of One☝️
News flash, it isn’t looking a certain way or being a certain size so the world approves. God has already approved of you when you were in your mother’s womb. He created you uniquely and on purpose, for such a time as this. You weren’t a mistake and God didn’t screw up giving you your good body! You are the apple of Gods eye, YOU are His masterpiece!
Guess what? God loves you….muffin top and all. 🧁💖
You are more than a body! You are more than a number on a scale. We think that micromanaging our diets and body size will bring us closer to Gcd but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“This is a tough one because so many of us have heard messages that support this myth in places of worship and from trusted believers. However, when we're focused on all the numbers – calories, steps, weight, and tracker apps – we aren't focused on a good God. Counting does not bring us closer to God, it serves diet culture instead. When we're underfed—which is what tracking and restriction lead to—we don't have the mental energy to offer our presence to others. When we see ourselves outsourcing our inner wisdom to scales, numbers, and devices, it's time to step away from the idols of diet culture. It makes sense that we can end up here – diet culture has insidiously infected our churches and our view of health. But we can start to let it go. Ultimately, dieting distracts us from using our gifts and accepting God's good grace. Only a fed life leads to a full life.
Friends, we were made for more than dieting and chasing a number on the scale. God gave us taste buds for a reason: not just so that we would be fed but that we would find pleasure and connection in nourishment. These wise bodies.”
☝️☝️☝️☝️ Leslie Schilling
If you haven’t read ‘Feed Yourself’ by Leslie Schilling girl run 🏃♀️ and go buy it. It’s the perfect place to start.
Hope you are beginning to see how the enemy is trying to steal, kill, and destroy us in this area. If you find yourself on this path and you are tired and want freedom, I would be honored to walk with you on this journey. Please reach out and I’d love to work with you.
Hope y’all have a blessed and wonderful day!
Big hugs,
Nicole🩷
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