We are so excited to bring you the first official crossover series of the "What’s God Got To Do With It?" and Outweigh podcasts.
If you have been listening to Outweigh, you know that THAT podcast is all about helping women break themselves out of the food and body prison, end the dieting madness, and take control of their health for good, but without all that restriction, obsession, and shame…and without dragging it out for years to address it.
And if you’ve been listening to "What’s God Got To Do With It?", you know that it's all about the fusion of where science meets Faith and where faith meets transformation and miracles.
So this crossover series is a beautiful opportunity to talk about the crossover of where science meets food…& body image… & self image struggles…AND where THAT intersects FAITH (or what’s God got to do with allll of that?)
And that’s exactly what this 6 part series is all about:
Part 1 is an introduction and setting up this massive topic.
Part 2 is all about the big picture of where faith meets science meets food & body image.
Part 3 goes deep into the self image and identity that you need to actually step into the version of you that would have THAT health, that would have THAT relationship with food and her body, who would actually be at peace and feel free….…and of course how that fuses with this faith-brain conversation.
Part 4 dives deeper into What God has to do with (what Leanne calls) your ‘food brain’ and disordered eating patterns, and filling voids in your head, heart, and spirit with food (or whatever your drug of choice is)…and it’s a hole that will never be filled by those things.
Part 5 dives into the complicated relationship that women have with their bodies and their body image (and physical pain – a topic often avoided), and how to heal all of that from a faith-meets-science perspective.... AND invite God into the conversation.
And then wrapping it up in part 6, we get into the strategy side of things. As in, what does it look like to use what you’ve learned about neuroscience and faith and healing your relationship with food and your body image to go create a winning game plan that sets you up to win AND one that your brain just learns so you can go live your life, food can be food, and you can feel comfortable in your skin and free from the chains of restricting or punishing your body.
So let’s dive in! Enjoy Part 1.
HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @leanneellington
To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.
Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
If you want to go on a journey. If you're skeptical,
don't worry. Not here to preach, going to keep the
clean and talk to me and recad where faith need
stops nature, get in touch with your creator with a bacon,
love and jew.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
She even speaks Hebrew. What's that?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
What's that? As well? Said Paul talking transformation, what's dopo?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I am so excited as this is the very first
official crossover series of What's God Got to Do with It?
In the Outweigh podcast, Because if you've been listening to
me on Outweigh, you know that that podcast is all
about helping women break them selves out of the food
and body prison, end the dieting madness, and take control
of their health for good, but without all that restriction, obsession,
(01:08):
and shame, and without dragging it out.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
For years to address it.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
And if you've been listening to me on What's God
Got to Do with It, you know that we are
all about the fusion of where science meets faith and
where faith meets transformation and miracles. So this is a
beautiful opportunity to talk about the crossover of where science
meets food and body image and self image struggles and
(01:33):
where that intersects faith or what's God got.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
To do with all of that.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And that's exactly what this six part series is all about.
So Part one is really just an introduction where we're
simply going to set up this massive topic. Part two
is all about the big picture of where faith meets
science meets food and body image struggles. In Part three,
we go deep into the self image and idea that
(02:00):
you would need to actually step into the version of
you that would have that health, that would have that
relationship with food in her body, and who would actually
be at peace and feel free, and of course how
that fuses with this faith brain conversation. In Part four,
we dive deeper into what God has to do with
what I call your food brain and disordered eating patterns
(02:24):
and filling voids in your head hard in spirit with
food or netflix or wine or whatever your drug of
choice is, and it's a whole that will never be
filled by those things. In Part five, we dive into
the complicated relationship that women have with their bodies and
their body image and physical pain, which is not talked
about enough in my opinion, and how to heal all
(02:47):
of that from a faith meets science perspective and invite
God into the conversation, and then wrapping it up in
Part six, we get into the strategy side of things,
as in, what does it look like to use what
you've learned about neuroscience and faith and healing your relationship
with food in your body image to go create a
winning game plan that sets you up to win and
(03:10):
one that your brain just learns so you can go
live your life. Food can be food, and you can
feel comfortable in your skin and free from the chains
of restricting or punishing your body. So let's dive on
in starting with part one. So in some ways, this
whole series should be easy for me to create, since
(03:31):
this is literally what I do in my day job.
I help women escape from the food in body prison,
heal their relationship with food and their bodies, and make
peace with themselves in the process. But the reason this
isn't quite so simple is because it's such a big
conversation and a lot of women and men, if you're listening,
have a really complicated relationship with food in their bodies
(03:54):
and the stuff that we're going to cover in the
next few weeks. I work with people very intensively for
three to four months time to help them really heal
this and put the problem to bed and get off
the put a band aid on it roller coaster.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So to try to distill it.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Down into a few podcast episodes, That's why it feels
like a challenge.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
But I say challenge accepted.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
But I'm also going to be super mindful about not
giving you band aids or giving you one and done solutions.
So I want to be really clear about what I
am and what I'm not promising here. And this is
really about inviting you into a conversation where you can
explore this massive topic but from a place of no
fluff and truly addressing the problem from its roots. But
(04:38):
again not by giving you this.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
One and done solution. Okay, this is literally just the
beginning of the.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Conversation, and I'll start by kind of bottom lining it
for you. And if I were to bottom line how
to heal your food and body struggles through the lens
of faith, I would literally just put it into two categories.
And so the first side of it is, yes, you
have to heal the cycle and the habits and the
behaviors like that's a given. In other words, you've got
(05:04):
to address the wiring in your brain that's causing you
to eat the way you eat or don't eat, and
move the way that you move or don't move, and
just treat yourself and your body the way that you
treat it or don't treat it, and feel the way
that you feel or don't feel about yourself, which spoiler alert,
is really what we're going to talk about in depth
(05:24):
in the first couple of episodes of this series. But
we're going to do that through the lens of faith
and invite God into that conversation from the get go.
But there's a second category, or a flip side of
this equation. Again, if I was going to bottom line it,
and it's this, It is the identity, all right. In
a way, you have to become a new version of
(05:46):
yourself and you have to radically transform your being. And
I know that might sound so daunting, especially if food
and your body is something that you've been struggling with
for a long time, but trust me, it is in perative.
You can't skip that part because let's just say that
you had all of this strategy and habit and brain
(06:07):
change stuff that I just talked about a second ago,
and let's say you had the perfect plan and the
perfect steps to take. Who's to say that you would
actually show up for yourself and use it and.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Stick with it.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
And this is what I tell all my stressless eating
clients too. I tell them, like, listen, I could teach
you the system of thinking that I teach my clients
around food and your body. But if you don't address
the self image and body image and the identity that's
causing you to think and act and feel and behave
the way that you are behaving around food, you will
always end up right back where you are. Because I
(06:40):
guarantee that despite what you think, that's not a food
problem or a body problem, right, It's definitely a brain thing.
And it's the things that have gotten fired and wired
in your brain because of your thoughts and the emotions
and the actions that are kind of like a cascade
effect and have simply become habits. And so, in other words,
(07:00):
your habits and behaviors are symptom of a cause, which aka,
your thoughts are the cause that's happening upstream in your brain.
But I would also venture to say, or at least
invite you to try on the possibility that what if
it was also a spiritual thing, because yes, I think
we're starting to get that the problem is emotional, but
(07:22):
I truly believe that the problem is also spiritual, as in,
it's in your soul, and it's in your spirit.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And so let me back up for a minute so
that this all makes sense.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Because if you asked me ten years ago, if I
ever thought that I would be talking about God, let
alone be on a podcast talking about God, well I
probably would have thought that you were joking, or that.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I was on one of those hidden camera shows.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Because this Bacon love and jew Even though I was
super proud of my Jewish heritage and my culture, and
I lived in Israel a total of three times and
I even speak mediocre at best, but can totally get
by Hebrew, it was never a guy thing to me.
And in fact, I put God, in Jesus Christ and
(08:04):
any other deity in the category of the tooth fairy
or the Easter money, or that file in my brain
labeled make believe or fantasy. And I mean absolutely no
offense or disrespect to anyone listening to this, but this
is just truly where my heart and head were postured
and kind of how I grew up and so God
and this concept of faith in general just wasn't something
(08:27):
that I was looking for, that I was interested in,
or that I was even aware that I was missing.
And so Judaism was never a connection to God for me,
and it was never faith. And in my eyes, it
was a culture and simply part of who I am,
a very proud part for sure, But in my eyes,
I wasn't religious or very Jewish as we used to
(08:47):
say as kids, and God wasn't even a topic in
conversations that I remember. And so bottom line, until a
few years ago, I didn't even know that I didn't
have God in my life. It wasn't even in my consciousness.
But what was definitely in my consciousness was shame. Lots
and lots of shame. And so the reason that I
(09:08):
was way more intimately involved with shame than I was
with God is because of this war that I was
in with myself and my body for most of my life.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
And it makes sense too, right.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I mean, my first weet Watchers meeting was when I
was seven or eight, and from there on out, food
and my body became this very personal and emotional thing.
My first weet Watchers meeting was when I was seven
or eight, and from there on out, food and my
(09:43):
body became this very personal and emotional thing, and more importantly,
toxic shame became a very integrated character in the story
of my life. And it's also when I started viewing
food and my body and my weight as something that
needed to be measured and weighed and accounted for and
obsessed over or really just fit into this category of good, bad, right, wrong, healthy, unhealthy,
(10:09):
on plan, off plan, And it really just got worse
from there. And so I carried all of that with
me into my teenage years and all the way into adulthood.
And so there I was, and I was twenty five
years old, and not only was I extremely overwait for
my age by societal standards, but I had developed this
really addictive and controlling and shameful relationship with food, and
(10:32):
really a judgmental and self critical and shameful relationship with myself.
And so things like depression and anxiety they just became
part of my life at that point, and you know,
you can just imagine how this impacted my confidence and
my self esteem. And so eventually though I hit my
first enough is enough point, and through a lot of
wrong ways and some of the right ways. I went
(10:55):
on and lost a lot of weight. It was close
to one hundred pounds, and this even inspired me to
start my first business working with women on their own
weight loss journeys. But here's the thing, I learned the
same eat less, move more equation that a lot of
the mainstream teaches to young women who think that losing
weight will magically solve all their problems.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Like, yeah, I got that download as well.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
And so even though yes, I did technically lose the weight,
like yeah, I got there. I lost one hundred pounds,
I got down to my lowest weight, and I could
finally wear you know, tank tops and sleeveless halter tops
any day of the week. But I never addressed my
addiction like pull to food and sugar, and so I
still really felt like I was this slave to dieting
(11:40):
or a slave to exercise, because I would bounce from
one extreme to the other. I would diet and restrict
until I couldn't possibly take it anymore, and then I
would rebound to the opposite, you know, you know, care
free abandonment, eating whatever I could get my hands on,
and then of course I would feel guilty or just
go try to out exercise my overeating, and so not
(12:01):
only was I the opposite of free, but I was
also the opposite of happy.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
And I mean, you would think.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
That after I lost about a third of my body weight,
I would feel beautiful and happy and free and all
the things that the magazines I read growing up promised me.
But because I didn't address the self image and body
image and the wiring in my brain that was causing
me to think and act and feel and behave like
I was fat or unworthy, or a failure or destined
(12:30):
to stay this way forever, or whatever other painful words
I was using. Yes, I lost the weight, but I
never transformed my identity, and I just brought all of
my old habits and thinking and behaviors with me. Keep
in mind now, at this point, I still didn't have
God in my life, or at least I didn't know
that I did. And so, by some divine miracle, I
(12:51):
eventually had the insight and the awareness to realize that
I was never going to be able to outdiet and
outwork or outsmart the wiring in my brain and in
my self image. I eventually had the insight and the
awareness to realize that I was never going to be
able to outdiet and outwork or outsmart the wiring in
my brain and in my self image. And so I realized, like, okay,
(13:14):
you're always going to end up right back in alignment
with the story that you're telling yourself about yourself lean
And yeah, it was super scary at first to take
that leap and ditch all of the band aids and
the quick fixes and all the motivational raw raw that
I'd gotten so used to and finally take a more
scientific approach to my struggles, because it's like, wait a minute,
you mean stop trying to control or hyper obsess over
(13:37):
the one thing that I've always tried to control, even
though ironically, the more I tried to control and perfect myself,
the more out of control and broken I felt. But
it was the devil that I knew versus the devil
that I didn't know, as they say. And so I
finally got to that point where I was ready, and
even though yeah I was ready, I was so scared, right,
(13:57):
But that's what I did. I made a firm commitment
to myself that day that I would never be in
a place of crazy restriction or obsession ever again. And
I decided to examine my habits and my mindset around
food and my body. But that was only one side
of it, right, because yes, I definitely had to heal
my relationship with food in my body. So that's what
(14:20):
I did, and ironically, you know, that's what God had
in store for me to help other women do for
themselves as well, and really what paved the way for
my stressless eeding curriculum that I've been teaching for a
decade and a half. But like I started to say,
that was only one side of it. Okay, there was
another curveball in the mix that took place essentially smack
dab in the middle of the part of the story
(14:42):
I was sharing, which I will promise you I will
share in the Body Image episode of this series. But first,
there's something else I should probably mention an address now,
since we're talking about the fusion of where faith meets science,
and it's another very important part of my journey, and
it's that I'm by all definitions, considered a sid scientist,
but it's not in that, you know, conventional way that
(15:03):
most scientists operate. I'm more of a streets of the
hard knocks kind of scientists and so the word nerd
in me definitely wants you to know that the etymology
or word origin of the word scientist literally means a
person versed in or devoted to science, and the word
origin of the word science literally means acquired by study
(15:26):
or assurance or certainty of knowledge. And so by those definitions,
I most definitely identify as a scientist, but for obvious reasons,
it's not the typical kind that you find in a
classroom or a lab. I'm one of those you know,
didn't mean to but had to in order to solve
my own deepest struggles kind of scientists. And so specifically,
(15:48):
I've dedicated my life's work to studying the female brain
and nervous system, and as you'll come to learn, a
kind of semi obsession with studying the part of the
brain that houses the female self image, which I promise
to also share because that connects a lot of dots
and it's really going to bring us full circle to
understand what this has to do with the Bacon, love
and jew walking into a church and finding God. And
(16:11):
as you'll hear throughout this series, it has everything to
do with it. Because once I unlocked that the magic
and the possibility that I was awakened to when it
comes to the human body and the nervous system. And
because of the neuroplastic, malleable, pliable nature of this machine
of possibility that we all have access to, and combined
(16:32):
with the Lave cause and effect and the lave cause
and effect programming, that we can all feed our own
brains in order to transform. But then slap on understanding.
You know, why we do what we do, and why
we say what we say, and why we feel how
we feel, and why we cope with those emotions however
we cope with them. And heck, there is no judgment
(16:55):
and full transparency. I've used everything from food and Netflix
to social media and weed, and so hey, I am
not perfect. I'm not trying to be perfect, and really,
who wants to be perfect? That being said, being exposed
to all of the magic and miracles of the nervous
system on a science level, and trust me when I
say that this non believer, you know, bag in love
(17:16):
and jew was not using words like magic.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
And miracles fifteen years ago either.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Will all of that brain stuff that I just described
essentially just primed my mind and my heart and my
soul and spirit for seeing what I couldn't yet see.
But again, and as you can imagine for any curious,
you know, science driven gal that all of a sudden,
after thirty years, decided she wanted to go find God.
It made me extremely skeptical and cynical about the whole
(17:42):
faith side of things, because if there wasn't a research
paper about it, or I couldn't see it with my
own human eyes, I didn't believe it. And so this
whole faith thing, which I now partially define as believing
in the possibility of what you can't see or taste
or smell or touch or measure in a lab, that was.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Definitely a stretch for me.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
So that's why I can only imagine that when you
hear me share that, you know, a bacon love and
Hebrew speaking Jewish scientist wants to talk to you about
where faith meets science and meets food and.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Body image and all of that.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
And you know where I found God and how it
completely transformed my life. Like, yeah, I can I can
see how that might sound like the beginning of a
riddle or a knock knock joke, But as you'll learn
through this series, it really completed the story that I
had no idea at the time, but God really had
been writing it inside of me all along.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
But we'll get into all of that. The point is.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
This, though, faith is something that I didn't always have,
and like I said, it's something I didn't know that
I didn't have in the first place, or that really
that I could have, But now that I have it,
I can't not share amount. Faith is something that I
(19:00):
didn't always have, and like I said, it's something I
didn't know that I didn't have in the first place,
or that really that I could have, But now that
I have it, I can't not share about it. I
can't not share about its impact on my life and
the love and the compassion and the acceptance that my
heart has been opened up to that I never thought
(19:21):
was possible. And I can't not share about the peace
that came over me that was truly beyond understanding. And
when it comes to you know, the deep dark deposits
of residual toxic shame that you know, no matter how
hard I tried, I couldn't personal development or rewire my
(19:41):
brain or just strictly self image my way through. And
so I can't not share about the peace and the
acceptance that overcame me instead of that shame that again
it was beyond my understanding. But here's what I also
say about it. And this is where I kind of
turn it over to you, all right, since you you
do also have a brain, I'm inviting you to have
(20:03):
a conversation about taking radical ownership and responsibility rather than
just letting your brain run and do its thing and
take you down rabbit holes. Because it's about influencing what
you can influence to create your own peace of mind
and happiness and freedom. Okay, and yeah, taking care of
your mental, emotional, physical health.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
It's a brain conversation.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
It's about taking radical ownership and responsibility for what you
can control, what you can influence, and what you can transform.
But this time around, I'm also inviting you into the
possibility that what if it was a God conversation?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Right, what if this time.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
You could invite God into the conversation about food and
your body and just ask God to meet you there
and help you and support you unconditionally and really just
be your most supportive friend and trusted advisor in the process.
But I will also say this, and I'm sharing this
from my own experiences of making this so much harder
(21:06):
on myself than it needed to be. It will go
a lot smoother and easier if you shift this idea
of you know, taking care of yourself or healing your
relationship with food in your body, and really taking care
of your mental emotional physical health. If you shift this
idea of thinking of all of that as a burden, right,
because it's easy for us to think like, oh, I
(21:28):
have to, I need to, I'm supposed to, and it
feels like a burden, and really shift it to like, Okay,
it's a challenge that I'm taking on, or it's an
assignment from God that I'm choosing to take on, like
really making that flip, because the truth is is that
when everything else in your life or your circumstances feel
totally out of control, your mental emotional physical health it
(21:52):
really is the one thing that you can fully influence
and you can focus on and you can choose what
you feed it right, both literally and metaphorically. But it's
also something that you can surrender over to God at
the same time and just see what happens when you
do that. And again I'm not here saying just blindly
(22:12):
take my word for it. I'm really saying, try it on,
see how it feels.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Like.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Really, as we're going through everything step by step, week
by week, just really try it on, see how it feels,
keep what resonates, and ditch the rest. And so that's
what we're going to start diving into this week and
over the coming weeks, really week by week and just
go narrower and deeper where next week in part two,
it's all about the big picture of where faith meets
science needs food.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
And body image. Then in part three, we're going to go.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Deep into the self image and the identity that you
need to actually step into the version of you that
would have that health, that would have that relationship with
food in her body, who who would actually be at
peace and feel free, and of course how that fuses
with this faith brain conversation. So really the identity of
somebody that would have it easily. And then in part four,
(23:02):
we're going to dive deeper into what God has to
do with what I call your food brain and really
those disordered eating patterns and filling voids in your head
and your heart and your spirit with food or netflix
or wine or whatever your drug of choices. I've used
them all and as you're probably learning, it's a whole
that will never be filled by those things because it's
(23:22):
not a physical hole. Then in part five, we're going
to dive into the complicated relationship that women have with
their bodies and their body image and really how to
heal that from a faith meets science perspective and invite
God into the conversation, and then wrapping it up in
part six, we're going to get into the strategy side
of things, as in, you know, what does this look
(23:44):
like to use what you've learned about neuroscience and faith
and healing your relationship with food in your body image
to go create a winning game plan that actually sets
you up to win and one that your brain just
learns so you can go live your life and food.
Food can be food, and you can feel comfortable in
your own skin and free from the chains of restricting
(24:05):
or punishing your body. And again, I want to acknowledge
that might feel like a massive stretch or a big
gap from where you are right now, and that's why
we're going.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
To just take it week by week.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Okay, So thank you for joining us for the very
first official crossover series of What's God Got to Do
with It and Outweigh Podcasts. That's it for today's episode
of the What's God Got to Do With It?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
And the Outweigh Podcast Crossover.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Thanks for tuning in, and if you want to learn
more about the work that I do or catch either
of the podcasts on a regular basis, there's a couple
of ways you can do that. First off, if you
want to learn how to turn off the part of
your brain that's obsessed with food or obsessed with your
weight and rewire your own brain for peace and freedom,
then head on over to stressless eeating dot com and
(24:54):
sign up to watch the Stressless Eating sneak preview, where
I've literally peeled the curtain and walk to you through
the exact strategy I teach my clients to heal themselves
from the all or nothing diet mentality for good, but
without restricting themselves, punishing their bodies, and definitely without ever
having to use words like macros, low carb or calorie burn.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
It's there for you to.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Access over at Stressless Eating dot com and if you're
listening to this series over on What's God Got.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
To Do With It?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I also co host the Outweigh podcast with Radio personality
Amy Brown, where we help women break themselves out of
the food and body prison, end the dieting madness, and
take control of their health for good, but without all
that restriction, obsession, and shame, and without dragging it out
for years to address it. It's called Outweigh and you
(25:45):
can find it wherever podcasts are streamed. And if you're
listening to this crossover series on Outweigh, check out my
other podcast called What's God Got to Do With It?
Where I talk about all this self image and body
image stuff but from the perspective of where brain, science,
inner sex faith.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
It's called What's God Got to Do with It? And
you can access it on iHeart or wherever you get
your podcasts. So that's it for this.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Episode of the What's God Got to Do With It
and the Outweigh podcast crossover series. I'm your host, Leanne Ellington,
and I'm so grateful to walk alongside you on this
beautiful journey. So thank you so much for listening, and
I hope you got whatever you needed to get from it.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
By for now, we'll be back with more What's God
Got to Do With It?
Speaker 3 (26:29):
But in the meantime, I would definitely love to hear
from you, So just tell me where you are in
your story or maybe what questions you have, like where
do you feel you need clarity or support or wisdom
in your own journey. I definitely want to hear from you,
So head on over.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
To What's God Got to Do with It?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Dot com and scroll down to the form to share
your thoughts, your questions, your feedback, and.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
You can do that instantly.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
So What's God Got to Do with It? Dot com
You'll find all the ways to do that. And if
you like this podcast and want to hear more, go
ahead and follow, like, and subscribe wherever you listen to
podcasts to get your weekly dose.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Of What's God Got to Do with It?
Speaker 3 (27:10):
New episodes drop every single Tuesday, and while you're there,
be sure to rate and review to show your support.
It really means so much. What's God Got to Do
With It? Is an iHeartRadio podcast on the Amy Brown
Podcast Network.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
It's written and
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Hosted by me Leanne Ellington, executive produced by Elizabeth Fozio,
post production and editing by Houston Tilley, and original music
written by Cheryl Stark and produced by Adam Stark
If you want to go on a journey. If you're skeptical,
don't worry. Not here to preach, going to keep the
clean and talk to me and recad where faith need
stops nature, get in touch with your creator with a bacon,
love and jew.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
She even speaks Hebrew. What's that?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
What's that? As well? Said Paul talking transformation, what's dopo?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I am so excited as this is the very first
official crossover series of What's God Got to Do with It?
In the Outweigh podcast, Because if you've been listening to
me on Outweigh, you know that that podcast is all
about helping women break them selves out of the food
and body prison, end the dieting madness, and take control
of their health for good, but without all that restriction, obsession,
(01:08):
and shame, and without dragging it out.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
For years to address it.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
And if you've been listening to me on What's God
Got to Do with It, you know that we are
all about the fusion of where science meets faith and
where faith meets transformation and miracles. So this is a
beautiful opportunity to talk about the crossover of where science
meets food and body image and self image struggles and
(01:33):
where that intersects faith or what's God got.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
To do with all of that.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And that's exactly what this six part series is all about.
So Part one is really just an introduction where we're
simply going to set up this massive topic. Part two
is all about the big picture of where faith meets
science meets food and body image struggles. In Part three,
we go deep into the self image and idea that
(02:00):
you would need to actually step into the version of
you that would have that health, that would have that
relationship with food in her body, and who would actually
be at peace and feel free, and of course how
that fuses with this faith brain conversation. In Part four,
we dive deeper into what God has to do with
what I call your food brain and disordered eating patterns
(02:24):
and filling voids in your head hard in spirit with
food or netflix or wine or whatever your drug of
choice is, and it's a whole that will never be
filled by those things. In Part five, we dive into
the complicated relationship that women have with their bodies and
their body image and physical pain, which is not talked
about enough in my opinion, and how to heal all
(02:47):
of that from a faith meets science perspective and invite
God into the conversation, and then wrapping it up in
Part six, we get into the strategy side of things,
as in, what does it look like to use what
you've learned about neuroscience and faith and healing your relationship
with food in your body image to go create a
winning game plan that sets you up to win and
(03:10):
one that your brain just learns so you can go
live your life. Food can be food, and you can
feel comfortable in your skin and free from the chains
of restricting or punishing your body. So let's dive on
in starting with part one. So in some ways, this
whole series should be easy for me to create, since
(03:31):
this is literally what I do in my day job.
I help women escape from the food in body prison,
heal their relationship with food and their bodies, and make
peace with themselves in the process. But the reason this
isn't quite so simple is because it's such a big
conversation and a lot of women and men, if you're listening,
have a really complicated relationship with food in their bodies
(03:54):
and the stuff that we're going to cover in the
next few weeks. I work with people very intensively for
three to four months time to help them really heal
this and put the problem to bed and get off
the put a band aid on it roller coaster.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So to try to distill it.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Down into a few podcast episodes, That's why it feels
like a challenge.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
But I say challenge accepted.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
But I'm also going to be super mindful about not
giving you band aids or giving you one and done solutions.
So I want to be really clear about what I
am and what I'm not promising here. And this is
really about inviting you into a conversation where you can
explore this massive topic but from a place of no
fluff and truly addressing the problem from its roots. But
(04:38):
again not by giving you this.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
One and done solution. Okay, this is literally just the
beginning of the.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Conversation, and I'll start by kind of bottom lining it
for you. And if I were to bottom line how
to heal your food and body struggles through the lens
of faith, I would literally just put it into two categories.
And so the first side of it is, yes, you
have to heal the cycle and the habits and the
behaviors like that's a given. In other words, you've got
(05:04):
to address the wiring in your brain that's causing you
to eat the way you eat or don't eat, and
move the way that you move or don't move, and
just treat yourself and your body the way that you
treat it or don't treat it, and feel the way
that you feel or don't feel about yourself, which spoiler alert,
is really what we're going to talk about in depth
(05:24):
in the first couple of episodes of this series. But
we're going to do that through the lens of faith
and invite God into that conversation from the get go.
But there's a second category, or a flip side of
this equation. Again, if I was going to bottom line it,
and it's this, It is the identity, all right. In
a way, you have to become a new version of
(05:46):
yourself and you have to radically transform your being. And
I know that might sound so daunting, especially if food
and your body is something that you've been struggling with
for a long time, but trust me, it is in perative.
You can't skip that part because let's just say that
you had all of this strategy and habit and brain
(06:07):
change stuff that I just talked about a second ago,
and let's say you had the perfect plan and the
perfect steps to take. Who's to say that you would
actually show up for yourself and use it and.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Stick with it.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
And this is what I tell all my stressless eating
clients too. I tell them, like, listen, I could teach
you the system of thinking that I teach my clients
around food and your body. But if you don't address
the self image and body image and the identity that's
causing you to think and act and feel and behave
the way that you are behaving around food, you will
always end up right back where you are. Because I
(06:40):
guarantee that despite what you think, that's not a food
problem or a body problem, right, It's definitely a brain thing.
And it's the things that have gotten fired and wired
in your brain because of your thoughts and the emotions
and the actions that are kind of like a cascade
effect and have simply become habits. And so, in other words,
(07:00):
your habits and behaviors are symptom of a cause, which aka,
your thoughts are the cause that's happening upstream in your brain.
But I would also venture to say, or at least
invite you to try on the possibility that what if
it was also a spiritual thing, because yes, I think
we're starting to get that the problem is emotional, but
(07:22):
I truly believe that the problem is also spiritual, as in,
it's in your soul, and it's in your spirit.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And so let me back up for a minute so
that this all makes sense.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Because if you asked me ten years ago, if I
ever thought that I would be talking about God, let
alone be on a podcast talking about God, well I
probably would have thought that you were joking, or that.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I was on one of those hidden camera shows.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Because this Bacon love and jew Even though I was
super proud of my Jewish heritage and my culture, and
I lived in Israel a total of three times and
I even speak mediocre at best, but can totally get
by Hebrew, it was never a guy thing to me.
And in fact, I put God, in Jesus Christ and
(08:04):
any other deity in the category of the tooth fairy
or the Easter money, or that file in my brain
labeled make believe or fantasy. And I mean absolutely no
offense or disrespect to anyone listening to this, but this
is just truly where my heart and head were postured
and kind of how I grew up and so God
and this concept of faith in general just wasn't something
(08:27):
that I was looking for, that I was interested in,
or that I was even aware that I was missing.
And so Judaism was never a connection to God for me,
and it was never faith. And in my eyes, it
was a culture and simply part of who I am,
a very proud part for sure, But in my eyes,
I wasn't religious or very Jewish as we used to
(08:47):
say as kids, and God wasn't even a topic in
conversations that I remember. And so bottom line, until a
few years ago, I didn't even know that I didn't
have God in my life. It wasn't even in my consciousness.
But what was definitely in my consciousness was shame. Lots
and lots of shame. And so the reason that I
(09:08):
was way more intimately involved with shame than I was
with God is because of this war that I was
in with myself and my body for most of my life.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
And it makes sense too, right.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I mean, my first weet Watchers meeting was when I
was seven or eight, and from there on out, food
and my body became this very personal and emotional thing.
My first weet Watchers meeting was when I was seven
or eight, and from there on out, food and my
(09:43):
body became this very personal and emotional thing, and more importantly,
toxic shame became a very integrated character in the story
of my life. And it's also when I started viewing
food and my body and my weight as something that
needed to be measured and weighed and accounted for and
obsessed over or really just fit into this category of good, bad, right, wrong, healthy, unhealthy,
(10:09):
on plan, off plan, And it really just got worse
from there. And so I carried all of that with
me into my teenage years and all the way into adulthood.
And so there I was, and I was twenty five
years old, and not only was I extremely overwait for
my age by societal standards, but I had developed this
really addictive and controlling and shameful relationship with food, and
(10:32):
really a judgmental and self critical and shameful relationship with myself.
And so things like depression and anxiety they just became
part of my life at that point, and you know,
you can just imagine how this impacted my confidence and
my self esteem. And so eventually though I hit my
first enough is enough point, and through a lot of
wrong ways and some of the right ways. I went
(10:55):
on and lost a lot of weight. It was close
to one hundred pounds, and this even inspired me to
start my first business working with women on their own
weight loss journeys. But here's the thing, I learned the
same eat less, move more equation that a lot of
the mainstream teaches to young women who think that losing
weight will magically solve all their problems.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Like, yeah, I got that download as well.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
And so even though yes, I did technically lose the weight,
like yeah, I got there. I lost one hundred pounds,
I got down to my lowest weight, and I could
finally wear you know, tank tops and sleeveless halter tops
any day of the week. But I never addressed my
addiction like pull to food and sugar, and so I
still really felt like I was this slave to dieting
(11:40):
or a slave to exercise, because I would bounce from
one extreme to the other. I would diet and restrict
until I couldn't possibly take it anymore, and then I
would rebound to the opposite, you know, you know, care
free abandonment, eating whatever I could get my hands on,
and then of course I would feel guilty or just
go try to out exercise my overeating, and so not
(12:01):
only was I the opposite of free, but I was
also the opposite of happy.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
And I mean, you would think.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
That after I lost about a third of my body weight,
I would feel beautiful and happy and free and all
the things that the magazines I read growing up promised me.
But because I didn't address the self image and body
image and the wiring in my brain that was causing
me to think and act and feel and behave like
I was fat or unworthy, or a failure or destined
(12:30):
to stay this way forever, or whatever other painful words
I was using. Yes, I lost the weight, but I
never transformed my identity, and I just brought all of
my old habits and thinking and behaviors with me. Keep
in mind now, at this point, I still didn't have
God in my life, or at least I didn't know
that I did. And so, by some divine miracle, I
(12:51):
eventually had the insight and the awareness to realize that
I was never going to be able to outdiet and
outwork or outsmart the wiring in my brain and in
my self image. I eventually had the insight and the
awareness to realize that I was never going to be
able to outdiet and outwork or outsmart the wiring in
my brain and in my self image. And so I realized, like, okay,
(13:14):
you're always going to end up right back in alignment
with the story that you're telling yourself about yourself lean
And yeah, it was super scary at first to take
that leap and ditch all of the band aids and
the quick fixes and all the motivational raw raw that
I'd gotten so used to and finally take a more
scientific approach to my struggles, because it's like, wait a minute,
you mean stop trying to control or hyper obsess over
(13:37):
the one thing that I've always tried to control, even
though ironically, the more I tried to control and perfect myself,
the more out of control and broken I felt. But
it was the devil that I knew versus the devil
that I didn't know, as they say. And so I
finally got to that point where I was ready, and
even though yeah I was ready, I was so scared, right,
(13:57):
But that's what I did. I made a firm commitment
to myself that day that I would never be in
a place of crazy restriction or obsession ever again. And
I decided to examine my habits and my mindset around
food and my body. But that was only one side
of it, right, because yes, I definitely had to heal
my relationship with food in my body. So that's what
(14:20):
I did, and ironically, you know, that's what God had
in store for me to help other women do for
themselves as well, and really what paved the way for
my stressless eeding curriculum that I've been teaching for a
decade and a half. But like I started to say,
that was only one side of it. Okay, there was
another curveball in the mix that took place essentially smack
dab in the middle of the part of the story
(14:42):
I was sharing, which I will promise you I will
share in the Body Image episode of this series. But first,
there's something else I should probably mention an address now,
since we're talking about the fusion of where faith meets science,
and it's another very important part of my journey, and
it's that I'm by all definitions, considered a sid scientist,
but it's not in that, you know, conventional way that
(15:03):
most scientists operate. I'm more of a streets of the
hard knocks kind of scientists and so the word nerd
in me definitely wants you to know that the etymology
or word origin of the word scientist literally means a
person versed in or devoted to science, and the word
origin of the word science literally means acquired by study
(15:26):
or assurance or certainty of knowledge. And so by those definitions,
I most definitely identify as a scientist, but for obvious reasons,
it's not the typical kind that you find in a
classroom or a lab. I'm one of those you know,
didn't mean to but had to in order to solve
my own deepest struggles kind of scientists. And so specifically,
(15:48):
I've dedicated my life's work to studying the female brain
and nervous system, and as you'll come to learn, a
kind of semi obsession with studying the part of the
brain that houses the female self image, which I promise
to also share because that connects a lot of dots
and it's really going to bring us full circle to
understand what this has to do with the Bacon, love
and jew walking into a church and finding God. And
(16:11):
as you'll hear throughout this series, it has everything to
do with it. Because once I unlocked that the magic
and the possibility that I was awakened to when it
comes to the human body and the nervous system. And
because of the neuroplastic, malleable, pliable nature of this machine
of possibility that we all have access to, and combined
(16:32):
with the Lave cause and effect and the lave cause
and effect programming, that we can all feed our own
brains in order to transform. But then slap on understanding.
You know, why we do what we do, and why
we say what we say, and why we feel how
we feel, and why we cope with those emotions however
we cope with them. And heck, there is no judgment
(16:55):
and full transparency. I've used everything from food and Netflix
to social media and weed, and so hey, I am
not perfect. I'm not trying to be perfect, and really,
who wants to be perfect? That being said, being exposed
to all of the magic and miracles of the nervous
system on a science level, and trust me when I
say that this non believer, you know, bag in love
(17:16):
and jew was not using words like magic.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
And miracles fifteen years ago either.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Will all of that brain stuff that I just described
essentially just primed my mind and my heart and my
soul and spirit for seeing what I couldn't yet see.
But again, and as you can imagine for any curious,
you know, science driven gal that all of a sudden,
after thirty years, decided she wanted to go find God.
It made me extremely skeptical and cynical about the whole
(17:42):
faith side of things, because if there wasn't a research
paper about it, or I couldn't see it with my
own human eyes, I didn't believe it. And so this
whole faith thing, which I now partially define as believing
in the possibility of what you can't see or taste
or smell or touch or measure in a lab, that was.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Definitely a stretch for me.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
So that's why I can only imagine that when you
hear me share that, you know, a bacon love and
Hebrew speaking Jewish scientist wants to talk to you about
where faith meets science and meets food and.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Body image and all of that.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
And you know where I found God and how it
completely transformed my life. Like, yeah, I can I can
see how that might sound like the beginning of a
riddle or a knock knock joke, But as you'll learn
through this series, it really completed the story that I
had no idea at the time, but God really had
been writing it inside of me all along.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
But we'll get into all of that. The point is.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
This, though, faith is something that I didn't always have,
and like I said, it's something I didn't know that
I didn't have in the first place, or that really
that I could have, But now that I have it,
I can't not share amount. Faith is something that I
(19:00):
didn't always have, and like I said, it's something I
didn't know that I didn't have in the first place,
or that really that I could have, But now that
I have it, I can't not share about it. I
can't not share about its impact on my life and
the love and the compassion and the acceptance that my
heart has been opened up to that I never thought
(19:21):
was possible. And I can't not share about the peace
that came over me that was truly beyond understanding. And
when it comes to you know, the deep dark deposits
of residual toxic shame that you know, no matter how
hard I tried, I couldn't personal development or rewire my
(19:41):
brain or just strictly self image my way through. And
so I can't not share about the peace and the
acceptance that overcame me instead of that shame that again
it was beyond my understanding. But here's what I also
say about it. And this is where I kind of
turn it over to you, all right, since you you
do also have a brain, I'm inviting you to have
(20:03):
a conversation about taking radical ownership and responsibility rather than
just letting your brain run and do its thing and
take you down rabbit holes. Because it's about influencing what
you can influence to create your own peace of mind
and happiness and freedom. Okay, and yeah, taking care of
your mental, emotional, physical health.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
It's a brain conversation.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
It's about taking radical ownership and responsibility for what you
can control, what you can influence, and what you can transform.
But this time around, I'm also inviting you into the
possibility that what if it was a God conversation?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Right, what if this time.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
You could invite God into the conversation about food and
your body and just ask God to meet you there
and help you and support you unconditionally and really just
be your most supportive friend and trusted advisor in the process.
But I will also say this, and I'm sharing this
from my own experiences of making this so much harder
(21:06):
on myself than it needed to be. It will go
a lot smoother and easier if you shift this idea
of you know, taking care of yourself or healing your
relationship with food in your body, and really taking care
of your mental emotional physical health. If you shift this
idea of thinking of all of that as a burden, right,
because it's easy for us to think like, oh, I
(21:28):
have to, I need to, I'm supposed to, and it
feels like a burden, and really shift it to like, Okay,
it's a challenge that I'm taking on, or it's an
assignment from God that I'm choosing to take on, like
really making that flip, because the truth is is that
when everything else in your life or your circumstances feel
totally out of control, your mental emotional physical health it
(21:52):
really is the one thing that you can fully influence
and you can focus on and you can choose what
you feed it right, both literally and metaphorically. But it's
also something that you can surrender over to God at
the same time and just see what happens when you
do that. And again I'm not here saying just blindly
(22:12):
take my word for it. I'm really saying, try it on,
see how it feels.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Like.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Really, as we're going through everything step by step, week
by week, just really try it on, see how it feels,
keep what resonates, and ditch the rest. And so that's
what we're going to start diving into this week and
over the coming weeks, really week by week and just
go narrower and deeper where next week in part two,
it's all about the big picture of where faith meets
science needs food.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
And body image. Then in part three, we're going to go.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Deep into the self image and the identity that you
need to actually step into the version of you that
would have that health, that would have that relationship with
food in her body, who who would actually be at
peace and feel free, and of course how that fuses
with this faith brain conversation. So really the identity of
somebody that would have it easily. And then in part four,
(23:02):
we're going to dive deeper into what God has to
do with what I call your food brain and really
those disordered eating patterns and filling voids in your head
and your heart and your spirit with food or netflix
or wine or whatever your drug of choices. I've used
them all and as you're probably learning, it's a whole
that will never be filled by those things because it's
(23:22):
not a physical hole. Then in part five, we're going
to dive into the complicated relationship that women have with
their bodies and their body image and really how to
heal that from a faith meets science perspective and invite
God into the conversation, and then wrapping it up in
part six, we're going to get into the strategy side
of things, as in, you know, what does this look
(23:44):
like to use what you've learned about neuroscience and faith
and healing your relationship with food in your body image
to go create a winning game plan that actually sets
you up to win and one that your brain just
learns so you can go live your life and food.
Food can be food, and you can feel comfortable in
your own skin and free from the chains of restricting
(24:05):
or punishing your body. And again, I want to acknowledge
that might feel like a massive stretch or a big
gap from where you are right now, and that's why
we're going.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
To just take it week by week.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Okay, So thank you for joining us for the very
first official crossover series of What's God Got to Do
with It and Outweigh Podcasts. That's it for today's episode
of the What's God Got to Do With It?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
And the Outweigh Podcast Crossover.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Thanks for tuning in, and if you want to learn
more about the work that I do or catch either
of the podcasts on a regular basis, there's a couple
of ways you can do that. First off, if you
want to learn how to turn off the part of
your brain that's obsessed with food or obsessed with your
weight and rewire your own brain for peace and freedom,
then head on over to stressless eeating dot com and
(24:54):
sign up to watch the Stressless Eating sneak preview, where
I've literally peeled the curtain and walk to you through
the exact strategy I teach my clients to heal themselves
from the all or nothing diet mentality for good, but
without restricting themselves, punishing their bodies, and definitely without ever
having to use words like macros, low carb or calorie burn.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
It's there for you to.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Access over at Stressless Eating dot com and if you're
listening to this series over on What's God Got.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
To Do With It?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I also co host the Outweigh podcast with Radio personality
Amy Brown, where we help women break themselves out of
the food and body prison, end the dieting madness, and
take control of their health for good, but without all
that restriction, obsession, and shame, and without dragging it out
for years to address it. It's called Outweigh and you
(25:45):
can find it wherever podcasts are streamed. And if you're
listening to this crossover series on Outweigh, check out my
other podcast called What's God Got to Do With It?
Where I talk about all this self image and body
image stuff but from the perspective of where brain, science,
inner sex faith.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
It's called What's God Got to Do with It? And
you can access it on iHeart or wherever you get
your podcasts. So that's it for this.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Episode of the What's God Got to Do With It
and the Outweigh podcast crossover series. I'm your host, Leanne Ellington,
and I'm so grateful to walk alongside you on this
beautiful journey. So thank you so much for listening, and
I hope you got whatever you needed to get from it.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
By for now, we'll be back with more What's God
Got to Do With It?
Speaker 3 (26:29):
But in the meantime, I would definitely love to hear
from you, So just tell me where you are in
your story or maybe what questions you have, like where
do you feel you need clarity or support or wisdom
in your own journey. I definitely want to hear from you,
So head on over.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
To What's God Got to Do with It?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Dot com and scroll down to the form to share
your thoughts, your questions, your feedback, and.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
You can do that instantly.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
So What's God Got to Do with It? Dot com
You'll find all the ways to do that. And if
you like this podcast and want to hear more, go
ahead and follow, like, and subscribe wherever you listen to
podcasts to get your weekly dose.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Of What's God Got to Do with It?
Speaker 3 (27:10):
New episodes drop every single Tuesday, and while you're there,
be sure to rate and review to show your support.
It really means so much. What's God Got to Do
With It? Is an iHeartRadio podcast on the Amy Brown
Podcast Network.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
It's written and
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Hosted by me Leanne Ellington, executive produced by Elizabeth Fozio,
post production and editing by Houston Tilley, and original music
written by Cheryl Stark and produced by Adam Stark
Host
Leanne Ellington
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com