Compared to Who? Body Image for Christian Women

If you're a Christian woman with body image issues, today Heather will fire you up with encouragement around how your Christian faith and beliefs can speak directly to your body image issues. You have a BIG faith that helps you believe in God, Jesus, heaven, and eternity. But, what you need is a LITTLE faith that can apply to how you feel and how you act when you can't get your pants buttoned, when you look in the mirror, or when y...

Today Heather faces off with ChatGPT to see who can better answer the question, "How Do I Feel Okay Wearing Shorts?" Heather reads through ChatGPT's comprehensive answer (and body image coaching attempts) and then adds her own suggestions that will encourage you if you're dreading shorts season or if you've put away the thought of wearing shorts for good. Of course, you don't have to wear shorts, but if you wish you could wear them...

Today, Heather vulnerably shares the grief she's experiencing over facing her son's graduation this month and how similar this kind of grief is to the grieving that we experience on our body image freedom journeys. Heather talks about how many women face the "Can I get a do over?" feelings at the end of eighteen years of parenting or when they reach mid-life or later. Looking at the five stages of grief, Heather explains how import...

Today Heather announces a brand new Bible reading plan and 15-Day downloadable devotional called, "The Mirror Fast." The concept behind the mirror fast is to take a break from looking in the mirror and to re-orient your gaze off of your body and on to Jesus. You can follow the Mirror Fast on YouVersion, the Bible app or you can download a printable copy on the website here: https://www.improvebodyimage.com/mirror-fast-christian-wom...

In today's BONUS episode, Heather continues her chat with Wendy Jones of Next Steps 4 Seniors. Wendy is a podcast host and business management professional who helps seniors get ready for their "next steps" as they age. Heather and Wendy chat about the unique challenges of knowing when it's time to move your parents. Wendy offers helpful suggestions on how to help your parents stay active, social, and what to look for if it's time ...

Are you facing tough decisions about caring for aging parents or loved ones? In this episode, we dive deep into the challenges of recognizing when it’s time to step in, the emotional rollercoaster of moving someone to assisted living, and the power of socialization to revitalize cognitive health. Our guest, Wendy Jones of Next Steps 4 Seniors, shares practical tips for navigating guilt, downsizing, a...

Dr. Mikala Albertson joins Heather again today to continue an interesting discussion of how hormones play with our minds and can affect how we feel about our bodies. Today the conversation extends to perimenopause and beyond. Heather and Mikala talk about the pressure from social media influencers to do the "right things" to avoid symptoms of perimenopause and how some of these suggestions could lead us to really harmful places.

Th...

Is your body image really about how your body looks or are your hormones playing tricks on you? Today, Heather interviews Dr. Mikala Albertson about how our hormones affect the ways we feel and think about our bodies. In this first of this two part interview, Heather and Mikala talk about hormonal changes at puberty and then until midlife. How what we think and how we feel about our bodies can fluctuate depending on the week of our...

In this episode of the "Compared to Who?" podcast, Eryn Eddy Adkins, an entrepreneur and co-host of the "God Hears Her" podcast, joins the show to discuss aging, self-worth, and the challenges of understanding God's will for one's life. 

Eryn and Heather discuss the pressures women face in their thirties, both in terms of their appearance and societal expectations and the significance of finding conte...

Today Heather chats with two of her 50 (or near 50) year old friends about what it's really like to experience aging at midlife. They talk about perimenopause, menopause, symptoms of both, the impacts of aging on our brains, bodies, and emotional lives. They also talk about what they've found helpful as they age, the parts of aging they enjoy, and the parts of aging they can do without.

You'll enjoy this fantastic group chat with t...

Heather is joined by Mary DeMuth, speaker, podcast host, and author of more than thirty books including her latest, "The Most Overlooked Women of the Bible." (Amazon affiliate link.)

Heather and Mary talk about how feeling overlooked can connect to aging and why and how we may feel we're losing our "shine" as we get older. Mary offers encouragement around being honest about the grief and loss of aging and discusses the helpful tool...

What does it take to age well? According to Instagram, it seems aging is all about what you eat and how you exercise. But, what if there's more to aging well than that? Today, author and Christian body image coach, Heather Creekmore, will encourage you with 4 strategies to age well that have a much greater impact on your health and on the way you feel about aging than any kale salad or cycling class. She'll look at how the science ...

Host Heather Creekmore sits down with pastor's wife, author, and counselor Kristen Hatton to discuss what to do if your child has (or you suspect they have) an eating disorder or body image issues. Kristen shares the story of her daughter who had a derogatory comment directed at her in 8th grade and then began to restrict food until it became the eating disorder, anorexia. After going through treatment, Kristen's daughter shifted f...

Heather chats with licensed counselor, pastor's wife, and author Kristen Hatton about the ways that our body image issues can affect how we parent our children. From passing on perfectionism, to trying to control, to expecting our children to look or act a certain way because we're still trying to keep up an image, body image issues certainly play a role in how we parent.

Kristen and Heather discuss the ways our body image issues i...

Heather welcomes back Emily and Ryan Baker from Story Matters Initiative to finish their discussion of the Mother Wound and the ways that our moms may have impacted how we feel about ourselves and our bodies. Today the trio talks about the innate need we have for mom to see, know, and approve of us and how that is sensed and felt as a child. They talk about how not sensing that approval triggers a stress response in the brain and h...

Today Heather welcomes Emily and Ryan Baker from the Story Matters Initiative to discuss the Mother Wound and the ways that our attachment to mom, attunement to mom, and our "mom stories" impact the ways we view ourselves and the world around us. Today, Heather, Emily, and Ryan begin this two-part discussion with a conversation about what story work is, how it is different than traditional talk therapy, and how story work can be th...

Host Heather Creekmore is joined by Erin Todd from Intuitive Eating for Christian Women and Ashley Smith from the HA Society to explore the nuance between surrendering control and exercising stewardship. The discussion kicks off with Erin sharing her journey of conception at age 41, emphasizing the importance of faith and timing. Despite being told by doctors that she had a one percent chance of conceiving...

Today, Heather chats with Erin Todd from the Intuitive Eating for Christian Women podcast and Ashley Smith of the HA Society about how Ashley helped Erin get pregnant after 40. Even if you aren't looking to get pregnant, the trio talks about the beauty of how our bodies were made to signal and heal. They talk about perimenopause and the phenomenon of women getting diagnosed with early perimenopause. They discuss period loss, infert...

Today Heather and her team continue their group chat discussion about all things pregnancy and body image. They share how they handled weight changes during pregnancy, the pressure they felt to "bounce back," and how they handled frustrations around things not going as planned with the birth, breastfeeding, or even the health of the baby. From gestational diabetes to post-partum depression to trying to "win" at being the "hot mom" ...