December 17, 2025 • 41 mins
As we talk through this topic together, we name the tension we’ve both felt: wanting to lose weight while also craving real peace. We explore what we’ve believed weight loss would give us and what God actually says about those longings. Instead of rigid plans or giving up entirely, we look at how inviting God into our food choices, body image, and emotions brings a kind of freedom a number on the scale simply can’t. We share honestly about chasing thinness, the ache when affirmation fades, and the realization that even big changes in our bodies can’t fix the places only truth can heal. Romans 12:2 keeps us anchored in renewal, not performance.
We also talk about the two extremes we’ve seen in ourselves—obsession and apathy—and how the narrow road of stewardship brings clarity: caring for our bodies as God’s handiwork while letting identity rest securely in Christ. That shift changes everything, moving motivation from fear to love, from self-focus to worship, and from quick fixes to sustainable rhythms. We share simple mind-renewal tools we actually use: breath prayers that settle the body, prompts that expose unhelpful beliefs, and small daily check-ins that turn eating into an act of trust. We speak openly about programs, medications, and surgeries without shame, framing them as possible supports—but not substitutes—for a renewed mind. Our hope is to offer gentleness, clarity, and a path forward for anyone longing for food peace and kinder self-talk.
Class starts December 10th
https://teamlifeisgood.com/go
Learn more about our Revelation Within Community: https://www.revelationwithin.org
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:01):
Hi, and welcome to our podcast, Revelation Within
on the Go.
I'm Claudia Everton, one of yourhosts, and currently the host of
the RevelationWithin.org.
SPEAKER_01 (00:13):
And I'm Christina Fuckley, your other host, also
Revelation Within Good.
And I'm partnering all thingsRevelation Within.
We are so happy to invite you tojoin us for this episode of
Revelation Within.
unknown (00:38):
Yay!
SPEAKER_02 (00:38):
We're so glad you're here today.
Yay.
And today we want to talk abouta very honest question that
comes up well every so often atleast.
I think sometimes it comes up,but people don't articulate it.
Yeah.
(00:58):
And it's this question.
Are you ready?
Yes, ready, ready, go.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04):
What if I still want to lose weight?
Yes, yes, let's put it outthere.
Let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_00 (01:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:13):
You know, we've been walking this journey, Heidi and
I, for decades now.
And many of you, most of you, isprobably why you're here.
And we get it.
We understand.
Absolutely.
We know there's an ache thatsits under this question.
It's not a shallow question.
You know, and it's not aboutvanity.
(01:33):
I think some people think thatit's about that.
Maybe for some it is.
I mean, let's be honest.
Maybe for some it is.
Okay.
But I don't know.
For the people that come to usat Revelation Within, I feel
like they are looking atsomething much deeper.
It's not a shallow question.
It's layered.
There's layers to this question.
And sometimes it's physical,sometimes emotional, sometimes
(01:57):
it's deeply spiritual.
SPEAKER_02 (01:59):
And sometimes it's all of the above and more.
SPEAKER_01 (02:02):
Yeah.
It is.
It's complicated.
It is complicated.
SPEAKER_02 (02:08):
And one thing that is most likely to be true is it
has been with us for decades.
The question has been with usfor decades.
The effort, the energy, themental bandwidth, uh, all of it
has been with us for quite sometime in many cases.
Let's begin by acknowledgingthat the desire to lose weight
(02:29):
is not something we have to beashamed of, really.
Not at all.
No.
I and I cringe to think thatanything that we have taught or
said or um written for thatmatter might have caused people
to feel like they should beashamed if that's their desire.
No, we want to just clarify forsure.
That's not where uh we want totake anybody.
(02:52):
You know, God understands, he'snot rolling his eyes at you.
No, he's not.
He invites you to bring thatdesire into his marvelous light,
not to hide it or pretend it'snot there.
In fact, invite him in.
It's interesting.
Christina even said recently shetalked to somebody who hadn't
(03:14):
even thought of putting thesetwo topics together, their faith
and their food.
It's like, oh great.
I mean, not everybody has donethat, like we have.
SPEAKER_01 (03:24):
Right, exactly.
We're so used to talking aboutit.
But really, it's one of the mostimportant things.
It is the most important thingthat you can do in this journey
is to invite God in.
What we're learning to do hereat Revelation Within is to take
this desire, you know, Lord, I'muncomfortable, Lord, I want to
(03:45):
lose weight, Lord, I'm not sure.
What are your thoughts on this?
We are encouraging people tohold this up to God and ask him
and definitely invite him intothe whole thing, you know, all
of it.
Um, asking God, what are yourthoughts about this desire?
Did I learn it from the culture?
(04:07):
Is this from you?
What does it mean to seek firstyour kingdom even in this?
SPEAKER_02 (04:14):
Yeah, speaking of that, that's Matthew 633, which
reads, seek first his kingdomand his righteousness.
And all these things will begiven to you as well.
SPEAKER_01 (04:25):
Yeah.
So what are all these things?
Um, I love that it says allthese things, not just, and some
things will be added, and maybeand you might.
No, it's all these things, andthat includes clothing, food,
daily needs, but not at theexpense of our relationship with
(04:46):
the Lord, our intimacy with theLord.
So when weight loss becomes thispowerful driving force, which
many of us can relate to, youknow, behind our spiritual
practices, I mean, it's easy touse God instead of walk with him
in relationship.
It's kind of easy to say, yeah,that's a challenging thought,
(05:09):
right?
It's like, well, Lord, I haveall these plans.
Will you just bless them,please?
unknown (05:16):
Please.
SPEAKER_01 (05:18):
Yeah.
And I I get that.
I mean, I'm we're talking aboutourselves as well.
SPEAKER_02 (05:23):
Right, right.
And, you know, of course, werefer to Romans 12, too, all the
time, but we want to refer to ithere too.
Scripture urges us do notconform to the pattern of this
world, right, but be transformedby the renewing of your mind.
And we don't transformourselves, that's just the
(05:43):
reality of it.
God does the transforming.
Our part, our part really is toparticipate in renewing our
minds.
And let me just um add a lot ofour podcasts give specific
guidance in what that might looklike for you.
Come into our community atRevWithin.team to learn lots
(06:05):
more ways or participate in ourmind renewal mastery class where
you will learn a bazilliontrillion nine hundred million
ways to your mind and a lot ofgood stuff about mind renewal
because it's our favorite thing.
It is, it is, and you know,Christina and I can both attest
to this that mind renewal hasnot just impacted the way we
(06:28):
think about food, eating, ouremotions that often have led us
to eating, etc., but also abouttrials in our lives and about
what are your thoughts aboutthis difficulty I'm facing?
What are your thoughts aboutthis diagnosis?
What are your thoughts aboutthat person that kind of hurt my
feelings?
SPEAKER_00 (06:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (06:46):
Mind renewal transforms us completely.
God is doing it transforming.
We just do the mind renewal.
So if you're not sure what mindrenewal looks like, join us and
you know, ask us what does itactually look like?
Or do a search through ourarchives of the podcast.
And and here's the importantthing to recognize if we treat
(07:07):
mind renewal as sort of somesort of a transaction, like I do
this so I can play, we're gonnamiss the deeper reward and the
deeper invitation.
That's really nottransformation, it's it's
spiritual performance, whichwe're trying to get away from,
right?
Right, exactly.
(07:27):
Yeah, we don't want to use Godto get something from him
instead of being transformed byhim.
SPEAKER_01 (07:34):
That's important.
That's really, really important.
Well, and so much of our oldpatterns, especially for those
who've come out of dietingculture, and so many of us have.
I mean, it's allperformance-based.
You know, we're chasingapproval, acceptance, and love.
And I'm just gonna throw outthere, I mean, even in the last
(07:57):
couple of years, we've seen thishuge change in our culture.
We were for a while, and and ofcourse, this is what culture
does, right?
It swings back and forth fromthe extremes.
I remember when my kids wereyounger, there was this whole
movement about accepting ourbodies and right, and curvy this
(08:17):
and curvy that.
And and, you know, I would walkinto a Target store and there
were, you know, mannequins ofall sizes, and there was a
change going on that was kind ofexciting to me, you know,
because it felt like it waspulling away from that dieting
culture that just said thin,thin, thin.
But now it's gone back, and weare at the extreme.
(08:40):
And of course, you know, you canlook at all the movie stars and
see what they're doing becausethat's kind of what's what our
culture looks at so often, andit's completely gone the other
way, completely.
And so we can't depend on ourculture at all.
And of course, that's whatRomans 12, 2 is talking about.
(09:01):
The culture will change,society, you know, trends,
Instagram, social media, it'sgonna change every week, every
month, every year.
What's our source?
What are we chasing after that'sgonna last?
Um there's only one thing,really.
Yeah, there's only one thing.
We we have our one source.
(09:23):
God is our one true source, andthat's a good place to be
because he loves us more than wecan imagine, and he has so much
wisdom for us, so much insight.
God doesn't withhold his loveuntil we shrink in size.
No way.
He's already given us all ofhimself in Christ, and our
(09:46):
identity is in him.
So no matter what you're goingthrough, our identity is solid
and secure.
It's in Christ no matter what,it's a done deal.
SPEAKER_02 (11:05):
Yeah, that's so true.
Thanks for pointing that out,Christina.
Let's just name something superplainly here.
I mean, we want to just plainspeak today.
I'm every day.
Every day.
Let's do it.
Okay, it is okay to want to loseweight.
Here's what the question maybeshould be or is what do I
(11:27):
believe weight loss will do forme?
Or maybe what do I believe notlosing weight does too?
SPEAKER_01 (11:36):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (11:37):
Does weight loss make me feel more worthy?
Or am I more worthy when I loseweight?
Am I more seen?
Am I more loved?
Will I finally be good enough?
What do I make it mean?
Now, I have to be honest withyou, over the many years that
I've been an adult, many, manyyears, like the last 45 years.
(12:03):
Um anyway, um, I have been allshapes, all sizes, all fitness
levels, and I can recallinstances, very distinct
exchanges, verbal exchanges,where people validated what they
saw or demonstrated disdain forwhat they saw in my physical
(12:27):
being, if you will.
I mean, I remember the UPS guywho looked at me and I was super
fit, and he said, Wow, what doyou do to stay so fit?
I mean, that was really nice.
I like that feedback for sure.
And then there have been timeswhen there has been disdain and
contempt.
(12:48):
I mean, I don't know if that'swhat every person's experience
is if they're wearing a you knowmore body on their frame or
less.
I don't know if it's everybodyor if I just invite comments.
I don't know, I don't mean to,but um, it's it's really hard in
our society to not feel likethey're demonstrating that I
(13:10):
have value if I look a certainway, or I don't have value if I
look another way.
That's really tricky.
SPEAKER_01 (13:16):
Oh, absolutely.
Well, and I can remember so manytimes when I had gone on some
kind of a diet or some kind ofan extreme exercise plan or
something, and all of a sudden Iwas getting all this attention.
You know, people are like, oh,look at you.
Wow, this is you're amazing.
(13:37):
You must be reallyself-disciplined.
And um, how do we do it?
What program are you following?
Send me the link, you know, thethe whole thing.
And then the minute it fallsshort, because it always falls
short, when it's not somethingthat goes deeper, and that
happened to me a thousand times,all of a sudden everyone gets
(13:59):
very silent.
Um, and the attention is gone,it's just over with.
Um, and people are, you know, intheir silence, you feel very
judged, and it's an awful, awfulplace to be.
SPEAKER_02 (14:13):
Sometimes they're not silent about that judgment.
I had one being church ladyapproach me and tell me that the
glory of God was being hindered.
Oh my gosh.
It was not as visible now that Iwas carrying extra weight.
This was a lot of years ago, andI just that that's tough.
SPEAKER_01 (14:34):
That's tough.
That's horrible.
I'm so sorry, Heidi.
That is awful, awful, awful.
I'm gonna go after it.
SPEAKER_02 (14:41):
No, it was a mean church lady.
Don't be a mean church lady,y'all.
SPEAKER_01 (14:46):
Oh no, no, no, no.
So, I mean, the danger isn't inthe desire itself to want to
lose weight, it's what we attachto it.
That's what this is reallyabout.
Um, and that's why mind renewal,it's not a free pass to eat with
abandon, it's really a slowrewiring of what we believe
(15:08):
about ourselves, about food,about God.
That's what it is.
What are we thinking about?
What are we thinking about?
What are our thoughts about allthose things?
What are we believing?
And then that leads to ouractions.
You know, we have so many peoplecome to us with this request.
(15:29):
I just want to find peace.
I just want to find peace andfood and eating in my body.
Um, and I get that.
I hoped for that, desired that,you know, um, pined after it for
years and years and years umuntil I learned how to renew my
mind.
And thank God for that.
Thank God that there's a way forus to rewire.
(15:53):
It's not us doing it, God'sreally doing the transformation,
but we can practice his thoughtsand it will change us.
It will change us.
We've seen it thousands of timesat Revelation Within, which used
to be Thin Within.
SPEAKER_02 (16:09):
And we participate in it every day as well.
SPEAKER_01 (16:12):
Yes, we do every single day.
SPEAKER_02 (16:14):
This is where things get really beautiful.
You know, when I first beganthis journey umpteen years ago,
yeah, I did.
I wanted food peace.
I want and well, we have a classnow, discovering peaceful
eating, and and it's because weknow people want to be at peace
with food eating in theirbodies.
Back in those days when I firstwanted, I was like, I just I
(16:38):
want to relate to food as thoughGod didn't put it on this planet
to torment me because you knowwhat he didn't.
Right, he put it on the planetto bless us, and somehow
something had gotten reallywarped as I practiced renewing
my mind, and sometimes, y'all,this is daily, not just daily,
sometimes it's hourly.
Sometimes, I mean, multipletimes each day.
(17:01):
I check in with God, I have toask him, What are your thoughts
about what I'm thinking?
Because what I'm thinking mightnot be in alignment with what he
says is true.
But as I practice renewing mymind multiple times each day,
you know, just it's not openingmy Bible and having a big long
Bible study, it's just checkingin with God through prayer.
What do you have to say aboutthis thought I'm having?
(17:23):
And I started to see massivechanges, my beliefs changed, and
then my actions followed suit.
I didn't just want peace withfood in my body anymore.
I wanted to love what God loves,and I want to be faithful with
what He has entrusted to me,including my body.
(17:43):
And that was the really coolthing.
The motivation shifted fromokay, do I have enough
motivation about this trip I'mgoing on and getting thin by
then or whatever?
No, no, no.
The motivation shifted from meto him, and and that's just the
word too.
Yeah, 1 Corinthians 10 31 says,So whether you eat or drink,
(18:05):
whatever you do, do it all forthe glory of God.
Our God gets glory in the way werelate to some of these mundane
things like food and eating.
SPEAKER_01 (18:16):
I love that.
Well, and we had I love thistoo.
We had somebody just recently inone of our groups um say, you
know, I remember when eating wasfun.
Right?
I mean, we have gotten into thismindset in our culture that
eating is complicated.
(18:37):
And well, you should try this,but no, how about this?
Oh, it's all changed now.
Uh yes, it's only been an hour,but it's all changed now.
Now you have to have, oh, butdon't have it at this time of
day.
And if you have, I mean, it isso complicated.
I feel like every day it's morecomplicated.
And what is that about?
(18:58):
Like you said, Heidi, you know,God made food in abundance for
us.
I mean, it's beautiful, it'scolorful, it's flavorful, we
don't all like the same things.
That's okay.
But he made it to fuel ourbodies well.
And it's like, what happened?
What have we done?
You know?
(19:19):
And I just want to add, I wasthe same way um that you just
described, Heidi, with that kindof that longing.
When I first brought God intothis issue, really, it's like,
Lord, um, are you sure this issomething you want me to invite
you into?
Because it just feels too, itfeels kind of in a way, it feels
(19:43):
kind of like minimal.
Like, is this really importantat all?
And then in another way, itfeels like I should be the one
to get this together, you know,and then we'll talk about it,
and then you'll be pleased andeverything will be fine.
But no, he wants so much to beinvolved in this, especially if
it's causing us sorrow and painand angst and hopelessness and
(20:07):
all those things.
I remember when Heidi, when Ifirst came to you for coaching,
and it's been 11 and a halfyears, I said, I remember saying
this out loud, I'm overweight,yes, and uh honestly, I don't
even care anymore about my sizebecause I am so desperate, I am
so hopeless, I just want peacewith food and eating in my body.
(20:31):
And I want to know what what Godhas to do with any of this.
I mean, I was in a verydesperate place, and it was that
took a lot of courage to saybecause I was adorable anyway.
SPEAKER_02 (20:42):
I just have to say that.
SPEAKER_01 (20:44):
Well, I was I felt very much ashamed over that.
Yeah, you know, I felt so muchshame, and the whole thing was
kind of my my big secret and mysecretary.
You let the cat out of the back.
I did because I trusted you andyou were so encouraging, and you
were also the first person I hadever met that really, really
(21:06):
understood.
Like you got it.
You got it, and I felt like,okay, let's go.
So I'm so grateful, Heidi.
Thank you.
All these years later, I'm sograteful for what you've taught
me all these years.
So let's get into some of theseum kind of pitfalls, ditches
that we can fall into with thismindset.
(21:30):
Um, the first one we're gonnacall the obsession ditch.
Okay.
How many of you have experiencedthis?
And certainly I have many times.
We chase weight loss like it'ssalvation.
Oh boy, how it's yeah, we chaseit like if I could just lose
(21:52):
this much, everything else in mylife, my relationships, my work,
my career, church life, whateveryou wanted, every life, you
know, my social life, it's allgonna fall into place.
It's it's an obsession.
SPEAKER_02 (22:07):
Yeah, I mean, I remember being that way, and
this is uh, yeah, this is I wanta thought I wanted to be sure to
share.
Is we can sacrifice so muchemotionally and spiritually and
even physically pursuing weightloss.
And is that an approach that Godwants for us?
(22:28):
I mean, I remember when umsomebody commented about a post
on my blog, this was years ago.
I was kind of chronicling myjourney through thin within
again, releasing weight as Iwent, and somebody said, I don't
think you look healthy, you lookanorexic.
Oh, and that was full stop forme.
(22:49):
It was like, oh and I realizedthey were right, they were
right.
I mean, I had kind of acted likeit was a badge of courage, a
badge of honor, somethingamazing that I had so little
body fat, but it was really kindof scary when I think about it.
And and I pursued it all ofthese activities and working out
(23:14):
and doing more and working outagain, strength training and
working out again and runningand all of this stuff because I
was so scared that I would gainone ounce back, and I was
attached to my scale, it ownedme, it owned me, and that is not
going to lead to godliness atall.
I mean, it might lead to superthinness, but is that I mean, at
(23:39):
what expense?
And another thought that hit meat that time was how long can I
really maintain this?
This thinness that I had.
It's like, is this from God forme?
Because if it is, it's not gonnafeel like toil and challenge on
and on to maintain it.
I knew I wouldn't be able to eatanything to maintain the size I
(24:01):
was.
Right.
Anyway, yeah.
So you don't want to be in theobsession ditch.
SPEAKER_01 (24:07):
No, and it's it doesn't, it doesn't really
matter which extreme it is, youknow, whatever extreme that
we're obsessed.
I mean, it's kind of all thesame thing, really.
I remember when I first jumpedinto mind renewal and I was
really, really, you know,excited.
It was all brand new to me.
It felt like a second honeymoonwith the Lord, really.
My first one being when I was,you know, made the decision for
(24:29):
him in my heart.
Um, but I remember thinking, ohmy gosh, like every spare
moment, every little piece ofmargin in my life is filled with
this obsession.
I was kind of studying mythoughts.
I was like, I want to know, Iwant to be aware.
What am I thinking about all daylong?
I want to know because I want tochange it.
(24:51):
And I was so excited aboutchanging it.
And then once I started changingit and using the mind renewal
tools, I thought, oh my gosh,like I have so much time to
think about other things now.
Um, because every like if arelationship was going sour, I
went right to my weight and foodand eating.
(25:14):
If I was stressed at work, Iwent right to right to that
again.
I mean, it was my go-to, and Ireally did believe that if I
were a certain size and I couldsomehow find peace with that and
keep it and all those things,that the rest of my life would
fall into a place.
(25:34):
I really believe that.
Um, and that was a huge ahamoment for me.
It's like this is an awful wayto live.
This is an awful way to live.
I want to be obsessed with God'sword.
I want to be obsessed with histruth, I want to be obsessed
with what is true from hisperspective.
That's the only obsession thatis life-giving.
(25:56):
The only one.
SPEAKER_02 (25:58):
Can I insert uh something like kind of a
personal anecdote here?
I was see, I don't know how longhad we been married.
Um, my first husband, who I wascrazy about.
Let's just be clear on that.
We didn't have babies yet, so itwas probably the first five, ten
years of our marriage.
And I was convinced that thereason he was not interested in
(26:24):
certain activities as much as Iwas, if you get me, wink wink,
um, was because of my weight.
And so I pursued there's anexample.
I thought my marriage was, Imean, it wasn't like we were the
best of friends, but there wassomething missing.
Again, wink wink.
(26:45):
And I thought, okay, I'm gonnalose the weight, and then
that'll be fixed.
And you know what?
I did, I lost a hundred pounds,and it wasn't fixed.
So then I was left, I was leftwith a very real, sad
realization that there'ssomething else going on here,
(27:08):
and and so that's the thing, isI think we do we chase that
weight loss like it's salvation.
We pursue it as though it'sgonna solve all the problems,
it's gonna be the panacea thatsolves all the world's problems
or at least mine, right?
Right, yeah, that obsessionditch, it's a deep ditch and
long because we can land in itand stay there for quite a
(27:29):
while.
And you know what?
We get all these accolades frompeople for looking thinner while
we are obsessing.
And okay, is that is that a goodchoice?
SPEAKER_01 (27:40):
And I feel like I was there for a really, really,
really long time.
Um, oh yeah, I'm so glad I'm notthere anymore.
So that's the first ditch.
What's our second ditch?
Okay, the second ditch is theditch of apathy, where we say,
you know what?
I guess it doesn't matter atall.
(28:02):
It doesn't matter, I don'treally care.
I have to admit though, that forme, when I say those words, um,
I'm in a desperate place and I'mputting up my defenses, and I'm
saying, okay, fine, you know,I'm a failure, I can't do this,
I don't know what to do.
Like I keep messing this upagain and again and again.
(28:23):
Um, I guess it doesn't reallymatter.
SPEAKER_02 (28:27):
Yeah, and neither of those, of course, are God's
heart.
And no, really, that's probablynot like you just said,
Christina, that's probably notwhat I'm really feeling.
It's like I get tired offailing.
And so, because I have, youknow, here's the thing, many of
us do get tired of quotefailing.
SPEAKER_00 (28:47):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (28:47):
If we can learn to think God's thoughts, renew our
minds about failure.
Yes.
And think of failure the way Goddoes.
Lord, what are your thoughtsabout failure?
Are my thoughts about failurethe same as your thoughts?
What do I need to do to thinkdifferently?
He wants us to learn from ourfailures, our slips, stumbles,
flies, falls, failures.
(29:09):
Yeah.
And so that's where that'sanother place where it gets
really good when we go to him inour failures, our supposed
failures, he reminds us that isnot who you are.
SPEAKER_01 (29:21):
Right.
It's not our identity, it's notour worth, it's not our value,
that's not who who we are.
And I love that.
I love that truth.
And that's one of our favoritetruths to talk about at
Revelation Within, because somany of us have been there for
so long.
It's like, oh my gosh, this iswho I am.
No, it's not.
(29:42):
That's not God's perspective,not at all.
SPEAKER_02 (29:46):
The narrow road is, of course, one of spirit-led
surrender.
We don't want to be obsessed, wedon't want to be apathetic, but
we do want to be spirit-led andwe want to be surrendered.
Not letting food or weightdefine us, but not pretending
that our choices don't matter.
(30:06):
God wants to lead us in thisjourney.
Let's invite him in, and thenlet's invite him in again, and
then let's invite him in again.
Yes, we might say, My body isnot my own, it belongs to the
Lord.
See, that's the thing, is sovery often the apathy.
Um, we can make that sound likegodliness.
Like, I am not obsessed with myweight anymore.
(30:28):
I'm amazing.
I mean, that's fine.
Well, okay, yeah.
What is God's way of thinkingabout this?
You know, sometimes we say, youknow, my body is mine to do it
as I please, or that's what ouractions are saying.
But what if rather than thinkingof my body is not my own, it
(30:49):
belongs to the Lord as a weightloss mantra, mantra, as a weight
loss mantra, we look at it as astewardship posture.
Maybe God wants us to behavetowards our bodies like it's the
precious treasure andmasterpiece.
That he says in his word, hiseternal word, that it is.
(31:11):
And taking that perspective canchange everything.
SPEAKER_01 (31:18):
Yeah, it sure can.
We want to mention too, youknow, maybe you've chosen a
different approach, like aspecific diet or a medication or
a surgery.
And we just we've said itbefore, we want to say it again.
We are not here to judge anyone.
Certainly not your choices, yourdecisions.
Everybody has their own journey.
(31:40):
We're here to walk beside you asyou bring these tools to the
Lord, as you bring your heartand mind to the Lord as well.
SPEAKER_02 (31:48):
I that makes me think of over the course of time
that we've been involved in thisministry.
We've had, I won't say a lot ofpeople, but uh a solid handful
of people, maybe two handfuls ofpeople, who came to us after
they had some sort of proceduredone and found themselves
struggling with either losingthe weight that their doctors
(32:12):
promised them or that theythought they would lose, or
keeping it off, and they felt sofull of shame.
We just want to say, you know,any place where shame is kind of
telling you what to feel aboutyourself or your life, tell
that's the enemy to me.
That's the enemy.
He needs to take the height.
Shame is not from God.
(32:33):
No, no, invite God to show youwhat are your thoughts about my
struggle with maintaining theweight loss or main or even
losing the weight after thisprocedure or with this
medication.
Shame is not from the Lord, andwe want to invite you to yeah,
join us and speak your truth tous.
(32:53):
What has happened?
And we want to encourage you andjust validate you and what God's
thoughts are about his beloved,and you are his beloved.
Yes, you are, and we are yes.
So here's something we said itbefore, and we'll say it again a
million times.
(33:13):
When you have a tool that you'reusing for weight loss, let's say
you decide you're gonna doZ-Bound or whatever, you know,
Mindanol isn't replaced by thatchoice.
Absolutely.
You know, it's not mind is inthe category of weight loss
tool.
That's not what it is.
No, no.
Mindanol is essential even asyou choose the other tools that
(33:38):
you may choose, whether youchoose to use an intuitive
eating approach, which is kindof what we do, um, or if you
choose something else entirely,you can be taking a medication,
you can be using a program andstill be daily transformed by
the truth.
Absolutely, absolutely.
(33:58):
So, for me, anyway, in summary,it wasn't until I began to
invite God to say to him, helpme think your thoughts about my
body and about my eating andabout food and about emotions
and circumstances that sometimesdrive my decisions to eat when
I'm not hungry.
It wasn't until I did that thatI found something more stable,
(34:23):
more really eternal, somethingeternal.
SPEAKER_01 (34:26):
Gratitude, stewardship, joy.
It's true.
Peace.
Yeah.
Well, and that's really theshift that we pray for each of
you.
And that's the journey thatHeidi and I are on every single
day, that you would find thepeace that doesn't depend on the
scale, but on the savior.
And again, if you're not surewhat mind renewal is, you know,
(34:50):
if you're thinking, well, I readmy Bible every day and I'm still
struggling.
I was just talking with someonethe other day one-on-one about
this.
And she said, I am, you don'teven know how many Bible reading
plans I'm doing.
She's like, I have so manyplans, I'm a part of it.
And I go to this Bible study andI go to church regularly and I
(35:11):
pray every morning.
I have a quiet time.
Why am I not seeing any changes?
Because mind renewal is allabout that targeted truth.
What are we believing?
What is not true that we'rebelieving?
And what are God's thoughts onthat?
And if you're not sure how to doit, we would love, love, love to
share that with you.
We have so many amazing tools.
(35:34):
They're not rocket science,they're simple, they're easy,
but they're life-giving andthey're life-changing.
And basically you're you'recorralling all those thoughts,
you know, and you're replacingthem with thoughts that line up
with God.
And wow, there's so much freedomin that.
There's so much joy in that.
(35:56):
And it will touch every area ofyour life.
The food and eating piece, yes.
The body piece, yes.
But then when you're goingthrough whatever trial, whatever
challenge, uh, relationships,work, everything, it will touch
all of that, and you will loveit.
You will love the way thatfeels.
SPEAKER_02 (36:15):
So let's wrap up with Colossians 3 2, and then I
have another verse I want to umshare from Colossians 2.3.
Colossians 3-2 reminds us setyour minds on things above, not
on earthly things.
And so I can say honestly, thatfor many years my desire to lose
(36:38):
weight or release weight,whatever word you want to use
there, was very much rooted onearthly things.
It wasn't because I had a godlydesire to steward my body well.
And Colossians 3.2 admonishes mein that set your minds on things
of God, not on earthly things.
And Colossians 2.23 is afavorite of ours in this
(37:01):
ministry, too.
And you could back up all theway to verse 20.
But um, I'm just gonna read oneverse here.
Such regulations, and those arelike, don't touch this, don't
eat that, blah blah blah, havean appearance of wisdom with
their self-imposed worship.
Look at me, look at me, theirfalse humility.
Oh, it's really not that hard,and their harsh treatment of the
(37:24):
body, do another lap, runanother mile, hurry quick.
But they lack this is what theylack.
All of these things they lackany value in restraining sensual
indulgence, overdoing it, youknow, in any respect.
So we want to keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_01 (37:42):
Yes, Jesus doesn't change us by giving us tighter
rules and restrictions, not atall.
He changes us by giving ushimself, and that's where that
freedom is, that's where thatthat hope is, that peace that
we're longing for.
So many of us.
So we have a breath prayer thatwe want to share with you.
(38:04):
And remember, breath prayers,this is just one tool that we
use to renew our minds, calmingour body at the same time as
speaking God's truth.
So we're gonna inhale and say,You have given me a new mind.
And we're gonna exhale and say,and I trust you to change my
(38:25):
heart.
So let's go ahead and inhale,nice deep breath.
You have given me a new mind.
SPEAKER_02 (38:38):
Given me a new mind.
SPEAKER_01 (38:40):
Exhale, and I trust you to change my heart.
Let's do that one more time.
Nice deep breath.
Inhale.
You have given me a new mind.
Exhale, and I trust you tochange my heart.
(39:08):
I love it.
SPEAKER_02 (39:08):
Oh, that always feels good to do those deepers.
So, reflection questions we havefor you at the end of this
episode for you to kind of takewith you.
You might just want to inviteGod to show you, Lord.
Why do I want to lose weight?
What do I believe it will giveme?
(39:30):
And what do you have to sayabout that?
SPEAKER_01 (39:33):
Yeah, and it's okay, just to tell you, it's okay.
It's okay.
Be honest with him.
There's there's no judgmentthere, there's no condemnation
in Christ.
He just wants to be with you.
Um, here's another question (39:46):
Am I seeking first God's kingdom or
a kingdom of my own making?
SPEAKER_02 (39:54):
Mmm, a little kingdom with a kingdom of one.
Like, ooh.
Yep.
And I get that too.
Yeah.
And the third question you mightponder is how can I renew my
mind today?
Maybe a breath prayer, no matterwhere I am in this journey.
(40:18):
Gives us something to thinkabout.
Friends, wherever you are,longing, confused, frustrated,
hopeful, God sees.
Yes, he's not waiting for you tohit some goal weight on your
scale.
He isn't waiting for me to hit agoal weight on my scale.
He is longing for our hearts.
SPEAKER_01 (40:42):
Well, and when you give him your thoughts, your
beliefs, your body, yourcravings, your longings,
everything.
When you give those things tohim, you're not giving up your
dreams.
You're actually trading them forsomething better, intimacy with
the king.
SPEAKER_02 (41:00):
So until next time, keep renewing your mind, keep
abiding in him, and let him dothe transforming.
SPEAKER_01 (41:08):
And we're so glad that you've been here today.
We would love to see you in ourcommunity.
We have an amazing community.
Oh my goodness.
We just love these people somuch.
And we're all on this journeytogether, renewing our minds,
learning how to think differentways toward freedom.
I love it.
Anyway.
And please, please join us forour next episode of Revelation
(41:33):
All.
Hi, and welcome to our podcast, Revelation Within
on the Go.
I'm Claudia Everton, one of yourhosts, and currently the host of
the RevelationWithin.org.
SPEAKER_01 (00:13):
And I'm Christina Fuckley, your other host, also
Revelation Within Good.
And I'm partnering all thingsRevelation Within.
We are so happy to invite you tojoin us for this episode of
Revelation Within.
unknown (00:38):
Yay!
SPEAKER_02 (00:38):
We're so glad you're here today.
Yay.
And today we want to talk abouta very honest question that
comes up well every so often atleast.
I think sometimes it comes up,but people don't articulate it.
Yeah.
(00:58):
And it's this question.
Are you ready?
Yes, ready, ready, go.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04):
What if I still want to lose weight?
Yes, yes, let's put it outthere.
Let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_00 (01:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:13):
You know, we've been walking this journey, Heidi and
I, for decades now.
And many of you, most of you, isprobably why you're here.
And we get it.
We understand.
Absolutely.
We know there's an ache thatsits under this question.
It's not a shallow question.
You know, and it's not aboutvanity.
(01:33):
I think some people think thatit's about that.
Maybe for some it is.
I mean, let's be honest.
Maybe for some it is.
Okay.
But I don't know.
For the people that come to usat Revelation Within, I feel
like they are looking atsomething much deeper.
It's not a shallow question.
It's layered.
There's layers to this question.
And sometimes it's physical,sometimes emotional, sometimes
(01:57):
it's deeply spiritual.
SPEAKER_02 (01:59):
And sometimes it's all of the above and more.
SPEAKER_01 (02:02):
Yeah.
It is.
It's complicated.
It is complicated.
SPEAKER_02 (02:08):
And one thing that is most likely to be true is it
has been with us for decades.
The question has been with usfor decades.
The effort, the energy, themental bandwidth, uh, all of it
has been with us for quite sometime in many cases.
Let's begin by acknowledgingthat the desire to lose weight
(02:29):
is not something we have to beashamed of, really.
Not at all.
No.
I and I cringe to think thatanything that we have taught or
said or um written for thatmatter might have caused people
to feel like they should beashamed if that's their desire.
No, we want to just clarify forsure.
That's not where uh we want totake anybody.
(02:52):
You know, God understands, he'snot rolling his eyes at you.
No, he's not.
He invites you to bring thatdesire into his marvelous light,
not to hide it or pretend it'snot there.
In fact, invite him in.
It's interesting.
Christina even said recently shetalked to somebody who hadn't
(03:14):
even thought of putting thesetwo topics together, their faith
and their food.
It's like, oh great.
I mean, not everybody has donethat, like we have.
SPEAKER_01 (03:24):
Right, exactly.
We're so used to talking aboutit.
But really, it's one of the mostimportant things.
It is the most important thingthat you can do in this journey
is to invite God in.
What we're learning to do hereat Revelation Within is to take
this desire, you know, Lord, I'muncomfortable, Lord, I want to
(03:45):
lose weight, Lord, I'm not sure.
What are your thoughts on this?
We are encouraging people tohold this up to God and ask him
and definitely invite him intothe whole thing, you know, all
of it.
Um, asking God, what are yourthoughts about this desire?
Did I learn it from the culture?
(04:07):
Is this from you?
What does it mean to seek firstyour kingdom even in this?
SPEAKER_02 (04:14):
Yeah, speaking of that, that's Matthew 633, which
reads, seek first his kingdomand his righteousness.
And all these things will begiven to you as well.
SPEAKER_01 (04:25):
Yeah.
So what are all these things?
Um, I love that it says allthese things, not just, and some
things will be added, and maybeand you might.
No, it's all these things, andthat includes clothing, food,
daily needs, but not at theexpense of our relationship with
(04:46):
the Lord, our intimacy with theLord.
So when weight loss becomes thispowerful driving force, which
many of us can relate to, youknow, behind our spiritual
practices, I mean, it's easy touse God instead of walk with him
in relationship.
It's kind of easy to say, yeah,that's a challenging thought,
(05:09):
right?
It's like, well, Lord, I haveall these plans.
Will you just bless them,please?
unknown (05:16):
Please.
SPEAKER_01 (05:18):
Yeah.
And I I get that.
I mean, I'm we're talking aboutourselves as well.
SPEAKER_02 (05:23):
Right, right.
And, you know, of course, werefer to Romans 12, too, all the
time, but we want to refer to ithere too.
Scripture urges us do notconform to the pattern of this
world, right, but be transformedby the renewing of your mind.
And we don't transformourselves, that's just the
(05:43):
reality of it.
God does the transforming.
Our part, our part really is toparticipate in renewing our
minds.
And let me just um add a lot ofour podcasts give specific
guidance in what that might looklike for you.
Come into our community atRevWithin.team to learn lots
(06:05):
more ways or participate in ourmind renewal mastery class where
you will learn a bazilliontrillion nine hundred million
ways to your mind and a lot ofgood stuff about mind renewal
because it's our favorite thing.
It is, it is, and you know,Christina and I can both attest
to this that mind renewal hasnot just impacted the way we
(06:28):
think about food, eating, ouremotions that often have led us
to eating, etc., but also abouttrials in our lives and about
what are your thoughts aboutthis difficulty I'm facing?
What are your thoughts aboutthis diagnosis?
What are your thoughts aboutthat person that kind of hurt my
feelings?
SPEAKER_00 (06:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (06:46):
Mind renewal transforms us completely.
God is doing it transforming.
We just do the mind renewal.
So if you're not sure what mindrenewal looks like, join us and
you know, ask us what does itactually look like?
Or do a search through ourarchives of the podcast.
And and here's the importantthing to recognize if we treat
(07:07):
mind renewal as sort of somesort of a transaction, like I do
this so I can play, we're gonnamiss the deeper reward and the
deeper invitation.
That's really nottransformation, it's it's
spiritual performance, whichwe're trying to get away from,
right?
Right, exactly.
(07:27):
Yeah, we don't want to use Godto get something from him
instead of being transformed byhim.
SPEAKER_01 (07:34):
That's important.
That's really, really important.
Well, and so much of our oldpatterns, especially for those
who've come out of dietingculture, and so many of us have.
I mean, it's allperformance-based.
You know, we're chasingapproval, acceptance, and love.
And I'm just gonna throw outthere, I mean, even in the last
(07:57):
couple of years, we've seen thishuge change in our culture.
We were for a while, and and ofcourse, this is what culture
does, right?
It swings back and forth fromthe extremes.
I remember when my kids wereyounger, there was this whole
movement about accepting ourbodies and right, and curvy this
(08:17):
and curvy that.
And and, you know, I would walkinto a Target store and there
were, you know, mannequins ofall sizes, and there was a
change going on that was kind ofexciting to me, you know,
because it felt like it waspulling away from that dieting
culture that just said thin,thin, thin.
But now it's gone back, and weare at the extreme.
(08:40):
And of course, you know, you canlook at all the movie stars and
see what they're doing becausethat's kind of what's what our
culture looks at so often, andit's completely gone the other
way, completely.
And so we can't depend on ourculture at all.
And of course, that's whatRomans 12, 2 is talking about.
(09:01):
The culture will change,society, you know, trends,
Instagram, social media, it'sgonna change every week, every
month, every year.
What's our source?
What are we chasing after that'sgonna last?
Um there's only one thing,really.
Yeah, there's only one thing.
We we have our one source.
(09:23):
God is our one true source, andthat's a good place to be
because he loves us more than wecan imagine, and he has so much
wisdom for us, so much insight.
God doesn't withhold his loveuntil we shrink in size.
No way.
He's already given us all ofhimself in Christ, and our
(09:46):
identity is in him.
So no matter what you're goingthrough, our identity is solid
and secure.
It's in Christ no matter what,it's a done deal.
SPEAKER_02 (11:05):
Yeah, that's so true.
Thanks for pointing that out,Christina.
Let's just name something superplainly here.
I mean, we want to just plainspeak today.
I'm every day.
Every day.
Let's do it.
Okay, it is okay to want to loseweight.
Here's what the question maybeshould be or is what do I
(11:27):
believe weight loss will do forme?
Or maybe what do I believe notlosing weight does too?
SPEAKER_01 (11:36):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (11:37):
Does weight loss make me feel more worthy?
Or am I more worthy when I loseweight?
Am I more seen?
Am I more loved?
Will I finally be good enough?
What do I make it mean?
Now, I have to be honest withyou, over the many years that
I've been an adult, many, manyyears, like the last 45 years.
(12:03):
Um anyway, um, I have been allshapes, all sizes, all fitness
levels, and I can recallinstances, very distinct
exchanges, verbal exchanges,where people validated what they
saw or demonstrated disdain forwhat they saw in my physical
(12:27):
being, if you will.
I mean, I remember the UPS guywho looked at me and I was super
fit, and he said, Wow, what doyou do to stay so fit?
I mean, that was really nice.
I like that feedback for sure.
And then there have been timeswhen there has been disdain and
contempt.
(12:48):
I mean, I don't know if that'swhat every person's experience
is if they're wearing a you knowmore body on their frame or
less.
I don't know if it's everybodyor if I just invite comments.
I don't know, I don't mean to,but um, it's it's really hard in
our society to not feel likethey're demonstrating that I
(13:10):
have value if I look a certainway, or I don't have value if I
look another way.
That's really tricky.
SPEAKER_01 (13:16):
Oh, absolutely.
Well, and I can remember so manytimes when I had gone on some
kind of a diet or some kind ofan extreme exercise plan or
something, and all of a sudden Iwas getting all this attention.
You know, people are like, oh,look at you.
Wow, this is you're amazing.
(13:37):
You must be reallyself-disciplined.
And um, how do we do it?
What program are you following?
Send me the link, you know, thethe whole thing.
And then the minute it fallsshort, because it always falls
short, when it's not somethingthat goes deeper, and that
happened to me a thousand times,all of a sudden everyone gets
(13:59):
very silent.
Um, and the attention is gone,it's just over with.
Um, and people are, you know, intheir silence, you feel very
judged, and it's an awful, awfulplace to be.
SPEAKER_02 (14:13):
Sometimes they're not silent about that judgment.
I had one being church ladyapproach me and tell me that the
glory of God was being hindered.
Oh my gosh.
It was not as visible now that Iwas carrying extra weight.
This was a lot of years ago, andI just that that's tough.
SPEAKER_01 (14:34):
That's tough.
That's horrible.
I'm so sorry, Heidi.
That is awful, awful, awful.
I'm gonna go after it.
SPEAKER_02 (14:41):
No, it was a mean church lady.
Don't be a mean church lady,y'all.
SPEAKER_01 (14:46):
Oh no, no, no, no.
So, I mean, the danger isn't inthe desire itself to want to
lose weight, it's what we attachto it.
That's what this is reallyabout.
Um, and that's why mind renewal,it's not a free pass to eat with
abandon, it's really a slowrewiring of what we believe
(15:08):
about ourselves, about food,about God.
That's what it is.
What are we thinking about?
What are we thinking about?
What are our thoughts about allthose things?
What are we believing?
And then that leads to ouractions.
You know, we have so many peoplecome to us with this request.
(15:29):
I just want to find peace.
I just want to find peace andfood and eating in my body.
Um, and I get that.
I hoped for that, desired that,you know, um, pined after it for
years and years and years umuntil I learned how to renew my
mind.
And thank God for that.
Thank God that there's a way forus to rewire.
(15:53):
It's not us doing it, God'sreally doing the transformation,
but we can practice his thoughtsand it will change us.
It will change us.
We've seen it thousands of timesat Revelation Within, which used
to be Thin Within.
SPEAKER_02 (16:09):
And we participate in it every day as well.
SPEAKER_01 (16:12):
Yes, we do every single day.
SPEAKER_02 (16:14):
This is where things get really beautiful.
You know, when I first beganthis journey umpteen years ago,
yeah, I did.
I wanted food peace.
I want and well, we have a classnow, discovering peaceful
eating, and and it's because weknow people want to be at peace
with food eating in theirbodies.
Back in those days when I firstwanted, I was like, I just I
(16:38):
want to relate to food as thoughGod didn't put it on this planet
to torment me because you knowwhat he didn't.
Right, he put it on the planetto bless us, and somehow
something had gotten reallywarped as I practiced renewing
my mind, and sometimes, y'all,this is daily, not just daily,
sometimes it's hourly.
Sometimes, I mean, multipletimes each day.
(17:01):
I check in with God, I have toask him, What are your thoughts
about what I'm thinking?
Because what I'm thinking mightnot be in alignment with what he
says is true.
But as I practice renewing mymind multiple times each day,
you know, just it's not openingmy Bible and having a big long
Bible study, it's just checkingin with God through prayer.
What do you have to say aboutthis thought I'm having?
(17:23):
And I started to see massivechanges, my beliefs changed, and
then my actions followed suit.
I didn't just want peace withfood in my body anymore.
I wanted to love what God loves,and I want to be faithful with
what He has entrusted to me,including my body.
(17:43):
And that was the really coolthing.
The motivation shifted fromokay, do I have enough
motivation about this trip I'mgoing on and getting thin by
then or whatever?
No, no, no.
The motivation shifted from meto him, and and that's just the
word too.
Yeah, 1 Corinthians 10 31 says,So whether you eat or drink,
(18:05):
whatever you do, do it all forthe glory of God.
Our God gets glory in the way werelate to some of these mundane
things like food and eating.
SPEAKER_01 (18:16):
I love that.
Well, and we had I love thistoo.
We had somebody just recently inone of our groups um say, you
know, I remember when eating wasfun.
Right?
I mean, we have gotten into thismindset in our culture that
eating is complicated.
(18:37):
And well, you should try this,but no, how about this?
Oh, it's all changed now.
Uh yes, it's only been an hour,but it's all changed now.
Now you have to have, oh, butdon't have it at this time of
day.
And if you have, I mean, it isso complicated.
I feel like every day it's morecomplicated.
And what is that about?
(18:58):
Like you said, Heidi, you know,God made food in abundance for
us.
I mean, it's beautiful, it'scolorful, it's flavorful, we
don't all like the same things.
That's okay.
But he made it to fuel ourbodies well.
And it's like, what happened?
What have we done?
You know?
(19:19):
And I just want to add, I wasthe same way um that you just
described, Heidi, with that kindof that longing.
When I first brought God intothis issue, really, it's like,
Lord, um, are you sure this issomething you want me to invite
you into?
Because it just feels too, itfeels kind of in a way, it feels
(19:43):
kind of like minimal.
Like, is this really importantat all?
And then in another way, itfeels like I should be the one
to get this together, you know,and then we'll talk about it,
and then you'll be pleased andeverything will be fine.
But no, he wants so much to beinvolved in this, especially if
it's causing us sorrow and painand angst and hopelessness and
(20:07):
all those things.
I remember when Heidi, when Ifirst came to you for coaching,
and it's been 11 and a halfyears, I said, I remember saying
this out loud, I'm overweight,yes, and uh honestly, I don't
even care anymore about my sizebecause I am so desperate, I am
so hopeless, I just want peacewith food and eating in my body.
(20:31):
And I want to know what what Godhas to do with any of this.
I mean, I was in a verydesperate place, and it was that
took a lot of courage to saybecause I was adorable anyway.
SPEAKER_02 (20:42):
I just have to say that.
SPEAKER_01 (20:44):
Well, I was I felt very much ashamed over that.
Yeah, you know, I felt so muchshame, and the whole thing was
kind of my my big secret and mysecretary.
You let the cat out of the back.
I did because I trusted you andyou were so encouraging, and you
were also the first person I hadever met that really, really
(21:06):
understood.
Like you got it.
You got it, and I felt like,okay, let's go.
So I'm so grateful, Heidi.
Thank you.
All these years later, I'm sograteful for what you've taught
me all these years.
So let's get into some of theseum kind of pitfalls, ditches
that we can fall into with thismindset.
(21:30):
Um, the first one we're gonnacall the obsession ditch.
Okay.
How many of you have experiencedthis?
And certainly I have many times.
We chase weight loss like it'ssalvation.
Oh boy, how it's yeah, we chaseit like if I could just lose
(21:52):
this much, everything else in mylife, my relationships, my work,
my career, church life, whateveryou wanted, every life, you
know, my social life, it's allgonna fall into place.
It's it's an obsession.
SPEAKER_02 (22:07):
Yeah, I mean, I remember being that way, and
this is uh, yeah, this is I wanta thought I wanted to be sure to
share.
Is we can sacrifice so muchemotionally and spiritually and
even physically pursuing weightloss.
And is that an approach that Godwants for us?
(22:28):
I mean, I remember when umsomebody commented about a post
on my blog, this was years ago.
I was kind of chronicling myjourney through thin within
again, releasing weight as Iwent, and somebody said, I don't
think you look healthy, you lookanorexic.
Oh, and that was full stop forme.
(22:49):
It was like, oh and I realizedthey were right, they were
right.
I mean, I had kind of acted likeit was a badge of courage, a
badge of honor, somethingamazing that I had so little
body fat, but it was really kindof scary when I think about it.
And and I pursued it all ofthese activities and working out
(23:14):
and doing more and working outagain, strength training and
working out again and runningand all of this stuff because I
was so scared that I would gainone ounce back, and I was
attached to my scale, it ownedme, it owned me, and that is not
going to lead to godliness atall.
I mean, it might lead to superthinness, but is that I mean, at
(23:39):
what expense?
And another thought that hit meat that time was how long can I
really maintain this?
This thinness that I had.
It's like, is this from God forme?
Because if it is, it's not gonnafeel like toil and challenge on
and on to maintain it.
I knew I wouldn't be able to eatanything to maintain the size I
(24:01):
was.
Right.
Anyway, yeah.
So you don't want to be in theobsession ditch.
SPEAKER_01 (24:07):
No, and it's it doesn't, it doesn't really
matter which extreme it is, youknow, whatever extreme that
we're obsessed.
I mean, it's kind of all thesame thing, really.
I remember when I first jumpedinto mind renewal and I was
really, really, you know,excited.
It was all brand new to me.
It felt like a second honeymoonwith the Lord, really.
My first one being when I was,you know, made the decision for
(24:29):
him in my heart.
Um, but I remember thinking, ohmy gosh, like every spare
moment, every little piece ofmargin in my life is filled with
this obsession.
I was kind of studying mythoughts.
I was like, I want to know, Iwant to be aware.
What am I thinking about all daylong?
I want to know because I want tochange it.
(24:51):
And I was so excited aboutchanging it.
And then once I started changingit and using the mind renewal
tools, I thought, oh my gosh,like I have so much time to
think about other things now.
Um, because every like if arelationship was going sour, I
went right to my weight and foodand eating.
(25:14):
If I was stressed at work, Iwent right to right to that
again.
I mean, it was my go-to, and Ireally did believe that if I
were a certain size and I couldsomehow find peace with that and
keep it and all those things,that the rest of my life would
fall into a place.
(25:34):
I really believe that.
Um, and that was a huge ahamoment for me.
It's like this is an awful wayto live.
This is an awful way to live.
I want to be obsessed with God'sword.
I want to be obsessed with histruth, I want to be obsessed
with what is true from hisperspective.
That's the only obsession thatis life-giving.
(25:56):
The only one.
SPEAKER_02 (25:58):
Can I insert uh something like kind of a
personal anecdote here?
I was see, I don't know how longhad we been married.
Um, my first husband, who I wascrazy about.
Let's just be clear on that.
We didn't have babies yet, so itwas probably the first five, ten
years of our marriage.
And I was convinced that thereason he was not interested in
(26:24):
certain activities as much as Iwas, if you get me, wink wink,
um, was because of my weight.
And so I pursued there's anexample.
I thought my marriage was, Imean, it wasn't like we were the
best of friends, but there wassomething missing.
Again, wink wink.
(26:45):
And I thought, okay, I'm gonnalose the weight, and then
that'll be fixed.
And you know what?
I did, I lost a hundred pounds,and it wasn't fixed.
So then I was left, I was leftwith a very real, sad
realization that there'ssomething else going on here,
(27:08):
and and so that's the thing, isI think we do we chase that
weight loss like it's salvation.
We pursue it as though it'sgonna solve all the problems,
it's gonna be the panacea thatsolves all the world's problems
or at least mine, right?
Right, yeah, that obsessionditch, it's a deep ditch and
long because we can land in itand stay there for quite a
(27:29):
while.
And you know what?
We get all these accolades frompeople for looking thinner while
we are obsessing.
And okay, is that is that a goodchoice?
SPEAKER_01 (27:40):
And I feel like I was there for a really, really,
really long time.
Um, oh yeah, I'm so glad I'm notthere anymore.
So that's the first ditch.
What's our second ditch?
Okay, the second ditch is theditch of apathy, where we say,
you know what?
I guess it doesn't matter atall.
(28:02):
It doesn't matter, I don'treally care.
I have to admit though, that forme, when I say those words, um,
I'm in a desperate place and I'mputting up my defenses, and I'm
saying, okay, fine, you know,I'm a failure, I can't do this,
I don't know what to do.
Like I keep messing this upagain and again and again.
(28:23):
Um, I guess it doesn't reallymatter.
SPEAKER_02 (28:27):
Yeah, and neither of those, of course, are God's
heart.
And no, really, that's probablynot like you just said,
Christina, that's probably notwhat I'm really feeling.
It's like I get tired offailing.
And so, because I have, youknow, here's the thing, many of
us do get tired of quotefailing.
SPEAKER_00 (28:47):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (28:47):
If we can learn to think God's thoughts, renew our
minds about failure.
Yes.
And think of failure the way Goddoes.
Lord, what are your thoughtsabout failure?
Are my thoughts about failurethe same as your thoughts?
What do I need to do to thinkdifferently?
He wants us to learn from ourfailures, our slips, stumbles,
flies, falls, failures.
(29:09):
Yeah.
And so that's where that'sanother place where it gets
really good when we go to him inour failures, our supposed
failures, he reminds us that isnot who you are.
SPEAKER_01 (29:21):
Right.
It's not our identity, it's notour worth, it's not our value,
that's not who who we are.
And I love that.
I love that truth.
And that's one of our favoritetruths to talk about at
Revelation Within, because somany of us have been there for
so long.
It's like, oh my gosh, this iswho I am.
No, it's not.
(29:42):
That's not God's perspective,not at all.
SPEAKER_02 (29:46):
The narrow road is, of course, one of spirit-led
surrender.
We don't want to be obsessed, wedon't want to be apathetic, but
we do want to be spirit-led andwe want to be surrendered.
Not letting food or weightdefine us, but not pretending
that our choices don't matter.
(30:06):
God wants to lead us in thisjourney.
Let's invite him in, and thenlet's invite him in again, and
then let's invite him in again.
Yes, we might say, My body isnot my own, it belongs to the
Lord.
See, that's the thing, is sovery often the apathy.
Um, we can make that sound likegodliness.
Like, I am not obsessed with myweight anymore.
(30:28):
I'm amazing.
I mean, that's fine.
Well, okay, yeah.
What is God's way of thinkingabout this?
You know, sometimes we say, youknow, my body is mine to do it
as I please, or that's what ouractions are saying.
But what if rather than thinkingof my body is not my own, it
(30:49):
belongs to the Lord as a weightloss mantra, mantra, as a weight
loss mantra, we look at it as astewardship posture.
Maybe God wants us to behavetowards our bodies like it's the
precious treasure andmasterpiece.
That he says in his word, hiseternal word, that it is.
(31:11):
And taking that perspective canchange everything.
SPEAKER_01 (31:18):
Yeah, it sure can.
We want to mention too, youknow, maybe you've chosen a
different approach, like aspecific diet or a medication or
a surgery.
And we just we've said itbefore, we want to say it again.
We are not here to judge anyone.
Certainly not your choices, yourdecisions.
Everybody has their own journey.
(31:40):
We're here to walk beside you asyou bring these tools to the
Lord, as you bring your heartand mind to the Lord as well.
SPEAKER_02 (31:48):
I that makes me think of over the course of time
that we've been involved in thisministry.
We've had, I won't say a lot ofpeople, but uh a solid handful
of people, maybe two handfuls ofpeople, who came to us after
they had some sort of proceduredone and found themselves
struggling with either losingthe weight that their doctors
(32:12):
promised them or that theythought they would lose, or
keeping it off, and they felt sofull of shame.
We just want to say, you know,any place where shame is kind of
telling you what to feel aboutyourself or your life, tell
that's the enemy to me.
That's the enemy.
He needs to take the height.
Shame is not from God.
(32:33):
No, no, invite God to show youwhat are your thoughts about my
struggle with maintaining theweight loss or main or even
losing the weight after thisprocedure or with this
medication.
Shame is not from the Lord, andwe want to invite you to yeah,
join us and speak your truth tous.
(32:53):
What has happened?
And we want to encourage you andjust validate you and what God's
thoughts are about his beloved,and you are his beloved.
Yes, you are, and we are yes.
So here's something we said itbefore, and we'll say it again a
million times.
(33:13):
When you have a tool that you'reusing for weight loss, let's say
you decide you're gonna doZ-Bound or whatever, you know,
Mindanol isn't replaced by thatchoice.
Absolutely.
You know, it's not mind is inthe category of weight loss
tool.
That's not what it is.
No, no.
Mindanol is essential even asyou choose the other tools that
(33:38):
you may choose, whether youchoose to use an intuitive
eating approach, which is kindof what we do, um, or if you
choose something else entirely,you can be taking a medication,
you can be using a program andstill be daily transformed by
the truth.
Absolutely, absolutely.
(33:58):
So, for me, anyway, in summary,it wasn't until I began to
invite God to say to him, helpme think your thoughts about my
body and about my eating andabout food and about emotions
and circumstances that sometimesdrive my decisions to eat when
I'm not hungry.
It wasn't until I did that thatI found something more stable,
(34:23):
more really eternal, somethingeternal.
SPEAKER_01 (34:26):
Gratitude, stewardship, joy.
It's true.
Peace.
Yeah.
Well, and that's really theshift that we pray for each of
you.
And that's the journey thatHeidi and I are on every single
day, that you would find thepeace that doesn't depend on the
scale, but on the savior.
And again, if you're not surewhat mind renewal is, you know,
(34:50):
if you're thinking, well, I readmy Bible every day and I'm still
struggling.
I was just talking with someonethe other day one-on-one about
this.
And she said, I am, you don'teven know how many Bible reading
plans I'm doing.
She's like, I have so manyplans, I'm a part of it.
And I go to this Bible study andI go to church regularly and I
(35:11):
pray every morning.
I have a quiet time.
Why am I not seeing any changes?
Because mind renewal is allabout that targeted truth.
What are we believing?
What is not true that we'rebelieving?
And what are God's thoughts onthat?
And if you're not sure how to doit, we would love, love, love to
share that with you.
We have so many amazing tools.
(35:34):
They're not rocket science,they're simple, they're easy,
but they're life-giving andthey're life-changing.
And basically you're you'recorralling all those thoughts,
you know, and you're replacingthem with thoughts that line up
with God.
And wow, there's so much freedomin that.
There's so much joy in that.
(35:56):
And it will touch every area ofyour life.
The food and eating piece, yes.
The body piece, yes.
But then when you're goingthrough whatever trial, whatever
challenge, uh, relationships,work, everything, it will touch
all of that, and you will loveit.
You will love the way thatfeels.
SPEAKER_02 (36:15):
So let's wrap up with Colossians 3 2, and then I
have another verse I want to umshare from Colossians 2.3.
Colossians 3-2 reminds us setyour minds on things above, not
on earthly things.
And so I can say honestly, thatfor many years my desire to lose
(36:38):
weight or release weight,whatever word you want to use
there, was very much rooted onearthly things.
It wasn't because I had a godlydesire to steward my body well.
And Colossians 3.2 admonishes mein that set your minds on things
of God, not on earthly things.
And Colossians 2.23 is afavorite of ours in this
(37:01):
ministry, too.
And you could back up all theway to verse 20.
But um, I'm just gonna read oneverse here.
Such regulations, and those arelike, don't touch this, don't
eat that, blah blah blah, havean appearance of wisdom with
their self-imposed worship.
Look at me, look at me, theirfalse humility.
Oh, it's really not that hard,and their harsh treatment of the
(37:24):
body, do another lap, runanother mile, hurry quick.
But they lack this is what theylack.
All of these things they lackany value in restraining sensual
indulgence, overdoing it, youknow, in any respect.
So we want to keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_01 (37:42):
Yes, Jesus doesn't change us by giving us tighter
rules and restrictions, not atall.
He changes us by giving ushimself, and that's where that
freedom is, that's where thatthat hope is, that peace that
we're longing for.
So many of us.
So we have a breath prayer thatwe want to share with you.
(38:04):
And remember, breath prayers,this is just one tool that we
use to renew our minds, calmingour body at the same time as
speaking God's truth.
So we're gonna inhale and say,You have given me a new mind.
And we're gonna exhale and say,and I trust you to change my
(38:25):
heart.
So let's go ahead and inhale,nice deep breath.
You have given me a new mind.
SPEAKER_02 (38:38):
Given me a new mind.
SPEAKER_01 (38:40):
Exhale, and I trust you to change my heart.
Let's do that one more time.
Nice deep breath.
Inhale.
You have given me a new mind.
Exhale, and I trust you tochange my heart.
(39:08):
I love it.
SPEAKER_02 (39:08):
Oh, that always feels good to do those deepers.
So, reflection questions we havefor you at the end of this
episode for you to kind of takewith you.
You might just want to inviteGod to show you, Lord.
Why do I want to lose weight?
What do I believe it will giveme?
(39:30):
And what do you have to sayabout that?
SPEAKER_01 (39:33):
Yeah, and it's okay, just to tell you, it's okay.
It's okay.
Be honest with him.
There's there's no judgmentthere, there's no condemnation
in Christ.
He just wants to be with you.
Um, here's another question (39:46):
Am I seeking first God's kingdom or
a kingdom of my own making?
SPEAKER_02 (39:54):
Mmm, a little kingdom with a kingdom of one.
Like, ooh.
Yep.
And I get that too.
Yeah.
And the third question you mightponder is how can I renew my
mind today?
Maybe a breath prayer, no matterwhere I am in this journey.
(40:18):
Gives us something to thinkabout.
Friends, wherever you are,longing, confused, frustrated,
hopeful, God sees.
Yes, he's not waiting for you tohit some goal weight on your
scale.
He isn't waiting for me to hit agoal weight on my scale.
He is longing for our hearts.
SPEAKER_01 (40:42):
Well, and when you give him your thoughts, your
beliefs, your body, yourcravings, your longings,
everything.
When you give those things tohim, you're not giving up your
dreams.
You're actually trading them forsomething better, intimacy with
the king.
SPEAKER_02 (41:00):
So until next time, keep renewing your mind, keep
abiding in him, and let him dothe transforming.
SPEAKER_01 (41:08):
And we're so glad that you've been here today.
We would love to see you in ourcommunity.
We have an amazing community.
Oh my goodness.
We just love these people somuch.
And we're all on this journeytogether, renewing our minds,
learning how to think differentways toward freedom.
I love it.
Anyway.
And please, please join us forour next episode of Revelation
(41:33):
All.
Popular Podcasts
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
Betrayal: Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a brand new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-4 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.