October 17, 2023 • 42 mins
In this next episode of "The God Pod", Leanne shows you how to take a faith-based approach to addressing your own food and body struggles, by blending spirituality and faith WITH rewiring your brain for peace-of-mind and freedom. On the surface, it might not seem like the way we relate to our bodies and our eating habits has anything to do with God, but as you'll learn it's ALL related.
She'll draw from biblical wisdom AND evidence-based research to highlight the idea that faith can be a guiding force in breaking free from self-limiting beliefs and finding the strength to overcome addiction-like behaviors with food or sugar. Faith and spirituality can absolutely play a profound role in your own personal growth and healing, and that's why Leanne's goal is to simply invite you into this new way to approach your struggles and to take away a renewed sense of empowerment, self-love, and faith, as you consider new ways to tackle your own food and body struggles.
So whether you're seeking guidance, inspiration, or a fresh perspective on your own journey, this episode has something valuable to offer everyone.
HOST: @LeanneEllington
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Tale of 2 Roots Infographic HERE
Stressless Eating Masterclass HERE
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.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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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. Now here to preach, gonn to keep it
clean and talk to me and recad where faith need
stops nature, get in touch with your creator with a
baking love and jo She even speaks Hebrew.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
What's that got? What's that?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
As well? Saboation talking transformation, what's gone? Gonzo?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, hello, and welcome back to What's God got to
do with it? And I'm so excited to dive into
today's topic because in so many ways we've been setting
it up over the past few episodes. So both last
week and the week before we really crossed into this
hole where faith meets science territory. And I don't know
about you, but I've been loving it because on my
(01:06):
own spiritual quest, this is the kind of stuff that
really isn't being talked about. So if you missed the
last couple episodes, definitely go back and check those out.
Because back in episode six, how God helped me heal
my fears about being alone the rest of my life,
we got into the science of how to shift beliefs,
but also how to invite God into that conversation. From
(01:28):
day one, then last week in episode seven, the Faith
Brain Connection where self image meets neuroscience, we literally talked
about just that, how to approach your self image and
identity and yes from a science brain based, you know,
brain changing perspective. But as you probably guessed, how to
invite God into the conversation from day one, but of course,
(01:52):
meeting you where you are in your own journey, and
maybe you have some skepticism or doubt or past experiences
that weren't awesome and regardless, I really just invite you
to go back and check those out, as like I said,
there's a crossover and they pave the way for what
we're going to talk about today, which is all about
how food, faith, and a restored body image intersect. And
(02:15):
in some ways, this should be the easiest episode for
me to create, since this is literally what I do
in my day job. I help women and teens escape
from the food in body prison and heal their relationship
with food and their bodies and just 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
(02:38):
a lot of women and men. If you're listening out
there to have a really complicated relationship with food and
their bodies and the stuff that we're going to cover today.
You know, I work with people very intensively for three
to four months at a time to really help them
heal this and put the problem to bed and get
off the you know, put a band aid on a
roller coaster. So to try to distill it down into
(02:59):
one podcast episode, that's why it feels like a challenge.
But I say challenge accepted. But I am 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
(03:23):
topic but from a place of no fluff and truly
addressing the problem from its roots. But again not by
giving you this one and done solution. This is literally
just the beginning of the conversation, okay, 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
(03:44):
literally just put it into two categories. 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 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 you move
or don't move, and treat yourself in your body the
way you treat it or don't treat it, and in
(04:05):
turn feel the way you feel or don't feel about yourself. Okay,
which spoiler alert is really what we're going to talk
about in depth today, but we are 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. And again, if
(04:25):
I was to bottom line it, it's this. It's the identity.
In a way, you have to become a new version
of yourself, like you have to radically transform your being.
And I know that sounds so daunting, especially if food
in your body is something that you've been struggling with
for a long time, but trust me, it's imperative. Because
(04:46):
let's say you had all that strategy and habit and
brain change stuff, I talked about a second ago. Right,
Let's say you had the perfect plan and the perfect
steps to take. Who's to say you would actually show
up for yourself and use it stick with it, right,
And this is what I tell all my stressless eeating
clients too. I tell them, like listen, I could teach
(05:06):
you the system of thinking. I teach my clients around
food and your bodies. 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 around food in your body, you
will always end up right back where you are. Because
I can guarantee like that, despite what you think, you know,
you don't have a food problem or a body problem. Right.
(05:28):
It's definitely a brain thing. And the things that have
gotten fired and wired in your brain are because of
the thoughts and the emotions and the actions that are
a cascade effect and have simply become habits. In other words,
your habits and behaviors are symptom of a cause, right,
or symptoms I should say, aka, your thoughts that's causing
(05:50):
something to happen upstream in your brain. But I would
also venture to say or at least invite you to
try on the possibility that what if this was also
a spiritual thing? Because yes, I think we are starting
to get that the problem is emotional, like I think
that a lot of that's being talked about nowadays, but
I truly believe that the problem is also spiritual, as in,
(06:12):
it's in your soul and it's in your spirit. So
what if we started there right, Like, what if instead
of trying to influence what you're eating or how you're
moving your body, we entered into the conversation of addressing
the root of the problem of what's going on in
your mind and brain but also in your heart and spirit,
so that you can address it from the root. And
(06:33):
if we are talking about addressing it from the roots,
you don't need to be a farmer to know that
if you plant seeds in toxic soil, it's not going
to grow okay. In fact, the seeds will most likely
die or spoil. Right. And also, you can't force a
tree to grow. The tree needs what it needs to grow.
So yes, it's important to plant seeds for creating new
(06:56):
habits and new behaviors, but you also want to make
sure that you're planting those seeds and growing those roots
in really nourished and rich soil, not like toxic soil. Right.
And here's what I mean. I call this the tail
of two roots. And I'm gonna link this graphic in
the show notes, but for now, if you're listening and
not looking, obviously, I just want you to imagine a
(07:17):
picture of a big tree, okay, and that big tree
has a big trunk and big roots, and of course
those roots are rooted in soil. But this first half,
the soil is unnourished and unhealthy, and the roots are
dry and unhealthy, and there's no fruits, right, or maybe
(07:38):
there's weeds or like rotten fruit coming out of the
unhealthy soil and the unhealthy roots and the dry roots, right.
And so coming back to this metaphor of planting seeds
of habits in unhealthy soil, if you are not happy
with your relationship with food and your body, maybe this
is how your body feels or your health feels to you,
(07:59):
like you're unhealthy and unnourished. Right. But then I want
you to picture the other half of the tree. Okay,
the other half has this nourished and nourishing, healthy soil. Okay,
it has nourished and healthy roots, and from these roots
it's grown fruit that is alive and abundant and delicious.
(08:20):
So again, two very different trees to very different sides
of the equation. And so rolling with this metaphor for
your health, really on this good side, we'll call it right,
it's fruit that you want to be growing, that you're
like intentionally growing, right. And most people they're looking at
the fruits of the seeds that got planted, and they're
feeling really unhappy with those fruits, and so they just
(08:43):
go try to buy other seeds and other seeds, other seeds,
more seeds, and they never examine the roots and the
soil that those seeds are being planted in. And that's why, yes,
you need a new system of thinking around food and
your body. But the other side of it is like
you've got to heal yourself image and in a way,
you need to become a new version of yourself with
(09:03):
new beliefs and a new identity, which that side of
things we actually talked about a lot in last week's episode,
so just as a review of that, and what I
refer to is kind of the neuro faith side of
your health. And remember, if you if you heard last
week we kind of talked about it like in a way,
it's like taking care of your mental emotional health, like
you brush your teeth or take a shower. But we
(09:23):
talked about the neuro faith side of your self image,
so your beliefs about yourself, your perception of yourself, the
goggles that you're seeing yourself through, that then becomes this
kind of narrator in your mind and the voice of
your self talk. And then we talked about the neuro
faith side of your coping mechanisms, so whether that's food,
social media, dating apps, alcohol, whatever your drug of choices,
(09:45):
and again there's no shame and we all have our own.
And then we talked about the neuro faith side of
pain and your physical body, which, like I talked about
last week, you know, the first step is like the
survival side of it, like the require that your brain
has to just get yourself out of pain and physical pain.
And then after that we can obviously talk about the
(10:06):
thrive or like what you desire side of things like
your weight or optimal health. And so again, if you
want to take a deep dive on the faith brain
connection side of things, definitely go back and check out
that episode and the week before and then also as
we mentioned, I truly believe like you do need a
new system of thinking around food because if you are
using it as a form of restriction or deprivation or obsession,
(10:29):
or just like a false sense of control, or maybe
you swing towards more towards the opposite right like overeating
or binging or emotional eating, or you just you know,
feel out of control of food, then that same punishment cycle,
by the way, can take place with your body and
exercise too. But you know, most people they go down
the whole eat less, move more road as their go to,
(10:49):
and let's be honest, that doesn't just not help it.
It honestly makes the problem worse. And even if you
can stick to it briefly, old habits just end up
coming back with a vengeance. And just as a side note,
we are going to get into the faceside of this
topic today and how to invite God into this conversation.
But if this is your big struggle, I do have
(11:10):
a separate podcast called Outweigh, which I co host with
Amy Brown, and it's literally an entire podcast dedicated to
this subject matter. And you know, we get into the
nitty gritty of all of this, so definitely go check
that out as well. But today we're going to take
a deep dive into the spiritual side of this conversation,
So let's dive in. Today we're going to take a
(11:38):
deep dive into the spiritual side of this conversation. So
let's dive in. So how do you do that? Right?
Because nowadays, you know, I see it too on the
internet on Instagram, everyone and their mom is talking about,
you know, ditching the diets and food freedom. But the
only problem with that is how right, Like, how do
you suddenly stop doing what you've been doing for decades
(12:01):
or maybe it's the only thing you've ever known. And
how do you suddenly stop shaming yourself and hating on
yourself or criticizing yourself if that's all your brain knows
how to do. And how do you suddenly just stop
dieting if you've been on the roller coaster a long time,
and let's be honest, like you're terrified, like you know,
going off the deep end and gaining a bunch of
weight is probably what you're thinking is your only alternative
(12:23):
if you're not on a diet or something, right, And
then of course, like, how do you invite God into
this massive conversation and invite him to walk alongside you?
And so I'm going to walk you through a five
step recipe if you want to call it that, But
I do want to make this one, you know, small
but imperative disclaimer. You know, remember how I said that
(12:44):
you need to essentially become a new person and in
a way create a new identity it through God's eyes. Well,
that's why I just wanted to shine a light on
this and say that if you take nothing else away
from this episode, right, if you take nothing else away
but this one thing, I want you to take this away.
I want to invite you to stop looking for the
(13:05):
solution here as I'm pointing to my body or my
stomach or my hips, right, because the solution lives in
your brain and in your heart, and yes, I'm inviting
you into the possibility that it lives in your spirit. Okay.
And if you've heard me talk about this before, you'll
know that I talk a lot about this idea of
something called the weight of the weight, and I talk
(13:27):
about it a lot. And what I mean by that is,
when you've been stuck in the food and body struggle
for years or decades or sometimes it's a lifetime. It's
like there's these heavy chains of thoughts and beliefs that
you've been carrying around in your brain, around food, in
your body, but you've also been carrying them around in
your heart and your spirit for as long as you
(13:47):
can remember. And those heavy, rusty chains are what is
actually so heavy, okay, And the weight on your body
isn't the real weight, okay. The real weight is all
this other stuff, aka, you know, those chains of beliefs
and behaviors and really shame that you've been carrying around
with you, And there's no shame in that whatsoever. Like
(14:09):
it's what I learn, and it's what all my clients
learn too, And there's a multi billion dollar industry out
there teaching you the same thing. But until you break
the chains, right, you're gonna keep walking around with those chains,
and they're just gonna keep getting heavier. And if you're
anything like I was, you kind of become desensitized to them.
But they feel normal because they're disguised as you thinking
(14:33):
that you're being air quotes health conscious or air quotes
watching what you eat. But they are not normal, and
they don't have to be right. They are chains that
bog down your head and your heart and your spirit
and in turn bog down your body. And they are
chains that do not have to be there. And we
are having these important conversations today because you don't want
(14:54):
to be carrying them around anymore. But again, it's been
happening so long that it feels normal. So let's break
those chains so we can ditch that weight. The weight
of the weight, and that's what we're going to cover.
And just for the record, I feel so aligned starting
here for your holy Glockamole, food, Faith and restored Body
image conversation because this is where I start with all
(15:17):
of my clients, and I know if I'm going to
be a good steward of your time and your energy
and your spiritual life, then this is what I really
want you to get. So starting with the first chain
that we have to break, Okay, we have to ditch
the fight, which is the first weight of the weight,
And really it's the weight of that chronic restrictive dieting
(15:38):
control hyper control mentality. And it's the weight of the
restriction and the deprivation and the punishment and the persuasion
and the stress that typically comes alongside food in your body,
and it does not have to. But I'll also say this,
God did not design us to have such a toxic
relationship with food in our bodies. But again, that's so
(15:59):
much easier said than done, Right, So what is the
solution and what is the alternative to that? Well, most
women I talk to think it's feeling out of control
of food if they aren't dieting, and they think that's
the only alternative, or they think that the only alternative
is like you know, going off the rails or gluttonously
overstuffing themselves. But I believe that that's not the alternative.
(16:21):
The true alternative that I want to invite you to
look for, and really the alternative to toxic dieting restrictive
mentality is to go make peace with food. It's like
to go on this journey where you make peace with food,
you make peace with your body. And really it's essentially
you know, like waving the white flag, right, because a
lot of us are at wars with our bodies. When
(16:44):
you're at war, that's where that diet mentality exists, right,
And so what if it was a matter of you know,
waving the white flag laying down the weapons of destruction
and ending this war that you've been in with yourself
and with food and with your body. And yeah, I'm
kind of inviting you to, like go get sick of
the fight, Like get sick and tired of the fight,
(17:06):
and just simply declare that you are ready to make
peace with food and get on the same team as
your body, even if you don't know what that looks like. Right, Like,
I'm just inviting you to be open to ending the
cycle of the fight after fight after fight after fight,
and that it's really a false sense of control and
to vow to just go in the direction of peace
and love and freedom. And what better way to do
(17:28):
that than with God on your side? Right? And so
I know you might be thinking, like, but Leanne, I
tried inviting God into this, And I'm telling you, nine
times out of ten when I ask women what that means, Like,
I can't even tell you how many times women are
like Leanne, But I tried this, I invited God into
the conversation. But what When I dig a little deeper,
it typically means that they just asked God to give
(17:51):
them more willpower and discipline and self control so that
they can keep dieting and restricting and obsessing, or they
ask God to just like magically take their problems away.
But honestly, that's the opposite of what I'm saying and
what I'm inviting you into. Like, what I'm saying is to, yes,
invite God into the conversation of you actually healing your
relationship with food in your body. And that's not what
(18:14):
we just said. Like again, a lot of women are saying, Hey, God,
just take away my weight or take away give me
more willpower and discipline. But what I'm inviting you to
ask God is say, what if you started praying for
like God to actually help you heal your relationship with
food in your body? And that is something that not
only have most women never done, but they've never invited
God into that. Right. And so here's what's possible through
(18:37):
the eyes of the Lord. In Philippians four to six,
it says, do not be anxious about anything, but in
every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your
request to God. Okay, And this is interesting because it's like,
when was the last time you brought your desires for
peace with food and peace with your body to God? Right?
(18:58):
Instead of asking God or praying for weight loss or
praying for self control or whatever. Right, And that's why
I'm inviting you into a new conversation with God and
a new prayer, like really a new prayer life on
this subject. Like what if you started praying for peace
and praying for healing or at least inviting God to
help you end this war that you've found yourself in
(19:21):
with food in your body. And in Matthew six twenty
five through thirty four, he says, therefore, I tell you
do not worry about your life, what you will eat
or drink, or about your body what you will wear
is not life more than food, and the body more
than clothes. And to me this is just a reminder
that there is so much more to your life than
(19:42):
food and your body. And yes, like please don't hear
what I'm not saying, like, definitely take care of your
health and focus on healing. But to me, this just
reinforces to ditch the fight and ditch the weight of
the weight of all of that restriction and deprivation and
punishment and persuasion and stress that typically comes alongside food
in your body. And it does not have to And
(20:04):
so again, it's like it's a flip side of this conversation.
We're asking God to help us heal the fight, not
heal the weight, not heal the battle of the bulls. Right,
and so again like this is FYI, a much much
bigger conversation than the scope of this episode, one that
I have again over months and months with individuals. But
obviously we are just scratching the surface, and I just
(20:27):
wanted to get the wheels turning in your brain so
that you can head in a new direction and break
the chains in your own heart and spirit. Okay, So
the next set of chains we have to break, and
(20:48):
the next weight of the weight is the weight of
being your own biggest critic. Okay. It's the weight of
harsh judgments and self criticism and guilt and shame and
blame and comparison I and perfectionism, and it's showing up
in your self image and self talk. And I love
this parable. It's a non biblical parable, but it sums
(21:08):
up what I'm sharing perfectly. And it goes like this.
One evening, an old Cherokee Indian told his grandson about
a battle that goes on inside people. He said, my son,
the battle is between two wolves inside us. All one
is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance,
(21:29):
self pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion,
and faith. The grandson thought about it for a minute
(21:49):
and then asked his grandfather which wolf wins. The old
Cherokee simply replied, the one you feed. So what are
you feeding? Are you feeding your relationship with God and
how he sees you and the beauty and perfection that
you already are and don't have to hustle for. And
and let's be honest, like, even if you don't like
(22:11):
what you weigh right now, or you're not totally happy
with your body right now, it does not strip you
of your right to feel worthy and loved and known
right now. Or are you pursuing your own pursuits of
getting your own self image cup filled from things like
your gene size or your scale weight or your calorie
count or whatever, right? So what are you feeding? Are
(22:33):
you feeding guilt? Like by feeling guilty about what you
did or didn't eat or do. Are you feeding shame
by feeling ashamed of your habits or ashamed of yourself
or ashamed of your behaviors or who you're showing up as?
Are you feeding blame by continually blaming yourself or blaming
others or or blaming those darn irresistible cookies? And are
(22:55):
you feeding comparisonitis by constantly comparing yourself to where you
think you should be or what you should be doing,
or really just comparing your worst to someone else's best?
And are you feeding perfectionism by letting your own perfectionists
run the show? And trust me with her, It's never enough.
You're never going to be doing enough or good enough,
(23:15):
or smart enough, or skinny enough or just enough, period.
And this the shame, the blame, the guilt, the COMPARISONI
is the perfectionism. This is the part that's not working,
And this is what's causing you so much unhappiness. And
this is what causes you to feel further from God
because this is not how God sees you, and this
is not how God has designed you to feel within
(23:36):
yourself and with your body. And that's why little by little.
We want to feed this less and feed God's view
of you more. So, what does God say about this? Well,
let's just take a look at the clues we left
for ourselves from last week's episode. So remember how I
told you the experiment that when humans have what they
called the ultimate friend on their side, it made a
(23:59):
big difference when it comes to self respect and self worth,
and how there was literally a study that showed the
impact of faith on self image and self worth. And
if not, definitely go back and listen to episode seven,
the faith Brain connection where self image meets neuroscience and
I went into the nitty gritty of this, but again,
and here's the cool thing from this study. I want
(24:20):
to point out that the kind of relationship with God
and Christ that the study talked about, they referred to
having a relationship with Christ where he was like the
ultimate friend and a divine being who cared about them.
And this is relationship, right, And so it's not religion.
It's not a punishment or shame driven God. It's a
relationship with a loving, redeeming God and a heavenly Father
(24:42):
who sees you and loves you just as you are.
And you don't have to earn it, or work for it,
or lose weight to feel it. Right now, right, So
let's look at what God's got to say about it
by going to his word, like this from First Samuel
sixteen seven, and this is the NIV version. But the
Lord said to Samuel, well, don't judge by his appearance
or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn't
(25:05):
see things the way that you see them. People judge
by outward appearance. But the Lord looks at the heart.
The Lord looks at the heart, like how often are
our self images based solely on what we look like
or those quantifiable things like our gene size or skill weight?
Like the Lord looks at the heart. Okay, And from
Isaiah sixty one seven, he says, instead of your shame,
(25:28):
you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace,
you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will
inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy
will be yours. And I love that, and I'll tell
you this. I promise you it's true. If you stop
basing your view of yourself based on your own worldly
view and pray for God's view, God will show you
(25:51):
worthiness that you could have never imagined. And you know,
scripture says double portion, and honestly, I feel like he
one hundred xd my own self war. And yeah, it
did start with me going down the brain and science
rabbit hole. But when I started asking, you know, what's
God got to do with all this self image stuff
and food and body stuff and what does God reflect
(26:12):
back to me in the mirror of my own self perception,
what happened is beyond description. And I use words like
miracles because that's what it felt like after thirty years
of toxic shame and having self rejection and self abandonment
as my emotional home. And that's why I'm inviting you
to just try this on. Okay, try on that you're
(26:33):
not crazy or weak willed. You just have a brain, okay,
and ask God to fill you with new beliefs and
new elements of your identity and step into your own rebirth,
because the alternative is simply walking around with more and
more heavy heavy chains and the weight of the weight
of your own harsh judgments and self criticism and shame
(26:54):
and blame and comparisonitis. And the truth is is that
most women, they do look at this last you know
when thinking about their food and body struggles, they think
about this last. But again, if you've been being like
your hyperjudgmental and self critical, shaming, blaming self your whole life,
that's not going to just magically go away if you
lose weight or eat well for a few days, because
(27:17):
it's not in your mind, or it's not just in
your mind, right, it's in your your brain and your
self image, but it's in your spirit and your identity.
And you cannot outdiet, outperform or outsmart your identity and
your true beliefs about yourself. Right. But when you invite
God into the conversation, that's when chains can actually break. Okay,
(27:38):
And so I'll just leave it at that for now,
because I could go on and on about this subject
because once again it's a biggie, But for now, I'm
just going to introduce you to the next set of
chains that we have to break, and introduce you to
the next weight of the weight, okay, And it's the
weight of your triggers. And I do put that word
in air quotes, and what I mean by that is
(27:59):
it's the weight of all all the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual,
social stress, right, brain stress that if it doesn't get
released or addressed, it actually triggers your deepest ingrain habits. Okay,
as in that is how your brain works. Okay, when
you are physically, mentally or emotionally stressed, it actually triggers
(28:19):
your oldest habits. So what do we do about that?
How do we stop that? Well, the cool thing is
is here in luck because I really laid it all
out for you in last week's episode the faith brain connection.
And I also go a lot deeper into all of
this in my Stressless Needing Masterclass, which I'm also going
to link for you in the show notes, or you
can just go to leannellington dot com slash masterclass and
(28:40):
find it. And like I said, we go deep into this.
But just to jog your memory from last week. I
don't know if you remember, but last week I quoted
a study where it said the eighty four percent. It
was really a study of studies. It was a bunch
of studies that they coalated, but eighty four percent of
the study of studies found that faith reduced the risk
of drug abuse. Okay, now that's for actual illicit drugs,
(29:03):
but just imagine what faith can do if you feel
like you're addicted to food or sugar or whatever you
turn to when you're bored or lonely or stressed or sad.
And I reminded you what God said about it in
one Corinthians ten thirteen. He says, the temptations in your
life are no different from what others experience, and God
is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be
(29:25):
more than you can stand. And when you are tempted,
he will show you a way out so that you
can endure. And I want to really repeat this because
in these times when we feel out of control of
food or wine or Netflix or whatever it is, we
feel so alone, we feel so broken, we feel so crazy,
there's so much shame, and so I want to just
remind you, like, you are not crazy, you are not
(29:46):
weak willed, You are human, and your temptations are also
the human part of you. But God will not allow
the temptation to be more than you can stand. And
if you feel lost or in the dark, this is
the perfect place to meet God and ask him to
meet you there. And so, ladies, if you are one
of those people that if you're not on something, you're
(30:08):
really off of it or maybe you're left to your
own devices of overeating or binge eating or comfort eating
or you know, keep you fill some sort of void
with food or social media or Netflix, like whatever your
drug of choice is. This is why it's fired and
wired in your brain. And that's why willpower or trying
to motivate or white knuckle your way through it isn't
(30:29):
working because it's never going to be solved with logic
or reason. But again, hear what God has to say
about this, and try to take a different approach to
this part of your challenges. He says, the temptations in
your life are no different from what others experience, and
God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to
be more than you can stand. When you are tempted,
(30:51):
he will show you away so that you can ender.
So again, imagine like one of the things I used
to say is I'm like when I think I need show,
what I really need is X. And I filled that
in with different things, Like over the years, I was like, Okay,
I need to be connected to myself, I need a
connection to family. There was a lot of different things.
But when I finally saw and looked back, when I
(31:12):
invited God into this conversation. I was like, when I
think I want sugar, and this is obviously if I'm
not hungry, but like when I think I need sugar,
what I really need is Jesus, Right, like fill in
the blank. When I think I need, you know, to
numb out on Netflix for the entire day, Like what
I really need is Jesus. Or when I feel like
smoking weed or pouring like three glasses of wine at
night or whatever it is for you, Like, what I
(31:33):
really need is Jesus. And like what if that was
when you invited God into the conversation. And I know
it's not our first you know, thought process, because we're
so used to our coping mechanisms just kind of taking over.
And that's why I'm just inviting you into this conversation. Now,
all right, we are almost there taking this on home.
And so the next chain we have to break, the
stronghold of and the next weight of the weight is
(31:56):
what I call the weight of waiting for the weight
to go be who you want to be and do
what you really want to do and live the life
that you really want to live. And this is again
where I'll remind you what God said when he said
in Sewod Corinthians five p. Seventeen. Therefore, if anyone is
in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has
(32:16):
passed away. Behold the new has come. And I fell
into this victim mentality for years, okay, where I was
just waiting for that thing that I thought would make
me happy to go live the life I truly wanted
to live, and the life that I was, you know,
waiting honestly, the life that was waiting for me right
then and right there, I just couldn't see it. And
(32:37):
in my case, I thought it was my weight that
would make me happy. But trust me, I filled it
in with other things too. I'm like, oh, when I
have a successful career, when I meet the person for me,
then I'll be happy. But all of that, like waiting
for the weight, stuff kept me stuck in that victim mentality,
feeling like I had no choice, feeling like it was
something external out of me to create peace and happiness
(32:59):
with me. And so I'm just here to lovingly ask you, like,
where are you waiting for the wait? Right? Waiting for
things to get better on their own, you know, waiting
for someone to want it for you or do it
for you, or waiting for discipline or willpower to magically
show up. I know I did that a lot, right
or waiting for the air quotes perfect time or perfect moment,
(33:20):
or for things to be perfect, or waiting to start
finding the beautiful, confident, powerful version of yourself that you
are right now and God sees you as that right now,
like not when you go lose weight, not when you
make more money, not when you have more followers on
Instagram or whatever it is, right like right now. And
again that comes back to seeing yourself through this different identity,
(33:41):
because the identity that you're seeing itself through right now
of shame or you know, self rejection is not really
who you are in reality. It's causing you to wait
for the weight to be who you want to be
and do what you want to do and feel how
you want to feel. And I'm here to tell you, like,
you don't have to keep waiting right like, don't make
the same mistakes I made, Like, don't wait for your
(34:03):
body to be a certain size or a certain shape
to go start living your life. And definitely don't wait
for things to go get magically better on your own right.
Invite God into this conversation and go meet yourself where
you are right now, just as you are, like right
now this exact weight or gene size, with your current
level of skills and experience, and just start living. That
(34:25):
is my invitation to you. And last, but not least,
the last chain we need to break, and the last
weight of the weight is the weight of feeling alone
or trying to do it all alone, or trying to
save yourself. And that's where I'll invite you into this
idea that you can't see what you can't see, so
you might need to borrow someone else's brain. And that's
(34:46):
literally what I do with my clients. I say, like,
borrow my brain, borrow my beliefs while we go build
your own brain and beliefs. But like whose beliefs are
better to borrow than God's?
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Right?
Speaker 2 (34:56):
And that's really what I want to invite you into.
Like what if this was the perfect place to invite
God into this and borrow God's beliefs in God's views
of you? And I mean what if you are broken
like we all are, and you need a savior. And
I don't mean that broken as in like period and
of sentence.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
I mean like.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Broken hearted, broken open, like not broken as an identity,
but like we all need support, we all need help.
And honestly, this was one of the hardest things for
me to accept and grasp, but once I did, wow right,
And in Romans three twenty three it says for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
In other words, like we all need help. Like this
(35:35):
isn't doesn't make you weak or destined to stay this
way forever. It's just like, no, it's the human part
of you. We've all sinned, we all fall short, and
we all need God's glory to save us. Right, And
hear me out for a minute on something else too,
because the number one thing I hear on this whole,
like I need to do it on my own factor
or I feel all alone on this is I hear
it leanne I know what to do, but I just
(35:57):
can't get myself to do it. And that's where I
want it. Invite you into another possibility that might be
in your blind spot, like what if you actually don't
know what to do? What if you learned the whole
like eat less, move more, avoid that restrict that you know, diet,
weight loss, mentality, and of course that's no way to live,
and it's something that the most willpower driven woman couldn't sustain. Right,
(36:18):
And of course, as you're learning it doesn't even work.
But what if you also learn that like again, the
only way you can love yourself is if you look
a certain way, where a certain size, all of that, right,
Because the truth is like, if you did know what
to do, you would probably be doing it right now,
and you'd be happy and you'd feel feel God's love. Right,
So what if you actually don't know what to do?
(36:39):
And I mean that in a great way, as in
like it's an opportunity, Like what if you never actually
learned a long term, sustainable way of thinking when it
comes to food in your body? And what if you
never learned how to have a stressless relationship with food
in your body When we're you, you don't have to
think about it all the time and you don't have
to obsess about it and food can just be food
(36:59):
and your body can just be your body. But also
you know how to take care of it, right, but
it's not this obsessive thing in your brain all the time.
And what if you never learn how to truly love
yourself like warts and all as Jesus loves you, as
God sees you. And that's why I strongly urge you
not to do this alone, because the solution it's not
only in your blind spot. And you're you know, you're
(37:21):
gonna need help seeing what you can't see, but you're
believing what you're believing because your identity has still not
been shifted. If obviously you're listening to this and you're
in your challenge by this topic, and look, you know,
I've seen so many women try to heal this on
their own or think that they're weak if they need help.
And if you've spent years, you know, doing this on
your own and it hasn't been working, this is why,
(37:43):
like you've got to get the support that you need.
Like this isn't the kind of thing you can just
do on your own, because again, it's in your blind
spot and it's in your identity. And I mean this
with so much love too, but like this is your health,
Like this is your your mental, physical, emotional, spiritual health,
Like this is your life and that's what's at stake.
And if you have been struggling with this for years,
which you know, if you're listening to this episode, right
(38:04):
now there's a good chance you have it's not gonna
just magically go away on its own. And so, yes,
you do absolutely need to retrain your brain. But what
if you needed to also surrender this over to God? Right,
what if you needed a savior? What if you couldn't
do this on your own? And honestly, like, do you
even want to? And again, I hear women say this
(38:26):
all the time. They're like, but leanne, I gave this
over to God, and I asked him to take away
this burden from me. And again it typically means they
asked God to give them more willpower and discipline and
self control so that they can keep dieting and restricting
and obsessing. But again, that's the opposite of what I'm
inviting you to do here, Like, what I'm saying is
to actually invite God into the conversation of you actually
(38:49):
healing your relationship with food in your body, and healing
your self image and identity and becoming the version of
yourself that no longer relies on old coping mechanisms or
feeling like addicted to food and sugar, and becoming a
new creation so that you can truly be healthy mind, body, soul, spirit.
Can you see how different that is than asking God
(39:11):
to just help you lose weight or have more willpower
to diet so that you can lose weight. Like again,
it's a different way to invite God into this conversation.
This idea of inviting God into it, and what we
talked about on today's episode, that is something that not
only have most women never done in general, but they've
never invited God to help them heal the truer, deeper problem.
(39:33):
And there's nothing wrong with saying like, hey, I need help,
And there's nothing wrong with saying hey, God, like I
don't want to do this on my own anymore, so
that you can really address what's keeping you stock and
end that war that you've been in with yourself and
truly begin your journey of healing. And as always, everything
I share is simply an invitation without expectation, to just
(39:54):
try on a new story or a new perspective and
see what meets you where you are right now in
your own journey. I just want to recognize, like, this
is a massive conversation and a lot of women do
have a really complicated relationship with food in their bodies.
And that's why this episode was really just about inviting
you into a conversation where you could explore this massive
(40:16):
topic but from a place of no fluff and truly
addressing the problem from its roots, but also from a
place of grace and love and compassion. And so this
is hopefully just the beginning of this powerful conversation that
if you continue to explore, can and will transform your
entire being. I promise you that, and I do mean
that from my own experiences and just witnessing hundreds of
(40:38):
other women you know, get off the short term band
aid roller coaster and walk themselves through the healing process themselves.
So that being said as promise, I'm going to share
the Tale of Two Roots infographic and the show notes
below this episode. But also if you wanted to learn
more about rewiring your brain to heal from the all
or nothing you know, that diet mentality and do it
(40:59):
for good, but without you know, restricting yourself or punishing
your body, and definitely without ever having to use words
like Macro's and low carb or calorie burn, you can
check out my free stress Less Heeding masterclass at leannellington
dot com slash masterclass and we will link that in
the show notes as well with that infographic, And now
you understand why it is so incredibly powerful and relevant
(41:22):
to invite God into this conversation from day one, because
if you're wondering what's God got to do with your
relationship with food in your body? I'm here to tell
you everything, everything you know, and everything that you didn't
know you didn't know. We'll be back with more What's
God Got to Do with It? But in the meantime,
(41:44):
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 to what's go God Got to Do with It?
Dot com and scroll down to the form to share
your thoughts, your questions, your feedback, and you can do
(42:07):
that instantly. 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 of What's God
Got to Do with It? New episodes drop every single Tuesday,
and while you're there, be sure to rate and review
(42:29):
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. It's written and hosted
by Leanne Ellington, executive produced by Elizabeth Fozzio, 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. Now here to preach, gonn to keep it
clean and talk to me and recad where faith need
stops nature, get in touch with your creator with a
baking love and jo She even speaks Hebrew.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
What's that got? What's that?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
As well? Saboation talking transformation, what's gone? Gonzo?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, hello, and welcome back to What's God got to
do with it? And I'm so excited to dive into
today's topic because in so many ways we've been setting
it up over the past few episodes. So both last
week and the week before we really crossed into this
hole where faith meets science territory. And I don't know
about you, but I've been loving it because on my
(01:06):
own spiritual quest, this is the kind of stuff that
really isn't being talked about. So if you missed the
last couple episodes, definitely go back and check those out.
Because back in episode six, how God helped me heal
my fears about being alone the rest of my life,
we got into the science of how to shift beliefs,
but also how to invite God into that conversation. From
(01:28):
day one, then last week in episode seven, the Faith
Brain Connection where self image meets neuroscience, we literally talked
about just that, how to approach your self image and
identity and yes from a science brain based, you know,
brain changing perspective. But as you probably guessed, how to
invite God into the conversation from day one, but of course,
(01:52):
meeting you where you are in your own journey, and
maybe you have some skepticism or doubt or past experiences
that weren't awesome and regardless, I really just invite you
to go back and check those out, as like I said,
there's a crossover and they pave the way for what
we're going to talk about today, which is all about
how food, faith, and a restored body image intersect. And
(02:15):
in some ways, this should be the easiest episode for
me to create, since this is literally what I do
in my day job. I help women and teens escape
from the food in body prison and heal their relationship
with food and their bodies and just 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
(02:38):
a lot of women and men. If you're listening out
there to have a really complicated relationship with food and
their bodies and the stuff that we're going to cover today.
You know, I work with people very intensively for three
to four months at a time to really help them
heal this and put the problem to bed and get
off the you know, put a band aid on a
roller coaster. So to try to distill it down into
(02:59):
one podcast episode, that's why it feels like a challenge.
But I say challenge accepted. But I am 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
(03:23):
topic but from a place of no fluff and truly
addressing the problem from its roots. But again not by
giving you this one and done solution. This is literally
just the beginning of the conversation, okay, 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
(03:44):
literally just put it into two categories. 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 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 you move
or don't move, and treat yourself in your body the
way you treat it or don't treat it, and in
(04:05):
turn feel the way you feel or don't feel about yourself. Okay,
which spoiler alert is really what we're going to talk
about in depth today, but we are 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. And again, if
(04:25):
I was to bottom line it, it's this. It's the identity.
In a way, you have to become a new version
of yourself, like you have to radically transform your being.
And I know that sounds so daunting, especially if food
in your body is something that you've been struggling with
for a long time, but trust me, it's imperative. Because
(04:46):
let's say you had all that strategy and habit and
brain change stuff, I talked about a second ago. Right,
Let's say you had the perfect plan and the perfect
steps to take. Who's to say you would actually show
up for yourself and use it stick with it, right,
And this is what I tell all my stressless eeating
clients too. I tell them, like listen, I could teach
(05:06):
you the system of thinking. I teach my clients around
food and your bodies. 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 around food in your body, you
will always end up right back where you are. Because
I can guarantee like that, despite what you think, you know,
you don't have a food problem or a body problem. Right.
(05:28):
It's definitely a brain thing. And the things that have
gotten fired and wired in your brain are because of
the thoughts and the emotions and the actions that are
a cascade effect and have simply become habits. In other words,
your habits and behaviors are symptom of a cause, right,
or symptoms I should say, aka, your thoughts that's causing
(05:50):
something to happen upstream in your brain. But I would
also venture to say or at least invite you to
try on the possibility that what if this was also
a spiritual thing? Because yes, I think we are starting
to get that the problem is emotional, like I think
that a lot of that's being talked about nowadays, but
I truly believe that the problem is also spiritual, as in,
(06:12):
it's in your soul and it's in your spirit. So
what if we started there right, Like, what if instead
of trying to influence what you're eating or how you're
moving your body, we entered into the conversation of addressing
the root of the problem of what's going on in
your mind and brain but also in your heart and spirit,
so that you can address it from the root. And
(06:33):
if we are talking about addressing it from the roots,
you don't need to be a farmer to know that
if you plant seeds in toxic soil, it's not going
to grow okay. In fact, the seeds will most likely
die or spoil. Right. And also, you can't force a
tree to grow. The tree needs what it needs to grow.
So yes, it's important to plant seeds for creating new
(06:56):
habits and new behaviors, but you also want to make
sure that you're planting those seeds and growing those roots
in really nourished and rich soil, not like toxic soil. Right.
And here's what I mean. I call this the tail
of two roots. And I'm gonna link this graphic in
the show notes, but for now, if you're listening and
not looking, obviously, I just want you to imagine a
(07:17):
picture of a big tree, okay, and that big tree
has a big trunk and big roots, and of course
those roots are rooted in soil. But this first half,
the soil is unnourished and unhealthy, and the roots are
dry and unhealthy, and there's no fruits, right, or maybe
(07:38):
there's weeds or like rotten fruit coming out of the
unhealthy soil and the unhealthy roots and the dry roots, right.
And so coming back to this metaphor of planting seeds
of habits in unhealthy soil, if you are not happy
with your relationship with food and your body, maybe this
is how your body feels or your health feels to you,
(07:59):
like you're unhealthy and unnourished. Right. But then I want
you to picture the other half of the tree. Okay,
the other half has this nourished and nourishing, healthy soil. Okay,
it has nourished and healthy roots, and from these roots
it's grown fruit that is alive and abundant and delicious.
(08:20):
So again, two very different trees to very different sides
of the equation. And so rolling with this metaphor for
your health, really on this good side, we'll call it right,
it's fruit that you want to be growing, that you're
like intentionally growing, right. And most people they're looking at
the fruits of the seeds that got planted, and they're
feeling really unhappy with those fruits, and so they just
(08:43):
go try to buy other seeds and other seeds, other seeds,
more seeds, and they never examine the roots and the
soil that those seeds are being planted in. And that's why, yes,
you need a new system of thinking around food and
your body. But the other side of it is like
you've got to heal yourself image and in a way,
you need to become a new version of yourself with
(09:03):
new beliefs and a new identity, which that side of
things we actually talked about a lot in last week's episode,
so just as a review of that, and what I
refer to is kind of the neuro faith side of
your health. And remember, if you if you heard last
week we kind of talked about it like in a way,
it's like taking care of your mental emotional health, like
you brush your teeth or take a shower. But we
(09:23):
talked about the neuro faith side of your self image,
so your beliefs about yourself, your perception of yourself, the
goggles that you're seeing yourself through, that then becomes this
kind of narrator in your mind and the voice of
your self talk. And then we talked about the neuro
faith side of your coping mechanisms, so whether that's food,
social media, dating apps, alcohol, whatever your drug of choices,
(09:45):
and again there's no shame and we all have our own.
And then we talked about the neuro faith side of
pain and your physical body, which, like I talked about
last week, you know, the first step is like the
survival side of it, like the require that your brain
has to just get yourself out of pain and physical pain.
And then after that we can obviously talk about the
(10:06):
thrive or like what you desire side of things like
your weight or optimal health. And so again, if you
want to take a deep dive on the faith brain
connection side of things, definitely go back and check out
that episode and the week before and then also as
we mentioned, I truly believe like you do need a
new system of thinking around food because if you are
using it as a form of restriction or deprivation or obsession,
(10:29):
or just like a false sense of control, or maybe
you swing towards more towards the opposite right like overeating
or binging or emotional eating, or you just you know,
feel out of control of food, then that same punishment cycle,
by the way, can take place with your body and
exercise too. But you know, most people they go down
the whole eat less, move more road as their go to,
(10:49):
and let's be honest, that doesn't just not help it.
It honestly makes the problem worse. And even if you
can stick to it briefly, old habits just end up
coming back with a vengeance. And just as a side note,
we are going to get into the faceside of this
topic today and how to invite God into this conversation.
But if this is your big struggle, I do have
(11:10):
a separate podcast called Outweigh, which I co host with
Amy Brown, and it's literally an entire podcast dedicated to
this subject matter. And you know, we get into the
nitty gritty of all of this, so definitely go check
that out as well. But today we're going to take
a deep dive into the spiritual side of this conversation,
So let's dive in. Today we're going to take a
(11:38):
deep dive into the spiritual side of this conversation. So
let's dive in. So how do you do that? Right?
Because nowadays, you know, I see it too on the
internet on Instagram, everyone and their mom is talking about,
you know, ditching the diets and food freedom. But the
only problem with that is how right, Like, how do
you suddenly stop doing what you've been doing for decades
(12:01):
or maybe it's the only thing you've ever known. And
how do you suddenly stop shaming yourself and hating on
yourself or criticizing yourself if that's all your brain knows
how to do. And how do you suddenly just stop
dieting if you've been on the roller coaster a long time,
and let's be honest, like you're terrified, like you know,
going off the deep end and gaining a bunch of
weight is probably what you're thinking is your only alternative
(12:23):
if you're not on a diet or something, right, And
then of course, like, how do you invite God into
this massive conversation and invite him to walk alongside you?
And so I'm going to walk you through a five
step recipe if you want to call it that, But
I do want to make this one, you know, small
but imperative disclaimer. You know, remember how I said that
(12:44):
you need to essentially become a new person and in
a way create a new identity it through God's eyes. Well,
that's why I just wanted to shine a light on
this and say that if you take nothing else away
from this episode, right, if you take nothing else away
but this one thing, I want you to take this away.
I want to invite you to stop looking for the
(13:05):
solution here as I'm pointing to my body or my
stomach or my hips, right, because the solution lives in
your brain and in your heart, and yes, I'm inviting
you into the possibility that it lives in your spirit. Okay.
And if you've heard me talk about this before, you'll
know that I talk a lot about this idea of
something called the weight of the weight, and I talk
(13:27):
about it a lot. And what I mean by that is,
when you've been stuck in the food and body struggle
for years or decades or sometimes it's a lifetime. It's
like there's these heavy chains of thoughts and beliefs that
you've been carrying around in your brain, around food, in
your body, but you've also been carrying them around in
your heart and your spirit for as long as you
(13:47):
can remember. And those heavy, rusty chains are what is
actually so heavy, okay, And the weight on your body
isn't the real weight, okay. The real weight is all
this other stuff, aka, you know, those chains of beliefs
and behaviors and really shame that you've been carrying around
with you, And there's no shame in that whatsoever. Like
(14:09):
it's what I learn, and it's what all my clients
learn too, And there's a multi billion dollar industry out
there teaching you the same thing. But until you break
the chains, right, you're gonna keep walking around with those chains,
and they're just gonna keep getting heavier. And if you're
anything like I was, you kind of become desensitized to them.
But they feel normal because they're disguised as you thinking
(14:33):
that you're being air quotes health conscious or air quotes
watching what you eat. But they are not normal, and
they don't have to be right. They are chains that
bog down your head and your heart and your spirit
and in turn bog down your body. And they are
chains that do not have to be there. And we
are having these important conversations today because you don't want
(14:54):
to be carrying them around anymore. But again, it's been
happening so long that it feels normal. So let's break
those chains so we can ditch that weight. The weight
of the weight, and that's what we're going to cover.
And just for the record, I feel so aligned starting
here for your holy Glockamole, food, Faith and restored Body
image conversation because this is where I start with all
(15:17):
of my clients, and I know if I'm going to
be a good steward of your time and your energy
and your spiritual life, then this is what I really
want you to get. So starting with the first chain
that we have to break, Okay, we have to ditch
the fight, which is the first weight of the weight,
And really it's the weight of that chronic restrictive dieting
(15:38):
control hyper control mentality. And it's the weight of the
restriction and the deprivation and the punishment and the persuasion
and the stress that typically comes alongside food in your body,
and it does not have to. But I'll also say this,
God did not design us to have such a toxic
relationship with food in our bodies. But again, that's so
(15:59):
much easier said than done, Right, So what is the
solution and what is the alternative to that? Well, most
women I talk to think it's feeling out of control
of food if they aren't dieting, and they think that's
the only alternative, or they think that the only alternative
is like you know, going off the rails or gluttonously
overstuffing themselves. But I believe that that's not the alternative.
(16:21):
The true alternative that I want to invite you to
look for, and really the alternative to toxic dieting restrictive
mentality is to go make peace with food. It's like
to go on this journey where you make peace with food,
you make peace with your body. And really it's essentially
you know, like waving the white flag, right, because a
lot of us are at wars with our bodies. When
(16:44):
you're at war, that's where that diet mentality exists, right,
And so what if it was a matter of you know,
waving the white flag laying down the weapons of destruction
and ending this war that you've been in with yourself
and with food and with your body. And yeah, I'm
kind of inviting you to, like go get sick of
the fight, Like get sick and tired of the fight,
(17:06):
and just simply declare that you are ready to make
peace with food and get on the same team as
your body, even if you don't know what that looks like. Right, Like,
I'm just inviting you to be open to ending the
cycle of the fight after fight after fight after fight,
and that it's really a false sense of control and
to vow to just go in the direction of peace
and love and freedom. And what better way to do
(17:28):
that than with God on your side? Right? And so
I know you might be thinking, like, but Leanne, I
tried inviting God into this, And I'm telling you, nine
times out of ten when I ask women what that means, Like,
I can't even tell you how many times women are
like Leanne, But I tried this, I invited God into
the conversation. But what When I dig a little deeper,
it typically means that they just asked God to give
(17:51):
them more willpower and discipline and self control so that
they can keep dieting and restricting and obsessing, or they
ask God to just like magically take their problems away.
But honestly, that's the opposite of what I'm saying and
what I'm inviting you into. Like, what I'm saying is to, yes,
invite God into the conversation of you actually healing your
relationship with food in your body. And that's not what
(18:14):
we just said. Like again, a lot of women are saying, Hey, God,
just take away my weight or take away give me
more willpower and discipline. But what I'm inviting you to
ask God is say, what if you started praying for
like God to actually help you heal your relationship with
food in your body? And that is something that not
only have most women never done, but they've never invited
God into that. Right. And so here's what's possible through
(18:37):
the eyes of the Lord. In Philippians four to six,
it says, do not be anxious about anything, but in
every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your
request to God. Okay, And this is interesting because it's like,
when was the last time you brought your desires for
peace with food and peace with your body to God? Right?
(18:58):
Instead of asking God or praying for weight loss or
praying for self control or whatever. Right, And that's why
I'm inviting you into a new conversation with God and
a new prayer, like really a new prayer life on
this subject. Like what if you started praying for peace
and praying for healing or at least inviting God to
help you end this war that you've found yourself in
(19:21):
with food in your body. And in Matthew six twenty
five through thirty four, he says, therefore, I tell you
do not worry about your life, what you will eat
or drink, or about your body what you will wear
is not life more than food, and the body more
than clothes. And to me this is just a reminder
that there is so much more to your life than
(19:42):
food and your body. And yes, like please don't hear
what I'm not saying, like, definitely take care of your
health and focus on healing. But to me, this just
reinforces to ditch the fight and ditch the weight of
the weight of all of that restriction and deprivation and
punishment and persuasion and stress that typically comes alongside food
in your body. And it does not have to And
(20:04):
so again, it's like it's a flip side of this conversation.
We're asking God to help us heal the fight, not
heal the weight, not heal the battle of the bulls. Right,
and so again like this is FYI, a much much
bigger conversation than the scope of this episode, one that
I have again over months and months with individuals. But
obviously we are just scratching the surface, and I just
(20:27):
wanted to get the wheels turning in your brain so
that you can head in a new direction and break
the chains in your own heart and spirit. Okay, So
the next set of chains we have to break, and
(20:48):
the next weight of the weight is the weight of
being your own biggest critic. Okay. It's the weight of
harsh judgments and self criticism and guilt and shame and
blame and comparison I and perfectionism, and it's showing up
in your self image and self talk. And I love
this parable. It's a non biblical parable, but it sums
(21:08):
up what I'm sharing perfectly. And it goes like this.
One evening, an old Cherokee Indian told his grandson about
a battle that goes on inside people. He said, my son,
the battle is between two wolves inside us. All one
is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance,
(21:29):
self pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion,
and faith. The grandson thought about it for a minute
(21:49):
and then asked his grandfather which wolf wins. The old
Cherokee simply replied, the one you feed. So what are
you feeding? Are you feeding your relationship with God and
how he sees you and the beauty and perfection that
you already are and don't have to hustle for. And
and let's be honest, like, even if you don't like
(22:11):
what you weigh right now, or you're not totally happy
with your body right now, it does not strip you
of your right to feel worthy and loved and known
right now. Or are you pursuing your own pursuits of
getting your own self image cup filled from things like
your gene size or your scale weight or your calorie
count or whatever, right? So what are you feeding? Are
(22:33):
you feeding guilt? Like by feeling guilty about what you
did or didn't eat or do. Are you feeding shame
by feeling ashamed of your habits or ashamed of yourself
or ashamed of your behaviors or who you're showing up as?
Are you feeding blame by continually blaming yourself or blaming
others or or blaming those darn irresistible cookies? And are
(22:55):
you feeding comparisonitis by constantly comparing yourself to where you
think you should be or what you should be doing,
or really just comparing your worst to someone else's best?
And are you feeding perfectionism by letting your own perfectionists
run the show? And trust me with her, It's never enough.
You're never going to be doing enough or good enough,
(23:15):
or smart enough, or skinny enough or just enough, period.
And this the shame, the blame, the guilt, the COMPARISONI
is the perfectionism. This is the part that's not working,
And this is what's causing you so much unhappiness. And
this is what causes you to feel further from God
because this is not how God sees you, and this
is not how God has designed you to feel within
(23:36):
yourself and with your body. And that's why little by little.
We want to feed this less and feed God's view
of you more. So, what does God say about this? Well,
let's just take a look at the clues we left
for ourselves from last week's episode. So remember how I
told you the experiment that when humans have what they
called the ultimate friend on their side, it made a
(23:59):
big difference when it comes to self respect and self worth,
and how there was literally a study that showed the
impact of faith on self image and self worth. And
if not, definitely go back and listen to episode seven,
the faith Brain connection where self image meets neuroscience and
I went into the nitty gritty of this, but again,
and here's the cool thing from this study. I want
(24:20):
to point out that the kind of relationship with God
and Christ that the study talked about, they referred to
having a relationship with Christ where he was like the
ultimate friend and a divine being who cared about them.
And this is relationship, right, And so it's not religion.
It's not a punishment or shame driven God. It's a
relationship with a loving, redeeming God and a heavenly Father
(24:42):
who sees you and loves you just as you are.
And you don't have to earn it, or work for it,
or lose weight to feel it. Right now, right, So
let's look at what God's got to say about it
by going to his word, like this from First Samuel
sixteen seven, and this is the NIV version. But the
Lord said to Samuel, well, don't judge by his appearance
or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn't
(25:05):
see things the way that you see them. People judge
by outward appearance. But the Lord looks at the heart.
The Lord looks at the heart, like how often are
our self images based solely on what we look like
or those quantifiable things like our gene size or skill weight?
Like the Lord looks at the heart. Okay, And from
Isaiah sixty one seven, he says, instead of your shame,
(25:28):
you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace,
you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will
inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy
will be yours. And I love that, and I'll tell
you this. I promise you it's true. If you stop
basing your view of yourself based on your own worldly
view and pray for God's view, God will show you
(25:51):
worthiness that you could have never imagined. And you know,
scripture says double portion, and honestly, I feel like he
one hundred xd my own self war. And yeah, it
did start with me going down the brain and science
rabbit hole. But when I started asking, you know, what's
God got to do with all this self image stuff
and food and body stuff and what does God reflect
(26:12):
back to me in the mirror of my own self perception,
what happened is beyond description. And I use words like
miracles because that's what it felt like after thirty years
of toxic shame and having self rejection and self abandonment
as my emotional home. And that's why I'm inviting you
to just try this on. Okay, try on that you're
(26:33):
not crazy or weak willed. You just have a brain, okay,
and ask God to fill you with new beliefs and
new elements of your identity and step into your own rebirth,
because the alternative is simply walking around with more and
more heavy heavy chains and the weight of the weight
of your own harsh judgments and self criticism and shame
(26:54):
and blame and comparisonitis. And the truth is is that
most women, they do look at this last you know
when thinking about their food and body struggles, they think
about this last. But again, if you've been being like
your hyperjudgmental and self critical, shaming, blaming self your whole life,
that's not going to just magically go away if you
lose weight or eat well for a few days, because
(27:17):
it's not in your mind, or it's not just in
your mind, right, it's in your your brain and your
self image, but it's in your spirit and your identity.
And you cannot outdiet, outperform or outsmart your identity and
your true beliefs about yourself. Right. But when you invite
God into the conversation, that's when chains can actually break. Okay,
(27:38):
And so I'll just leave it at that for now,
because I could go on and on about this subject
because once again it's a biggie, But for now, I'm
just going to introduce you to the next set of
chains that we have to break, and introduce you to
the next weight of the weight, okay, And it's the
weight of your triggers. And I do put that word
in air quotes, and what I mean by that is
(27:59):
it's the weight of all all the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual,
social stress, right, brain stress that if it doesn't get
released or addressed, it actually triggers your deepest ingrain habits. Okay,
as in that is how your brain works. Okay, when
you are physically, mentally or emotionally stressed, it actually triggers
(28:19):
your oldest habits. So what do we do about that?
How do we stop that? Well, the cool thing is
is here in luck because I really laid it all
out for you in last week's episode the faith brain connection.
And I also go a lot deeper into all of
this in my Stressless Needing Masterclass, which I'm also going
to link for you in the show notes, or you
can just go to leannellington dot com slash masterclass and
(28:40):
find it. And like I said, we go deep into this.
But just to jog your memory from last week. I
don't know if you remember, but last week I quoted
a study where it said the eighty four percent. It
was really a study of studies. It was a bunch
of studies that they coalated, but eighty four percent of
the study of studies found that faith reduced the risk
of drug abuse. Okay, now that's for actual illicit drugs,
(29:03):
but just imagine what faith can do if you feel
like you're addicted to food or sugar or whatever you
turn to when you're bored or lonely or stressed or sad.
And I reminded you what God said about it in
one Corinthians ten thirteen. He says, the temptations in your
life are no different from what others experience, and God
is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be
(29:25):
more than you can stand. And when you are tempted,
he will show you a way out so that you
can endure. And I want to really repeat this because
in these times when we feel out of control of
food or wine or Netflix or whatever it is, we
feel so alone, we feel so broken, we feel so crazy,
there's so much shame, and so I want to just
remind you, like, you are not crazy, you are not
(29:46):
weak willed, You are human, and your temptations are also
the human part of you. But God will not allow
the temptation to be more than you can stand. And
if you feel lost or in the dark, this is
the perfect place to meet God and ask him to
meet you there. And so, ladies, if you are one
of those people that if you're not on something, you're
(30:08):
really off of it or maybe you're left to your
own devices of overeating or binge eating or comfort eating
or you know, keep you fill some sort of void
with food or social media or Netflix, like whatever your
drug of choice is. This is why it's fired and
wired in your brain. And that's why willpower or trying
to motivate or white knuckle your way through it isn't
(30:29):
working because it's never going to be solved with logic
or reason. But again, hear what God has to say
about this, and try to take a different approach to
this part of your challenges. He says, the temptations in
your life are no different from what others experience, and
God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to
be more than you can stand. When you are tempted,
(30:51):
he will show you away so that you can ender.
So again, imagine like one of the things I used
to say is I'm like when I think I need show,
what I really need is X. And I filled that
in with different things, Like over the years, I was like, Okay,
I need to be connected to myself, I need a
connection to family. There was a lot of different things.
But when I finally saw and looked back, when I
(31:12):
invited God into this conversation. I was like, when I
think I want sugar, and this is obviously if I'm
not hungry, but like when I think I need sugar,
what I really need is Jesus, Right, like fill in
the blank. When I think I need, you know, to
numb out on Netflix for the entire day, Like what
I really need is Jesus. Or when I feel like
smoking weed or pouring like three glasses of wine at
night or whatever it is for you, Like, what I
(31:33):
really need is Jesus. And like what if that was
when you invited God into the conversation. And I know
it's not our first you know, thought process, because we're
so used to our coping mechanisms just kind of taking over.
And that's why I'm just inviting you into this conversation. Now,
all right, we are almost there taking this on home.
And so the next chain we have to break, the
stronghold of and the next weight of the weight is
(31:56):
what I call the weight of waiting for the weight
to go be who you want to be and do
what you really want to do and live the life
that you really want to live. And this is again
where I'll remind you what God said when he said
in Sewod Corinthians five p. Seventeen. Therefore, if anyone is
in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has
(32:16):
passed away. Behold the new has come. And I fell
into this victim mentality for years, okay, where I was
just waiting for that thing that I thought would make
me happy to go live the life I truly wanted
to live, and the life that I was, you know,
waiting honestly, the life that was waiting for me right
then and right there, I just couldn't see it. And
(32:37):
in my case, I thought it was my weight that
would make me happy. But trust me, I filled it
in with other things too. I'm like, oh, when I
have a successful career, when I meet the person for me,
then I'll be happy. But all of that, like waiting
for the weight, stuff kept me stuck in that victim mentality,
feeling like I had no choice, feeling like it was
something external out of me to create peace and happiness
(32:59):
with me. And so I'm just here to lovingly ask you, like,
where are you waiting for the wait? Right? Waiting for
things to get better on their own, you know, waiting
for someone to want it for you or do it
for you, or waiting for discipline or willpower to magically
show up. I know I did that a lot, right
or waiting for the air quotes perfect time or perfect moment,
(33:20):
or for things to be perfect, or waiting to start
finding the beautiful, confident, powerful version of yourself that you
are right now and God sees you as that right now,
like not when you go lose weight, not when you
make more money, not when you have more followers on
Instagram or whatever it is, right like right now. And
again that comes back to seeing yourself through this different identity,
(33:41):
because the identity that you're seeing itself through right now
of shame or you know, self rejection is not really
who you are in reality. It's causing you to wait
for the weight to be who you want to be
and do what you want to do and feel how
you want to feel. And I'm here to tell you, like,
you don't have to keep waiting right like, don't make
the same mistakes I made, Like, don't wait for your
(34:03):
body to be a certain size or a certain shape
to go start living your life. And definitely don't wait
for things to go get magically better on your own right.
Invite God into this conversation and go meet yourself where
you are right now, just as you are, like right
now this exact weight or gene size, with your current
level of skills and experience, and just start living. That
(34:25):
is my invitation to you. And last, but not least,
the last chain we need to break, and the last
weight of the weight is the weight of feeling alone
or trying to do it all alone, or trying to
save yourself. And that's where I'll invite you into this
idea that you can't see what you can't see, so
you might need to borrow someone else's brain. And that's
(34:46):
literally what I do with my clients. I say, like,
borrow my brain, borrow my beliefs while we go build
your own brain and beliefs. But like whose beliefs are
better to borrow than God's?
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Right?
Speaker 2 (34:56):
And that's really what I want to invite you into.
Like what if this was the perfect place to invite
God into this and borrow God's beliefs in God's views
of you? And I mean what if you are broken
like we all are, and you need a savior. And
I don't mean that broken as in like period and
of sentence.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
I mean like.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Broken hearted, broken open, like not broken as an identity,
but like we all need support, we all need help.
And honestly, this was one of the hardest things for
me to accept and grasp, but once I did, wow right,
And in Romans three twenty three it says for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
In other words, like we all need help. Like this
(35:35):
isn't doesn't make you weak or destined to stay this
way forever. It's just like, no, it's the human part
of you. We've all sinned, we all fall short, and
we all need God's glory to save us. Right, And
hear me out for a minute on something else too,
because the number one thing I hear on this whole,
like I need to do it on my own factor
or I feel all alone on this is I hear
it leanne I know what to do, but I just
(35:57):
can't get myself to do it. And that's where I
want it. Invite you into another possibility that might be
in your blind spot, like what if you actually don't
know what to do? What if you learned the whole
like eat less, move more, avoid that restrict that you know, diet,
weight loss, mentality, and of course that's no way to live,
and it's something that the most willpower driven woman couldn't sustain. Right,
(36:18):
And of course, as you're learning it doesn't even work.
But what if you also learn that like again, the
only way you can love yourself is if you look
a certain way, where a certain size, all of that, right,
Because the truth is like, if you did know what
to do, you would probably be doing it right now,
and you'd be happy and you'd feel feel God's love. Right,
So what if you actually don't know what to do?
(36:39):
And I mean that in a great way, as in
like it's an opportunity, Like what if you never actually
learned a long term, sustainable way of thinking when it
comes to food in your body? And what if you
never learned how to have a stressless relationship with food
in your body When we're you, you don't have to
think about it all the time and you don't have
to obsess about it and food can just be food
(36:59):
and your body can just be your body. But also
you know how to take care of it, right, but
it's not this obsessive thing in your brain all the time.
And what if you never learn how to truly love
yourself like warts and all as Jesus loves you, as
God sees you. And that's why I strongly urge you
not to do this alone, because the solution it's not
only in your blind spot. And you're you know, you're
(37:21):
gonna need help seeing what you can't see, but you're
believing what you're believing because your identity has still not
been shifted. If obviously you're listening to this and you're
in your challenge by this topic, and look, you know,
I've seen so many women try to heal this on
their own or think that they're weak if they need help.
And if you've spent years, you know, doing this on
your own and it hasn't been working, this is why,
(37:43):
like you've got to get the support that you need.
Like this isn't the kind of thing you can just
do on your own, because again, it's in your blind
spot and it's in your identity. And I mean this
with so much love too, but like this is your health,
Like this is your your mental, physical, emotional, spiritual health,
Like this is your life and that's what's at stake.
And if you have been struggling with this for years,
which you know, if you're listening to this episode, right
(38:04):
now there's a good chance you have it's not gonna
just magically go away on its own. And so, yes,
you do absolutely need to retrain your brain. But what
if you needed to also surrender this over to God? Right,
what if you needed a savior? What if you couldn't
do this on your own? And honestly, like, do you
even want to? And again, I hear women say this
(38:26):
all the time. They're like, but leanne, I gave this
over to God, and I asked him to take away
this burden from me. And again it typically means they
asked God to give them more willpower and discipline and
self control so that they can keep dieting and restricting
and obsessing. But again, that's the opposite of what I'm
inviting you to do here, Like, what I'm saying is
to actually invite God into the conversation of you actually
(38:49):
healing your relationship with food in your body, and healing
your self image and identity and becoming the version of
yourself that no longer relies on old coping mechanisms or
feeling like addicted to food and sugar, and becoming a
new creation so that you can truly be healthy mind, body, soul, spirit.
Can you see how different that is than asking God
(39:11):
to just help you lose weight or have more willpower
to diet so that you can lose weight. Like again,
it's a different way to invite God into this conversation.
This idea of inviting God into it, and what we
talked about on today's episode, that is something that not
only have most women never done in general, but they've
never invited God to help them heal the truer, deeper problem.
(39:33):
And there's nothing wrong with saying like, hey, I need help,
And there's nothing wrong with saying hey, God, like I
don't want to do this on my own anymore, so
that you can really address what's keeping you stock and
end that war that you've been in with yourself and
truly begin your journey of healing. And as always, everything
I share is simply an invitation without expectation, to just
(39:54):
try on a new story or a new perspective and
see what meets you where you are right now in
your own journey. I just want to recognize, like, this
is a massive conversation and a lot of women do
have a really complicated relationship with food in their bodies.
And that's why this episode was really just about inviting
you into a conversation where you could explore this massive
(40:16):
topic but from a place of no fluff and truly
addressing the problem from its roots, but also from a
place of grace and love and compassion. And so this
is hopefully just the beginning of this powerful conversation that
if you continue to explore, can and will transform your
entire being. I promise you that, and I do mean
that from my own experiences and just witnessing hundreds of
(40:38):
other women you know, get off the short term band
aid roller coaster and walk themselves through the healing process themselves.
So that being said as promise, I'm going to share
the Tale of Two Roots infographic and the show notes
below this episode. But also if you wanted to learn
more about rewiring your brain to heal from the all
or nothing you know, that diet mentality and do it
(40:59):
for good, but without you know, restricting yourself or punishing
your body, and definitely without ever having to use words
like Macro's and low carb or calorie burn, you can
check out my free stress Less Heeding masterclass at leannellington
dot com slash masterclass and we will link that in
the show notes as well with that infographic, And now
you understand why it is so incredibly powerful and relevant
(41:22):
to invite God into this conversation from day one, because
if you're wondering what's God got to do with your
relationship with food in your body? I'm here to tell
you everything, everything you know, and everything that you didn't
know you didn't know. We'll be back with more What's
God Got to Do with It? But in the meantime,
(41:44):
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 to what's go God Got to Do with It?
Dot com and scroll down to the form to share
your thoughts, your questions, your feedback, and you can do
(42:07):
that instantly. 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 of What's God
Got to Do with It? New episodes drop every single Tuesday,
and while you're there, be sure to rate and review
(42:29):
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. It's written and hosted
by Leanne Ellington, executive produced by Elizabeth Fozzio, post production
and editing by Houston Tilley, and original music written by
Cheryl Stark and produced by Adam Stark
Feeling Things with Amy & Kat News
Host
Amy Brown
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