For Christians, weight loss is not merely a physical endeavor but also a spiritual journey. The battles we face with food often have spiritual roots, requiring solutions that go beyond worldly diets and exercise plans. This article explores a faith-based approach to weight loss, emphasizing the importance of mindset, grace, and a renewed relationship with food.
The Spiritual Battleground of Eating
As Christians, it’s important to understand that there are spiritual battles going on when it comes to eating -and spiritual battles cannot be solved with worldly answers. Many people find themselves trapped in cycles of dieting, overeating, and guilt, highlighting a deeper issue than just physical health. These cycles often stem from emotional attachments to food, stress around eating, and allowing food to control one's life. The enemy wants you to engage in extreme behavior because he can devour you in those places.
Grace and Faithfulness: A Foundation for Change
Maybe no one has ever told you to give yourself grace because God doesn’t expect you to be perfect. He wants you to be faithful. God sees you. He knows where you struggle, and He wants to help you! This is a journey to be taken meal by meal, one day at a time, so remember to replace any food guilt with God’s grace and do your very best to glorify God in your body.
Retraining the Brain: Intentional Eating
We need to retrain our brains from the dieting mentality we’ve been taught. The following 7 Ps provide the daily structure to adopt the habit of Intentional Eating. They teach you a godly mindset toward food because it isn’t the food plan or the workout you follow that will get you fit-it’s your mindset. Intentional Eating involves cultivating a godly mindset toward food, recognizing that true transformation comes from within, not from external plans or workouts.
The 7 Ps of Intentional Eating
The 7 Ps provide the daily structure to adopt the habit of Intentional Eating.
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- Pause: Before you decide to eat, pause and ask yourself if you’re really hungry or if you’re just feeding your emotions, boredom, or stress. This will stop impulsive eating and eating while on autopilot. There is power in the pause!
- Pray: Pray before meals. Thank God for the meal before you. Invite Him to the table. Ask God to help you eat the right foods in the right amounts and for the discipline to take care of your body (His temple). Learning about the right amounts is covered exhaustively in Fit God’s Way. Pray to surrender your appetite to Him daily and remind yourself to do so by using my acronym S.A.F.E.
- Prepare: Prepare food ahead of time and learn how to prep your meals. Batching meals is a great way to always have something healthy on hand. Pick a day of the week to shop and cook. Collect favorite recipes and learn healthy ways to make all your unhealthy favorites. Prep and cook meat, chop veggies and fruit, and cook sweet potatoes and whole grains. Make it fun “me time” by cranking up your favorite Christian playlist or podcast in the background. Get good-quality storage containers in many sizes.
- Portion: Portion each meal. Challenge yourself to measure everything for one week to learn what proper food portions look like. Be mindful of the amount of food you’re eating, and remember-small changes in your portion sizes equal big results over time. Eat from smaller plates and bowls. If you want to indulge in a treat, serve yourself a portion on a plate and then put the rest away. Refrain from eating out of containers, bags, boxes, or pans.
- Practice: Practice being mindful and eating slowly and without distraction. Turn off the TV and your phone. Take the time to enjoy your food. Take smaller bites and chew them ten to twenty times apiece. Try setting your fork down between bites and thinking of food as fuel and nourishment rather than comfort or reward. Listen to your body’s natural hunger and fullness cues, and eat until you’re about full, not totally full. Also, practice having treats with your kids and on date nights-but don’t allow one indulgence to turn into a weekend off your plan (and then a week, and then a month). Get right back on track. Remember this rule: No back-to-back eating of C.R.A.P.
- Plan: Plan ahead. Make healthy meals as often as possible, and always have healthy snacks. Don’t wait until you’re hungry to find food. (I know I rarely make good choices when I am starving.) When you’re going to a party or a restaurant, set a godly intention to enjoy what you’ll have and be satisfied with that. More is not better.
- Persist: When you eat something you wish you would not have, write down how you feel; refer back to this when you’re tempted to do the same thing again and do not give up after a bad day. Recognize that this is not a perfect journey; we are not perfect-only Jesus is perfect. Repairing our relationship with food is a continual learning process that takes time. Acknowledge that you have power over food; food does not have power over you. Remember that you are always one God-made healthy meal away from being back on track-so make the next meal a whole God-made one!
Spiritual Blocks to Weight Loss
What are spiritual blocks?Spiritual blocks are your beliefs and stories you tell yourself daily. Because they are blocks, they stop you from thinking a specific outcome or goal is possible for you to achieve.When you tell yourself the same stories and beliefs every day, they become your truth.Those spiritual or psychological blocks stop you from achieving your goal - to lose weight. Maybe, unconsciously, you believe this is impossible for you.
Common Spiritual Blocks
- Emotional Attachment to Food: When you’re feeling emotional, you should not feed your feelings. That’s not only because you’re going to gain weight. If you eat a whole pack of Oreos, your problems won’t magically disappear.
- Stress Around Food: If you constantly think of how much you should eat, what to eat, when, etc. this will stress you out.
- Letting Food Control Your Life: You start a diet or try to stick to a new habit. But you spin your life around food. You plan your daily schedule on your food intake, and if something doesn’t work out up to the plan, you freak out.
- Obsessing Around Your Weight: If you weigh yourself three times per day, stop. First, the scale is not an accurate tool to measure your progress.
- Hating Wasting Food: Understand that there’s nothing wrong if you don’t finish everything that’s on your plate, especially if you’re already feeling full.
- Thinking It’s Impossible to Lose Weight: Spiritual blocks are the negative stories and beliefs you tell yourself every day. If you repeat one lie enough times, it inevitably becomes a truth.
- Lacking Clear Goals or Expectations: When you want to change your body, set a clear goal. You want to lose weight? How much? What is a possible and realistic time frame to lose this weight?
- Personal Mindset Barriers and Subconscious Beliefs: Explore your personal beliefs around weight. Make sure that losing weight comes from a good place, not because of society’s expectations.
Overcoming Spiritual Blocks
Overcoming these blocks involves identifying and debunking negative stories and beliefs. Write your beliefs about food and weight.Ask yourself: Do you have to weigh certain pounds to feel beautiful, healthy, or something else? If yes, where do you think this belief comes from? (society, friend, etc.) Be clear that you’re in charge of your thoughts. Write your new story. For example, replace the belief "I have to weigh under 150 lbs to feel beautiful" with "My beauty is not defined by my weight or appearance."
Beyond the Physical: Addressing Deeper Imbalances
The foundation of this new paradigm that I want to explore with you is based on the idea that excess weight (as well as many other physical symptoms people experience) is a sign of a deeper imbalance in the body, mind, and soul. True healing involves addressing the root causes of these imbalances, rather than relying on quick-fix remedies. This approach emphasizes the importance of looking within and developing inner mental, emotional, and spiritual skills to activate healing.
The Role of Faith and Scripture
The Bible says in James 4:7 that we are to “submit [ourselves] therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from [us].” I was trying to resist the devil, and it wasn’t working because I had not submitted to God’s Word. I was relying on the strength of my flesh. Every time I ate food to meet what was really a spiritual need, I was sowing to the flesh. And every time I sowed to the flesh, food was getting a stronger hold on my life.
In Galatians 5, God is described by nine characteristics: Love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, meekness, self-control, patience and faithfulness. I realized when you try to change something through natural means-like diet and exercise-and it doesn’t work, it’s not a natural problem. It’s a spiritual problem, and it requires a spiritual solution. I quit desiring to be thin and started desiring to be like Jesus. I began confessing that what God calls me to do, He anoints me to do. If He called me to be conformed to the image of His Son, then there is an anointing available to help me do that.
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Practical Application and Testimonials
Meet Lisa! Lisa enjoyed cooking, and her food diary was like a spreadsheet of macros and calories-but her happiness and wholeness were a painful place of struggle. Lisa thought that if she prepped and cooked all her meals, recorded every bite she took, and ate perfectly, somehow she’d feel good about herself. But she didn’t. In fact, her preoccupation with the numbers was completely stealing her joy! I taught her to seek Jesus first and surrender this to Him and that He wanted her to have a healthy, balanced relationship with food, fitness, and her body.
"My body is not a garbage disposal, but a gift from God," says Melinda Chrysler. Since joining the Bible-based, weight loss movement known as Weigh Down, Chrysler has lost 69 pounds. "It's just awesome." Chrysler credits the program with her success, saying that through Weigh Down, she has learned to "find her hunger."
A Balanced Approach: Avoiding Extremes
Have you ever noticed we tend to choose either oblivion or obsession with certain topics? I think that sweet spot in the middle, called balance, is right where Jesus wants us to live. Being obsessed with what we eat, how much we weigh, or what we look like is not only disordered-it’s idolatry.
The Importance of Mindful Practices
Pick mindful practices that will make you present in the moment and can relieve stress. My favorite ones are meditating, journaling, being close to nature, and reducing screen time. Prioritize good sleep every night and aim for 8 hours. It helps your body and mind rest. The best way to set your mind to sleep mode is to make a night routine. It can be anywhere between 15 to 60 minutes. Some common practices are to switch off the technology, drink a cup of calming tea (chamomile), avoid caffeine consumption at least 5 hours before sleep, set some calming music or meditation, try aromatherapy, etc.
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