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Christian Weight Loss

Overcoming the Skinny Idol – Interview with Barb Raveling

In this eye-opening audio interview, guest author Barb Raveling shares how to maintain balance in our weight loss goals and avoid it devolve into an idolatrous pursuit.

Barb is the author of several books including Taste for Truth: A 30-Day Weight Loss Bible Study, I Deserve a Donut, and many others.

Barb blogs and podcasts about breaking free from strongholds and growing closer to God at barbraveling.com.

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In the interview, Barb answers such questions as:

What is a ‘Skinny idol’?
What are 5 questions someone can ask themselves to determine if they might have a Skinny Idol?
Why is important to confront idols in our lives – Skinny or otherwise
How do you balance wanting to achieve or maintain a healthy weight, but not have it become an idolatrous pursuit?

Barb’s Questions to Help Determine if you Have a Skinny Idol

Do you obsess over weight loss boundaries or constantly think of changing your boundaries?
Do you weigh yourself more than once a day?
Do you exercise too much?
Do you feel like you can’t be happy unless you’re skinny or that if you just lose weight then everything in your life will fall into place?
Do you spend lots of time online looking at articles on weight loss, diets, or exercise strategies?

Motivation, Christian Weight Loss

Grace for your Waist (A Transformation Story)

My sister in Christ, Janelle Keith, lost 132 pounds through God’s power.

She wrote the article below about her struggle and has also released an awesome book called ‘Grace for Your Waist: Living a Lifestyle Fitted with Hope.’

You can connect with Janelle directly via her website at thejanellekeith.com.

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“A heartfelt, transformative book. It is a haven of hope for all those struggling with their weight. Janelle’s stories are clear, relatable and each one provides the keys to deliverance – God’s words of love, care, and comfort. Her thought-provoking questions, action steps, and prayers will be your guidance system to freedom over food and help you obtain God’s blessings of Spiritual, emotional and physical health. I highly recommend it!”

– Kim Taylor, Take Back Your Temple, Founder & Director.

When I sent my book information to Kim, she has added value to my story. After all, she knows full well the journey of losing weight and keeping it off.

But Kim has done something more than given me a beautiful quote for my book, Grace For Your Waist – Living a Lifestyle Fitted With Hope.

I can remember a time when I had given up. I was sitting in the third seat, the third row on a church pew.

I had just suffered through another weight loss contest with my former co-host on a Christian Radio station. We were both captains of a listener-driven contest called Total Fitness Challenge.

You remember those silly attempts at the diet resolutions? You might remember that re-commit every January and then by month’s end you have lost your resolve to stick with anything diet related. This contest was no different, except it was.

Let me explain. Before I signed up to be a captain, all I can remember were the failures of my past. You see, once again I had ridden too long on the up-and-down rollercoaster ride of loss and gain. I was absolutely devasted when I weighed (before the contest started) and I had not only gained what I had previously lost but gained another 5 pounds.

I was wearing, along with huge guilt, some of Aunt Bill’s Christmas fudge on my thighs and feeling very ashamed of myself.

Ever been there?

I dug deep for the contest itself by pretending to care but inside I was going through the motions to put on an encouraging face for the listeners. I just wanted to get this arduous idea over with. I muddled through those 30 days and was feeling somewhat accomplished with myself.

But God had a different plan and it was the Sunday after my 15-pound loss, and a team defeat, I found myself in the seat of transformation.

That Sunday, the pastor spoke of new year’s resolutions and encouraged the entire church body to consider a 3-day fast. He mentioned social media, food, TV, coffee, drinks, etc. I half-heartedly listened to his challenge thinking it wasn’t for me. All of a sudden, God tapped me on the shoulder and asked what I was going to give up. I said, “Surely it’s not food God, I’ve given up so much already.” (Remember I had just lost 15 pounds by half-way trying).

There was silence in the room as many were considering what they would sacrifice. I knew in my heart what I needed to do. I was afraid. I thought about that “holy tap” all the way home.

I set my mind to give up food and said to myself, “Well I can do anything for three days.” I fasted on water only. And that was the beginning of my transformation process that started my final attempt at losing the weight I so desperately wanted to rid myself of.

The rest is history and as the Lord revealed to me what I loved most was not Him. Oh how that must have hurt my Savior. I’m not proud to admit that but it’s true.

Food had taken center stage in my life and I, by faith and obedience, put God back in the center. I rid myself of all kinds of bad habits and the Lord took over. Ever since then I will always remember those three days and how God cared enough to bend down and show me the way out.

I was powerless to change and the Lord gave me His grace upon grace to make many changes. Now I’m living a lifestyle that is fitted for me full of hope and many new beginnings. But even further there’s so much grace that I have discovered about God that I never knew.

It’s been a long journey and I’ve maintained my weight loss of 132 pounds for four years now. Even still, I remember His call to obedience like it was yesterday. I now can say I trusted and obeyed God and gave it my all. And He honored my behavior, changed my desires, and I received a testimony to tell about how He gave me so much Grace for My Waist.

Grace For Your Waist – Living a Lifestyle Fitted With Hope is full of nuggets that will help you find your way out of your spiritual closet and let the Lord have Lordship over your health and fitness.

Although I target my weight issues, I look at the heart issues and encourage you with some action steps of your own to take the next step. Every chapter includes a kickstart forward and a prayer. The book could be applied to anything that is between you and your relationship with God.

I can’t promise you your journey will be quick or easy. Anything worth doing never is. But I can say that when you put the Lord back in the center of your life, and seek Him first, then He will show you what you need to change and how to find your way out. My goal in sharing my story is that He would find you like He found me and help you out to see Him more clearly.

The Book is out on Amazon and also available on thejanellekeith.com under the “New Book” tab.

Thank you Kim, for speaking such grace into my transformation story. It truly has been worthy to speak about His grace.

– Janelle Keith

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Be blessed in health, healing and wholeness,

Kimberly Taylor

Author of the Take Back Your Temple program

Christian Weight Loss

Jean Nidetch Death: What her Legacy Means to Me

You may not know the lady, but you surely know her legacy: Jean Nidetch, the founder of Weight Watchers, has died at the age of 91. In learning about her death, I found some surprises in reading about her life. We had many things in common. Like me, her purpose was born out of her pain.

Mrs. Nidetch was overweight and also dealt with emotional eating. According to her memoir, “The Story of Weight Watchers,” using food as an emotional bandaid started at a young age:

“I don’t really remember, but I’m positive that whenever I cried, my mother gave me something to eat,” she wrote. “I’m sure that whenever I had a fight with the little girl next door, or it was raining and I couldn’t go out, or I wasn’t invited to a birthday party, my mother gave me a piece of candy to make me feel better.”

For me, my mother gave me candy money to make me feel better when she had to go to work. When she dropped me off at the sitter, I used the candy money to go to the corner store. I’d buy a bar of chocolate and that would comfort me in my loneliness.

The same coping methods I discovered as a child stayed with me as an adult. For Mrs. Nidetch, they led to her top weight of 214 pounds. For me, it eventually led to 240 pounds.

Mrs. Nidetch joined an obesity clinic, but found it lacking in personal support. To meet her need to confide in someone about her struggles to lose weight, she decided to gather a few friends to share her journey.

Weight Watchers was born.

When I was 23, I remember getting on the scale and when I saw 152 pounds, I started crying. I was an R.N. and there was a Weight Watchers group at the hospital where I worked. I decided to join. I lost 15 pounds. I felt great!

Unfortunately, I ended up gaining it all back – plus more. It was no fault of Weight Watchers. It is a wonderful program, full of great resources and support for its followers. In my opinion, it is one of the best programs if all you need is a healthy eating plan and exercise to conquer your weight issues.

But for me, it just wasn’t enough. I found that Weight Watchers and other programs did not touch the Spiritual and emotional issues that led me to gain the excess weight in the first place. It took me another 15 years to get to the core of my weight issue.

Just like Mrs. Nidetch founded Weight Watchers to meet the need for personal support in weight loss, I created Take Back Your Temple to meet Spiritual and emotional needs in weight loss.

I found that only God could heal my emotional pain, which came from abandonment issues. My father was never in my life and no amount of food nor eating program could heal that. But when I learned to trust God to comfort me, He healed me from the inside out. I ended up dropping from a size 22 to a size 8.

Many people who have joined Take Back Your Temple have suffered with an emotional issue that needed healing. Some of these issues included unresolved grief, sexual molestation, incest, abuse, neglect. They may have included abandonment like me.

Through my Spiritual healing, God gave me a new identity as His Beloved daughter. I’ve discovered Spiritual gifts and purpose in Him. Finally, I’ve built amazing faith as God has used my struggles with weight to grow to trust Him even more.

I salute Jean Nidetch as a pioneer who has helped so many to develop a healthy relationship with food. We share the belief that weight loss is not about living a diet, but about living your life well.

This amazing woman was an example of leaving a positive legacy for others to follow. Even though my experience with Weight Watchers was brief, it was positive one to help me discover my own path to wellness. Thank you, Mrs. Nidetch!

Kimberly Taylor

Author/Christian Life Coach of the Take Back Your Temple program

takebackyourtemple.com

Christian Weight Loss

The Trap that Kills Weight Loss Progress

Have you ever started doing well with a weight loss program, but then “something” happens to get you off track? You lose focus, get discouraged, and then quit? It happened to me too many times! And yet, I found out about a little-known trap that was killing my weight loss progress.

That trap is called “Impulse.” Impulse comes when you do what you think will make you feel good in the moment without considering long-term results. Picture the checkout area in the grocery store. Besides the cash register, what else is there? Candy and other snack items!

Grocery store marketers hope that you are going to look at those items and decide to buy one on impulse.

Most of the time, they are right. But you know what? If you shop once a week and buy a snack item to eat each time on impulse, you could gain 3 pounds of fat in 1 year. Multiply that habit over 5 years, and you’ve just gone up another clothing size!

Small choices DO matter. One little bite CAN hurt.

What is the solution? To avoid the impulse trap and loss of focus, then you use a new word: “Intention.” You live by intention, not by impulse. You plan for how you want your day to go, keeping in mind an eternal perspective. An eternal perspective will help you make wiser choices each day.

Let’s fast forward to the end of your life. As you look backward, what did you focus your life on? Jesus has some great direction to what our focus should be:

“Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work (John 4:34).'”

“Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him (John 6:27).”

Ah-ha! Jesus gives us another definition of food besides the obvious. He says that doing God’s will is food and that you should work for food that lasts to eternal life.

What is that food? Later on in that scripture, Jesus said that God’s work is believing in Him, whom God sent. So every time you affirm that you believe God’s Word is true (the Bible), you are feeding on Jesus, the Living Word.

But you don’t just feed on God’s word to fatten yourself; you use that food as energy to go out and feed others. In Mark 16:15, Jesus directed us: “…Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”

That’s when you live through intention, not impulse.

Years ago, I asked myself a hard-core question: “Do you want your life to be about feeding your face? Or do you want it to be about doing God’s will and making a positive impact on other people’s lives?”

It was easier for me to lose weight when I stopped focusing on using food for escape and entertainment. Instead, I shifted my focus on getting strong with Supernatural food, feeding on God’s word and then feeding others with what God taught me.

My desire is to become a living testimony of the difference Jesus can make in one person’s life.

What about you? Are you caught in the impulse trap? If so, then you can get free through living by intention. Today, focus on doing the Father’s will and be determined to finish the work that He has called you to do.

Kimberly Taylor

takebackyourtemple.com

P.S. If you need a plan to release emotional weight permanently, then check out my Take Back Your Temple program. It comes with great bonuses that help you deal with common weight loss trouble spots:

You can review it out here:
https://www.takebackyourtemple.com/program

There is no time like the present to become a good steward over the wonderful gift God has given you in your body and your health. So feel free to click the link so you can get started right now:

https://www.takebackyourtemple.com/program

Christian Weight Loss

“Wellness is a DAILY choice…”

“Wellness is a daily choice…” echoed in my Spirit this morning after reading a wonderful testimony from a man who chose to get well. He was a smoker, overweight, and struggling with high blood pressure. However, he decided to change 2 years ago.

He is now walking his dog or hiking for 30-60 minutes every day, eating salads and vegetables daily, and cutting down on his portion sizes. He has lost weight and brought his blood pressure down to normal.

But the change started the moment he made the daily decision to get well.

Do you remember the story about Jesus and the sick man at the pool of Bethesda (see John 5:1-15)? This man had suffered from his infirmity for 38 years. Not only that, but he was surrounded by other sick, suffering people at the pool. He was in a sick environment for so long, sickness became his “normal.”

But now he had the way to change that. Jesus was right in front of him. When Jesus saw him, he asked the man a powerful question: “Do you want to be made well?”

I think that is the question each of us must answer for ourselves daily. Because wellness is a daily decision, we need to make the choice to do those things that lead to wellness.

Now, some of us are answering “No” or “Not enough” to the question without even realizing it. I recently learned that 1/3 of deaths today can be traced to just 4 behaviors:

• Inactivity
• Poor nutrition
• Tobacco use
• Excessive alcohol use

Think about this: You may say your answer to “Do you want to be made well?” is “Yes.” However, you tell a different story when you choose to stay inactive instead of exercising, choose to eat regular junk food instead of fruits and vegetables regularly, choose to smoke, or choose to drink alcohol to excess.

For most people, the answer to the question is “Not enough.” It’s not that you don’t want to be made well; it’s just that you want to remain inactive, eat junk food, smoke, or abuse alcohol MORE. That is what you are really telling yourself at the moment of decision, whether you say it out loud or not.

We all have daily choices to make. I always consider Deuteronomy 30:19-20 – “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days;”

We love the Lord and have eternal life in Jesus Christ. So we’ve already made the most important decision in life. Feel good about that! However, I also believe God wants us to fulfill our life’s purpose while we are on Earth. And doing what we can daily to stay well is essential to that purpose.

I hope you decide today to answer “Yes” to the “Do you want to be made well?” question and make small daily choices to affirm your answer. Ask God in prayer what small step you can take today. The man in the testimony didn’t try to change everything at once. Rather, he decided to stop smoking and focus his energy on that one habit first. Then, when he got that under control, he went to work on other habits.

I hope you ask the question “Do you want to be made well?” with every health decision and affirm “Yes” with your actions. Someday soon, you too will have a wonderful testimony that will inspire others and be able to say “Look what the Lord has done!”

Kimberly Taylor
Take Back Your Temple
takebackyourtemple.com

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