Addressing Challenges to Spirit-Led Eating

 Can waiting for hunger and stopping at satisfaction be God's will for your eating habits? In this episode of Revelation Within, we explore the challenges and significance of spirit-led eating, emphasizing the need for a deep conviction that this approach aligns with God's will. By renewing our minds as mentioned in Romans 12:2, we can discern God's good, pleasing, and perfect will for our eating habits. We discuss the journey of surrender and stabilization, highlighting the importance of yielding to the Holy Spirit's leadership in our food and body image practices. Our conversation contrasts spirit-led eating with relying on our flesh, revealing the joy of living closely with the Lord. We also touch on stabilizing extremes through the cross of Christ, learning from failures, seeking God's guidance, and maintaining a heart surrendered to Him. Embrace setbacks as opportunities for growth through personal anecdotes and experiences, illustrating how struggles can lead to deeper intimacy with God. Join us for this transformative discussion toward spiritual and physical well-being. 

Get details about our class starting July 17th at https://www.revelationwithin.org/blueprint

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:19

Thank you and coach and Heidi's partner in all things Revelation Within, and we are so happy to invite you to join us for this episode of Revelation Within on the go.

Speaker 1: 0:37

All right. Well, today you know, we've been talking a lot in our podcasts about spirit-led eating, and we've been doing that in our community as well, of course, and there are some challenges that come with attempting to eat this way. We've talked about some of those so far on the podcast, but we thought it's a it's a topic well worth revisiting. What do you think?

Speaker 2: 1:00

Oh, definitely, I could probably revisit it every day. No, this is so good. There's nothing better than talking about these kinds of things and just kind of getting it out there. And then you hear people say, yes, oh, that's exactly how I feel. Yes, I needed to hear that and I'm right there with them.

Speaker 1: 1:21

Yeah Well, so it seems as though if we were to boil it all down. For many of us, the most important thing to really settle right off the bat is this issue of am I convinced that spirit led eating is what God wants me to do, and sometimes we downplay the importance of that. But really, if we aren't convinced that God is calling us to this and, almost as importantly, if we aren't convinced that it can be a healthy way to live, then no coach, no book, no material, no community, no podcast, nothing is going to convince us that we should put our efforts into getting going again. If we've fallen off the horse or doing this in the first place. We want to invite God to show us. Is this from you, lord, for me, your child? And so, yeah, inviting him to do that is so important it is.

Speaker 2: 2:21

And the truth is here's the truth we will go sideways, we absolutely will. I mean, we cannot be perfect. I heard someone say I don't know, it was like a year ago that trying to be perfect is like trying to get a basketball in a hoop on the moon. It's just not going to happen. I mean, there's not even gravity up there. Anyway, it's just we cannot be perfect. We cannot do things without going sideways, without struggling, without kind of battling, and that's just part of the journey. So if we're not convinced that God has called us to this approach instead of Weight Watchers or keto or Jenny Craig or anything else really, you know some kind of self-help thing or if we're not convinced that this can be a healthy way to live, we are likely to struggle with consistency. Absolutely, we just are.

Speaker 1: 3:22

Absolutely, consistency, absolutely. We just are Absolutely. Today we want to urge all of us who are listening to do this work. I mean, it sounds kind of I don't know maybe unnecessary, but oh my goodness, this makes all the difference for those that do it. Ask the Lord to meet you and I'm doing the same thing and show you if this hunger satisfaction approach is for you. Is it for you from him? Has he called you to wait for hunger to stop it satisfied? Or is he calling you to a diet and made?

Speaker 1: 3:59

I mean, it's so important that we don't just say, oh, this looks like a fun way to eat, because if it stops being fun, we're going to bail and then we're going to have all kinds of challenges. Is it his will or is it our will? Is it what God wants or is it what I want? Here's just an extra little tidbit I'm going to slip in right here Romans 12, 2, which you know we love to quote, so we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Speaker 1: 4:27

It goes on to say and then we can test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. We want to renew our minds about the fact that God cares about this, he cares about it so much, and then we'll believe that he, you know, will tell us what he wants for us to do. Does he want us signing up for a diet and doing what well, I'm going to sneak in my words for it, doing what the man-made diets have told me to do? Or does he want me to follow the cues of my miraculously God-made, fearfully and wonderfully made body?

Speaker 2: 5:03

miraculously God made fearfully and wonderfully made body. Exactly exactly. Yes, and you know, everyone needs to find their own way, so we're certainly not judging or anything like that.

Speaker 1: 5:13

Here's the thing, though the people that come to us usually are done with dieting. They don't want to have anything to do with it. So we don't spend any time talking about the benefits and drawbacks of dieting, because the people who come to us aren't interested in hearing that. They want to know how can I do an alternative. So, just so you know I'm not judging, I just don't address it. I still want to know you're here because you want an alternative that is from the Lord for you and that's and you're thinking this might be it.

Speaker 2: 5:42

Yeah, well, and most of the people who come to us have tried everything else too, and really, heidi and I were the same. We had tried pretty much everything before we came to this idea of spirit-led eating, intuitive eating, actually listening to the body that God actually designed fearfully and wonderfully for us yeah, actually designed fearfully and wonderfully for us, yeah. So anyway, if that is the reason that we're stumbling, if we lack conviction that God is calling us to this, then, like Heidi said, chances are well, when it starts getting tough or some kind of bigger, deeper issues come up, we're going to say you know what? I think I'm going to go back to somebody. Tell me what to do, just give me the steps and tell me what to eat and not to eat, tell me what's good and bad, and I'm going to try it again for the 100th time.

Speaker 1: 6:36

Yes, and we all know how to lose weight. We really do, and if we've forgotten, we can tie ourselves to a chair and probably lose weight that way. But that's not the point. What we want is hearts that are conformed to the image of Christ, and we want to put eating and food and body image in its proper place, under the authority of the Lord, really. So, anyway, that first reason that we might have challenges in our spirit led eating endeavor is that we're lacking that conviction. So I believe in asking God for conviction.

Speaker 1: 7:09

Lord, grant me, please grant me conviction that this is from you, if in fact it is, and I think he loves answering that prayer yes, here's another reason that we might have a lot of challenges in our endeavor to eat according to the signals of our body and the whole spirit led eating that we've been talking about, and that is that we've been talking about dieting here for a minute. Our dieting years have a huge influence on us. Even if we're not in it now, Even if we have been out of dieting for 20 years, we are surrounded in our culture by people who are talking about dieting, celebrating dieting. Control this After all, that's the fruit of the spirit is self-control. So you've got to control this and control that. Is that really what God had in mind? And that's a topic for another podcast?

Speaker 1: 8:01

maybe, but we are indeed bucking a long standing system and so we want to be aware that dieting mentality can undermine our efforts with our spirit led eating endeavor. Anyway, dieting teaches us, of course, that we're either successful on our dieting or we are failures, and it's all about the weight, of course. And so we throw in the towel if we haven't been quote successful. It's black and white thinking, and that fits in with our culture so much. It's all about performance.

Speaker 2: 8:39

You know what I have to just throw something in right now that I thought of. That's so fascinating to me. So I've mentioned, I think, on a couple of other podcasts, that I'm in the season of life where my house is often full of teenagers, and you know what they are not talking about diets.

Speaker 2: 8:58

Not at all. Yeah, it's really, it's refreshing, it's amazing. It's kind of like wait a minute, wow, there's been a shift, and I don't know if it's refreshing, it's amazing. It's kind of like wait a minute, wow, there's been a shift, and I don't know if it's everywhere. I'm just having my own little experience in my own little house, but I just know that it seems to be that there is a shift going on, that younger people, you know, in their teens and early 20s or maybe beyond, I'm not sure exactly but there seems to be this trend to listen to your bodies and kind of accept your shape and your size and kind of celebrate that. There's this whole different thing going on and I'm very excited about it actually. Yeah, it's great.

Speaker 2: 9:43

I'm watching these teenagers and they're walking in and it's like hey, are you guys hungry? Should I make something? No, we're not hungry right now, but thank you so much. Or, oh, I'm famished, let's put something together. Does that sound good? No, I think this will be better. Just some of those things where it's like not being told what to do and when with food and eating, and just kind of more natural, more of a balance. I'm loving seeing that and experiencing it in my own home.

Speaker 1: 10:14

Yay, Thanks for sharing that.

Speaker 1: 10:17

So if you're like Christina and I, where you probably have experienced a pendulum swing in your life At one extreme we were of course, so committed like at the first of the year maybe, or at the beginning of summer or whenever it was to this new eating program it could even be thin within or spirit-led eating you could have felt this surge of commitment.

Speaker 1: 10:39

And then, if you're doing it in your flesh, though, you can only hold on for so long, and then you feel like you're not doing it well enough and you just can't quite pull it together, and then we bail or we quit or we stop trying and swing to the other extreme, where caution is thrown to the wind and I'm going to eat what I want to eat whenever I want to eat it. And both of those extremes there's no way to live at either of those extremes. Sometimes it can be because a huge trial hits and we revert back to our old coping mechanisms, but the bottom line is we don't want to. We don't want to be on either extreme. We want to be surrendered to the Holy Spirit, to his leadership. For me, the most peace happens in my life with food, eating, my body image and everything else when I'm living surrendered to his authority.

Speaker 2: 11:34

His authority is good. And that's where I find peace, because he's in charge and he's good, yeah, and that does. There's such a relief in that. Surrender is hard, but once we get there it's like oh, this feels good, there's peace here. Heidi, you mentioned doing it in the flesh. What do you mean by that? That might be something that someone who's listening says. I have no idea what that means. I don't know.

Speaker 1: 12:03

Yeah, Well, we call spirit-led eating spirit-led eating for a very specific reason, Of course.

Speaker 1: 12:10

You know this and I bet you a lot of listeners do, it's because we want to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit. To a lot of listeners do that's because we want to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and God has given us his Holy Spirit to receive power to do the things that he's called us to do. That includes if he's called us to eat according to our body's signals of hunger and satisfaction. He will empower us for that as well. Now, if I fail to incorporate Lord, what do you want me to do right now into my life, you know, in an ongoing way, then it becomes more about can I do this? Ooh, I'm feeling hunger, but if I just wait a little bit, it's. It's like what the thin within book called Maureen the manipulator. It's like I can manipulate things.

Speaker 1: 12:54

I will wait until I'm hungry, but then I'll eat a diet food, you know, and that's that's doing this in the flesh. When I say diet food, I mean like low sugar this or that, or low calorie this or that. You know things that we don't like the taste of. I don't know if that makes any sense, but so, whether it's oh, I'll exercise more and that way I will lose, it's getting that focus back on the weight and less on God and exalting him and honoring him with my desires, and I don't just mean about food and eating. The idea is that this is just one aspect of what I want to do. What I my will is, and I want to surrender it to him. You know, he's good and he's kind and he's loving, and it doesn't mean that I'm never going to have any fun?

Speaker 2: 13:44

No, in fact, I don't know, this is the most fun I've ever had. I mean, I love this way of living. Not just food and eating, not just food and eating. That is just one little tiny piece, but walking with the Lord so closely, renewing my mind all the time, walking in praise and gratitude, I mean that's good fun. It's good because life is hard and so we need a way to live that draws us into the Lord. Yeah, it is amazing, I love it. Well, so you've talked about this pendulum swing, which makes so much sense to me because, boy, that was me for so many years. But so I mean stabilizing that, getting in balance, like how do we do that? And so allowing the cross of Christ to stabilize us. That's where we want to be. But I feel like, Heidi, you explain this so much better than I do. Can you take this one Tell me what it means to allow the cross of Christ to stabilize that pendulum swing, to stop that crazy extreme back and forth, back and forth. What does that mean?

Speaker 1: 15:57

I think you know this answer better than you think you do. It means looking and learning with the Lord. It means, when I have those failures and those mess ups, rather than condemning myself and beating myself up, I'm going to go to him and ask him show me, show me, lord, what can I learn from this? And so the fact that he went to the cross, which means he's passionate for my joy, he's passionately loving me.

Speaker 1: 16:23

He has a path for me to have intimacy with him. When I allow that to be just like ever before me, then I don't turn my failures into, like the within book says, a club of condemnation. Instead, I turn it into this wonderful opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from him and ask him okay, you went to the cross for my mess ups, my slips, stumbles, falls, failures and abject sin. What would you have me do with this? Yes, repent, but repentance means I'm doing something different. So, lord, what is it you want me to do differently, other than just stop eating when you're not hungry?

Speaker 1: 17:06

I don't think that's all there is to it. What can I do to have a heart that is set up and a mind that is set up to actually want to do what I know God wants me to do on this journey, and so to me, that's a stabilization factor. It means I'm I'm leaning on him so much. That's why mess ups don't have to totally send us into depression, right, derail us, yes, yes, it's a beautiful thing. Likewise, at the other end, when we are feeling all about it and we, you know, we're accomplishing a whole bunch of things, remembering that it's only that which is done for Christ. That's going to last and you know, what is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal. And so I want to be about not making the tent of my body just look a certain way. I want my heart to be surrendered to him.

Speaker 1: 18:04

And that's the cross of Christ too. So either end of the pendulum becomes lesser and lesser of an extreme, and I'm right there at the foot of the cross, where I need to be.

Speaker 2: 18:13

That's exactly what I wanted you to explain. That was beautiful, heidi, thank you, thank you. Yeah, well, and so many of us can relate to that, that whole extreme piece where it's like I'm either a complete failure, which mostly I feel like I was over the years, or look at me, look what I did, I'm a success, but it doesn't last. It's so short, it's so short, it's so fleeting. All of a sudden it's gone, it slips through our fingers. So for any kind of lasting change, we need to be totally and completely connected, abiding with the Lord. Otherwise there's nothing that lasts, it just falls. It just falls away.

Speaker 1: 18:55

Otherwise, there's nothing that lasts, it just falls. It just falls away. It's interesting because we kind of jumped ahead by talking about look and learn to our number three reason why we were challenged in our spirit led eating, which is what Christina yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:08

So number three is to see that God's grace isn't just a one time event, and for me, getting this or beginning to get I mean I'm always in progress, but this was huge. For me it's not just a one-time event. When we come to Him for salvation, I mean, yes, that is amazing and incredible and fantastic. It's the best celebration. But it took me a while to understand that there's an ongoing power, presence, provision. There's an ongoing journey of sanctification, of learning and growing, and, yes, we call that look and learn, which I love, and for me it's daily.

Speaker 2: 19:51

I know for you too, heidi, it's a daily process, it's a life-giving process. It's not something to be afraid of or shy away from, and there's no shame, there's no condemnation. We're just walking closely with the Lord, with the Holy Spirit, like a best friend, and stepping forward with Him. Help me, lord, to see how can this be better? Show me what you see, show me what you know. I want to be so teachable as I walk with the Lord, and so I love that truth. There's an ongoing journey that's life-giving and really so beautiful, and it brings us deeper into intimacy with the Lord every single time.

Speaker 1: 20:39

It really does, it does. I have often over the years Christina knows this referred to this journey, this eating journey, really the spirulina journey, as being like a trail ride. I've been a horse fan since I was birthed. I came out loving horses and, you know, in dieting and other areas of life, really the whole point is riding the horse from here to our destination. Perfectly, okay, and so, whether it's, you know, an endeavor to climb that ladder at work until you get to a certain point, or at school If you are still in school, maybe you're going to college or in a master's program. We've known a lot of people who go into their second careers and they are reminded of just how challenging school is. And so, yeah, we know that if we get these assignments in and perform this way, we're gonna. Yeah, it's all about our accomplishment. It's not about the journey at all. So much in this life, success and failure seems to be determined merely by getting to the destination.

Speaker 1: 21:45

It's result oriented it's not process oriented but, in our walks, the Lord in our spirit led eating journey. In our spirit led living journey, a journey with the Lord. He is sanctifying us. Like Christina said, he's making us more and more like Jesus one baby. We have to recognize that riding down the trail and never falling off Isn't the goal I? Mean sure That'd be fine, but that's not the point. It's impossible actually to never fall off the horse, and of course this came home to me when I got four horses and I came off of them. So frequently.

Speaker 2: 22:25

That was years ago.

Speaker 1: 22:28

Instead continuing to get back on the horse when we fall off, that is doing the journey well. And so, you know, going back to that pendulum swing, that whole failure mentality that we've come out of, out of dieting, you know that's when we throw in the towel, and so we stay on the ground and we don't ever get back up on the horse again and we're all going to fall off.

Speaker 2: 22:53

Yeah, this is so true what you're saying, heidi, and I don't remember when I feel like maybe it was when I was coaching with you, heidi, all those years ago although you're my forever coach, as you know but there was a moment for me when I was really hit with the truth that I was going to mess up. I think even when I started with you, I thought mess up. I think even when I started with you, I thought I'm not going to mess up, I'm going to do this 100%, I'm going to throw my all into it, I can do it, I'm going to pull myself up that whole mentality. I think even when I started with you, I felt that way. I was very hopeless and I was definitely leaning on the Lord, but I thought I'm just going to do whatever she tells me to do. And here we go. And then somehow in our coaching, we talked about this. We talked about you are going to mess up, and so you might as well embrace it and prepare. And I thought what? Prepare, Prepare to mess up.

Speaker 2: 23:54

I've never thought of anything like that, especially not in this situation, and so that was a milestone for me. I don't have to be afraid of stumbling, falling off the horse, even though I'm terrible at riding horses. I don't have to be afraid of that. I can actually look ahead and say it's going to happen. It's probably going to happen today or tomorrow, and so I'm okay with that. I'm okay with being on a journey of learning with the Lord. I am more than okay with that, and the more I embrace that and we see this in the people we work with all the time the more they embrace getting back up on the horse and learning with the Lord and seeing it as a journey that's life-giving. The more that's embraced, the better we do.

Speaker 1: 24:50

I'm giggling because, as you've been talking, I flashed back to 20 years ago and I had these four horses and, oh my gosh, I was on a trail ride with Harley. He was my favorite, of course, and and he got overly stimulated when a bunch of horses and their riders went running by us. Now, that is totally poor etiquette. On a trail, when you go past another horse, you don't canter past them because courses are pack animals and they get excited and he wanted to follow them and he bucked me off and I remember I remember I was so tired of falling off the horse In fact, uh, what I wanted to share next was we don't wallow in the dirt when we fall off.

Speaker 1: 25:36

Well, I was on the ground and I had a lot of choice words for Harley at that moment. I wasn't about ready to get back in the saddle. I wasn't done having my temper tantrum and that's so often. I've done that in my eating as well which usually sends me to the kitchen when I'm not hungry as well usually sends me to the kitchen when I'm not hungry as well. Ideally, we want to get back in the saddle and even maybe evaluate what we did that caused us to fall off and make a plan for next time Now. In that case, I could have looked and learned, and my, you know, seeing horses running towards us. I would know better, don't stay on the horse.

Speaker 1: 26:12

Don't even try to stay on the horse. Get off before he gets you off. Yeah, anyway, the truth is, when we fall off the horse, getting back on is doing spirit-led eating.

Speaker 1: 26:23

Well, it is doing this well. Yes, those of us who learn to fail well are the ones that are going to experience such victory and intimacy with God. Yes, freedom, you know, really, when you're writing, there might be any number of reasons that, at least when I'm writing, that I might fall off a horse. It might be my horse's spook, because a covey of quail took off out of the brambles, startling my horse, cause, you know, again, they're prey animals, so they're terrified, they think they're going to die all the time. Why am I on this animal that thinks it's going to die all the time?

Speaker 1: 27:01

I remember once when my horse was startled underneath me because there was a guy walking across the trail with a big fishing ring around him, because he was getting ready to jump in this little lake thingy, and so I lost my balance. But I didn't fall off that time. But a trash bag floating in the wind. It doesn't take much sometimes for us to fall off our horses, to get off balance, and then I can choose am I going to lay here in the dirt and wallow in it or am I going to get back on? And so really, over time, the idea is to get back on a little sooner and stay on the ground a little less long.

Speaker 1: 27:42

And then you fall off less and less over time, or that's the theory. The last thing I want to do is beat myself up about coming off the horse and I want to invite God in and ask him how can I stay on this horse Now I don't mean the literal horse right now but how can I stay steadfast in my conviction and living the way that I believe? You're calling me to Lord, and he gives us insight and wisdom to know steps to take, and that is a really wonderful. It's wonderful to know that this is what God wants me to do in order to be more resolved, to be more committed. He says he's going to give me everything I need for life and godliness, so if he hasn't called me to it, I can't expect to be equipped for it. But if he has called me to it, then I know he will equip me for it.

Speaker 2: 28:35

Well, and as you were talking, I've got the whole picture in my mind, of course, Heidi. And and was it two years ago now that you were here with us? Yeah, Heidi and my daughter had her birthday and we all went for a horseback ride and it was hard for me. I had a hard time on that horse. It was it hurt. Hard time on that horse, it hurt, Ouch, Okay. But anyway, I was just thinking about that and thinking about what you were saying about falling off and those kinds of things. Thankfully I didn't fall off. No, you didn't.

Speaker 2: 29:07

A lot of times when we fall off, we wonder whoa, what just happened? Yes, Like wait, I didn't think that was going to happen. Sometimes it really takes us by surprise and I just want to say that's okay. I just want to say that's okay. We don't have to understand all the ins and outs of the journey all the time. Sometimes we just fall off and it hurts and we get all dusty and I don't even know. But sometimes it's okay to say God, I don't get that, what just happened? And sometimes, like you said, Heidi, in the moment He'll give us an insight or some wisdom. Sometimes it won't be till the next day or even the next week, and it's like, oh my gosh, I see it now, I see why I fell and now I get it. Or sometimes we just don't know and he says come on, come on back on, and his hand is right there and he just swings us right back up and off we go. So I just wanted to mention that really quick.

Speaker 2: 30:20

What is so amazing is that God redeems our failures, whether they're due to something external or not, you know, whatever causes us to fall off the horse or to eat outside of hunger and satisfaction boundaries. God wants to redeem the situation. That is his plan, that's his purpose, that's his design. He wants to redeem it. He wants our failures to be turned into learning opportunities and that's what we call, like Heidi said, failing well or failing forward. So yeah, in the case of a trial, okay, I can now be wiser to know that this is a rhythm of life. I'm in a rhythm of looking and learning and moving on. Looking and learning and moving on. That's the rhythm I want to be in with the Lord. I want to agree with him that what I did didn't work. This wasn't good, this wasn't working for me.

Speaker 1: 31:20

I didn't work at it, god.

Speaker 2: 31:23

I mean, I don't get it. I don't know why I went left instead of right, but I didn't like it. I didn't feel like there wasn't any peace or freedom in it. What can I do next, differently, to be equipped for victory? What can I do so that next time will come out a different way? And there's nothing negative about that, that's very positive. Yeah, so look and learn is a mind renewal tool. It's actually mind renewal because we're thinking God's thoughts after him about failure. So we're actually renewing our mind as we do this process of look and learn, this rhythm.

Speaker 2: 32:02

Yet another reason that spirit led eating might be challenging to sustain is the truth, is food and eating goes really deep. Our issues with food and eating go all the way back to when we were wee, wee, wee little ones and we cried and were fed. As we step in to try to eat only to fuel our bodies, we find that emotionally, we can go sideways. Many of us if not all of us, right, all of us who struggle with food and eating issues, we struggle to deal with emotions in a healthy way. I mean that was true for me for the very longest time, really my whole adult life. I did not know how to deal with my emotions in a way that was healthy at all. So by taking away eating and overeating as my primary go-to, my coping mechanism, all of a sudden it's like wait, a minute, I got to deal with some big emotions here.

Speaker 2: 33:03

A lot of stuff, yeah, I mean this hurts and that hurts. And what about this heartache? And wow, I never dealt with that forgiveness issue. And there's all these things that come up and that can be challenging and it can cause us to fall off the horse and run down the trail without the horse. And so if I don't have a new go-to, if I don't have something new to go to something differentounder, I'm going to struggle and I'm going to go back to my old go-to, which for me, was food and eating. There's all kinds of counterfeit comforts that you could go to that someone who's listening might go to. Food and eating is all of it. That's where I want to go. That's the trail I want to go down.

Speaker 1: 34:14

Yeah, absolutely. And you know what is consistently true is godly. Coping mechanisms have two things in common it seems like they are clear about who God is and they are clear about who I am. And so almost anything that takes me back to who is God and who am I according to him is going to be definitely healthier than things I will gravitate towards if I'm left to my own devices, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 34:46

Well, another reason that I might fall off my horse is there might be something inside of me that caused me to fall off. Maybe I asked the horse to go faster than I can manage.

Speaker 2: 34:57

I've done that before too.

Speaker 1: 34:59

It's like oh my gosh, he's going the speed of lightning and I don't know how to ride this. I may have asked him to jump over a log or something out on the trail and I lost my balance and fell off. I have to laugh because I do have a memory of something. Harley and I were running cantering up a hill and he got kind of excited and was kind of, you know, jigging a little bit, not jigging, it wasn't jigging, it was bucking.

Speaker 1: 35:25

It was crow-hawking and before he knew it, I was hanging on to his neck.

Speaker 2: 35:31

I was on sideways.

Speaker 1: 35:33

I'm like I am not going to fall off this horse again. I'm not, I'm not. And he stopped and I landed on my feet. Yes, it was so funny.

Speaker 2: 35:43

But anyway, that is funny. Oh, I love all of those stories, heidi.

Speaker 1: 35:48

So it's not me too. Actually, sometimes there's nothing external I can pin it on. It's just me, my choice, my ignorance, my inability for some reason, my limitations. It could because of my past in some way. No, I'm not blaming my parents. I am a grown woman of god who can make decisions now. But god wants to redeem all of that too. He wants maybe to teach me about myself, about him, where he was, in all of those things that happened to me previously, about what options I have going forward, so that, if all things are equal in the future, I won't stay on the ground a long time.

Speaker 1: 36:28

Right, we'll get going again and, by his grace and his wisdom, I can use what I learned from this mess up to make different choices in the future or to prepare for challenges in a new way. Sometimes it's a matter of just like, for instance, when those horses were cantering towards us and Harley got excited and wanted to get me off his back so he could chase them. I learned, looked and learned, I did, I looked and learned. It's like I bet I should get off his back the next time horses are running towards us. Yeah, and that's what we need to do in this journey we want to learn the things that God has for us so that we can stay firmly settled in our saddles and keep going down the road.

Speaker 2: 37:12

Well, and I'm thinking that for my look and learn I need a big, giant pillow under my bottom.

Speaker 1: 37:18

No, no, no, you could just be duct taped to the saddle, to the horse, duct tape around the barrel of the horse. Wouldn't that be nice if God just made us obey him and made us. But he doesn't. He gives us free choice and he knows that by not making us you will do this this way. He knows that we're going to lean into him for help and that takes our desire. You know it's a desire we build because we know we need him. Without him, yeah, it's impossible.

Speaker 2: 37:52

So true, so true.

Speaker 1: 37:54

Falling off of our spirit led eating horse is going to happen. Our spirit led eating horse is going to happen. When I got horses 22 years ago, no one told me, and it never occurred to me, that it was going to be hard and so I was unprepared, and so, if you're new to us, yeah, it's going to be hard.

Speaker 2: 38:12

So what do we hear from our culture? All the time, perform, perform, perform. And this is culture all the time, perform, perform, perform. And this is so much where the dieting mentality is steeped in. So, with revelation within and with this path of spirit led eating, we need to know and we can actually be relieved, we can actually just feel peace in this that falling off is something that happens and messing up with my eating is something that happens. It's going to happen all the time.

Speaker 2: 38:43

So, not to be afraid of it, not to think, oh my gosh, I'm going to have to quit because I can't do this Well, none of us can. We're all learning, we're all on the journey and in that moment, before you even say the Lord's name, before you even say Lord, he's turned and he's already engaged with you and he says what you know yes, what do you need? Let's learn. I've got so much to show you about that. Mess up, christina. You don't have to be afraid anymore. You are not a failure. It does not own you. You are my girl, I am your God and let's keep going. That's all it is, yeah.

Speaker 1: 39:26

You know, one of the things that, before we wrap up, was really helpful for me in my horsemanship journey was practicing getting up from the ground.

Speaker 1: 39:36

And I did come off. I needed to have. I needed to be good at getting back on the course. So I would take him to the arena and, instead of using a mounting block or a fence or an overturned bucket or whatever it might be, I would practice getting on from the ground, because out on the trail you never know if there's going to be a stump or a rock, just the right height and if the horse is going to be willing to get close to you on it and you're not carrying a bucket. Hopefully not, and so by practicing mounting again from the ground, the horse and I were able to get comfortable with the whole idea.

Speaker 1: 40:12

And I really think that there's a similarity in our spirit led eating journeys. If we practice getting going again without letting a lot of time lapse, then that's we're going to be steady. We will be steady. It doesn't mean we're going to be perfect, but we'll be steady and that's I don't know. I think that's really important.

Speaker 2: 40:35

I do too. I think it is so important. Okay, so number one to overcoming challenges with spirit led eating was about that conviction from the Lord. If we're not sure, we definitely want to invite him in and ask him to give us that conviction that spirit led eating is something that we want to do, going forward with him. We want that to be 100%. Let's go. If that's missing, go ahead and ask him. That's number one.

Speaker 1: 41:03

Yeah, definitely, and and you want to be convinced that you can be healthy living this way too, for sure. Number two to overcoming challenges with spirit led eating is to realize the impact of our dieting years and the influence of our culture. Even now we are bucking a longstanding system, and I tell you what. There are so many ways that my dieting mentality from eons ago. I stopped dieting in 1999. And yet I still can hear thoughts come into my head.

Speaker 1: 41:36

Um, we want to be aware of how that mentality, that all or nothing thinking that success or failure, that good foods bad foods, all of that stuff I must exercise to lose weight. We want to be sure that we are submitting our thoughts to the Lord and recognize that dieting mentality can undermine our spirit led eating effort, especially the way we look at our failures. If we bring our dieting mentality relative to failures into what we're doing now with spirit led eating, we're going to have a really hard time being consistent.

Speaker 2: 42:13

Yes. So number three is just to lean on God's grace, which is so, so key, and to allow ourselves to look and learn in the moment, to, instead of wallowing around in the dirt when we fall off the horse, to be able to grab a hold of the Lord's hand as he pulls us back up and just get going again. Just keep going. No more quitting, no more starts and stops. Accept, embrace. If you want to wallow in something, wallow in God's grace, you know, soak in it and get back up there and just keep going. As we develop our practice and end up with this actually beautiful rhythm. As we use the tool of look and learn, we will begin to be at peace with food eating our bodies, everything, everything. It will spill and splash into every part of your life and you will love that.

Speaker 1: 43:11

Yeah, the fourth one was just know that falling off is going to happen. That is doing the journey well, to get back on again. That's doing it for the rest of your life. You're not going to be perfect, and it's when we insist on being perfect Perfectionism is not a godly trait. Perfectionism is our way of saying we can do it ourselves.

Speaker 1: 43:31

So, know that falling off is going to happen and that by getting back on the horse, inviting God in, looking and learning with him, that is doing this journey.

Speaker 1: 43:42

Well, you know, if I had to pick a fifth one, I think that it would be this. You know, realize that God is probably up to something larger and more important than anything that has to do with what I can see, my physical size, my physical condition. You know he's up to something else and he may or may not be dealing with that as well, but if he had just five minutes to sit down and talk with you, I mean I could just picture him holding my face in his hands. What would be at the top of his priority list for things to say to me or to you? What would be at the top of his priority list for things to say to me or to you? Do we really think it would be now, then about your eating or man alive? Did you see what you weighed on the scale this morning? I don't think that would be his priority. He would speak of his love for us.

Speaker 1: 44:32

He is sanctifying us, he's drawing us into deeper intimacy with him, and he's going to waste nothing, including the very struggle we wish we could be totally free from.

Speaker 2: 44:43

So we hope that something in this discussion of ours has hit your heart in some way, has been helpful, and we would love, love, love for you to come back and join us for our next podcast episode on Revelation Within on Podcast.

Speaker 1: 45:03

Bye, see you next time See you next time.

Speaker 2: 45:08

Bye for now.