Welcome! We’re glad you came HERE to learn about weight loss. Maybe you’ve tried all the weight loss programs, diets, and workouts, but your body isn’t responding. Or, you’ve lost some weight, but you aren’t as satisfied as you thought you would be.
We understand.
We see you.
There is a better way to weight loss. God’s way.
This Guide will give you all the information you need to start losing weight in a way that is radically different than the world’s way. This is the God first way. For every practical tip we give you (and we’ll share a lot!) there is often deeper heart work to identify the desires and beliefs that keep you falling into bondage.
We can’t wait for you to get started. You’re in the right place for true weight loss.
At-Home Challenge
Table of Contents
Why is it so hard to lose weight?
You’ve done all the workouts. You’re following the most strict diet. You were losing weight, but now you’ve hit a plateau and the scale just won’t budge.
What’s wrong? Why is it so hard to lose weight? What else do you have to do?
What if the challenge of losing weight had less to do with increasing your exercise and decreasing your calories and more to do with your quality of rest?
If you’ve never heard the words rest and weight loss in the same sentence, check out this blog post or watch the video below.
I’ll say it again, you won’t lose weight in the presence of chronic stress.
As God designed, we work from rest. Rest is not in opposition to work. Rest isn’t laziness or neglect.
Rather than stress your body with a new diet or extreme fitness routine, work in rhythms of rest into your day.
Ideas to enter into rest:
– Stretch 10-15 min after the end of every workout session. Check out this RWTV Workout.
-Take a break from your phone for an hour every day. Try the 7-Days to Phone Freedom Challenge.
-Breathing practices – Try a Be Still and Be Loved on the Revelation Wellness Podcast.
What do my emotions have to do with weight loss?
As of 2013, the American Psychological Association reports, “33 percent of adults who report overeating or eating unhealthy foods because of stress say they do so because it helps distract them from stress.” Another “27 percent of adults say they eat to manage stress.”
In a post-pandemic world, this statistic has no doubt increased.
Too many of us are responding to our feelings and stress by overeating, instead of dealing with our feelings head on.
So, before we add stress to our systems trying to lose weight, let’s get sober and take time to deal with our emotional health.
Let’s align our thinking, feeling, and choosing. Then, we can make truly healthy and whole decisions and lose the weight that holds us down.
Are you an emotional eater? What is one step you can take today to be aware of your emotions and make healthy decisions?
Menopause and Weight Loss
I have a feeling that there are many women, like myself, who are trying to figure out who came one night and stole their bodies.
It seems like one night I went to bed strong and mighty in my 30’s and the next morning I woke up dry and crusty in my 40’s. Then sweaty and sticky in my 50’s.
Here’s the truth…we must get our sugar levels under control.
As we head into the new season of life, estrogen levels drop, and insulin (the hormone that regulates sugar in the body) resistance goes up, causing excess glucose in the blood at one time. Excess glucose causes inflammation (achy joints and whiny muscles) and easy storage of fat (the middle-age spread).
All food breaks down into sugar/glucose for the body to convert to energy. Some foods have more glucose power than others.
Our bodies, as beautiful and as strong as they are, are challenged to utilize glucose for fuel the same way they used to. We need to get sugar back under our feet.
Water and Weight Loss
Let me ask you a few questions:
– What do you reach for when you’re thirsty? A coffee? A snack?
– When you reach for something other than a simple glass of water, are you trying to quench the pleasures of your flesh or your creaturely need for hydration?
– Are you motivated more by God’s love for you?
– Or are you motivated by satisfying the desires of your flesh?
Anything that rises above the love of God is an idol. The idols that you raise up will not give you life. They will not bear the fruit of the Spirit in you or through you.
It is only believing and trusting in Jesus that creates an outpouring. Out of His heart flows rivers of living water. When you live by His Spirit, rivers of living water flow out of you also.
Why this analogy of thirst? In ancient times, water was life. We take water for granted. People were dependent on water for food and life. In the same way, we are entirely dependent on God. He is our sustenance.
The solution is not the “better you,” “the thinner you,” etc. The solution is going to God. So whether you need to lose 10 lbs to get your blood pressure under control, or you need to lose the shame that binds you, it is Jesus, the Living Water, who will quench your thirst and set you free.
Can I love God and still want to lose weight?
Dear frustrated heart who loves God, wants to be loved deeper by God, and KNOWS it’s really not about the weight, but would still really like weight loss–may this encourage you and renew your mind:
Press in deeper to being a chosen, had-to-have, child of God. Let him speak to your orphan heart. Only his voice can lead you in the way you should go.
No program, diet book, or fitness principles can do the work that He can. Be sure to take all food science and health information under HIs authority. But if you keep looking to man to solve an identity, value, worth, and purpose issue…it simply can’t.
It can’t fix you AND free you.
As children of God, we are called to stay free from putting bets on or placing our hope in what we see. We live from a conscious state of being a royal child of God. Living from The Kingdom of heaven and not trying to earn our way towards it.
One day our bodies will be dust. But God’s love will endure. He wants to fill us with His love.
Losing weight will not get us closer to an eternity that is already in our hearts. Live FROM eternity where everything is made whole and free, not sexy and skinny.
Make it your daily sole training purpose to know His love and grow in the knowledge of the truth that you are His daughter (or son) and we promise you….this whole chasing after the perfect body will become ancient ruins.
And now allow me a moment to speak to the strength, love, and discipline of a loving Father...if he is showing you something you NEED to be doing (or not do) you must obey. He is completely able to show us if something other than Himself is mastering us.
There is a better way to weight loss!
If weight loss or body discontent has been an uphill battle for you and you’re ready to get FREE — you are in the right place!
I’m here to tell you there’s a better way to ‘weight loss,’ and it’s GOD’S WAY.
What should I weigh?
If you find yourself wondering “What should I weigh?”, let me remind you. Jesus makes it clear we live by faith, not by sight. If the images of people on social media have you chasing after a number instead of chasing after God, you may want to ask yourself, “Why is my goal to achieve a certain weight?”
A better goal…a life lived well and free.
When I die I am absolutely sure I won’t be wishing I had hit the gym harder or lowered my body fat/weight just a bit more. A lower body fat percentage or lower number on a scale is not the benchmark of health.
Portion control tips for weight loss
In light of the extreme fitness culture we are living in today, I would be remiss not to talk about portion sizes.
Portion control sizes are out of control! Talk about extreme! The exploding portion sizes did not happen overnight. It was a slow and sneaky increase in size as the years of mass-manufactured food grew up from infancy to its current steroid-using adulthood.
When you couple the post-depression mentality alongside the rapid growth of the industrial revolution then fast forward into the future, you will arrive at Costco.
We, the American population are believing the lie – more is better. This is the heart of the extreme fitness culture we are in right now. If we have ears to hear, God has been asking us to learn sufficiency for some time now.
Allow me to challenge you to this; the next time you sit down to eat, ask God to help you look at your plate and put a reasonable amount of food on the plate. Ask Him! I dare you…ask Him! Then sit down, slow down and eat…just enough.
Just in case you have forgotten, refresh your heart with this practical hunger scale for weight loss in the chart here.
Why all the weight loss programs don't work
The desire to lose weight is not wrong. Sometimes losing weight is necessary for your health and wellbeing. Sometimes you don’t lose weight in the hopes of having the “ideal body,” but for the desire to keep up with your kids.
In true Revelation Wellness fashion, we won’t prescribe you a weight loss plan. We aren’t going to tell you what you should or shouldn’t eat to lose weight. We won’t sell you any products to shed the pounds.
Instead, we are going to point you to God and invite you to search your heart. If you aren’t content with your body (believing that your body is good because it is created by God), then no diet or weight loss program will bring you satisfaction.
Ask yourself these questions to check your heart:
Do I believe I have a good body?
Why do I want to lose weight?
What do I hope weight loss will achieve in my life?
Am I valued by God whether or not I lose the weight?
How can I walk with the Spirit in this weight loss journey, rather than rely on a strict diet?
Be encouraged by this: God is concerned with ALL of you — heart, mind, body, and spirit. The saving work of Jesus includes your body image. Will you trust Him?
[Listen to #621 Reving the Word: Pain’s Game (Colossians 2)]
Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
