Episode 6
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Welcome to your daily bread with co hosts, Abbie Stasior and Hannah Calhoun. We're here to be your weekly source of spiritual nourishment, guiding you to find food freedom in a deeper connection with Christ. As we explore the intersection of faith and nutrition, these bite sized episodes will help you heal your relationship with food and your body through practical advice, biblical wisdom, and heartfelt encouragement.
And as a disclaimer, we are not pastors, but passionate registered dietitians and sisters in Christ, offering our insights to support you on this faith filled journey to a healthier, more fulfilling life. Join us by taking a seat at our table as we break bread and allow God in to break the chains of diet culture.
Hannah: Hello. Okay,
I'm going to be reading Joshua 1 9 and we're gonna, we're gonna unpack what this, what this means, um, for us taking into consideration our body image and, and things like that. So Joshua 1 9, haven't I commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
I'm just going to read it again. Haven't I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Abbie: So comforting.
Hannah: It really is. And I feel like as someone who grew up in the church from actual birth, um, you know, I hear this a lot. Like, oh, Joshua 1 9, like, be strong and courageous. But. You know, like, these, these, these little life verses can, can lose their, their power if you just read over it and skim over it, like, I've heard this before, I've heard this before, and, you know, reading it now,
with the, the context of what You and I are focusing on here. Like, God wants his people to be strong and courageous. And, you know, obviously, like, he is able to give us supernatural strength and courage in times where we really do not have the bandwidth to muster up our own human strength and courage. I think that we often do not have the bandwidth to do so.
Um, And our human strength will only take us so far, right? But what I do know is that if we are restricting our intake, if we are not adequately nourished, if we are not adequately rested or hydrated, you know, our brain is not going to be functioning Properly to the best of its abilities and the body is, is a powerful thing that adapts to lots of different conditions.
You know, whether you overfeed it, it knows what to do. If you underfeed it, it knows what to do for some time, but it's a, it's a fact of, are you surviving or are you thriving? And I really feel like, you know, God wants his people to be thriving. So that we can do the work that he has called us to do in this finite world, sinful world where we're called to expand his kingdom and, how can we be strong when we're feeling so weak physically?
Because like, of course, in our weakness. He is made strong, yes, but if we are intentionally restricting ourselves and making our body weak for the sake of appearances, for the sake of, you know, Whatever it is, we're going through disordered eating, eating a disorder, dieting, trying to fit into a wedding dress, trying to fit into a, pair of pants for Thanksgiving, like, whatever it is, if you were intentionally under nourishing ourself,
can we show up for what God has called us to do?
Abbie: I really don't think we can. And speaking from my own personal experience, a couple of years ago, I went through a lot of gut health issues and every treatment I tried and nothing was working. I kept relapsing. My symptoms were getting worse. Finally, the doctor I was working with was like, well, we're going to have to put you on a three week liquid diet.
So I was on the elemental diet. It was essentially like baby formula, um, for three weeks. It tasted so disgusting. I could only stomach about one shake a day. And so that was about 500 calories. So I was having 500 calories for three weeks. I was starving. I was having hypoglycemic attacks, like low blood sugar attacks.
Um, like I almost passed out several times. I lost a ton of weight and it's wild that I was getting so many. compliments and how my body looked. And I'm like, wow, I'm literally chronically ill right now. I'm like, this is so bad. And that's what people are complimenting and reinforcing it. So that could be a whole other episode.
But, um, I just remember I had started grad school at that time and I was so hungry. All I could think about Was, was food and how much I wanted to eat and at that point it was, it was all consuming. So I completely agree. I was so weak at that time physically, but my mind was so consumed with, with food and my weight loss and body image and just how much I wanted to eat and how sick I really felt and how frustrated I was with my body and the, the diet that I had been put on.
There was no way that I could have been Jesus's hands and feet. There's no way that I could have done anything to progress the kingdom. I wasn't productive in grad school so distracted in class. I was like missing emails and assignments because I was just so distracted and just didn't have any energy.
It was so hard to get out of bed. Which, yes, I was healing from, from that condition. But I think when our focus is weight loss and striving for thinness, and we are really making that our focus and our idol and taking our eyes off of God, it can be really easy to slip into those things.
But when our focus is, wow, I want to be his hands and feet. I want to progress his kingdom. You then start to realize. I need my physical body. I need to steward myself so that I have the energy and the vibrancy and the productivity to have the stamina to execute that.
Hannah: It's so, so true. And I think many women know all too well the feeling of being so hungry and thinking about food all the time because a lot of us either gone through some illness like, like you, which I had a similar experience like a couple of years ago.
Yeah. And I was on the, I was on a low FODMAP diet for like IBS and stuff. And I was like, you know, I was miserable. That was miserable. And yours sounds worse. Yeah, well, I
Abbie: was on low FODMAP for a year. Yeah, it was, it was really tough.
Hannah: It's, it's miserable, but whether, you know, whether we've gone through that with like an illness or we've chronically dieted for most of our adult life, um, we know the feeling and you really don't have a lot of mental capacity and physical strength to do much.
Even if you think you do, once you start nourishing yourself, you're like, oh, my brain can do all this, you know, my body can do all this, I have the energy for all of this, I don't need another energy drink, I just needed food, , yeah, you don't need another celsius. Or a cup of coffee. Like you just need to eat, girlfriend.
Abbie: And that's why I love that this verse also says, do not be afraid because we have so much anxiousness. Like, Oh, if I, if I eat too much, then I'm going to get fat. And we have this fear of weight gain and a fear of eating more, maybe a fear of eating certain foods.
But. The Lord says, do not be afraid. This shows up all the time in scripture. Do not be afraid. And so we need to trust him that it is okay to properly nourish ourselves. And it's actually necessary. Yes.
Hannah: Like. , when I work with people, I find that a lot of people truly are just not eating enough.
And , I might be telling them like, listen, you've been skipping breakfast for 30 years. Like you need to reintroduce some kind of, some kind of nourishment in the morning, you know, balanced carb, fat, protein, everything. And And you need to have that breakfast, that lunch, that dinner, or maybe it's smaller, more frequent meals, depending on the person.
And they're like, but Hannah, you know, like, I really want to lose weight. And like, I feel like eating more. You're telling me to eat more. This doesn't make sense. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. First of all, God designed us to, we need food. We need food like he designed our body in such a beautiful way and we can't just go up to a gas station and get some gas in our human body and, you know, truck along life for a week or so before we need more like we need like multiple pit stops throughout the day and everybody's different and it's so So important and that is okay.
Do not be afraid if you're afraid to, to stop coasting by and surviving in life. If you're afraid to do the bare minimum as a human being that God designed our bodies to do, like, you know, give that give that fear to God laid at his feet. Lay it at his feet. If we are afraid to eat, you know, if we're afraid of bare minimum eating , to live as a human, that, that needs to be put at the feet of Jesus.
And you need to pray over that in your life every day that he will bind that in and free you from that fear.
Abbie: Yes. And one thing that I hear a lot from the clients that I work with that are in a corporate setting is that they are afraid to take a break to eat because they're nervous that they won't get all of their work done or their boss is going to be mad at them.
They're going to be perceived as unproductive. And so The first thing I always ask, I always dig a little bit and try and get curious because every work environment is different. But one thing I'll ask my clients is, will your boss actually get mad at you? Or is this a perceived fear? Are you putting that pressure on yourself to work through lunch, to skip lunch, to get things done?
Um, because most of us, it's illegal if you don't get a proper lunch break, but most of the time it is. Self imposed fear of not taking a break. And we have to think too, if you actually take 10, 20 minutes to fuel yourself, you have that pit stop? As you mentioned to refuel, aren't you going to show up for your work in the second half of your day?
Having so much more energy and greater focus and greater productivity, you're going to be more energized, you're going to get more done in less time than if you just plow all the way through. So I think if you're also feeling anxious around taking a break to eat and you feel guilty around doing that, that's something to.
Lay at the feet of Jesus and our hope is that you take these kind of bite sized episodes into your quiet time and Work with God on the things that come up for you as you're listening to these episodes So I think the things that you and I are bringing up in this episode around food fear Mm hmm are definitely something to bring to God.
Hannah: Yes, so I encourage you this week to really Meditate on the fact that God has called us he has commanded us To be strong and courageous, not small and insecure. He has called us and commanded us to be strong and courageous, not small and insecure. And so I really encourage you to pray on that, meditate on that, and ask God, which one of those are you living right now in your life?
Are you living as someone who's strong and courageous, or are you, are you living small and secure? And, really ask him to to shed light on the different areas of your life that that need that need him
Abbie: especially as we're entering the holiday season. You need to be strong and courageous and set boundaries and stick to those boundaries.
You might need to have a difficult conversation with a family member. Hey, I don't want to talk about my body. I don't want you to comment on my eating or this is a boundary that I'm setting. Please respect that. So be strong and courageous as you enter those conversations and discern those as well.
thank you for joining us on this episode of your daily bread. We hope you found inspiration and practical guidance to nourish your body and soul. Remember the journey to a healthier relationship with food and a deeper connection with Christ is ongoing and we're here to support you every step of the way.
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As we conclude today's episode, we encourage you to take what resonated with you into your quiet time with God, allow God to reveal to you any changes that you can make for his glory, trusting that you are fearfully and wonderfully made in his image. Stay tuned for our next episode where we'll continue to explore how God's word helps us heal our relationship with food in our bodies Until then may you find both physical and spiritual nourishment and may you be filled with his peace and joy.
God bless
