Episode 24 Transcript
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Abbie: 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.
Hannah: 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.
Abbie: 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.
Hello. Hello. Today, we're going to be talking about when we say, I know what to do, but I am just not doing this. This is something that Hannah and I hear a near daily basis. And this is something that we have definitely dealt with ourselves and Paul in a letter to the Romans was saying the exact same thing.
So we're going to be reading from Romans chapter seven, verse 15. It says, I do not understand what I do, for what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do. Paul, I feel, I feel you. I felt that in my soul.
Hannah: Relatable.
Abbie: Literally so relatable. Um, like, yo, seriously, how often are we like, we know what to do.
Like, I know the action steps. I just can't make my body do it. Like for whatever reason, I'm just not. Motivated. And so I really thought about this and I had a recent client call recent as in earlier today. Um, and she literally said this exact same thing and I was explaining to her, I'm like, there's several reasons why you know what to do and you're just not doing it.
So the three reasons that I gave her number one, if you are just so burnt out and you literally have no energy to do anything, get. You could know exactly what to do, but you're not going to be energetically up for doing it. Um, so being burnt out and just too tired is, is one of those reasons. Second reason is if you know what to do, but you're not doing it, the barrier for entry could be too high.
It could be inconvenient for you to do that. And I just think, you know, people that work all day, and then when they want to work out after work, it's not always convenient to drive across town to go to the gym or a workout class in rush hour traffic when you're already exhausted. So that might be too big of a barrier for entry.
You're not likely to follow through in that behavior, even if you know what to do. But it might not be convenient to do it. And then the third reason that I see at least in my experience in my practice practice is that, um, people know what to do and they don't do it because they don't have a strong enough.
Why for doing it, they're just not emotionally attached to the why so. You could know it to do, but you're not motivated to follow through on it because you don't feel like doing it. So you need a stronger why, because that motivates you to do the things that are good for you, the things that you want to do on the days that you don't really want to do it or you're tired.
Hannah: , a hundred percent. And I just like, I'm re reading like as you're, as you're speaking, like Romans 7, 15, that like, I do not understand what I do for what I want to do. I do not do, but what I hate I do. And I'm obviously like in the context of like self care, I'm thinking about like, you know, I'm exhausted.
I got home from work. I lay down on the couch, mistake number one, and I'm like, oh, Hannah, we are rolling straight into a long nap that's gonna trickle into our night's sleep, you know, I'm gonna have to wake myself up for dinner, I'm gonna have to wake myself back up to brush my teeth, like, instead of, it's like, oh, am I really gonna do this, am I really gonna go into potato mode on the couch, and like, when I know I really wanna go for a walk outside, it would make me feel so good to be in like, fresh air, like, I'm like, am I really doing this?
And sometimes I just Sometimes I do it. I do it and I just sit there and, and you know, you beat yourself up because you're like, I would love to go for a walk right now. Like that's me. Or I would love to go to the gym right now. Or I'd love to be like making my, making my lunch for tomorrow right now so that I have like a balanced lunch, you
Abbie: know, like, but I'm scrolling on Tik TOK.
And it's like, dang it, now I've been scrolling for two hours. And I told myself that I was going to unplug, but I simply did not. Um, yeah, I have definitely, definitely been there. And I've been there too with that, um, scrolling, replacing my quiet time. And I'm like, dang it. I didn't want to do that. I wanted to be very intentional and give God my first fruits of the day, give him my first and my best.
But here I am, you know, me deep and tic tac. So yeah, um, we have all. All been there. And so I think, um, you have to examine like, which one of those three are you? Because if you are so burnt out, there might be a day where you want to go for a walk or want to work out, but you genuinely actually need to rest.
You need to be a couch potato because it would be the more disordered thing to muster up more energy. Like you would be overexerting yourself, you know? So I think there's gotta be some discernment there you might need. You might need to go back to episode 11 and, um, take a nap, fuel yourself, and not be trying to pour from an empty cup, and you might need to actually be refilled.
And if something's not convenient, if the barrier for entry is too high, it might not be convenient for you to go back out and refill. to go to the workout class. Maybe just go for a walk around your block or do a 10 minute yoga video from YouTube or just something from home, you know, like it might not be convenient.
It might not be the best step for you, you know, try and like, if you have this goal, like try and break it down and find like, what would make it more convenient? And maybe it is realistic for you to still go work out, but what you need to do is plan ahead and pack your gym bag and your sneakers in the morning or the night before, so that it's just in your car.
So right after work, you can go, you don't have to come home and then go out, you know, something like that. So thinking through those action steps, I think can be really helpful. And then honestly, The strong why, like, and having a strong why I think is, um, where most, where most people are, because if you have a strong why, the action steps will just become evident for you, you can work, you just muster up the energy, like, most of the time, like, we do have a reserve, you know, sometimes we're not, you know, burnt out.
We just need to do what we say we're going to do and execute and have a stronger motivation. So, um, with my clients, I do this exercise called, uh, the seven layers deep Y exercise. And I got this from Dean Graciosi. Who's like a, I actually think he is Christian if he's not, I'm sorry, but no, I'm pretty sure he is.
Um, cause I feel like I've, I've read a couple of his books, but I'm pretty sure he's talked about God in his books, but anyway, um, but he. mentions that you have to have an emotional connection to your why. So you need to ask, you need to almost get seven degrees of separation away from your original goal and ask yourself why seven times and around why number four is when you start to get emotionally attached to that.
The why at seven, um, is
So I'll give you like two client examples. So I asked a client, I was like, why do you want to exercise? And she was like, well, I want more energy. And I was like, okay, great. Why do you want more energy? And she's like, cause I want to be more productive at work. Like if I'm tired, I'm not, I'm not getting anything done.
Okay. Why is it important for you to be productive at work? And she said, well, I'm trying to get a promotion. Okay. Why is it important for you to get a promotion? I want to make more money. Okay. And I know this sounds kind of obvious, but you know, you got to sometimes go through this step, these steps so that people realize, why do you want to make more money?
Well, I might, you know, my husband and I were really trying to save up, like we have financial goals. Okay. Why is it important for you to hit those financial goals while we're trying to start a family? And there are certain things that we want to do with our family. Like we want to go on vacations and have really intentional family times.
And we, and I was like, why is it important for you to have those really intentional family times? And she said, you know, I want to be able to afford, you know, Experiences with my family that growing up, my family wasn't able to afford. And I'm like, Oh, wow. Like that is such a stronger motivation to get you out of bed, to exercise in the morning than just, I just want more energy, you know, because sometimes you'd be like, Oh, I'm tired.
The more energetic thing for me is just to stay in bed. But it's like, Oh no, you might actually need to get up and follow through an exercise. And then the other client I was speaking with earlier today, um, She, her goal was to just have a more structured morning and evening routine because she's like, I know when I have that, I'm able to eat breakfast.
So I'm like, okay, why is it important for you to have a morning routine so I can eat a substantial breakfast? Okay. Why is it important for you to eat a substantial breakfast? Well, that gives me more energy. Okay, great. Why is it important for you to have more energy? Oh, she said it was like energy and she takes a lot of medications for a condition that she has.
Um, she has interstitial cystitis, I see. And so she's like, I take a lot of medications that I need to eat with medication. So I have more energy and my, I take my medications and my symptoms are, are better. Um, she's like, I just overall feel healthier. And she's like, I want to feel healthier and have my symptoms because if I do this long enough, hopefully I can get off of.
These medications. And that was like, why number four for her? And I was like, Oh, that's good. Like wanting to get off of these medications was a good, strong wife for her. But I was like, I think we can dive deeper. And I was like, why is it important for you to like better manage your symptoms? And she's like, well, it would make my life easier.
It would make work less stressful. Why is it important for your life to be easier and your work less stressful? And she's like, well, if stuff was less stressful, I wouldn't have to think about work as much. And I could have more bandwidth to. Play with my kid and to be present with my son. I wouldn't have a shorter fuse with both him or my husband.
I was like, why is it important for you to not have a short fuse with them? She's like, 'cause I wanna connect with them. She's like, I don't wanna just provide for my son. I want to have a relationship with him. And I was like, why is it important for you to strengthen these connections and to have a real relationship?
And she said, you know, when I grew up, she's like, I didn't even remember having like family meals. And togetherness. And she's like with my family, I want very intentional togetherness. I'm like, I can't, I was like, that is so good. Like that is so much more motivating. So I hope that that exercise is helpful for y'all.
Um, and hopefully that will get you to do what you want to do so that you don't hate what you do.
Hannah: And that's why, you know, we encourage people to say like, don't, don't say, I just want to lose weight. I just want to lose 10 pounds. I 50 pounds. It's like, Whoa, like let's dig deeper, because plenty of people feel like that in this world, and that's not, that's not motivating them toward self care, you know, and so really like, it's not that, it's like, oh my gosh, don't say that, that's horrible, but it's like, Okay, really?
Like, let's, let's peel that back a little bit and see really what's underneath there. And maybe what's underneath that desire will be like a stronger motivator, like Abby was saying, to, to get up and have those routines. And make sure that you're caring for yourself and you're doing the things that you, that you want to do, that you know are good for you.
You're letting your yeses be yes and your noes be noes. And you got to be realistic with yourself. If you have. Three church events in one day. One family event. An errand to run. Meals to prep. Heck no, you're probably not going to go to the gym later. Hello, that should be your rest day. That can be your potato day.
In the evening, you sit on the couch, you watch a movie with your, your, your husband or something. I don't know. So, you know, you got to be realistic as well with your time and with what your day looks like so that you can take care of yourself in, in the best way possible for your unique life and schedule.
Abbie: Mm. Absolutely.
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
