Episode 38 Transcript
[00:00:00] 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.
Hannah: Welcome back. We are so happy to have you tuning in on another episode. Today we are privileged to have with us Laura Lindahl. She is a faith based strength coach. She's the owner of True Strength Collective and the host of Her True Strength podcast. And she's going to touch on um, Body neutrality in the gym, and we are just so excited to hear what she has to share with us today.
So, thank you for joining us, Laura. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Yeah, love, love being on your show. I heard that you guys normally start with scripture, so can I go ahead and open the word and like we just, can we just dive right in, like deep in, go ahead In dive head first. head first.
Laura: I love it. Okay, well, I'd love to read, uh, Psalm 1 39. In the first part of the chapter it says, oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know, when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. You formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them of the days that were formed for me, yet as there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, oh God. How vast is the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake and I am with you.
Abbie: Oh, that like hit my spirit. I've been crying.
Hannah: I really, um, what caught my attention right there was my frame was not hidden from you.
Abbie: Yeah, me too. Mm.
Hannah: My brother and his wife are having a baby in December and they had a, an ultrasound yesterday, and you can see their baby boy like moving around and you can see his little heart beating and his spine and his little Mm-Hmm, like his side profile already.
You can see it, his little nose and, and everything. . So I was just picturing him and how he already has his little features and there's already a height that he's going to be and a build that he's going to have when he grows up, like all of that is, is established. And it's just so, so interesting how, you know, we're knit together so intentionally and carefully, um, in, you know, in our mother's womb.
It's beautiful.
Laura: Mm. Yeah. The, um, the topic of, of body neutrality fits in so well to what you just said, Hannah, because you talk about like infants and how we see infant bodies and we see infants and toddlers, and we don't look at their body and be like, how dare you have rolls on your, on your legs. Right.
Like we look at that and we're like, that's such a precious piece of creation, but something happens along the way. Uh, typically for most women when we're in between the ages of seven to 14. And something happens along the way where we start to see those things and those creases in our skin, and we don't see them as precious.
And we don't see them as fearfully and wonderfully made and the world offers us variations of how to see our body. And there's a few different variations. They have variation of what I would call like body affirmations or body positivity, where they say that, you know, you can be healthy at every single size.
And they say that, you know, the body is this beautiful, wonderful thing. And there's aspects of that. I don't know about you guys, but there's aspects of that, that I can get behind. And there's aspects of that, that I can celebrate. Like, I think that we should be celebrating everybody because we know in Genesis, when God created man, that he stamped his perfect, beautiful, just immaculate image on us.
And we all bear that stamp. We can't remove that stamp. So because of that, we all do have that inherent, it just completely valuable worth, regardless of what we look like. But at the same time, we weren't the cornerstone of creation. We weren't the aspect of creation, that's Christ. And so I think the, the only hesitation or like the hand behind my back with body positivity is that yes, our bodies are beautiful, but this life is not about our bodies, that our bodies are great, but loving our body is not the point of our life.
And that's where body neutrality comes in. Body neutrality says your body is valuable, but it's not the most valuable thing about you. And so we don't have to go through our life as believers. Constantly just trying to love our bodies and constantly trying to just be at a place where we feel like our bodies are good enough and throwing all of these affirmations on our body.
We can just come to a place of neutrality with our bodies where we agree with the value that they hold because of God's image. And we agree that that value is irrevocable, but we do not choose to put our body in the place where Christ is, which is the throne of our heart. Amen. Which is what we think about.
So that's body neutrality kind of in a nutshell, um, what is your guys's experience with body neutrality or body positivity? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on that as registered dietitian with more of that background, um, before we kind of dive into like the topics of the gym and how it plays in there.
Abbie: Yeah, absolutely. So I, in addition to being a registered dietitian and a non diet dietitian, I'm also. a certified intuitive eating counselor. So I definitely practice those principles. And that's the lens in which I'm counseling my clients in addition to a faith based lens. And, um, I do believe in health at every size and I, but I also, when it comes to body positivity, See the toxic positivity aspect of that as well.
And I think if you're saying to yourself and you have really harsh, negative, critical dialogue towards yourself, like, oh, like I hate my thighs, or I hate my stomach, I hate how I look today. It's very hard for you to then turn around and be like, well, I, I love, I love my arms, I love my stomach, I love my thighs.
Mm-Hmm. I love how I look today. Like I think that it's very hard to access. body positivity in that moment. But just because you might not be able to access body positivity, does that mean we have to automatically be negative? No. So that's why, you know, I do, um, practice a lot of body neutrality with my clients to help them neutralize the situation so that they're not going down a negative shame spiral, but they can help to regulate their emotions and, you know, work, work to move forward.
So I, Definitely I'm a full proponent for body neutrality. I think that that is so helpful. And I think it's great if you can appreciate different parts of your body and how God designed you and because our, our body is on loan from God and it's a tool and it's a resource to be able to execute the mission and the calling that he's put on our lives.
But you're right, that loving our body isn't the goal. That's not the point. the point is to spread the gospel, be a disciple, be a witness, share your testimony, follow Christ, you know, all of those things and, you know, be seeking his kingdom. So, um, I just, I think when we get so wrapped up and we harp on the goal being that we need to be more positive towards our body, I think we tend to miss it and then we're disappointed and then we feel like we fall short and then that leads to more negativity.
So I am a huge proponent for body neutrality.
Hannah: Yeah, I see, um, completely what you're, what you're saying, Laura. Um, and it makes me think of how, and, and Abby as well, like what you were saying, you, you can't go from like body hate to body love. It just, you can't do that. Um, and so bringing people to that midpoint.
Is more realistic and I think it's easy for us in our flesh to Be very black and white and think like I either hate something or i'm obsessed with it and um I do see how um people in the thick of diet culture can be striving and striving and striving for this perfect physique this you know idolizing thinness and then maybe you know the the fog is lifted and they realize, um, that they can accept their body the way that it is.
They can, um, Work on stewarding their body well and, um, making themselves feel healthy from the inside out and that they can accept their body wherever it lands while doing all of that. And it can kind of shift to the other end of the spectrum where they're like, I'm a queen, I'm so hot, I'm, you know, it's almost like, Now they're idolizing themselves and their body and, you know, we don't want to be idolizing thinness and this, you know, physique that we have up on this pedestal and hating on ourselves.
And then we also don't want to be, like, idolizing the body that we do have and being prideful about it. Um, so it's like, Totally, the one end and the other end and kind of recognizing that those are very extreme and God is a God of order and intention, and we can model that and know that, you know, our body size and our weight are simple things.
Measures, they're just, they're, they're facts, and they're one particular, um, measurement, just like our blood pressure is one particular measurement, it's not the be all, end all, and we can just exist and steward our bodies well and pray to the Lord for guidance on how to take care of our bodies, knowing that, like you said, Laura, it's not it.
Like our, our body is not everything. There's eternity and we are, you know, we are not going to have these bodies forever. And so we also emphasize this in our podcast, like really focusing on nourishing our spirit, our spirit, our spirit, our spirit, because you know, with our daily bread, with the bread of life, with the living water, because everything else is temporary, right?
Laura: Yeah, and I don't know about you guys, but I was not taught how to see my body growing up in the church. It was, we talk about, uh, stewarding your time, stewarding your treasures and they would like touch on the temple, but more often than not, my experience in the church was very legalistic and how they approached it of, you know, if you look good, then you're probably a good steward of your health, but it had nothing to do with like the internal, how do you actually see your body as made in the image of God?
What does it mean to, to apply the gospel to how we see beauty? And disagree with the how the world sees beauty like what does that actually look like? What does that actually take? Um, and I walk my clients through a process of what run identity restoration, where we say, okay, we've put our identity in some way.
Right. And even this, this applies to the most God fearing women like I, the probably the height of my body image struggles was when I was, I was leading a small group. I was working out like from the outside looking in, I looked phenomenal, right? Like had the bod, I was active in my church. I was serving, I was leading a small group.
Like you would never know that the inside of my mind, inside of my body was just riddled with anxiety. Yeah. And I think that a lot of that sends back to a level of doctrine of, of missing out on what does it actually mean for me to be made in the image of God? And if God is holy, which we know that he is, it's the only thing in the Bible that's really repeated those three times, right?
Holy, holy, holy. So because we know that he is that utmost holy, he cannot lie. And the beginning of time, when he said that our bodies were made good, that that can't change. And so because of that, we have his image stamped on our bodies. It's irrevocable that beauty that we have then given. And it is an asset.
I believe that women have that's unique to us, that beauty, like guys can be beautiful. I don't think that that's, I'm not saying like men can't be beautiful, but I think that women have this like. This inherent beauty and I think women take that from being an asset of like, okay, this is nice. Like God gave me beautiful hair.
God gave me skin. God gave me curves. These things that from a human perspective. Can, can be nice. And, and our, our bodies see that as like, Oh, that's pleasant. Like, it's nice to have these things. It can become an addiction, an addiction to earn acceptance and addition addiction to earn favor compliments, status power.
And again, like Satan takes this just like he did in the garden. He takes this good thing like, Oh, well, you're being a good steward. And then he like, Wraps his nasty little lie around it and puts conditions on our acceptance and puts conditions on our, our favor with the Lord. And we start to, I don't know about you guys, but I really use my health at rather than, um, just a means of like humility and, and faithful stewardship.
I use it as a means to feel like I was more righteous. And I used it as a means to feel like I was a better Christian because I was doing like lifting, you know, six times a week and doing all of these crazy things. And, and so, yeah, I think that shifting towards body neutrality is agreeing with how God sees our bodies, that they are vastly important, but they're not the most important thing about us.
And when it comes to practicing that in the gym, there are several ways we can do this. I think it at a very baseline level, if we like strip away all the layers of the onion, if you agree that your body is not the most important thing about you, , but it is still important. You're going to create goals that are much more.
Prioritizing our function over our form that our body takes. And so you'll choose goals that, for example, I want to be able to pick up my kids without back pain. That's something that is very functionally beneficial, not only for us, but for the kingdom, right? You're going to be able to be a more present mom.
If you have energy, if you have strength to pick up your kids, right. And in the process of achieving that goal, you have gains that go far beyond anything you see in the mirror and last a lot longer, right. You'll feel, you'll feel capable. You'll feel strong. And I think when you put body neutrality in the hands of a believer, It inherently turns to a deeper worship and love of God, because we can then see our bodies of how God, you made this body.
Good. You made this body capable. You made this body strong. How amazing is it that I can, can use exercise as a way to get out of pain as a way to build strength, have more energy, improve my function. And I think that it really shifts the conversation. , when we start setting goals that are around our function rather than are around our form.
Hannah: You know, and I'm just so, so thankful that, you know, our listeners have the privilege of hearing this perspective from you who does all this great work with your clients. Um, because like you said, we don't get taught this in the church.
And I think because Diet culture lies to people and tells people that health means Counting calories health means you're on a diet Health means you're trying to lose weight You know when things about your body are mentioned in the church Maybe like those things are mentioned and it's like, ooh, so close, so close.
You just missed the mark there with the point, you know? Um, and it's just because people don't know and it's, we have this understanding of what health looks like, right? There's so many different factors. That play to our health and you know, can we ever really be truly 100 percent healthy? I don't think so.
There's always going to be something because we are in a broken and fallen world. You know, our prime health will be when we are reunited with our father in heaven. Um, so. Because we're in, in a, a sinful broken world that has disease and death. Um, and so, it, this is such an important conversation. And, You know, it's true.
Like what do you want to be able to like sit on the floor with your grandkids and get up? maybe you can practice things in the gym that will help you be able to do that safely and Confidently and like you mentioned you want to be able to pick up your kids without hurting your back because if you hurt your back You know and maybe your your spouse works full time and you're the one at home taking care of the kids and if your back goes out that's a big deal.
Your partner's, your husband's gonna have to take time off of work, your parents probably gonna have to come and stay with you. It's gonna shift everything and so these are important goals. Like, are Our our function over our form because what is what is our form and why are we prioritizing our physique?
Is it for that external praise? Is it for power? Is it for validation? Is it so that we can get a little ego boost? Um, and in prioritizing our function our form might shift We might look a little more snatched and toned and that's fine. We were allowed to be happy about it, but it can't become like the beyond on, and there can't be like pride coupled with that.
Abbie: Yeah. Yeah. I agree. And what I hear from my clients when they're at the gym, Laura, is that they do a lot of body checking. And so sometimes it's really hard to be neutral because they're just bombarded. with looking at themselves and it's hard. So they're trying to relieve stress by doing a workout and do stuff for their wellbeing, but it's causing even more stress by going to the gym.
And sometimes they shift to doing it at home workout or something, but what would be some tangible tips that you would recommend for people as they're actively working out? And maybe they are trying to go in with, you know, a good goal, focusing on function and really trying to posture their heart towards the Lord.
And doing things to just do with their body well, but not striving for thinness. Um, and they really have good motivations and intentions, but they're still getting caught in a lot of negative self talk. And it's hard to stay body, body neutral at the gym. What would be some tangible things that you would recommend for them to do as they're actively working out?
Laura: Yeah, that's a great, that's a great question. Um, I think I, I am very, very big on starting with the end in mind. So if the end goal is to be able to have a workout that helps you, you walk away from the end of the workout, you're feeling empowered, you're feeling strong, you're feeling capable, you're feeling that release of tension.
That comes with exercise, right? Exercise creates a vacuum in our bodies. It like we release tension and then we're able to absorb something almost immediately. You'll notice this with exercise. And I believe the intention with that is, is, is to receive the Holy spirit. And so if we're, we're starting with the end in mind that we want to welcome the Holy spirit into the experience from the beginning.
And so whether that looks like before you walk into the gym or before you start your workout, I have my clients practice something that I call lifting liturgy. And it's very, very basic. It can be something along the lines of God, thank you for this good, strong body. Help me to bring you glory and surrender my anxiety to you today in this gym.
And when we partner with the Holy spirit in that way on our health journey, we're, we're willingly submitting to his, his authority. And we're also at the same time, humbly, humbly saying, I can't do this on my own. So I think the number one mistake that I see Christian women make when they start their health journey and they start this process.
Okay. Like, you know, God wasn't even a part of my fitness before. And now I'm like trying to learn, what does it look to, to make, to partner with him. Through this journey. I think the biggest mistake that they make is they're like, I'm gonna do this and like, we pull up our bootstraps and we're like, all right, I'm gonna memorize all the verses.
I'm gonna do all the things. But I think that there's this, this submission to recognize I can't do this on my own. And, and Holy Spirit, I need your supernatural power right now to be it. My confidence to be my security, uh, to hem me in both behind and before. And so I i'd say to start the stage with some type of lifting literary have it be something that you repeat That is short that is concise to what you need But just taking that time maybe before you you get out of your car Before you, you know turn on the workout before you open your phone, whatever it is to start with that in mind Very very powerful for I don't think we pause enough as women.
I think we'd go from one thing to the next, to the next, to the next. And that builds this momentum of striving. And when we pause, we can then receive the Holy spirit. So I'd recommend that right off the bat. A second recommendation is to wear something that does not distract you. If you are distracted in the gym, then chances are you are going to project that distraction on other people.
By that, I mean, you will likely think that you are distracting other people and or be distracted by other people. And we know that for us to build the most strength, we need to have a really, really, firm mind to muscle connection, which means that our mind is focused. Focus and present to the muscles that are working and the more clear that connection can be of us understanding I'm using my hamstrings, I'm using my glutes, I'm feeling my quads.
When we can be connected to those thoughts and present to those thoughts, our muscles fire better. Muscles fire better. They grow stronger, faster. Your workouts are more efficient. You feel better, right? Starting with that end in mind. so I would say wearing clothes that are not distracting to you wearing something that you show up and you're not even thinking about your body.
And this may shift, like, Maybe one day wearing, you know, leggings is not distracting for you or wearing shorts is not distracting. And then another day, maybe, you know, you had more sodium and you're just feeling, you're just not feeling it. Right. And like leggings feel uncomfortable and don't wear them, wear something that you just, you can put on.
You don't think about your body and you're just completely present to practice that mind to muscle connection. It'd be my second one. Um, and then number three, and this is something that I do give my clients is to give them more of a, a body neutral training program. A lot of training programs that are out there, I mean bonkers, but again, it's just the world or believers that don't necessarily know or aren't present to this struggle.
Um, but a lot of them are very triggering for women who struggle with body image because you hear them talk about, We're going to tone your triceps and we're going to, you know, like, you know, crush your core, burn your glutes. And they use all of these terms that really are just agreeing with the world's standard of beauty that women have to be toned in certain places and voluptuous in certain places.
And it's again, like we're, I believe that we're always being discipled by something. And you don't recognize the influence that that can have on how you see your body when you're working out. If you have somebody on a screen who's saying, you know, we're going to burn fat today, we're going to do this, all these things, like it just perpetuates that old mindset that we're trying to get out of.
Um, and so in all of my training programs, I have a training subscription for clients. That's for, that's very body neutral. And I, We don't talk about like burning your glutes. We don't talk about those things. It's, this is going to help you pick up your kids and you're going to feel great. Or this is going to help strengthen your core.
So you feel more stable in your deadlift. Which will help you lifting your garden plants or those types of things. And we have that direct correlation of strength to our function rather than arm day or toning or tightening. I don't use those words on my program for that very reason, because I believe that they perpetuate that.
Smaller is better mindset. And so finding a body neutral program, whether that's true strength builder, shout out for myself, or it's finding a program that helps you, uh, to just not focus on your body quite so much. And to be more present to building that strength, um, and practicing body neutrality in that way.
Abbie: That's so good. Cause if you're, if the language is all about typing and growing, growing your glutes or whatever it is, then if you're not seeing those results, you think you're failing and then you want to give up and then you stop working out. And you just, it deflates you. Um, and. That can actually reveal what your motivations were from the beginning, but I also think your intentions could be so pure in the beginning, but then the language could sneak in there and change things too.
Um, so I think it's really good to be intentional and we know that the power of life and death lies in your tongue, right? So language is so important and our eyes, our ears, like all of that is just vessels into the soul. Yeah, so, oh wow, those are really, like, good, , tangible tips.
Hannah: Yeah, thank you so much, Laura, I love, you know, wrapping up with some takeaways, , and those three tips that you have, maybe we'll even link them in, you know, in the show notes so that people can go back to them and write them down, because that's, Very valuable.
Um, if our listeners want to find you, connect with you, maybe even take a look at, you know, your program, um, where can they find you?
Laura: Yeah, so I hang out on Instagram. Um, I also have a podcast that is released every Monday. It just started getting released every Monday. We like. Transition from like awkward adolescence to when I were like, all right, let's go every Monday.
We're good. So, um, yeah, I mean, you just hit like 5, 000 downloads, which feels like a big win for us. Yeah. I'm super excited. Um, but the virtue strength podcast, you can find me there on Apple, Spotify, Budsprout. Um, on all the major, uh, podcast platforms. And then I do hang out on Instagram Monday through Friday.
I'm a bit of a digital minimalist, so you won't find me there on the weekends. I just connect, um, but you can find me on Instagram Monday through Friday at true strength collective.
Abbie: Awesome. We'll definitely link all that up in the show notes for sure. Great.
Laura: Yeah. And then, um, true strength builder is my 12 month body neutral training program.
That's faith based and comes with support as well as a monthly group coaching call. So, um, that's another recommendation that I have for women who are looking for a way to build strength, to focus on that form or focus on that function over form, , with. support and coaching.
Hannah: Yeah. Well, you heard it folks.
If you want to connect with Laura, if you've been touched by her encouragement and inspired, um, and maybe you've never heard a fitness coach have this type of perspective before, and you really want to connect with her, you can find all of that information in the show notes. And Laura, thank you so very much for, um, gracing us with your presence.
Of course. Thank you guys.
Laura: Happy to be on the show.
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
