Train Your Brain, Transform Your Food Cravings: Faith-Based Mind Renewal with Dr. Laurette Willis

Today's podcast episode is a powerful one.

We are going to talk about how can we use a neuroscience technique to stop our cravings.

Cut our cravings in 10 to 15 seconds.

This can be food cravings.

It could be other cravings or impulses.

But we're also going to talk about how we can use our faith to help empower us to live our healthiest, our.

Our fittest and free lives by using God's word and retraining our brain with neuroscience.

It's a great episode, and I can't wait for you to hear the conversation I'm having today with a cognitive behavior therapist.

It is powerful.

Welcome to Faith Fueled Living, the podcast that equips you to live well spiritually, emotionally, physically, and purposefully.

Each week, we'll dive into conversations and biblical truths to help you strengthen your faith, pursue meaningful work, hear for your whole self, and live in line with what matters most.

Hi.

Today on the show, I'd like to welcome our guest.

Her name is Dr. Lorette Willis.

She's a cognitive behavior therapist known as the Christian weight loss coach and the founder of Weight loss Without willpower.

She also has her doctorate in theology, and she's the founder of Praise Moves Fitness Ministry with hundreds of fitness ministers, both men and women, globally, also helping people learn how to basically tie together their faith and their fitness.

So I can't wait to talk to her today because we're going to talk about how important it is to renew our minds.

We're going to talk about how what we're thinking about and how we can do things in our mind that help us just live better lives, live healthier lives, and just connect once again our faith with all parts of our lives, including our health, our wellness, and our fitness.

So welcome to the show, Dr. Lorette.

Thank you so much, Kristen.

I'm so grateful to be here in Faith Fueled Living.

I love that Faith Fueled.

That's what fuels us.

Glory to God.

That's right.

Oh, so glad you could join us.

So why don't you first just tell us a little bit about life.

You, you know, you have.

You've gone through lots of things or navigated, you know, different seasons as most of us have.

Right.

Different things.

But I'd love if you could just share a little bit more with us about your journey.

Yes, certainly.

Well, you know, the scripture that comes to my mind is First Corinthians 1:27, that God chooses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and those that are weak in themselves to confound and Come against those people that are just mighty in themselves, you know, without the Lord.

And I point to myself when I see the foolish things, because I think of all the things that I've done wrong in my life, and the Lord has turned them around into something positive that is a blessing to other people.

I couldn't have possibly imagined something like that.

And I say this to encourage our listeners.

I mean, I started overeating, emotionally compulsive overeater, at the age of six because of a lot of the trauma and things going on in my life.

And then at 7, my mom and I found yoga, thinking it was just exercise.

And it led us into.

For me, it was 22 years in New Age spirituality, led us away from Christ.

At 13, my parents got divorced and I became an alcoholic for the next 16 years until I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ when I was 29 years old.

And the Lord immediately delivered me from alcoholism that moment.

And it's so amazing that he has, as you mentioned, praise moves.

It's a Christian alternative to yoga.

We have hundreds of instructors all over the world.

And then weight loss without willpower.

There was the compulsive overeating, the yo yo dieting for decades, going around that same mountain again and again and again.

And to find that, wow, he can take those negatives in our lives.

What is that scripture from Isaiah 60:1 that says he gives us beauty for ashes.

There's another scripture, scripture that says our God is a consuming fire.

So I invite our audience today.

Anything that that's been a negative in your life, those things in your past, those things that you feel shame or guilt about when you cast them over onto the Lord.

The Lord is a consuming fire.

What happens when you throw something into the fire?

It burns up, Right.

What's left?

Ashes.

What comes from the ashes?

Beauty.

He can turn those things around, use you as a vessel of honor that he can flow through to be a blessing to others.

It's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the lord of hosts.

Zechariah 4, 6.

That's my story in a nutshell.

Chris, you did a great job of being.

I know you've shared it before, but being very concise because that was a lot that you just fit in.

So, wow.

First of all, yeah, that's.

That's so good.

And so, yeah, let's start with, like you said, I think so many people that are listening to this episode, whether it's when it's just released or, you know, days or weeks after that or Time after that, we can probably relate to some part of the story, right?

Whether it's some connection to food or it might be something else for some people, right?

It's like we go buy something or you go do this other thing because it makes you feel a little better, right.

Or we're using them as a coping mechanism or something else.

And so what would you just share.

With us about.

You going through that?

I mean, like, and then coming back to Christ?

Was it the surrender?

Was it that you also had to learn to address that connection, Right.

Of food and how you were feeling?

So what have you learned and how do you help other women in that area?

Wow.

You know, you said a powerful word right there.

Surrender.

That's what it really takes, is that surrender to the Lord.

I had looked for God in all the wrong places.

Everything from A to Z, astrology to Zoroastrianism and everything in between in the New Age movement, the New Age spirituality.

And the doorway to that was yoga.

And he said they don't necessarily call themselves Hindus, but Hindus know where yoga comes from and where it leads.

Now, I'm not saying that everyone is going to go down the path that my mother and I went on, but that's what happened to us and led us away from Christ.

And then when I was 24, sadly, my mother took her own life.

And two years later, my father died of heart disease and diabetes.

He was a compulsive overeater and a rage aholic.

My mother was also an alcoholic.

So I had a lot of.

And on the outside, everything looked great, Right?

My mother was the first woman assistant district attorney on Long Island.

I grew up in Long island in New York City.

My dad was a judge, had his own law practice.

My mother was a professor at a university.

I mean, everything just looked like, oh, wow.

They just have it all together.

But.

But on the inside, there was an emptiness.

And, you know, the enemy rushes in whenever there's a vacuum, a spiritual vacuum.

Right.

And for us, it was that spiritual element of yoga that really, really attracted us.

And then when I was 13, started drinking alcohol and 15, started smoking.

16.

Promiscuous lifestyle, death style.

I'll put it this way.

It's amazing I'm still alive.

I used to have blackouts running through the streets of New York City as an alcoholic.

And yet I was off Broadway.

I Was known as the woman of 101 voices.

I did the Betty Boop show off Broadway as Betty Boop.

I certainly was.

Boop, boop, beep.

You know, laughing on the outside, crying on the inside, you know, just feeling empty on the inside.

Well, when both my parents passed away, Kristin, I, I went on a search, I went on a journey and I thought, you know, I'm going to go to all the sacred sites, the so called sacred sites in Europe.

And I went to 20 countries in six and a half months.

Backpacking around, going to Uriel, you know, looking for God in all the wrong places.

Went to Peru, Machu Picchu, moved to a new age community on top of a mountain in northeastern Oklahoma, looking, looking, looking.

And then a year later, you know, as part of that geographic cure, you know, you think that maybe if I move somewhere else, I'll be different.

But the old me followed me there.

It was like, ah, I was hoping she'd left behind.

But now, wherever you go, there you are, as the saying goes.

And a year later, I was miserable.

And Kristen, I was 29 years old and I wanted someone to love me for myself.

And the day before I had that surrender experience.

I believe I heard the audible voice of the Lord.

And I had heard his voice numerous times when I was a child.

Between the ages of three and a half and six, I used to have visions and I would see the Lord, I would hear the Lord.

I was very, very close to God when I was very little.

Then at six years old, it was like a wall came up.

That age of accountability.

I didn't know you could have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

We went to a church that, that didn't preach that.

We didn't know that.

And the day before I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ, this is what I heard.

I was driving home and right over my right shoulder I heard this voice.

What if everything you thought about God was completely wrong?

Would you be willing to give it up to know the truth?

I thought, what if everything I thought about God was completely wrong?

Would I be willing to give it up to know the truth?

I'd spent thousands of dollars, gone all around the world looking for God.

Would I be willing to give it up to know the truth?

Thinking the truth maybe was a philosophy, not realizing the truth is a person, Jesus, the way, the truth and the life.

And I said, yes, yes, yes, I would.

And the next day was April 1st, April Fool's Day, when I went from being a fool for the world to a fool for Christ.

I was walking around and around in my kitchen.

My little border collie, Tula, watching me going around and around and around like this.

There was this battle going on in the inside of me.

And suddenly I just cried out to the Lord.

I said, I surrender.

I. I give up.

You win.

If you can do something with this life, you can have it.

And then I fell on my knees and onto my face.

And I said, if you want me to be alone, then give me peace.

If you want me to be with someone, send them soon.

I can't live like this anymore.

And Kristen, this weight lifted off me.

It was like 30 pounds of weight that I thought was just the weight of my body on the earth.

I learned later it was the weight of sin.

I. I didn't eat, even believe in sin.

New Agers are taught it's an acronym for self inflicted nonsense.

Well, then why did Jesus come?

Oh, he was just a good teacher.

But this weight lifted off me and peace came upon me for the first time in my life.

And out of the center of that peace, joy.

That joy unspeakable and full of glory.

And I realized later the Lord delivered me from alcoholism.

That moment I didn't even ask for that was totally washed from my brain.

I didn't even realize it until a year later.

And four days after that experience, I met my husband, Paul, who had three years clean and sober.

And so alcohol, drugs never came into our relationship.

We were married three months later on 4th of July, which we call Interdependence day.

And the Lord, he is altogether wonderful.

Just changed my life.

So surrender.

You said it, sister, right there.

That's so important, that surrender to the Lord.

Wow.

Thank you for expanding and sharing more of your story with us.

Oh, my goodness.

So, you know, so obviously you help a lot of women.

Beside of praise moves, of course, is more, you know, the alternative yoga.

But you help a lot of women, of course, with the weight loss.

But I know one of the things you say is you help them to be healthy, fit and free.

And so I guess what would be, first of all, maybe two top things you would just share with our audience about if there's someone that's like, yeah, I would, you know, I'm struggling in some area.

I mean, related to this, like, what would you just say to them is like the first things that you kind of tell people or help them with.

I would say one of the most important things is our thoughts, you know, the things that we're thinking.

One of the things I like to do is talk about, you can lose the Excess weight.

You can release the excess weight.

Get rid of the excess weight without dieting, without deprivation, and without delay.

And the key is two things.

Renewing the mind on the word of the living God.

Renew the mind on the word of God.

Romans 12.

2.

Don't be conformed to this world.

Don't be poured into the world's mold like this.

Water conforms to the shape of this glass.

The water doesn't just suddenly come out of the glass that way.

It's conformed to that shape.

So don't be conformed to this world.

What are some of the world's ways of, of losing weight?

Diet.

Diet it must be.

Or let me get some special device that I can, can put on.

It's like something on the outside.

It's got no.

Romans 12, 2.

Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed.

Your whole life can be transformed.

How?

By the renewing of your mind.

For what purpose?

So that you can prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, which is for you to be healthy, fit and free.

Now, a lot of believers, they've got, okay, I got that down.

I love the Lord.

I read my Bible every day.

I've got, you know, scriptures that I work on, and I'm, I'm making them my own.

I'm speaking what God says about me instead of what the enemy or the world says about me.

But why do I keep going around this same mountain?

Why do I keep going on the diet mountain, the diet trauma, the yo yo, the, the roller coaster that I went on for decades?

KRISTEN?

Well, the key is in retraining the brain, and that's where the cognitive behavioral therapy comes in.

So it's renewing your mind on the word of God and retraining your brain using neuroscience principles and techniques founded on scripture.

If I don't see a correlation in the word of God, I don't use it.

So that's so very important.

You don't have to diet.

Live it.

That's the important thing.

Diets have an end.

Living, it doesn't.

All right?

So it has to be something that you do every day.

Simple things, just 1% level up just a little bit at a time.

And renewing the mind, retraining the brain at the same time.

That's what happened to Jessica Minter, Oklahoma City young mom dropped 70 pounds, and it's been off for over two years.

And she said, I never thought of inviting God into my weight loss story, that I could do this Biblically.

She said, I could do this for the rest of my life.

Because the change has happened on the inside.

When God changes your want to.

I mean, I look at it this way.

I can have.

I can have all the whiskey, I can have all the cigarettes.

I can all have all the cake and ice cream and chips, and you name it that I want to.

But praise God, I don't want to anymore.

He's changed my want to.

And I'll just close with this one scripture, because it's just coming up real big in my heart right now.

Romans 8, 11.

If the Spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will also quicken or give life to what?

To your mortal body?

How?

Through some special diet or cream?

No, through his spirit.

Spirit who lives in you.

Wow.

You get changed from the inside now.

Absolutely.

Oh, so powerful.

Yeah.

And, you know, for me, it's like you said, it's.

You have absolutely renewing of the mind and, you know, the surrender and retraining the brain.

But then I also, like, as I think about the things I'm doing in my day to make healthy choices, I.

My lens, right?

And it's is like, does this feel easy?

Does it feel aligned for me and who I am?

Meaning, I like fruits and vegetables, but if it's not prepared in certain ways, I. I have days where then I don't have a lot of them.

And I'm like, I know that's not good for me, right?

And it's not because I don't want to eat them.

But then I just find, like, this is the time of year.

But I. I'll make soups with lots of vegetables in them, or I'll make, like, a salad that has a lot of different vegetables that's already ready in the fridge.

But if I have to just go cook a vegetable, of course I do that sometimes.

But I eat less of the vegetables those days.

If I'm gonna have coffee, I mean, it's organic, whatever, and I've done not coffee, so I'm not.

I don't have to have coffee, but I put other things in it that are really good for me that I want to get into, like beetroot powder and all these things.

So my point is, for me, it has to be, like, easy and fit in.

So.

And I have friends that they try to work out so much.

They try to be so disciplined.

Discipline's not the issue.

My point is, it feels, like, hard.

You know what I mean?

And I'm like, that doesn't feel like I could maintain, mean that I walk every day and I do other things.

But so I try to do this lens, like, kind of like you said, the 1%, like, what can I do to have, you know, to do these healthy things.

But that doesn't feel like, oh, this is so difficult.

Right.

It's kind of what works for me.

That's going to be maintainable.

That's going to be.

When I say easy, you know what I mean?

Like, if I'm going to make food anyways, it's the same amount of effort.

So.

So what can I do that's going to give me more of those goodness, those good things that fill me up, that's, you know, good at the soul level even.

Right.

Like a warm, you know, a homemade meal.

So, yeah, I just, you know, while that's a little bit beyond the retrain the brain, I think for me it's.

It's being able to have that forethought, you know, to say, okay, this, this would be good for me and I'll be able to eat it for two or three days on top of whatever else I'm eating.

And, you know, but it's just.

I just find those kind of habits really helpful for me, you know, as well.

Yes, absolutely.

It has to be something that you enjoy doing.

You know, sometimes people will say, well, I don't know, I don't want to go on a diet.

You know, I don't want to.

I've done that so many times.

You know, how can.

How can this work?

How can something work for me?

Something like you said the word maintain.

Something, something I can maintain in my lifestyle.

We have something in the.

We call it the W3 sisterhood for short, weight loss, power.

The three W's.

Right?

Right.

And it's five dailies and it's pray and plan.

That's one step.

Pray and plan.

Water, move, journal, sleep.

And you do as many of those as you can.

Pray and plan.

Water, move, journal, sleep.

When you do those five things and you pay attention to those things, not making an idol of the scale or, you know, something like that, but we become scientists and detectives to find out what is it that the Lord put in my body to help me get in touch with my real hunger and satiety signals, my hunger and enough full signals.

And I remember I didn't have a full signal for 30 years.

From the ages of 6 till I was 36, I didn't.

I would just eat until, you know, I was a clean plate clubber.

Right.

Can, you know, and would just Eat, you know, until.

And then go for seconds and just until it.

Until it hurt, you know, that was.

That was it.

And I remember the moment that I got the full signal back.

My husband and I were sitting at the table and I suddenly said.

I felt this, like, feeling all of a sudden in my.

In my tummy, like, just had it.

I know.

Tears came to my.

I got my full signal back.

My husband was like, what?

You got your what?

What have you got?

I said, I got my full signal.

And my husband is one of these people.

He can have one M and M and then put it away.

You know, the rest of.

How can you do that?

You know?

But I was like, got my full signal back.

So I can relate to women who, you know, I don't know if I have a full signal.

And what we do, we do two really simple things.

Wait until you're hungry.

And a lot of us didn't even.

I didn't even have a hunger signal.

It was like, okay, it was 12 o', clock, time to eat.

6 o', clock, time to eat.

Seafood, eat, you know, that was it.

But start paying attention to the way the Lord designed our body, because when you were a toddler, you knew, you know, and you knew when you'd had enough as well.

So we're getting back in touch with those signals that the Lord put in our body.

And then by doing the pray and plan step.

Every day we pray to the Lord and we ask him, what should I eat today?

And whatever you feel that you write it down.

And then physically, actually, this has an effect neurologically on your brain.

When you do something physical, while you're doing something spiritual, mental, or emotional, it has an effect on your brain that something is actually happening.

Which it is.

It's a mirroring of what's happening spiritually.

You lift it up to the Lord, you know, commit your works unto the Lord, your thoughts will be established.

So I just lift it up to the Lord.

Lord, this is what I'm going to eat today.

This is what you gave me.

I just trust you.

It's in your hands.

Yeah.

So this way, if you got a birthday party, you know, you got a cupcake or, you know, whatever, it's like, oh, I can never have that again.

No, it's like.

And plan.

Follow the Lord.

That's right.

Simple.

And then follow those.

Those signals he put in your body, and the weight will come off, I promise you.

Yeah, I mean, of course.

I mean, I say of course, but that's not.

It's not obvious, right?

Everybody obviously But I'm saying it's that so many of us have because of all the layers of all the things, right.

We, we aren't noticing and we're not listening to our bodies.

Right.

The way we were designed to.

Your point.

And so some of us have to come back to that place, right.

Of, of how our bodies are created.

And you're so right.

I've seen some of that data where they said, yeah, little kids, like you said, toddlers, they'll.

They know what they need, their body needs.

Right.

They don't just, I mean, unless you're just giving them only cookies and cake all day.

But I mean, if you're giving them healthy choices and different types of food, they go for what actually their body needs, you know, so, yeah, you know, what nutrients they need and stuff.

And so to your point, it's just through patterns and then things that have happened to us, right.

We start piling on or not paying attention or ignoring signals because you're like, oh, I want to fit in those jeans or because I feel bad when I ate that, or I mean bad about myself or.

Right.

And so to your point, we have to start reconnecting with our mind, body and spirit.

Yes, that's a good point because we are a whole, a whole person, you know, a spirit made in the image of God.

Genesis 1:26, 27.

You have a soul, your mind, will and emotions, and you live in a body, the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And Paul made this distinction in 1st Thessalonians 5:23, where he said, I pray your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved, blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He's faithful so that when, when we have something going on in our lives, look at it from the spiritual, the soul, your mind, will and emotions, and also the physical, that it's not just a physical thing outside in, but seek the Lord and work from the inside out.

Right?

Yeah.

And I, I love that one of your first steps or the first step is the praying and planning.

You know, I've definitely talked about the praying part on here related to like our health and, and weight.

But the plan part I think is so important because.

Well, I'm not saying we're going to plan it out perfectly what we're going to eat.

It's just like somebody meal planning for the week.

You're just saying acknowledge what is your day like?

Is it a crazy, stressful day?

Are you going to two events so then you can start thinking through, well, what is it going to be like?

So You've one maybe replayed or played the day in your head, like, okay, so if, you know I'm going to be crazy busy today, well, gosh, that might mean that I want to bring a healthy snack with me.

Right.

Or in other words, so when we plan, we're not mindlessly grabbing the worst things every single day in a row.

Right.

And then it's been a year.

So the planning is allowing us to think through just like we'd plan our work day or whatever else.

It's letting us, like you said, kind of decide ahead of time and to be a little bit more in control of what that, what we're going to do that day.

Right.

Those habits, you know, our food habits or moving habits, all those things.

So.

Because if you never planned like, oh, okay, I'm going to walk this morning or I'm going to walk at night, but it's supposed to rain.

It doesn't mean it's going to be perfect.

But you can at least be like, oh, okay, well, what's my alternative?

If I'm not going to walk, am I going to skip it?

Or am I going to go walk at the mall?

Or do I have a stationary bike?

Right.

So it's just kind of thinking it through so that you don't feel hopeless and helpless.

Right?

Yeah.

And.

And getting some movement in every day, I believe, is so important and absolutely.

One of the things that we've learned is getting rid of the word exercise.

For those who don't like the word exercise to say move.

I mean, everybody likes to move, you know, because if we say, do you like to exercise?

No.

Do you like to move?

Well, yeah, of course I like to move.

Okay, so that's what we're going to do.

Can you move for five minutes?

Can you just.

We start where you are and then build from there.

Yeah, well, right.

And like you said, not everybody has to do in.

If you don't want to do weights or something, you know, for weight bearing, other things you do, even functional movement is so important for us.

Right.

So it doesn't have to be to your point.

Like, I have gardens, garden beds, so of course I do other movement and other things.

But my point is, is weeding and pulling and moving, like all these things, you know, pulling, pulling the soil into the other, all of that gets to count too.

Right.

So I think sometimes we forget that functionally moving is so important for our bodies and that counts too.

You know, it's not just if you go to the gym or something like that.

So, yeah, I Love that.

You know, the other thing, and while this isn't one of the exact buckets that you talked about, but I think to me too is I think when I look at, with my habits and how I'm kind of doing those different areas, you know, like the pray and plan and in each of those movement and stuff is I. I ask myself questions like, what's going to nourish me?

Instead of, like you said, I'm not trying to tell myself I can't.

I'm not.

I'm.

I'm trying to like, frame it into questions that I think are still biblical in the sense of, like, what will be nourishing for my body?

Right.

Just like, sometimes I go on a walk, I'll listen to a sermon.

Other times I'll listen to a podcast.

Other times I listen to music.

But there's times where I'm like, ah, too much noise.

What will nurse me the most is turning it off.

And so I just have to check in with myself, right?

And instead of, well, I always do this.

Well, sometimes what I always do doesn't feel right right now.

You know, and it's that whole acknowledging, I think, you know, what does God want for us?

But then also what feels most aligned with us, you know, in that day or in that, you know, like I said, if you have a crazy day versus you have a slower day, well, those days are going to look different.

And so, you know, you have to plan a little different for those days.

You know, and see what.

It's not about what I can't do, but what can I do?

That's right.

That's another, like, switch that we do.

Yeah.

And absolutely, like, oh, I can't do this.

I can't do well.

Well, what can I do?

Well, I can go to YouTube and find a walking workout.

Well, but I, I can't do 30 minutes, but I could do seven minutes.

I.

What can you do?

Absolutely.

Seven minutes is better than no minutes.

Yes, that's it.

Absolutely.

And it all adds up.

Right?

So whether you can only do five minutes, but you do it three times a day or five times a day, you still, that counts, Right?

So it's, it's cumulative.

It's not just like you said, you don't have to say, I have to go to spend an hour all at one time doing it.

You might have little kids and you don't have a separate amount of time like that, but you can go on a walk with the kids or you can.

Right?

I mean, in other words, you can incorporate it into Your day?

Absolutely.

And that's part of functional fitnesses as well, because it helps you to function better in life.

And what are things that you can invite the Lord in on?

Because what part of your life does he not want to be a part of?

He wants to be a part of all parts of our life.

So when we walk, I do my morning prayer walk, you know, and I have my little prayer cards with scriptures and things.

And like this morning is like, I just put them, you know, kind of in my pocket.

And I just wanted to praise the Lord and just love him and thank him for the sky and the birds, you know, that just blessed me to do that.

And then I felt time to move into another part of prayer.

And, you know, I was praying for Israel, praying for America, praying for, you know, different people, leaders, you know, and praying for our ministry.

But being sensitive to that, like you were saying that it's not always regimented.

I've got to do this or this.

But being sensitive to the Lord and how the Holy Spirit, Spirit is, is leading you.

And he wants us to be healthy, fit and free.

I mean, First Corinthians 6:20 says, you were bought at a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are gods.

God apostrophe s. When I first saw that, wow, my body and my spirit belong to God.

Oh, I have some explaining to do, you know.

Oh, my goodness.

But you can look at it this way, that he has a vested interest in helping you, you know, to get healthy, fit.

And so that set me free.

Yeah, no, it's so true.

And you're right.

I think wherever we're holding on to some things, you know, I just had to talk to somebody about money and the Holy Spirit and it was the same thing.

Some people feel anxious or worry or shame, guilt, whatever, around their finances at the moment, or they have in the past.

It's much like our bodies.

It might be because we don't like our weight at the moment.

It might be someone said something about some part of our body, right.

So we're holding on to something.

But like you said, God wants to be a part of all those things, and he wants us to see him our see ourselves the way he sees us.

He wants to bless us, right, with a healthy body.

He wants to bless us with good, you know, some abundance.

And so I think sometimes we forget what you just said, which was, he does care.

Right.

That we have a healthy mind and body.

Absolutely.

So important.

So one thing that you shared with me before we started recording Was that there is a simple exercise that we can do to help stop cravings, food cravings, but also other cravings.

So I'd love for you to walk us through that exercise that any of us can do, you know, at any time.

I think that would be fantastic.

Wonderful.

Would you be willing to do the exercise with me, too?

Sure.

Yeah, sure.

All right.

And I invite our audience to do it as well.

All you need is a pen, or you can use a stone or a key, something small to hold in your hand.

I like my little stone here.

It has a little happy face on it.

It just makes me happy.

So if you've got a little stone, that's fine, but otherwise use a pen.

That's totally fine.

Just something small enough in your hand.

This is a bilateral brain stimulation technique that cuts cravings in 10 to 15 seconds.

It absolutely does.

And we use this for food cravings, but it can be for other cravings as well.

What it does is it creates a detour.

It cuts the circuit of how we're wired, going a certain way.

Because the way your brain works, it's looking for comfort.

And we, as believers, we don't want to go to the comfort food.

We want to learn to go to the comforter, to go to the Lord instead to fill us, because food can't really fill us the way he can fill us.

And so this is a bilateral brain stimulation technique that will absolutely work.

So you got your pen?

All right, let's go ahead.

Right now, I want you, using your sanctified imagination, with your eyes open or closed, it's up to you.

I want you to see where that food is that you create crave.

Very often, let's say you know where it is.

It's a snack.

It might be in the refrigerator or the freezer, in the pantry, in the cupboard.

You know the way to go there.

You know exactly where it is.

You're about to reach for it.

You know where.

Don't worry, we're going to cut the.

We're going to cut it right now.

But you know where it is.

You're about to grab for it.

Now take that.

That pen or whatever object in your hand and pass it from one hand to the other, from one hand to the other, one hand to the other, one hand to the other.

And you got to pick it up, one hand to the other, one hand to the other, and 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Where's the craving?

Now, let's solidify it with scripture.

Please repeat after me.

All things are lawful for me.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.

But not all things are helpful.

All things are lawful for me.

All things are lawful for me.

But I will not be brought under the power of any.

I will not be brought under the power of any.

And that's 1 Corinthians 6:12.

What's happening there?

Let me ask you, where did that craving go for you, Kristen?

So the craving wasn't super strong right now, but I did think of something that I might, you know, on occasion get.

And so after we did the exercise and then we said the scripture, I wasn't thinking about the food.

Yeah, it just is, it's gone.

Having that boundary scripture because it creates a boundary around when you feel yourself going to a certain.

Like I have that one scripture alone helped me drop 25 pounds.

I am not kidding you.

Because I would be, my hand would be reaching for a snack.

My husband keeps snacks on top of the refrigerator.

He's one of those people who can, like I said, have one M&M and then that's all he needs.

But it was like, I just, there's a little four year old on the inside of me going, but I want it.

I want it.

And so I would say that that boundary scripture, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.

All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

First Corinthians 6:12 in the New King James Version, I tell you what, the Holy Spirit of God on the inside of your recreated human spirit, using the word of God rises up and you're like, yeah, I don't want it.

I, I'm not going to fall for have.

I'm not going to fall for a cookie or something like that to have power over me.

I the Holy Spirit of God.

And it absolutely works.

That's something that you can absolutely do.

Everyone in the audience can.

Yeah.

Amazing.

I love that.

Yeah.

I mean, I definitely have learned, you know, different techniques for different things, you know, over the years, especially since I've been doing the podcasts, you know, ones to calm your nervous system.

Right.

Related to the vagus nerve, whatever it is.

Right.

Like get out of anxiety.

And of course sometimes it's scripture based, but it's also small, small things you can do with your body.

But I hadn't heard that one for food cravings.

So I love that.

I love learning new techniques that I can implement and share with the audience.

So that's fantastic.

So good.

So, so good.

So let me ask you this.

What is maybe just a Couple words of encouragement you just like to share with the audience, you know, as we move towards wrapping up the episode.

Well, I would also invite our audience members to take a look at praise moves praisemoves.com because if you want some gentle movement, if you want a Christ centered alternative to yoga where we're meditating and speaking aloud the word of God while doing wonderful stretching exercises, we have instructors all over the world and also online we've got free videos and things that you can check out at praisemoves.com and also the christianweightlosskit.com christianweightlosskit.com it's totally free and it is a mini course, a video guide that you can do.

It has different exercises and things in it to help turn some things around.

And you know, Kristen, you'd asked me something earlier also about what fuels me at this time in my life right now, and it actually just happened this morning.

I have a little turtle who visits me every morning and it so blesses my heart.

I've called her Dotta is her name.

And she comes in, into our, our little garden and she's just right off the step and she cranes her neck up.

When I went out to do my walk this morning, I, I saw her there and she was like, you can feed me now.

And so I have cut up little organic apple bits and I, I give it to her and she, she even keeps her head out now when I put it down there for her.

But I, I, that just fuels me.

Just the things of the Lord, the sweet things.

And so I invite our audience members, you know, to, to get outdoors, to look around your own neighborhood and, and appreciate some of the beauty of, of the Lord that's right there.

You can find it even where I used to live in New York City, you can start walking around and see the goodness and of God.

He's faithful and he loves you so very, very much.

Beautiful.

And I so agree with you.

My favorite place to be is outdoors.

And you know, much like you on my walks or out of my backyard, I just, I call it my gratitude practice.

But it's basically just a continuous dialogue with the Lord and thanking him.

Right.

Oh my gosh.

Thank you for the basil.

Taste of basil.

How amazing.

How did you come up with that?

Right?

Like, it's just like you said, I'm just trying to stay in a state of awe for all that's been created.

Right.

For us.

So, yeah, I love that.

I love it.

Okay, so as we wrap up, is there any other, is that, are those the main sites where you'd like to direct people or did you also want to send them anywhere else that they can connect with you?

Yeah, I'd say praisemoves.com and then christianweightlosskit.com those would be the two main ones because you'll find a lot of good stuff.

Yeah, yeah, I was on, I think both of them.

And yeah, there's a lot of resources that you can definitely find on there.

So wonderful.

Well, thank you so much for coming on, sharing your story, taking the time to share with us, you know, just some practical ways that we can just be our healthiest, fittest and freest selves in Christ.

And also for sharing the exercise and the free work resources that you have.

So thank you for taking the time.

Oh, thank you so much for inviting me, Kristin.

It's been a blessed blast.

I also wanted to let you know I have a great resource that's tied to this topic.

I have a workbook that you can download completely free called Rewire your Mind.

It's five easy to follow techniques that you can use to shift your negative thoughts, to shift your thought patterns so that your thoughts and your feelings better serve you and how God really wants you to show up in the world.

Head over to KristinFitch.com mindset or just go to my workbook section and you can find the Rewire your mind workbook.

But grab that and you'll also be included in my community and you'll get my weekly email newsletter that helps encourage you, inspire you and uplift you.

If you enjoyed today's episode, if you could leave a rating review on Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, it helps the show show get discovered by more people so that we can continue to uplift and encourage people in their faith journey as well as all of the other parts of their lives.