Sick of Starving Yourself? 3 Steps to Eat MORE Without Guilt and Shame

I have legit PTSD from shaming myself to skinny, it is STILL a thought I have to take captive and give to God on the daily...you are NOT alone. So many days I still see myself as a 250-pound sad sack, but that is NOT who I was then or who I am today and neither beloved are you.

Listen, you will NEVER starve yourself to skinny, not sustainably anyway. Your body requires fuel to lose weight, but more importantly your mind requires rewiring after decades of marketing nonsense telling us to eat less and move more. Our weight and food and diets have become idols distracting us from living in our God-given purpose and the enemy loves it. 

Here are 3 steps to take to give God your weight loss journey and let Him through the Holy Spirit lead you to sustainable weight loss in a way that honors Him, regardless of the number on the scale. 

1. There are few women out there who should be eating LESS than 2,000 a day. The average woman weighing 200 pounds NOT exercising requires a MINIMUM of 2000 calories a day to LOSE WEIGHT. This goes against everything we've heard and learned, but it IS the truth and when we let God lead, He will show us exactly why and how. 

2. 25-30 grams of protein PER MEAL -preferably 5 meals per day. This will take time for your body to adjust, you WILL gain weight as your body figures out how to redistribute the fuel it's getting that it's been missing. Stay OFF the scale, results WILL come. 

3. Stop, for the love of all things, counting calories and eliminating food groups. God may convict you to give up sugar eventually, if so fine, obey, but for now just pray and ask Him to lead you to leaning on Him through this transition. Give yourself grace, pray for strength and the POWER of the Holy Spirit will begin to show up more as you trust. 

Are you sick of trying diet after diet and NOT losing weight?

Hey there friend, I'm Lindy Schlabach, Christian Fitness & Nutrition Coach. I gained 100 pounds in my late twenties and struggled for years to get it off. Seven years ago, I found a basic system that worked and has helped me lose 90 of those pounds. I’ve been working with women in online fitness and nutrition ever since to break chains of diet culture, embrace their bodies and fueling instead of dieting.

In this podcast, I'll teach you how to:

• • Lose Weight in a Way that honors God without obsessing about the scale
  • Meal Plan and Prep for Your Family
  • Follow a MACRO based plan that allows you to eat the foods you love.
  • Recognize and pray through triggers keeping you stuck.
  • I’ll help you Plan your week and schedule your self-care time.
  • Cultivate a spirit of self-discipline in your workouts you actually enjoy.
  
  It's time to give God your health journey and watch Him make you new, from the inside, OUT.

Join The Biblical Weight Loss Framework: https://bit.ly/JoinTheWeightLossFramework

Join my FREE Community + get a copy of my Free Weight Loss & Routine Guide: www.herweightlossmindset.com

Check out my FREE Nutrition & Fitness Masterclass: https://youtu.be/EqM9jfQMbBA

Transcript

Oof, I have legit PTSD from trying to starve myself to skinny.

Isn't it just sometimes so joyful to be a woman of the world?

Years ago, I had gained 100 pounds.

I know I've shared this story with you a million times.

And it just seemed like I was trying and striving and doing all the wrong things.

I did not have a personal relationship with Jesus.

I mean, I had when I was 14, I committed my life to Christ, and I was baptized, and I did.

I lived for the Lord.

And then in my late 20s, after my sexual assault, after gaining 100 pounds, I was just doing anything I could to try to control my weight.

And anything from starvation, I tried to binge and purge.

It didn't work for me.

But there's just this pressure to live in the world and look a certain way.

And it's just, it's not biblical.

And so in 2016, I started going back to church.

I had eventually given my life back to Christ, driving to work, jamming to a local radio station one morning.

And that spring, Christ led me to build an online fitness and nutrition business.

And at that time, I was working as a Beachbody coach.

Maybe you're familiar.

And so I just, I really started to pray for conviction, for God to lead me to what it was that he had for me.

If I was going to teach my clients, I had to trust in the meal plan that was before me.

And it was a lot more food than I was used to.

And I had managed to get off some weight by that time.

My friend and I had done a 90-day program.

Like we were, I had been exercising, spinning, going to the gym, counting every calorie.

It was miserable.

But I had managed to get off some weight.

So when I started my Beachbody business in 2017, I went like full scale into the meal plan.

And within the first two weeks, I lost seven pounds.

And I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.

I can totally do this.

I was eating, I think, fifteen to eighteen hundred calories a day, exercising thirty minutes a day, like it was awesome.

And so as I continued over the last almost eight years as a fitness and nutrition coach, and then, you know, incorporating a faith-based mindset instead of even the legalism that came through that meal plan in really learning to let God lead.

And so I want you to take some notes on these three things.

I want you to learn how to eat without guilt and shame.

We read in the Word that there is now no shame or condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

If Jesus is your personal savior, he has you.

So stay tuned.

We're going to talk about some things, and hopefully this will give you some freedom and clarity in your eating plan.

Hey, sister, welcome to Her Weight Loss Mindset.

Are you sick of trying diet after diet and not losing weight?

Do you wish you could find easy meal prep ideas for your family so you're not standing in the kitchen yet again, wondering what everyone is going to eat for dinner that's in line with your goals?

Do you spend hours Googling easy workouts but then have no time to do them because your motivation only goes so far?

Hey there, friend, I'm Lindy Schlabach, Christian Fitness & Nutrition Coach, encourager and friend.

I gained 100 pounds in my late 20s and struggled for years to get it off.

Seven years ago, I found a basic system that works and has helped me lose over 90 of those pounds.

I've been working with women in online fitness and nutrition ever since.

In this podcast, I'll teach you how to lose weight in a way that honors God without obsessing about the scale.

And meal plan and prep for your family.

And follow a macro-based plan that allows you to eat the foods you love while you reach your goals.

It's time to give God your health journey and watch him make you new from the inside out.

You've got this, sister.

Now go grab your pre-workout or your third coffee like me and let's chat.

So don't forget the Biblical Weight Loss Framework is kicking off February 3rd.

It is a Holy Spirit led approach to your weight loss journey.

We dive into traumas and triggers anything from, you know, diet culture to infertility to abuse.

There's just so much there that we're going to unpack that first month before we work into your second month, which is more of a fitness nutrition type deal.

And so you can find the link to join below at herweightlossmindset.com.

Oh my gosh, two years ago, I was overtrained.

I was hungry.

I knew I needed to eat more.

I had just finished P90X.

It's one of the Beachbody original programs with Tony Horton.

I love Tony Horton.

I've got to meet him a couple of times and work out with him.

I've always wanted to do the program, but I was afraid.

And God had called me for about six months in the middle of, before I even started that program to eat more.

And I just didn't listen.

I was terrified, even though that historically, I knew that following the program, trusting the process was going to lead me to where I wanted to go.

I just was living in total fear of eating 22 to 2400 calories a day.

So I didn't listen.

By the end of the year, I was feeling really frustrated.

My body wasn't changing.

I was not toning the way that I should have in that program.

Another weight loss or another muscle building program came out that spring.

And still, I didn't go into it trusting God's plan.

He kept telling me to follow more of a macro based plan.

And I just, I was not obedient.

I'm just going to be real honest.

You know, us as women, I know for me personally, and a lot of the clients that I've worked with over the last eight years, we want to try to control.

We think that we know because society tells us.

But until we learn to lean on Holy Spirit conviction and let God lead our nutrition journey, we're always going to have some idolistic idea of diets and weight.

I was desperate to lose weight, but my desperation became more about being Holy Spirit led instead.

In my prayer one morning, I was like, okay, Lord, I know I need to do this.

Please give me the strength and conviction to eat how you want me to eat.

So I started eating about, I think it was anywhere from five to 800 calories more per day.

So it took my body a long time to adjust.

I gained six or seven pounds that first month.

I was really frustrated.

But then my body started to change.

My heart started to change because he kept telling me, you know, you're being obedient.

So my heart started to change.

Then my head started to change.

My body started to really soak up all the extra nutrients that she was getting.

She was finally getting what she needed and I've lost 24 pounds.

Listen, I say this all the time.

I'm never going to stop saying it.

The average woman weighing 200 pounds, not exercising, requires a minimum of 2,000 calories a day to lose weight.

Start praying.

Start asking God to give you the strength that you need to eat and fuel your body properly.

Are there any food groups that you have started to idolize?

Foods, sugar, alcohol, carbs, like, what is the thing that is keeping you from eating in a Biblical manner?

What is God saying to you in that prayer time?

Are you speaking to Him over your body?

Are you going in frustration?

Are you going over the strive and try?

Are you willing to have the courage to gain 6 to 10 pounds that first month if it means you're going to end up 30 pounds lighter in the next few months?

You have to start there.

What is God saying to you?

You have to learn to lay down this legalistic idea of what weight loss is, because we have been sold a lie.

We haven't sold a lie.

It is a marketing scheme to go through all of these Optavia diets and Noom and all of these things.

They keep us focused on our weight instead of the Holy Spirit.

In the biblical weight loss framework, we find mindset practices or tiny phrases that you can say each day to give God the frustrations when they come, because they are going to come.

This three month deep dive into your weight loss journey in a Holy Spirit led way, it is not going to put you at your weight loss goal at the end of three months, but it is going to help you establish mindset practices.

It is going to show you how to actually fuel your body so that you are getting the right amount of calories.

Then as you feel comfortable, a year to two years after you move through the framework, to eat on a more intuitive type of program, because you know now how much fuel, how many grams of protein, fat, calories, carbs, those kinds of things that you actually need.

We're going to start to pray.

That's your first step.

We're going to ask God to lead and guide and direct us, and then give us the strength and courage to trust that where He guides, He provides, and He's going to give you exactly what you need.

And then you have to have the courage and obedience to step out on faith and listen, obey, oblige, stay off the scale.

The scale is not a determiner of your worth.

If Christ is your Savior, He is your identity.

That's it.

Step two, start aiming for 25 to 30 grams of protein per meal.

You want to eat about four to six times a day.

This is a great place to start, okay?

If you're not eating at all, aim for three meals.

Then try that for three weeks.

Then move up to four, then to five.

Five meals ideally is what you want to aim for.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then a couple snacks in between.

It'll take time, but the more you start to fill your body with the protein she needs, the less she will crave those sugary carbs.

Anytime your body is craving sugar, it's because you're not getting enough protein.

I'm reading now the 40-day sugar fast, and I don't have a sugar addiction.

There are times and phases in life where I go and I eat more sweets than normal, but God's really been calling me to give up refined sugar.

I don't want to, but it makes me feel like poo poo.

So I have found over the past probably three years I've really started to bake with like sugar, or not sugar, cane sugar, or use like honey or maple syrup as my sweeteners instead of refined sugar.

I just, I don't even have it in my house.

And so I know marrying into an Amish family, this is not going to be an easy task for me.

But where God calls, He's going to give us what we need.

So just trust that this is not an easy process, but the more you learn to lean on Him, with the Holy Spirit Guide, He is going to bring you through.

You might fall, you might fail.

But then you're going to try again in the next choice.

We're not waiting again until Monday.

We're not waiting until tomorrow.

Do the next right thing.

Make the next right choice.

I promise, He's going to help you.

Your body's going to change.

You're going to get gassy.

You're going to get bloated.

You're going to gain weight.

Stay off the scale.

Keep moving.

Aim for 5, 6,000 steps a day.

If you can get a couple workouts in a week, that's fantastic.

Your body's going to move and process a little better than if you're not exercising.

But you don't have to exercise, okay?

25 to 30 grams of protein per meal, four to six times a day.

Step 3, stop counting your calories and eliminating food groups.

Unless God told you to give up sugar, don't torture yourself, okay?

Count it in your macros and set a personal boundary that pushes you to crave God more than a taste bud rush.

This is the key.

Then, like me, if you've been doing this for years, and he calls you to give up sugar, then do it.

Be obedient.

Would you rather have a close, intimate, personal relationship with Jesus or 10 seconds of a sugar rush that makes you feel like crap, and then you regret it 10 seconds later?

Food is one of the biggest distractions of the enemy.

Our weight, diets, exercise, for women, this is a massive distraction and a way to pull us away from God's purpose and plan for our life, which is the ultimate point of the entire biblical weight loss framework.

I'm going to give you the steps and the tools that you need in order to reach every weight loss goal that you have.

That's not the point of the framework.

The point of the framework is for you to get out of your head about your body image, about your weight, about all of these numbers, and walk in your God-given purpose.

Because the call in the gospel is to live out the great commission and make disciples where you live, work, and play.

When we're constantly distracted by food, what we're eating, and our weight, trust me, I'm guilty of this still even today.

I got on the scale, it was like seven and a half pounds heavier.

I pulled on my back last week, I'm carrying a ton of inflammation, I can't stand up straight, like it's frustrating.

It doesn't define who I am.

I planned out my macros for the day, I'm going to get, I rode 20 minutes on my stationary bike, like I'm doing what I can.

My weight does not define me.

Your weight does not define you.

The call of the Great Commission is to make disciples, where you are.

You don't have to go on some massive mission trip or give up all of your things and move to an island.

Where you live, where you work, your friends circle, your family circle, that is your discipleship community.

But when we're stuck focusing on self, we cannot walk in our purpose.

You deserve to live free of these mindsets that are keeping you distracted from God's will for your life.

So if you're tired of starving yourself, you're going to do these three things.

You're going to pray every single day.

Lord, lead me to the foods that I need to eat.

Help me have the courage to eat more food, follow a macro-based plan, lead and guide me to where you need me to go.

Then you're going to incorporate 25 to 30 grams of protein per meal four to six times a day.

You're going to stop calorie counting.

When I was at my heaviest weight and I started calorie counting, that still includes chicken wings, tater tots, bush light, like I would log it every Wednesday when we went to wing Wednesday.

That food is not going to get you to your goal.

If you want to treat once a week, go ahead.

If you want to treat twice a week, go ahead, count it in your macro plan.

But we're giving up our taste buds to crave intimate, more personal relationship with Jesus.

This is the way.

This is the way.

Stop starving yourself.

Start fueling your body and let God lead.

I promise you, in three months, six months, 12 months, 18 months, you're going to be a completely different person on the inside and the outside.

I love you.

You can do this.

God bless.

Hey, sweets, I hope you enjoyed today's episode.

If so, would you take 30 seconds and share it with a friend who may also want to lose weight without all the dieting and restriction?

Also, please leave a quick review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

It lights me up to know this podcast is helping you.

Okay, it's time to go make a protein shake and get my sweat on.

No more standing in the kitchen waiting for motivation to appear.

I'll meet you back next week for another episode.

Be blessed.