Finding the Strength to Say No: Setting Healthy Boundaries Around Your Health and Time

• Proverbs 4:23 (NLT) says, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” 

Setting boundaries isn’t selfish — it’s stewardship. God calls us to steward our bodies, our time, and our energy wisely. 

• Here are a few Practical Tips to help you recognize and pray through boundaries:
  • Identify situations where saying no is hard (family gatherings, work events, social pressure).
  • Practice polite, firm ways to say no, like “Thank you, but I’m focusing on healthy choices right now.”
  • Prioritize self-care as an act of worship and honoring God’s gift of your body.
  • Remember, saying no to others can be saying yes to your health and God’s plan for you. 
• Lord, give me what I need today, the strength and courage to say no when I need to. Help me guard my heart and body, and honor you with my choices. Teach me to steward the time and energy you’ve given me wisely. Amen.

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://www.herweightlossmindset.com/framework

Join my FREE Community: https://bit.ly/JoinTheChristianWeightLossCommunity

Join my Insiders List with weekly tips for weight loss for Christian women: http://herweightlossmindset.com/herweightlossmindsetinsiders

Transcript

Welcome back, friend.

How are you today?

Okay, so we are diving into an important part of your weight loss journey today.

It's learning how to say no, saying no to certain foods, to over committing, or to things that drain your energy.

It is essential to honoring your body and your faith in your weight loss journey.

Setting healthy boundaries around food and your time is so important.

So today, I'm going to give you a couple of things that you can do to start setting boundaries today.

Stay tuned.

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

Are you tired of doubting your ability to actually lose weight in a healthy way?

Do you wish you could find a laid out for you plan that will help you stay accountable to your goals?

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

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

So grab your pre-workout and let's chat.

I want to invite you to the Biblical Weight Loss Framework, where we take a 90-day approach to weight loss God's way.

It's learning to identify triggers and traumas in your life, prayerfully give those to God and create healthy mindsets around food, around nutrition, creating a macro plan specific for you, and a fitness plan when you're ready.

And it all ultimately leads to walking out your purpose.

When we are so focused on ourselves and our weight, we cannot walk in the purpose that God has placed on our lives.

And we're called to make disciples as we go where we live, work, and play.

So the Biblical Weight Loss Framework is a full-scale group coaching program where we will look specifically at the things that you are dealing with and create a plan specific for you.

So if you are ready, go to the show notes or visit herweightlossmindset.com/framework.

That's herweightlossmindset.com/framework.

So this is an area where I still struggle.

I remember so many times when I felt pressure to say yes to every social invitation or every snack offered, even when it wasn't good for my health or my peace and I had like set specific goals.

Like to be honest, I feel it often.

I felt it yesterday.

I especially feel social pressure because I know so many people know what I do for a living, and I don't want them to think that I'm like this weird, obsessive person who's always like counting calories and macros and like never having a treat.

Well, like it's this mindset shift that I need to move past.

Maybe you do too.

Am I living for God or am I living for people and their opinions of me?

Learning to say no was hard.

It's still hard today, but it is also so freeing when we can say, Lord, give me what I need, and He guides us in our choices.

It has helped me guard my time.

It has helped me guard my health and the choices that I make, and ultimately honor him with walking through that Holy Spirit obedience regardless of the outcome of the weight loss or what people are going to think.

We read in Proverbs 4, verse 23, it says, guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Let's read that again.

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Learning to say no and setting healthy boundaries around your food and your time, that is a way of guarding your heart and your body.

And not only that, it is a way to protect your health and your well-being, because we're honoring God with our choices.

Setting boundaries?

This is hard for so many people.

Setting boundaries is not selfish.

Setting boundaries is stewardship.

God calls us to steward our bodies well, our time well, and our energy wisely.

And saying no, if you have not prayed over it and asked God's direction in your life, saying no helps you protect your physical health and your spiritual peace.

This allows a space for you to rest.

It allows a place for healthy meals, meal prep, movement, an opportunity to focus on what truly matters, which is letting God lead your journey, which is letting God lead you to rest.

We are so focused on this busy culture.

We're always staring at our phones.

We're constantly distracted.

Setting boundaries around our food and our time, especially the time that we spend scrolling social media.

Setting boundaries with yourself is so important.

Setting boundaries with other people is ye.

So I want to give you a couple of practical tips that will help you recognize and pray through these boundaries.

So I want you to prayerfully identify the situations where you find saying no hard.

Maybe it's family gatherings.

Maybe it's work events or social pressure.

Ask God to reveal those.

Remember that Psalm 139, 23, and 24?

Search me God and know my heart.

Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

When we can place scripture in our lives and ask him to reveal those places where we're struggling, he will show you.

And he will help you when you lean on him and then listen and obey.

He will help you set those boundaries so that you can speak to people in a loving way.

Or maybe speak to yourself in a loving way.

The next thing, practice polite, firm ways to say no.

Like, hey, thank you, but I'm focusing on healthy choices right now.

So my husband, real Amish.

Amish people, I love my Amish family.

They're always busy.

They're always going somewhere.

Like, they might be home one night a week.

Most of the time, they have other things going on, maybe in the evening or through the day.

So like, when we first got together, it was really hard for him to sit at home.

But I had got to a place in my faith journey where God was calling me to a season of rest.

I just had a hysterectomy.

I was still healing.

I had walked away from a group of friends that I was partying with and drinking and all of these poor choices.

And God had called me to just sit still, be in my home, spend time outside in my yard, take my dogs for a walk.

And that was a really hard thing for him to do.

But like we have to be still.

We have to rest.

Busy is not a badge of honor.

The word calls us to rest, to Sabbath.

Like God literally created the entire world and everything in it in six days.

And then he took a nap.

Like rest is a command.

So protecting your rest, protecting your peace.

Thank you, but I'm focusing on healthy choices right now.

If someone invites you to do something and you'd already planned a day of rest, you can say, you know what, thank you, but I already have plans.

You don't have to explain what your plans are.

If you have planned a day of rest, people don't need to know that.

That is you setting a healthy boundary with yourself and others that you have planned a day of rest.

And that is okay.

The next thing, I want you to think about prioritizing self-care as an act of worship and honoring God's gift of that beautiful body that you live in.

You have a beautiful body that was created by the Creator of the universe.

Maybe you're not where you want to be with your fitness goals, or your weight loss journey, or your workout plan.

It's okay.

Most people aren't.

But learning to love her where she is today, speaking life to her, and truth to her, and learning to see her as God sees her, that is an act of worship.

Your body feels every unhealthy thought and every negative thing that you think or say about her.

So start changing that self-care routine to speaking and thinking life over your body.

I eat and move according to my goals.

I am healthy.

I am flexible.

I am strong.

I am lean.

I am toned.

Self-care is an act of worship when we honor God's gift of our body.

The next thing, remember that saying no to others can be saying yes to your health and God's plan for you.

We're walking in Holy Spirit obedience over the outcome.

We're not worried about what other people think about us.

This is a hard concept, right?

It's okay.

Especially if you get on social media the next day and you see all of this fun that you supposedly missed out on last night.

Maybe you feel that overwhelming sense of peace because you know that God had called you to stay home.

That's a great feeling.

Your only job in this life is to walk in Holy Spirit obedience.

As hard as it can be sometimes.

But learning to lay down your struggles and seek Holy wisdom, this is the only way to find success in this area of setting healthy boundaries around your food and time.

It's never too late to try again.

We're not waiting till tomorrow.

We're not waiting until the next week.

We are choosing the next right choice.

Our old pastor, he used to say, do the next right thing.

Heavenly Father, give me what I need today.

The strength and the courage to say no when I need to.

Help me guard my heart and my body.

Help me honor you with my choice as Heavenly Father and teach me to steward my time and energy that you have given me wisely.

Thank you Lord for loving me.

Amen.

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

If so, would you take 30 seconds and share it with a friend?

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

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 will meet you back here for another episode.

God bless.