Denise:  Hey everybody. So today I have a special guest with me, Anne. And Anne has been in our weight loss with the Holy Spirit community for nearly a year. Isn’t that right Anne? It’ll be a year in November.

Anne: Correct. 

Denise: Okay. And Anne and I are gonna be talking about something super fun and we’ve never done an episode about this. We’re gonna be talking about international travel and I want you to know the reason why I chose Anne to be on this podcast. Not only is Anne extremely active in our community, but she was on a recent trip to Switzerland. And where else was your last trip? 

Anne: I also did a Caribbean cruise for two weeks. End of March and beginning of April.

Denise: Okay. So she shares all of these beautiful places that she goes, and she continues to. Just amen this process and living the weight loss with the Holy Spirit way. And while she’s still like actively immensely enjoying these vacations and not feeling like there’s anything lacking, so I thought, you know what? Everyone needs to hear that this is possible and to hear what she’s doing. So welcome Anne. 

Anne: Hi Denise. I’m excited to be here. So a little nervous. 

Denise: Everyone is nervous. Everyone is nervous. I might be the only person who loves just talking in a microphone all the time, so I did not ask you to prepare this part, but can you just tell a little bit about what brought you to weight loss with the Holy Spirit and how you got into this work? 

Anne: I’m a very devout Catholic woman. I actually kind of a revert, I came back to my faith really strong in 2018, was a cradle Catholic kind of strayed without knowing I was making the Church of Anne. Didn’t really know that. Got really strong on my faith.

Denise: But you were making the church of what?

Anne: The Church of Anne.

Denise: Oh, the Church of Anne. Okay.

Anne: I didn’t realize I was turning into a Protestant, right? Like picking what I liked from the church and what I didn’t like. So I also had some weight issues that I didn’t have them as a child ever ’cause I was so active with horses and just outdoors a lot. And then when life got busy in your thirties, forties, like, ooh, I became that emotional. I didn’t know I was that person till this program.

But I was emotionally soothing for probably a good 30 years with food. So the weight kept creeping on and creeping on. I would go on every kind of diet. Jeanie, Craig, yucky, Nutrisystem, food weight Watchers are pretty good, but nothing really stuck. I’d lose the weight, never get to goal, gain it back. I did it for so many years. It was getting discouraging. 

I typed in just on Google trying to find a Catholic coach ’cause I thought I need someone with faith-based to help me get through this. I’ve got faith, but I didn’t have any tools. That’s what I was missing. I didn’t know I was missing the tools that this program gave me. I had the faith, but no tools to do this, so I found you that way. So that’s how my journey began with weight loss with the Holy Spirit. 

Denise: Yeah. I’m really glad that you brought that up, Anne, because I find that I had a lot of faith too, and I would pray and pray and pray, but something wasn’t clicking and you’re so right. The missing piece is the tools. Because I know I used to think, well, maybe I’m just praying wrong or I don’t have enough faith. And to your point, that’s not the problem. 

Anne: Right. I thought what’s wrong with me? You pray you love God, but why aren’t you listening to him? Where’s your willpower? Why are you so weak?

Denise: Yeah. So for everyone listening, it’s not a lack of faith. It’s just you don’t know what to do. The tools on how to handle your food. Okay, so you came here, you got  the tools. 

Anne: This is not a fast program at all, so it is not a diet. It is very, very hard to get the diet brain when you’ve had it for 30 years out of your head.

Denise: Yeah. 

Anne: So learn the patience and take time. You can get overwhelmed with the tools I did with a lot of tools, but then I realized, you always let us know that pick the ones that work for you. You don’t have to do everything. 

So when you said that, I’m like, okay, let me try little tools here or there, and eventually they stick. But it takes a lot of patience and just coming to all the coaching, listening to all the ladies printing out the paperwork that I did not wanna print out. I was the Nudge lady, so I started off with Nudge app ’cause I couldn’t stand paper. 

Well, the tools, you know, you just have to start with little tools ’cause you’re such like a, I’m like a little kindergartner, so I have the little scissors, like the little plastic ones. Right. Is all I could use for a while. Right? 

Denise: Yeah. 

Anne: I can’t take the whole tool set that you give us. That can be overwhelming. If you just look at everything and print everything out. You’re just kinda lost. I don’t know what to do and you freeze. I did. 

But when I realized, just pick a little bit at a time, a little meal planning was the first thing to get down for me. That was my number one best tool, I think, to really get meal planning down and just stick with meal planning. 

Denise: And I like that you said that. For those of you listening who don’t know what the nudge is, we used to use this third party app called Nudge. It was exceptionally helpful. And now we have our own app because Nudge went outta business. And we now have an app developer who has created one that is specifically for the weight loss with the Holy Spirit community and 63 surrendered. 

And Anne, I have to say, you came in a year ago and we have since recognized the overwhelm that women can feel and we continue to say, how can we make this easier? How can we make this easier? How can we make this easier? 

And one of the ways that we have made it easier is to say, Hey, start here with the 63 Surrendered program. Where it is not given the menu of all the tools, but we give you just a few and say, start practicing this. So thank you for your perseverance and fortitude sticking with it.

Anne: I think in the beginning was easy. Celebrate not sabotage was like the 63. And then after, that’s when I got scared. Then it was like oh. I had the little celebrate, not sabotage, you know, doing those little tiny tools and then it’s like, wait a second, where do I go? Then I got scared for a little bit.

Denise: Yeah. So what made you persevere? Why didn’t you jump ship?

Anne: It felt really good because. The Holy Spirit, I learned to like really, really pay attention. Like not just myself or not just, here you go, God, you take care of everything. It was like, no, you have to do your work too, Anne. You can’t just give it to me and expect I’m not a genie, right? You’ve gotta put all the work in it too. 

So it was to gather myself with the Holy Spirit, where before I think I just gave it to God with the prayers, like you take care of it, God. And then I just would eat whatever I wanted or just not think about how I ate.

Denise: Yeah, you got real clear that God can’t do his part if you don’t do your part.

Anne: Yep. So that’s why I knew I’ve gotta do everything with this program. I could tell it was an amazing, beautiful program. In you, I can see the Holy Spirit working through you. I actually do feel the Holy Spirit working through you. So it’s like I’m staying, I’m staying. I want that too. And I’ve got it.

Denise: You know, I appreciate you saying that, Anne, because my prayer every single morning is. Lord, help her only see you in me. Like really help her just see you so that you are the one speaking to her heart. Oh my gosh. Thank you for that. 

Anne: Yeah. You’re not like a Weight Watcher leader or something to me. I see the Holy Spirit working through you. So this is completely different than anything I’ve ever been with. You’re not like the leader. I’m listening to everything. You tell me how, what we need to do. 

Denise: Yeah. 

Anne: It’s like the Holy Spirit is speaking through you. 

Denise: This isn’t about Denise’s way. This is about, Hey Anne, what does the Lord want for you? And it’s all about a journey that is showing you how to access the Holy Spirit so he can lead you. This is only about you and Him.

Anne: That’s what gave me the strength to stay, like I’m not leaving. And I’m not at goal yet, which is perfectly fine ’cause I’m not on a diet and I work on the patience every day. So if it takes me another six months or a year, that’s okay too ’cause I will be there. 

Denise: So you bring up another point, you said I’m not at goal yet, but I also know that you have chosen to not step on the scale and you are measuring your weight loss in different ways. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Anne: Well, when we did the lint journey that I did with you it was very scary for me when you asked us to give up the scale. ’cause I did live by the scale and I never realized the scale was a mini God never saw the scale that way. I always thought that’s what you do. You work hard, you get on the scale, the scale’s gonna tell you the answer, right?

So when you said, give up the scale, Wow, okay, I’m gonna do it. But I didn’t think I could do it once Lent was over. I honestly felt the Holy Spirit told me, don’t get on that scale. It’s not time for you to go on that scale yet and just go buy your clothes. It doesn’t matter how long it takes to get these two pairs of jeans I wanted to get into, it doesn’t matter how long it is that you’ll get there.

So I got there end of May. Then there’s one other pair which I can get in ’em now, which of course in my brain, I do know how much I probably weigh from past years when I got in those jeans. But I didn’t stay in ’em very long, so they look pretty brand new. Okay. They’re like 10 years old, but back and forth over the years.

And the Lord is still telling me, don’t go on the scale till, honestly. ’cause you know, I speak to him all the time. I’m gonna go on the scale on the first day at Advent.  It’s like, you know what? It’s still not time. Even though you can get in those jeans, you kind of know where you weigh and you’re gonna be a crab if it’s not a certain number ’cause I still have that number thing in my head. 

Unfortunately, that’s not gone yet. But I’m still happy with myself, but I’m thinking, oh, if the number isn’t this number, I don’t, I just don’t wanna be that person that gets all crabby and makes it. A mini God to me. I just wanna be the happy lady that’s, Hey, the clothes are fitting better. Hey, I’m in these jeans now. Hey, who cares how long it takes? Who cares? The Lord is with me. 

Denise: Yeah. I think you bring up a good point. So one of the reasons we stay off the scale is because we have made it a God, and you know, you’ve made it a God when you have an emotional attachment to it. I was really introduced to this concept. So I always knew that about the scale.

But even with Father Riper was talking about, I listened to a podcast about attachments and he said, you know, you have an attachment to something. If you have a feeling toward it. Just thinking about it. Okay, just stay with me on this. I’m taking a little rabbit trail here. 

And so if you think about the scale, you either might say, oh, I bet I’ve lost weight. So there’s that excitement or, oh no. So he said. Liking something and taking delight in something and true enjoyment from it is not the same as being attached to it. 

So you might, for example, love spending time with your grandkids, and yet if they can’t come over one day, it doesn’t lead you into a deep depression. Like you might be able to have a certain food that you really enjoy and delight in, but if the plans change and you don’t have it. It’s kind of like he calls it a take it or leave it sort of thing. 

And that’s what we wanna develop with the scale. We wanna take a take it or leave it attitude. We want to make sure that our behavior we’re doing, because it’s the best thing for us and it’s what the Lord tells us to do. This is the way that we feel peace around food. That we feel good in our bodies. And yeah. So you’re right on to notice. Oh, I don’t have that wholly indifference. 

Anne: Yeah, I don’t have it yet. It’s not there. So since it’s not there, I don’t need the scale. 

Denise: I love that. Yay. So Anne, thank you so much for all of that backstory. So let’s get into the international travel that you have done, and before we lose with the Holy Spirit, how did you typically approach vacations in international travel, especially when it came to food.

Anne: For me, because I was a yo-yo dieter for so many years, it just was a free pass to eat anything. Everything, every day was like a Thanksgiving day where you didn’t feel good ’cause you’re never gonna get that food again. You’re never getting that special cinnamon roll they sell or something. So I just would, and I would, my brain would think you’re just gonna go on a diet when you go home. So just eat everything you want. 

Denise: Yeah. That’s interesting that you said it was like Thanksgiving. I think we all know that mindset of, oh, eat whatever you want ’cause you’ll never get it again. But you also seemed like you were very aware that actually that wasn’t even that fun because you felt horrible.

Anne: Right? It was overeating too much breakfast, lunch, dinner, like too many meals, too many big meals. 

Denise: And so how has learning the easy to stick to meal plan and being able to surrender your food choices, like if something changes, how has that changed the way that you experience travel and vacationing now?

Anne: It’s so peaceful. It’s calming. It’s almost like when I was a child or a teenager, I didn’t ever have to worry about food or think about food. You just ate. You did all your activities, you had fun, rode the horses, did things with your friends and you ate. ’cause you’re hungry, right?

And whatever. There’s to eat, it tasted fine. You didn’t go off the rails for eating. So I feel like that now, like, oh, I can enjoy life now and life isn’t a hundred percent about food. What food can I eat on this trip? It’s about the nature, the scenery, the people you’re with, and I really truly can feel it. And you can still enjoy the food, the special foods. 

Denise: So in a practical sense, what would that look like when you wake up in the morning, you’re on vacation? How do you implement the easy to stick to meal plan? Or what sort of element? How much planning do you do? So take us through what that looks like in a day of vacationing. 

Anne: Well, okay. I would say the very first vacation when I went in March to the two week Caribbean cruise. I told myself, you’re gonna enjoy the cruise, right? You know, there is a lot of food, but there’s gonna be plenty of food. So how about, this worked for me. I talked to myself, right? 

How about no bread baskets, just never touch a bread basket. What do we need a bread basket for? How about a little less carbs? Not no carbs, but I know for my own body and things how I feel, less carbs, I do better. So I’m like, how about less carbs? If you order a cheeseburger, maybe no bun or a half a bun?

Then the dessert. I said every other day, never every day. And then I made sure, I do like to exercise and walk, so I did keep up with, using the gym or walking in the ports and things like that too. But it wasn’t like a diet. It wasn’t a diet brain, like you can’t have bread. It’s no, I made that choice. I don’t want a bread basket. I just don’t. I’d rather have different foods. 

Denise: When we talk about like. How to splurge. It means eat the food you like first? 

Anne: Yeah.

Denise: The bread. Like we just don’t eat bread baskets just to fill up and with the belief, oh, I’ll never get it again. Like truly eat the foods that you actually enjoy that are special on a cruise.

Anne: Right. The special dining and things like that. And I think because the tools, I really believe in the tools of this program. So learning to actually understand true hunger versus just boredom or emotional hunger. True hunger and learning took probably a good six months, to sit in to know when I’m actually full.

Like, okay, now I know the food that I ate, that’s enough. I don’t need a second plate. I don’t need more food. I didn’t know that before. I was a volume eater, so I just kept eating. Just keep eating the food till you’re over full, like the gas is overflowing out of the gassing at the station, just pouring out of the thing. I’m fine on a three quarter of a tank feeling. 

Denise: And for the woman who’s listening to this, how long do you think it took you to recognize, Hey, I am a volume eater. My body really feels a lot of comfort with a large amount of food to the place of feeling safe to say, oh, actually I’ve had enough, and to be able to stop. 

Anne: I would honestly say probably took me since I started, was celebrate, not Sabotage was November 1st, I think we started, right? So I’d say when we went on the cruise, which was, I think March 25th was the first time I started feeling like my brain was kind of starting, not fully understanding it, but did have a good concept, had pretty good skills to think about it more.

Now, I’d say it probably took me until this Switzerland trip in July that I fully understand it completely now, like 100%. Like I don’t need that much food. So I was getting it on the Caribbean cruise March, April, and by June July I had it down. So what is that, about six months? 

Denise: Let’s see, that was five months to the cruise, and then another four. Let’s just say, let’s say eight months max. 

Anne: Yeah. 

Denise: And I want people to hear the journey and that it isn’t an overnight thing. And guess what? We’ve spent decades of overeating. And for you to be this far in eight months, I mean, that’s incredible. 

Anne: Oh, thanks. I didn’t even know. I’m like just working it. I also, I have to say this, I kind of figured out what calories make me happy too. Like of course I used to think, oh, 1500 calories and you’ll lose weight. Well, I was starving at 1500 calories. Okay. You know they say 1200 to 1500 when you’re on the diet brain. 

Well, I realized, and I do like to walk or ride my e-bike exercise. I’m like, I’m starving and I can’t control myself. I do good at 17 to 1800 calories of decent food. I just feel so much better and if I do need more calories that day, it’s okay. I plan it, so it’s okay, but there’s no more stay hardcore calories. But I’m never in some kind of low, low, low calories ever. 

Denise: Yeah, discovering what works for you in this season of your life.

Anne: Right. 

Denise: I just love that you’re giving yourself permission that it is a process and every day we get to try new things. 

Anne: Right, right. I just tried more calories was better than less calories. Like, okay. But it’s not, per se, it’s not a diet like, Hey, I have to stick to these calories. It’s just, I noticed that, hey, at 17, 18, you can pretty much control how much you eat, like volume wise or wanting what do you call it? No more binge eating. That took me a while to stop binge eating as well. I was a binge eater too. So that took me a good six months to not wanna eat peanut butter and chocolate chips. 

Denise: Yeah.

Anne: I still can’t touch a peanut butter jar. I didn’t realize that. I tried it about two weeks ago. I hadn’t done it since March, but I wasn’t binging, I actually was still hungry. Was using AI chat right. And it said that you could have a spoonful, one or two spoonfuls of peanut butter or something else. 

So I thought, I think I’ll choose the peanut butter. Right? Oh my gosh. My brain doesn’t wanna stop on peanut butter. So it’s like, okay, we don’t do peanut butter now still, and it’s not a never food. I mean, if I wanna put it in, I will, but I notice it’s still, I want two, doesn’t satisfy me on peanut butter. 

I can stop on chocolate like Swiss chocolates, like just the top squares of ’em. I can do that instead of a whole bar. I could eat a whole bar in the old days, but now I could just do the top. I think it’s, I can’t remember if it’s three squares or four that go across on a Swiss bar. 

Denise: What’s really sticking out to me right now, Anne, is you said, Hey, I experimented with peanut butter and I realized this doesn’t work for me right now. Yeah. Do you guys hear how light Anne is? It isn’t this shame. It isn’t this guilt. It’s just, oh wait, I discovered right now. 

Anne: Nope. 

Denise: And then she just willingly put it back. That’s just this process. I love that you’re just so kind and gentle to yourself like that.  

Anne: And it takes a while. I did go to get through everything with the program because you offer the one-on-one coaching. I felt like every two weeks I’d all of a sudden wanna be defiant. I’d look at my pantry and say, no, no. Almost like a brain saying, no one’s gonna tell me what I can do or not do. I’m gonna eat this. Some peanut butter, a bunch of it.

I’m like, why am I doing this? Because I really love the program. Why am I being so defiant? You know, I’m thinking, is this the devil getting me? What is this? Right. So then I did the one-on-one coaching with Nicole and that really helped me a lot. Like it really? ’cause sometimes you need fine tuning.

Denise: Yeah. 

Anne: So I call it fine tuning ’cause I can use all the tools, but I can’t see myself exactly why I’m doing things. And Nicole saw things that, just talking to her, she pulled out. That was just amazing. It was so helpful.

So I would tell the ladies, it’s worth to put a little bit of money in yourself. It’s like, you know what, you’d probably spend that on skincare or something. So if you need extra, go with the one-on-one. It was amazing. 

Denise: When in your journey were you working with Nichole? 

Anne: It was after the cruise still. Even though I’m still doing great I’m not perfect and of course I won’t be, but I still was doing some defiant things.So I think it was when I came back from the cruise, even though on the cruise I did great ’cause I exercised enough. But then coming home, I think our houses are the most dangerous places. Well, for me it is totally, the pantry is the most dangerous thing that exists. 

Denise: Okay. So now  I wanna go back to the cruise. So you had a couple guidelines and b boundaries that you thought, Hey, if I stick to these, I feel really good. Now, tell me about when you went to Switzerland. How did you make your plan, or what sort of boundaries did you put? Tell me about that vacation. 

Anne: Now, this one, because their bread is absolutely amazing. Okay. It’s not like the bread here in the United States, right? So I’m like, I will have bread because their bread is good, right? But I will have bread, kinda like the desserts I did on the ship every other day. Not every single day. And I can eat their bread without the butter on it, even though they have amazing butter too.

So it’s like you can have a slice of bread. They have really amazing salads there, so I do like salads. So they use like the butter lettuce, beets, carrots, vegetables in it. It’s called a gamosa salad. Probably said the German wrong, but GM salad. I would order that a lot and then I’d have a little bit like of my husband or my son’s, like if they had a pizza or they had a cordone blue or something.

I didn’t wanna order that for myself ’cause I knew it was too much food and I wouldn’t feel good with that much food in me, like I wasn’t depriving myself ’cause they’d always give me a little bit of theirs. I was happy with the salad and a little bit of theirs was perfect, like I was so happy. 

Denise: I think it’s so cool to say I was on vacation eating less food, and I was happy about it.

Anne: So happy. I was not deprived. I just didn’t need to order a whole plate of the chicken cordon blues and they do a lot of french fries too. So I’m like, Oh, I don’t really need a lot of french fries here. But I love that butter lettuce. I love it.

Denise: I think you might have been on the call the other day where a woman was talking about going to a restaurant. She said, you know what, three times the food doesn’t mean three times the fun. 

Anne: Right. 

Denise: And that’s, you know, to your point, kinda sounds like the same thing. 

Anne: Right? Right. 

Denise: Can you share a specific example from one of your trips where you enjoyed the food, you stayed present in the moment and you didn’t feel restricted and maybe you did. Just give us a moment. 

Anne: We took the whole family, so my three adult kids has brought son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and a granddaughter. We all went, my husband to Switzerland, so it was a trip of a lifetime. Amazing to have my kids, but. 17 days straight of your kids with you that are adults in their thirties was awesome. I’ll probably never have that again. Right. But it was awesome. 

So my daughter really wanted to do the cheese fondue. And I’m not really a big cheese fondue person. I love cheese and bread, but somehow I don’t really like it fondue like or something is just not my thing. But because she wanted it, we’re in lucerne, why not? Right. 

So I enjoyed small amounts of it. But the company and seeing how happy everybody else was the best. So it’s like I didn’t say no I can’t eat that kind of food, or I don’t, it wasn’t about me and what I want to eat or what I can’t eat. So I couldn’t meal plan every single day that way. But if the daughter on Lucerne, Hey, let’s go to this special place. I looked up. All right, let’s go. 

Denise: Yeah. It sounds like you said, you didn’t plan every day, but you had developed a sense of trust with yourself and an ability to stay calm in the moment and enjoy the moment and just really check in with you about, well, what will make me feel good, and you could trust whatever that answer was.

Anne: Right. And I think I completely lost the desire to overeat, that big volume. And I don’t wanna feel that way. And I know when to stop, which I didn’t ever know when to stop eating before this program. And like I said, it took me a good up until end of June to actually, I don’t really need that much food. I need still a good amount, but nothing like before, nothing even close to that amount. 

Denise: Yeah, that is, that’s really profound. I’ve lost the desire to overeat. Wow. Completely. So what would you say to someone who worries that surrendering their food to God means that they will miss out on all the fun things with vacationing or special moments. What would you say to somebody who’s like, but if I do that, you know, vacationing won’t be fun. I won’t be able to have my treats. I’ll just be like, so bored and I’ll miss out. 

Anne: I think it’s a process, so each vacation you get stronger and stronger. Meal planning and allowing yourself some things like say if you do want a bread roll, how about you put on your meal plan one bread roll instead of doing, oh, it’s so good. I’ll have two of these rolls, two or three of ’em, or dessert meal plan for the special things like. We did go to Florida in March for a wedding and I had never been to Florida and I still do like food.

God made us still like food, right? One of the things you told us that we got taste buds, right? So I looked up this amazing chicken place, right? And I planned it. It’s like, okay, I’m gonna plan this special chicken fried chicken dinner.

So I didn’t miss out in Florida. It was amazing. But every day I didn’t eat that way. every day. I wasn’t eating some chicken and macaroni salads or things like that. Every day it’s like, okay, this one day on the six days we’re here, I’m having this really special chicken, and the wedding was just wedding food. That wasn’t that exciting. So I knew it’d eat a little bit of stuff. Not much, you know. 

Denise: But you mean, to your point, when we plan it and we give ourselves full permission to eat any food and we go in intentionally having it, we love it. We feel so good. It’s a special treat. It’s a way that we can truly enjoy life and experiences.

But when we’re telling ourselves, oh, I can’t have that, and it almost feels like we’re hiding and we’re sneak eating it, and we’re overeating it, telling ourselves we’ll never get it again. That’s when we really regret it. Yeah, you can have two separate meals, but it’s the way that you eat it with that mindset, one feels like exciting and like a treat and the other one feels shameful. 

Anne: And, exactly. ’cause I did used to be like that, like thinking, oh, I’m never gonna get it again. And then it’s just such a disordered way to eat. It’s like stuffing and like if you saw a movie of yourself, it’d be like a horrible movie. 

You wouldn’t wanna be a star in like, oh this isn’t attractive looking because I’m so into this food instead of the wedding or the people I’m with where you can enjoy the food and the people and love the food. Still without, I’m never gonna get this that, never gonna get this mind. That’s one you gotta lose. That one really hurts you. 

Denise: I would agree. I can find that one sneaking in every once in a while and I have to notice it and say, that’s not even true. 

Anne: Right. 

Denise: And to say, wait a second, you can have this, it is totally fine to have this. If you want it tomorrow, we can have it again tomorrow. 

Anne: Right. Or smaller, like, my husband likes special things too, so how about I have a little bit of his, how about I have a quarter of it or a half of it if I want, portions in America, you know how big they are anyhow, they’re too big. Anyhow. 

Denise: Yeah. So overall, how has experiencing this freedom around food while traveling, deepened your reliance on the Lord and your friendship and your sense of peace? 

Anne: Like I was just giving it all to him without doing my work and working together with the Lord. Like of course the Lord is leading me. I’m not the leader. Before, when I just wanna take care of myself only, and he is just there to the side while I’m kind of praying and hoping, and he is just gonna save me. It is such a different feeling now. It’s like, we got this. 

He’s helping me.He’s there, he’s guiding me. I just have to keep my heart and my mind open to him and it’s such a lighter feeling. It’s like, I got this, you’re not starving. You’re gonna be okay with just this much food or this kind of food. It’s just. Count your blessings. You’re on vacation for the first thing anyhow. You’re on vacation. What a blessing is that. 

Denise: Yeah, it sounds like you experience life or vacationing with more richness where you’re experiencing all of the sensations and all of your senses are being exposed to the sights and the sounds, and you are fully experiencing these new places. And it also feels like this lightness. Almost like a lightheartedness where you’re like, well, there’s just no fear. 

Anne: Yeah. 

Denise: You just go and whatever you’re like free. 

Anne: Right. The freedom is, like I said, it’s kinda like when I was a child, you, I was just free. You went outside, you played, you rode your horses, you came in and ate dinner. Your mom and dad made dinner. You ate dinner. You didn’t. Think about you weren’t constantly about food, food, food.

How much and am I never gonna get it? You just happily ate and enjoyed life and went out to play. So it kind of feels lighthearted like I can play again. I’m playing like when the Lord wants us to be more like a child. I think that’s part of it with food as well. Be more like a child that, you know. 

Denise: Yeah. Thank you Ann. I think we all wanna be more like a child and feel a lot more lightness in our lives. Is there anything else that you would like to share before we end this? 

Anne: I’m tongue tied. I love everything in this program. It’s not a diet and it’s a lot of, I still have to work on the patience. I mean, of course it still can creep in. Sometimes you think, you can still think like, oh wow, it’s been a year. I should have been at goal. Oh, well, who cares? But it still will creep in. So you still have to constantly work with the Lord, follow the Holy Spirit, just never stop. You still have to work, but you get to enjoy life a lot easier by doing the work. 

Denise: Love the work.

Anne: It’s very much worth doing all the work though. You see results. And loving the process. 

Denise: And the process becomes worship. It is part of the way that we get to walk with the Lord, and it’s the way that we get to truly enjoy our life. I feel like it just quiets the food noise. And you know when you said patience, I feel like secular weight loss methods say, Hey, we’re gonna enjoy life when we get to that goal.

And all we’re gonna do until we get there is to keep our eye on the goal and just really keep our head down and really criticize and motivate ourselves, and that’s just not the Lord working through us. He wouldn’t do that. He would say, Hey, how about we have some fun today? What do we do to enjoy today? How can we be kind and loving and enjoy this day? 

Anne: Right. The present day each day. The present, right? 

Denise: Yeah. And then we’re all working towards being at that healthy weight at the same time. But we can enjoy the journey. Enjoy the day, enjoy the time with him. 

Anne: Right. And I think you’re right. ’cause I’ve never enjoyed the journey till this program. How could I enjoy the journey when you’re on a diet? That’s not fun. You’re deprived, you’re not gonna eat certain foods, there’s no meal planning. It’s this many calories and don’t eat this kind of food.

Denise: Yeah. What I find is that this program doesn’t teach you how to just eat differently. It teaches you how to live differently. 

Anne: Right. Something I think, well, I know that I can do the rest of my life. 

Denise: Yeah.

Anne: This is how I can do the rest of my life. I can actually enjoy food. Wow. I get enjoy it and I get to choose anything I want, but now I know what I want. Now it’s not about volumes of food. 

Denise: Wow. That’s freedom. Thank you so much, Anne, for sharing your whole story and your vacationing tips. It’s been so fun for me, and I know the women listening. 

Anne: Thank you for having me, Denise. Thank you so much and God bless everybody in this program. I know we all pray for each other and I’m always praying for everybody as well. 

Denise: Yeah. And for all the women who are not in this program, I want you to know that we are praying for you as well. I always pray for the woman who doesn’t even know that this work exists. 

Anne: Right, right. Yeah. 

Denise: All right. Thank you so much, Anne.

Anne: Thank you. Bye Denise. Bye.