Denise: He is such a show off, isn’t he? The Lord is so fun. So as we get started, tell everybody just a little bit about who you are.

Deb: Oh my goodness. At the age of 12, my aunt and her friends showed me how to reduce portions. Eating and I thought, oh my gosh, I must be fat. And so I went through my high school years. I was not heavy, I was normal.

But in my twenties and thirties, I had the idea. That I was too heavy. So I did Weight Watchers, I did Atkins. I even did a 1978 American Heart Association, lose 10 pounds in three days diet. So I did every diet imaginable. After my marriage I started gaining weight again. I was working very, very hard developing healthcare facilities and went from 180 to 250 pounds.

At 255 pounds. I began to get health problems and had a sleeve gastrectomy in 2008. That brought me down to 209 pounds, but that didn’t settle the problem. The problem was. Something else. I ate more and hernias developed around the sleeve gastrectomy, and I gained weight again, another 30 pounds.

So I went through the Dr. Oz diet, the Dr. Phil Diet, the Dr. Trudeau diet. I did the new Weight Watchers diet and the new Atkins Diet again, but. Nothing helped. I got my little hernias fixed, and about that time I seen an advertisement for Weight loss with the Holy Spirit. I thought God never let me down.

After my marriage, I was supported by my family. A prayer group, and it was a Catholic, charismatic prayer group in the 1970s. Did you know about Pentecostal prayer groups? We rely heavily on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Denise: And Deb, So I know the timeline on this, when did your marriage end?

Deb: 10 years after. And so that has been 35, 40 years now.

Denise: Okay. So your marriage ended about what year?

Deb: 1980

Denise: And then you gained, you went from 165 to two something.

Deb: 254, 260.

Denise: Okay. And how long did that take?

Deb: I bet you that took 20 years.

Denise: Okay, so over 20 years you put on 90 pounds.

Deb: Yes.

Denise: Okay. So this brings you into the two thousands, and then finally in 2008 was when you had the gastric.

Deb: Yeah. And I also remarried in 1996. 

Denise: Okay. 

Deb: And boy, did that help that the Lord said, open your tent, you’re about to have a new family. And I did. I gained four beautiful stepchildren and lots of grandchildren. So together we have five. And it’s.

Denise: Praise God. 

Deb: God has blessed me tremendously and John has helped me through the struggles.

Denise: Okay. Wow. Yeah. Praise God. So you have a beautiful social support and John. 2008 you had your surgery and then slowly by slowly the weight crept back on because it didn’t address the real issue.

Deb: Right.

Denise: Okay. And then you said that you had tried so many things, the new Weight Watchers and all of the things, and then came spring of 2025.

Deb: Right. And at that point. I had built a business that was very busy, and so at night I would come home, I worked all day. I would come home, have a night cap, have a snack, go to bed. I’d get back up at 2:00 AM and eat. 

And John was very supportive of me not having that nightcap. And so when I did Lent 2025 with weight loss in the Holy Spirit, I stopped that and had the fortitude to do that. So I was really, really excited.

And so no night cap, but I continued eating through the night and there were lots of family struggles and drama, so that kept that going. But with the worksheets and the weight loss with the Holy Spirit, I was able to reduce my weight, from size 24 now to 16. And that was over the whole year.

Denise: Wow.

Deb: So that was a lot.

Denise: Wow. Oh my gosh. Okay. I wanna get more into that, but let me go right back to Lent. 

Deb:  Okay. 

Denise: So you see weight loss with the Holy Spirit, and you think the Lord’s never let me down before. And you were struggling with the nightcap and then nighttime eating.

Deb: Correct.

Denise: Okay. And before starting 63 surrendered, what were your concerns about trying another weight loss program, if there were any?

Deb: Since I was baptized in the Holy Spirit in the 1970s and the Holy Spirit worked in my life, I had absolutely no concerns. But the surprise came when. We asked the Holy Spirit to join us in our weight loss and other struggles we had.

You know, you think about praying with the Holy Spirit and in the Holy Spirit. And the miracles that happened, but I never thought about associating that with food, with him. With food or her with food.

Denise: Yeah. Isn’t it crazy? I have women all the time tell me that they’ve turned every area of their life over to the Lord and either didn’t think he cared. Yeah. So what do you think, Deb? Like why do you think you hadn’t.

Deb: I just didn’t think about it.

Denise: Yeah.

Deb: And surrendering to Jesus and asking the Holy Spirit to sit with me, to breathe with me to help me remember the skills that we use. They were the exact same skills that I needed to use after my hernia surgery.

I had to eat slow. I had to put my fork down. I had to breathe. I had to decide when am I full, when am I not full? And these I read. The weight loss with the Holy Spirit program. I said, this is great. I went on, I struggled the first three months because it is very overwhelming.

But the support that you receive from the different slack Groups, your accountability team. You, I think I did a single coaching with Nicole. It just really brought my relationships into focus, my relationships with people, with the community, with knowing God’s voice versus what’s not God’s voice.

Denise: Isn’t that incredible that a weight loss program can teach us how to detect the Lord’s voice versus not the Lord’s? And that feels like it’s such a profound, yet very simple skill.

Deb: Yes. But you don’t think about it until you start. When we started, you gave us the feeling wheel. I did not know how to identify my feelings for love nor money. I’ll tell you. So all of a sudden, you know, you feel yourself uncomfortable, confused, and so I would bring the feelings wheel out and I would try to identify what I felt, and then you go out and spread out the different actions that happened or what you felt.

And then you can identify. What relationships are good, what things are good for you, versus things that are not good, or relationships that are not good. So that was, and that took me about four or five months to figure that out.

Denise: You know what’s so amazing as you guys listen to what Deb is saying, that’s not part of our program. Like what she just said about relationships. I don’t teach anything like that. That just tells me that she took the tools and the Lord just guided her and helped her.

And that’s just how closely you walk with the Holy Spirit, you, yourself, Deb And then being able to take the tools and the resources and what people tell you, like he just took you on your own little journey over there.

Deb: Sure I can.

Denise: Yeah. It is just I want people to hear this is a private encounter, this is a private journey, and the Lord will take you wherever you need to go. Of course, we’re all in a community, but he’s got something specific for each one of us. So what were your biggest surprises with 63? Surrendered?

Deb: The first surprise, of course, with that was that I could give up that night cap. And when I was with people, I really didn’t want any alcoholic beverages, and with the alcoholic beverages going away, so did the snacking and the loss. I guess I had lost my inhibitions and I would just have a chaos food and eat it all night long.

So that went away the first six, seven months maybe. And, that was a surprise. The second surprise was my eating practices. How I could feel my body and feel better with certain foods than other foods. And there was a second surprise. It was that amount of self-reflection that I could actually identify how I felt. And what I wanted to do, and the more I felt better, the more I wanted to move, the more I wanted to do walktctober that we all did.

Denise: Yeah.

Deb: And that was kind of fun. And now there’s little groups. Somebody put up a message who wants to walk 190 miles in 63 days? So everybody records their walks and it’s again, a community. That community’s real. It’s not some fake community out there. These are people doing things to make themselves better so that they can do God’s will for them.

And that’s one of the surprises. I want it to feel good enough to do God’s will and I didn’t. I would take naps just to procrastinate. But I don’t need a nap today.

Denise: Yeah, you just sound so like your life has been unburdened, enlightened. And you just keep noticing, oh, I don’t need this. I don’t need the nightcap. Oh, when I don’t have the nightcap, I actually don’t have the craving when I’m around other people. 

Oh then the excessive snacking and the chaos food goes away. And it’s just all of these things. The Lord is and you don’t need that anymore. And you don’t need that anymore. And you don’t need that. And your life is becoming freer.

Deb: Yes. And it’s portion control. It’s, I can. Control my portions and my thoughts. Now. It’s of course Girl Scout cookies landed in my house this week. And so I did have a few Girl Scout cookies. I felt bad.

Denise: Oh no.

Deb: And yes, I gave them away.

Denise: So let’s talk about how you handled Girl Scout cookies now being a year into. The weight loss with the Holy Spirit program and how you would’ve handled them before the weight loss with the Holy Spirit program.

So before, like two years ago, what would you have done?

Deb: An entire sleeve of peanut butter savannas. Of course, of course. And, go to sleep, feeling filled and whatever. I wake up at two o’clock in the morning, eat the other sleeve. This year. Oh, interest.

Denise: Yeah. Great.

Deb: This year I had probably five. And that was enough? It was, and that was a chaos for me because they make me feel bad. They make me shaky. I usually don’t do sugar, so that. So it’s not good for me.

Denise: Yeah. Okay. So girl Scout cookies land in your house and you have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and then something stops you from having 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Denise: Tell. So the woman who’s listening, who’s, who thinks that you said you felt bad after five. What did you notice after five that made you stop?

Deb: I was just blah. And I didn’t feel good about what I ate. Where for months now I ate what I wanted. And I felt good about it. And I felt good in portions. If I had eaten one cookie or two cookies. I would’ve felt Okay. But I can’t do that. It’s a food that’s not under my control yet.

Denise: Yeah. And I think that, whether or not it will ever be, but I want the woman listening to hear that we don’t ever not stop being human. We are gonna have times where we overeat. There are gonna be times that we eat something that we don’t feel good about, but we go from doing that. 90% of the time down to like, I don’t know what percentage?

Deb: I would say 10, maybe five to 10% this year. Yeah.

Denise: That’s incredible.

Deb: Right, And you know, I went from an alcoholic beverage to maybe a wine in a group, and I don’t even want that anymore. It just doesn’t taste good. Which I think is a miracle.

Denise: Yeah. That is such a miracle. So Deb, I want to take you back to when you first started the 63 Surrendered. Do you recall what your top three highlights were of those first 63 days or what you experienced?

Deb: Yes. I enjoyed making my easy to stick to meal plan. I enjoyed the surrender prayer in the morning and saying, Hey, God, how did I do today at night a review? And I would feel peaceful if it was a good day, and then I would eliminate things that made me not peaceful. 

So that was the first three months and really listening to the podcast and the community and the your coaching sessions as well as the check-in sessions, everybody shared their life, which is different, but comparable.

Denise: Yeah, we all hear our own story in other people. Even if our lives are different, we understand each other. We get each other. Deb, you said you went from size 24 to a size 16 now, so how many pounds down are you or do you not weigh.

Deb: I did weigh, because I started the workshop lab for Lent.

Denise: The weight loss lab. Yeah.

Deb: And so I did weigh and I was 205 or 207, down from a hundred thirty seven, two hundred thirty seven. 

Denise: 207? 

Deb: Yes. 207, I would say. So a good 30 pounds which. 

Denise: And eight dress sizes? 

Deb: Yes. 

Denise: Okay. 

Deb: With walking. 

Denise: And let’s don’t forget that. 

Deb: Yes. And feeling better. During that time, I had, you know some, I am 72 now and I have lots of arthritis and knee problems, and so during that time just exercising was difficult, but I did start walking a bit and hope to do more.

Denise: Absolutely. Oh, that’s so awesome. When did you start to notice the weight coming off and you physically changing?

Deb: I noticed that when I came I’m a snowbird, so I went from Cincinnati and Cincinnati clothes to Florida and Florida clothes. When I put Florida clothes back on, they were too big. So I had to go down a couple sizes.

Denise: So that would’ve been.

Deb: September of 2025.

Denise: Okay. So you noticed about six months in, that’s when you, because you weren’t weighing.

Deb: No, not at all. Which. Yeah, that, and that felt good.

Denise: Yeah, the truth is that if we start just doing what the Lord wants, then it doesn’t matter what the scale says. We just treat ourselves the way that we know the Lord wants us to. Had you noticed your Cincinnati close between February and September getting looser?

Deb: Yes. and I enjoyed that. But I didn’t go to a, well, I have a variety of sizes in my cupboard.

Denise: Yeah, I think many women can relate to that. So if you could go back and talk to yourself before joining 63 surrendered, what advice would you give yourself?

Deb: Just do it. God has never let you down, and this gives you the opportunity to get closer to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has worked. So many miracles in my life and with my family. That and in time you kind of get busy doing stuff.

But I just retired two years ago and I wanted to get closer to the Holy Spirit. To God to figure out what my retirement life looked like, who I could help, who I would get to know. It’s a whole new life now, and it’s a new life in the Holy Spirit. 

Denise: And that’s all he really wants. He just wants to be with us. 

Deb: And it feels good. It’s. It’s number one, God has never failed me and the Holy Spirit is helping me to recognize God’s voice now so that I can do what brings glory to God or helps me feel better.

Denise: And how is this program helping you hear God’s voice?

Deb: By being quiet, by praying, by just inviting the Holy Spirit to be with me all the time. Surrendering my worries and my struggles to Jesus, letting him take care of it, not really me worrying about it. And that was key. Not, Jesus will take care of it. For example, as a mother of a 54-year-old, I do not need to be in his business. He needs to make his own life and that’s it.

Denise: Yeah. And if the person who’s listening to this is hearing this for the first time. Our entire program is based on the surrender novena. And we have just a few daily disciplines that truly help us learn how to surrender. Because what you’re hearing, Deb, say it may sound like, oh, that sounds nice, but how do you actually do that?

Well, we practice it. It’s just part of the lifestyle. It’s what we do every day after day after day as we examine what am I holding onto? What am I not surrendering? And we have an opportunity to truly turn it over to the Lord. Not just the food stuff either. It’s the 54-year-old son.

Deb: Who needs lots of help, but they don’t know. They need lots of help. They need the Lord, and you can pray for that, but you can’t make that happen. Everybody has their own life to live.

Denise: That’s right. So for the woman who’s listening, who is on the fence on whether she wants to do 63, surrendered, whether it could work for her, what would you say?

Deb: I would say just go for it. Go for it. At your own pace. Pray. Know that you are worth it. You are worth being closer to God, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

Denise: Is there anything else that you would like to share with the woman who is listening?

Deb: I wanna thank everybody for my new life and helping me be strong enough to grasp it. To change habits that I didn’t particularly care for. I feel stronger now and lighter and able to move forward with whatever I think I can do, which of course I think I can do everything.

Denise: And you can when you’re with him. That’s for sure.

Deb: That’s right.

Denise: Well, thank you so much for sharing your story, Deb. It’s really helpful for women to hear an everyday person who has had decades of struggle finally find the solution in the Lord, and we just don’t think that our weight loss solutions are in the Lord. I know that sounds crazy, but they are

Deb: Right. Well just habits that God supports that support us because everything he does is for us.

Denise: So true. Well, thank you so much for your time, Deb, and your story. And we and I wish you continued health, continued weight loss and just continued, you know, healing in your body as the arthritis gets better and as you move more. Just.

Deb: Yes. It’ll be fun. I can’t wait to try the new Lenten Weight loss lab.

Denise: Oh, yes. The weight loss lab. So fun.Deb: Yes. New things. Always popping up with weight loss in the Holy Spirit.

Denise: That’s right. And we continue to do more so that you can just keep progressing.

Deb: Yep. Thank you.

Denise: Getting closer to the Lord. All right. Thank you so much, Deb.

Deb: Okay, thanks. Have a great day.