Do you know why?  Because that’s what happens when we look at our crosses and the things that feel heavy in our life to the truth of the Lord. Now, before you turn this off, I want to tell you I’m not going to be encouraging you to offer it up or did you just accept that this is going to be the cross that you bear for the rest of your life? Instead, I want you to lean into what you’re struggling with. I’m going to share with you how I was able to lean into the lies that were coming up in my life over food and weight and have a Lord show me. How is it actually working in my soul? through this struggle and the path out of it. And so I just trust today that you will hear exactly what you need to hear so that you can understand more of what the Lord is doing. Inside your soul. And the path that he has for you. So that things can feel lighter. And you can be free of your weight struggles. So just trust me, there’s something very special inside this podcast for you. 

So gift yourself with this time so that he can speak to your heart. Now before we get started, I don’t know if I’ve really said this. But I feel like it’s an appropriate time to say it in this podcast. That my goal in this podcast and truthfully with all the work that I do with The Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit community is to transform the way that Catholic women take care of themselves.

To transform the way that they view their health and weight loss. To teach them authentic self care and authentic self care isn’t what the world tells you it is.  It’s how you talk to yourself. How you tune into your own needs and then meet those needs. I want you to realize that you are an extension of the Lord’s hands and feet first to yourself. And then when you have your own needs met, when you feel seen and heard just like the Lord wants to do for you. From that whole fortified, fully loved place then he pours out through you to your families and to the rest of the world. And this, my friends, is how we become walking vessels of the holy spirit. When we’re filling our minds with the Lord’s thoughts with his truth, then he sees what pours out of us. Isn’t that amazing? That’s what I want for you. For him to easily pour out of you, so that you’re not consumed and filled with lies and confusion and stress and chaos. Because my friends, when we are filled with lies and confusion and stress and chaos, guess what pours out of us? Yeah, lies, confusion, stress, and chaos. And that’s why it’s so important for us to align our thoughts with him.  

And so today you may be feeling like you are filled with lies and stress and confusion and chaos about your food, weight struggles. Today, he’s got a message for you; a little gift. So come with me on this journey so that he can transform you and do a little soul surgery as we head into holy week. So here’s what happened to me, I am in a season of intentionally losing weight. I’ve been at a healthy weight for about 10 years and have easily been able to maintain it until last fall when I started a gut healing protocol and I put on nearly 25 pounds. Wow, I know, right 25 pounds. And so, although my gut feels healed, I think that I am carrying excess weight so I am in a season of intentionally losing weight. However, in that season, there’s ups and downs and I want to tell you about one of my downs when lies started creeping into my head. When things don’t go the way that you think they should and I started to struggle. My brain started to tell me all sorts of things. And so I want to take you through that because you might be able to relate if you were having these same thoughts.  

So, what I found was happening was after my dinner, I was wanting to eat more. And so I thought I would experiment with this concept of adding more pleasure to my life at other times. Or even adding pleasure after my evening meal, so in my brain, I had that concept, hey, if I had more non-food pleasures in my day, then I wouldn’t be seeking pleasure in more food after dinner. After a week of trying that, although I enjoyed the non-food pleasures, I still had this urge to overeat and eat more at dinner. So I was reviewing that at the end of the week. At the beginning of the week I had the experiment. What if I try adding more non-food pleasures to see if that would easily wipe away this need to eat more at dinner. I’m going to tell you it did not. 

So the experiment in a sense was a fail, but was it? My brain thought it was a big fail. My brain thought that I would always be seeking comfort and food. So I want to take you through how I was able to coach myself and what the Lord revealed to me. So I asked my brain, brain what is the problem with this? Brain, what do you think is the problem with that? Let’s say, for example, you do seek comfort and food. I said, oh, my life feels small. I feel horrible about myself. I feel like I’m going to be stuck living in this existence that’s ruled by my human desires and whims or do you guys see how dramatic my brain is? So I was like, okay, well, let’s say for example, that’s true what would be the problem with that? And I was like, Ugh. God just has so much in store for me in my life. This just feels so limiting. It feels like food is so distracting that this distraction is so unnecessary. That’s a hindrance to my ultimate freedom. I’ll always have these worldly attachments. 

You guys, my brain was really dramatic, so then I like to ask my brain, okay, well, let’s just say that’s a hundred percent true. What do you like, always have worldly attachments. What would be the problem with that? What would be the problem? And I was like, oh my gosh, what if this is my cross? Well, what would be the problem with this is my cross. And I was like, well, I guess nothing. If this is my cross that I will always think that food can bring me comfort. Now you guys, that doesn’t mean that I’m binging my face off or giving into that urge. Okay, it’s just a human urge. But my brain wanted to make it a big problem that I have this urge. Okay, I’m not saying that I’m over eating but I want that urge to go away.  

That’s when my brain is thinking, my brain is making it mean. That there’s a problem just because I have the surge. So I said, well, what if that’s my cross? What if I just always have this urge that I want to eat food for comfort or that’s my first thought? And I was like, well, I guess that’s nothing is the problem with that. Let’s say this is my cross. This is where the Lord started to like to reveal his truth. Therefore my work is to just surrender this. To embrace it, to do my part. To continue to work on it and allow God to lead me. And when I say you guys, when I say do my part, that means be able to process an urge. That means being able to work on self control. That means being able to meet the real need that I have instead of giving into that urge. You see, my brain was just making it mean that there’s a problem because I had an urge or thought that food could bring me comfort.  

So I go on in my writing with the Lord. I said bottom line Jesus there are things in my food and weight that don’t feel peaceful. Just like other areas of my life that don’t feel peaceful. But you guys, this is where I really want you to listen up because there’s areas in your life where you don’t feel peaceful specifically in your food and weight, and this is what he’s calling us to do. He’s calling us to address it. First of all, he wants us to call out the lies. Flesh out the lies, the things that are going on in our brain that are not his. And the first one that was very evident was in my brain, one of the lies was Denise I’ll never be free, I’ll never be free of this.  

And I was like that’s so not even true because I am a hundred percent committed to being totally free from food. I’m not giving up on myself. I’m not giving up on the Lord; that’s the truth. The lie is you’ll never be free from this. But the truth is, I’m not giving up on myself. Another truth is I have come so far. And so I love to look at all the evidence of how far I’ve come. The Lord also revealed to me that when we do feel struggles there’s things in it for us. Each struggle contains eight things. You guys eight things in your struggles. And I know that if you can think of a struggle right now in your brain, I’m going to tell you the eight things that it’s going to bring to you if you choose to address it.  

Each struggle contains a gift for you. A gift, yeah, it’s a little uncomfortable but it contains a gift. A lesson something that you couldn’t know any other way. It contains a crown of heaven for you. Because through this struggle, I guess the gift and the crown of heaven is you’re growing in virtue. You are learning something here and growing in virtue that you will be able to take with you in heaven; it is a crown. This concept is taught through the gift of the divine will. Jesus revealed to Louisa that you can learn virtues that you don’t have when you’re being tested. He wants you to grow in virtue in a way so that you can gain what he calls a crown in heaven. Whether it’s your fortitude crown. Your patient’s crown. Your perseverance, crown your humility, crown. Isn’t that amazing!  

Number four, is that each struggle is part of your Sainthood journey. Number five, is that it strengthens you. Number six, is that it refines you. Number seven is that each struggle will bring you closer to freedom. You can’t grow in virtue and be chained down by the world. Your struggles don’t get harder the more you grow in virtue. You moved toward freedom. Toward living in the Lord’s strength. And number eight, each struggle is part of your healing process.  

So I want to go through those briefly one more time so that you know, that whatever you’re struggling with. Is actually leading you closer to what you want. It contains a gift. A lesson helps you grow in virtue and get a crown in heaven is part of your Sainthood journey. Not only does whatever you’re struggling with and listen, you can only get all of these things if you choose to address the struggle. And two, address it in the way that the Lord wants you to. Your struggles strengthen and refine you and bring you closer to ultimate freedom. And each struggle is part of your healing process. If you didn’t have the struggle, you couldn’t heal. It’s bringing you closer to it. So your part and my part is twofold to not walk away and to have the courage to look at the struggle. That’s it! Just don’t walk away. Don’t walk away and continue to live with the problem.  

No, look at it; address it. Live in the solution. That means finding solutions. And if you don’t know where solutions are, the Lord will reveal it to you in prayer. You see each struggle is part of your healing path. Each struggle is a roadmap; it’s like a blinking neon sign that’s pointing to what the Lord wants you to address in your life. He’s saying, look at this, this is where I want you to put your focus. This is where you will make progress. This is where you will have more healing. Whatever you’re struggling with, the Lord is saying, yeah, let’s look at that this is what I want to work with you on. Your job and my job is to process our feelings. I had to learn how to take care of ourselves to be tender and gentle and loving with yourself as you go through this.  

Not to make this struggle mean anything or that you’re doing something wrong. You see, my brain wanted to make my struggle mean that I’ll always be stuck here, no. Just because you’re struggling doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong just because you’re struggling, doesn’t mean that’s your future. It just means the Lord is saying, I want you to work on this now. The struggle is showing you where the Lord wants you to work, where he wants your attention, what he wants to help you with next. The other cool thing is, your brain wants to be really confused about what I just said your brain wants to be like, well, I don’t even know what he wants me to work on. Because your brain likes to be really confused with this whole concept that it’s just overwhelming. But I want to tell you that struggles aren’t broad, you guys, they’re very specific.  

My brain wanted to be like, you’re going to struggle with wanting comfort with food for the rest of your life but that wasn’t what I was struggling with. My struggle was wanting to eat more food after dinner. Struggles aren’t broad struggles are specific. And your brain wants to be like you, struggle with your weight. No, you don’t. When we get quiet there are some specific things. That feels hard to overcome. I wouldn’t call that a struggle, there’s specific things, right? You could probably name the top one to three things that throw you off being able to be at a healthy weight. That throws you off any attempt to be at your healthy weight. When you have that resolve, it’s like one to three things, that’s it. They’re very specific. And that’s really exciting.  

So, although your brain wants to say, well, I struggle with those. No, you just haven’t found the solution yet. The Lord does not want you to struggle. Your cross is on not giving up. Remember the two things that are our marching orders: Our number one, don’t walk away from the struggle.  And walking away is just being resigned and saying, I guess I meant to live this way. No, the Lord does not want your life to feel heavy. Your work is to not walk away. And your work is to have the courage to walk forward, to find a solution. It just means do what he’s telling you to do. So your brain wants to make these struggles feel really, really broad but they’re not.  

Your job is to recognize the areas that need attention. Your brain wants to call them struggles, which is fine. You can just call them things that I’m ready to work on. Where I’d like to feel more peace. What’s stealing my peace? What’s consuming my brain? What’s helping me not feel clear? You guys, so it’s easy to identify these areas because they feel hard and confusing and chaotic. And the Lord doesn’t not put hard and confusing and chaotic things in your brain. So therefore he wants them out of your brain. He wants them out of your life and the way that you do that is to address them. Take them to the Lord in prayer.  

And he’ll reveal the next step. And my favorite thing is that you can resolve everything and solve everything in your life. By two things by changing your mindset about it and some practical solutions. So how that would look in weight loss is we would identify the struggling parts, like, let’s go for Denise. Denise wants to eat more at dinner, all right. So I need to change my mindset about it. And then I also need to come up with some practical solutions. And so some practical solutions might be, I plan something really exciting for myself after dinner. Maybe I even do some relaxation techniques before dinner. What if I went to dinner? Relaxed. Oh, that sounds like a great idea, I just thought of that, cause I always love to tell people stressed brains, like to stress, eat. Calm brains do not stress.  

So journaling after dinner. Doing an urge worksheet after dinner are the things that will help me find a solution. So those are practical things. But also changing my mindset from I’ll always be stuck here to I’m learning what’s underneath the surge, I just started to learn what’s underneath that. That doesn’t mean I have to overeat at dinner. But that’s how I know everything. In my life and your life what’s really standing in the way of you being where you are now to where you want to go is a hundred percent solvable by your thoughts and by some practical solutions and we can totally do that.  

What I want you to see is that the real fight and the real struggle that requires the Lord’s strength. And his truth is just the battle of your mind to not give up and to not add to the lies. Where are you adding to the lies and your brain wants to do this? You’ll never lose that weight. You’re always going to struggle. You’ve been this way, your whole life. You’re going to give up. Don’t even try. So the real struggle my friends is to not give up. To not add to the lies and to not make whatever you’re going through now mean anything about your future. About your future weight loss or about your healing. This is where you are. This is the snapshot. But it has nothing to do with your future.  

You’re human. You will struggle. You will do things every single day that are not perfect. You will do things every single day that are like, oh, I should’ve done that a little differently. But that doesn’t mean you’re stuck. And it doesn’t mean that you will never change. Don’t make it mean those things. That’s not from the Lord, he doesn’t want to tell you those things. That’s not him. Each morning, the Lord opens your eyes. He gives you another opportunity. Another day to heal, to grow closer to him. He wants you. He wants all of you and he wants to help you. Over and over, I’m reminding you that he wants you to surrender everything to him and you guys have in so many ways you’ve surrendered your marriage and your parenting. And your profession and your sick parents and your sick neighbor and your friends. But he wants you to surrender your food and weight struggles too.  

And until you are in heaven. He is going to give you everything, everything to carry your cross.  But not only carry it, my friends, to overcome it; to live in freedom. Food and weight struggles are not across that you’re meant to bear for the rest of your life. There is a path out and he wants to lead you out of that. He will give you everything until you are in heaven with him. To overcome that cross. To overcome the lies. To overcome your weaknesses. To overcome your human desires. To remove the obstacles of what is hindering you from being closer to him. He will give you everything and show you and teach you how to remove all the distractions. And all of the false comforts. Yeah. You guys, because we’re only stuck in food and weight struggles. Because we’re chained down by false comforts. I promise you. We promise you. He has a way out for you. And remember your job is to not walk away is to not add to the lies.  

And to not make it mean anything about your future. So here’s the truth my friends, you’re having a lot of feelings right now and you might be a little scared. You take that to prayer and you take that to the Lord and he will tell you what he wants for you. But I promise you, he wants freedom for you. And  he will show you a way that you can have freedom. So remember, your job is so easy it’s to not give up on you or Him, to not add to the lies and to not make this mean anything about your future. I know that you can feel the slightness. 

And if you love this message of hope and you want some practical solutions, I invite you to my free workshop. It’s the Saturday after Easter weight loss, over 40, what’s really holding you back because there are three things that are holding up your weight loss, but I promise you, they are not having a full power, not exercising enough, or not eating the right foods. It’s a weight loss over 40. What’s really holding you up? It’s Saturday April 6th at 10:00 AM, Central 11 Eastern, and 8:00 AM Pacific. So go to weightlosswiththeholyspirit.com and get your spot today and until then, I’m wishing you a very blast holy week and Easter.