I mean, I was trying, I was really, really trying, but I just felt so stuck and I think of that as I read these wins and what these women must have been living prior to these wins. Because I’m really clear on what that was like and so I thought this would be the perfect way to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection to give glory to him for what he’s doing in the lives of women and the weight loss with the holy spirit community. 

This is what is happening to them. They’re getting a new life. A lot of people call these winds, but I really believe another word for that is breakthroughs. A breakthrough is this significant change, progress. It’s a new discovery; it’s a new way of thinking. A new way of overcoming obstacles or things that were previously holding these women back that just seemed like it would be impossible overcoming these challenges.  

Turning points in their lives and these turning points are only possible because of the Lord. And here’s the thing is that you’re going to hear these winds and your brain is going to think that these women are unique, that this could never happen for you. You’ve been trying for so long and it could never happen for you. But I want to tell you. There’s only three reasons that the Lord was able to come into these women’s lives. And you too can cultivate those reasons for yourself. The first one is that they had a willingness, a willingness to try something that probably seemed a little radically different than anything they’ve ever done before.  

A willingness, not to start with just a diet but to try a new program, the weight loss with the holy spirit program that helps teach them how to get through the ups and downs of life. Without stress eating it teaches them how to discover what works for them in this season of their life. That helps them lose weight in this season of their life eating the foods they love, right? So that’s a little radically different from what the world’s telling you, so willingness to try that. They also had a dedication and a willingness to try to learn new skills and if you’ve ever tried something new, you guys knew it was really uncomfortable, and so these women had to endure being not good at something. 

But that’s what happens when we try new skills, they’re not familiar, we’re not good at them. But the cool part about skills is that you can practice them. And with practice, they become easier. They become more familiar. They become more comfortable. They become more part of your day and these women were willing to learn these skills to practice them and not feel good at them at first but to keep practicing them. And the third thing that these women were willing to do was just surrender. To let the Lord guide them and if you’re listening to this and you say Denise I’ve surrendered before.  

I’m going to say this to my past self, have you really? Denise? Have you really surrendered? Have you really been willing to be uncomfortable? Have you really been willing to be flat on your back and have no other choice? ’cause I’ll tell you that’s where I was and it took me that far down for me to actually surrender, to say, Lord, I have given up because everything I’ve tried, hasn’t worked. I thought I was doing all the right things. I think I just hadn’t been willing to do the most uncomfortable thing and that part of surrender with these women that’s here is just a willingness, like I said, to try something new and to just trust the process and to be willing to not be good at it. Okay, so with those things, which I really believe the three things that if you have, you can have these winds too. Our willingness to try something radically different. To learn some new skills. And it’s just to surrender it to the Lord and say, okay, I’m not going to give up. I’m going to let you lead me.  

What you are going to hear are their words. And I want you to just think, oh, amazing. Would it be for these to be my words? All right, so here we go. The first woman says, wow, freed up brain space pleasures, throwing away the scale. These have been her wins. These are her words. She said, I never thought I’d be free from the internal brain chatter about my body or what to eat, or how to exercise, et cetera in Jesus’s name. He brought this program to me and I was blind and now I see, I’m so grateful.  

The same woman goes on to say I’ve only been in this program for two weeks. But may I say I can tell that my body is changing. And it’s all because of my thoughts. Even if I don’t lose weight. The piece that has evolved from the holy spirit and this program is so worth it, she said, I stand astonished truly by how the brain drains. And head chatter is gone so I wanted to  share that with you in the beginning because in under two weeks she was feeling so much freedom, so much peace, and if you guys look at your thoughts, what is the percentage of time that you were thinking about what can I eat? When can I eat? and feeling your energy just dropped because of excess weight or feeling controlled by food.  

And this program will release you from that. The most amazing part is that you will feel free without even dropping one pound. And you say today, why in the world would I join a program  and not drop weight. Would I do that? Well, you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t at all. But I wanted to show you and for you to feel free just simply having clear brain space feels. I imagine that guys, imagine your thoughts focused on your day and staying present to your life. And not feeling chained down doesn’t that feel free? Just that alone?  

I remember when I came into food recovery, I didn’t come in to lose weight. Like I had like 15 to 20 pounds to lose. But I came in because the mental chatter was exhausting. I had an awesome family.I had a good marriage and awesome kids. What I mean by awesome kids is that I tried for five years of infertility to have these kids and it was only through adoption that I had to. I didn’t work really hard to get those kids and I had them. 85% of my brain space was taken up with what can I, when can I. 

I’m feeling horrible about my body. Then horrible about how his closet binge eating. Praying I wouldn’t do it again, promising I wouldn’t do it again. And then finding myself doing it again, and you might find yourself in that cycle. So my point is to be free from that cycle, as you know is easy enough. To feel, ah, like a huge weight off and that’s what the Lord wants for us. He wants us to have that freedom. 

But there’s more guys. One woman said today, I hit my first big weight loss goal. After a month and a half I’m down 20 pounds. A month and a half. Here’s what I usually say, so how much weight can you lose? I say it is safe to lose, for some people, 10 pounds. In eight weeks, 10 pounds of fat weight. So go grab 10 pounds of butter and you can ask yourself, do I want to lose us? 

To lose 20 pounds in a month and a half Isn’t typical. Her body must’ve been ready to release that. But I want to tell you. You can see that we can’t predict what our bodies will do. What we can do is give them a chance; give them a chance to drop the access. Another woman said, oh, one of her winds was visualizing what I look like, feel like, and we’ll be like in one year while sitting with the holy spirit. Was a very awesome experience.  

That’s one of the exercises that you do in the program as you sit with the Lord.  And you say, hey, where do you see me in one year? And help paint a very clear picture of the woman that he wants to create with you in one year. And this woman said it was a very awesome experience. And I’ll just tell you on a personal level, it is a very awesome experience, it is so cool to keep that picture in your mind of what you’re creating if you let the Lord work through you. Now on another level, what about your day-to-day life? How does this make your life better? How are women’s lives changing day to day. She said Wednesday, my husband was working late. So I was flying solo for bedtime with the kids. My daughter had just made edible cookie dough and I was feeling overwhelmed at the moment trying to do all the bedtime routine alone. And the old me would have just snapped on the cookie dough while I was running around. But now I have a safe eating plan, I told myself I could have the treat once I sat down after everyone was in Baton and side note, you guys, a safety plan just says, Hey, how do I eat so that I feel good about it. 

How do I eat? And essentially, I like to say that keeps me and the Holy Spirit’s will, right? Of course so she goes on to say, I told myself I could have the treat once I sat down after everyone was in bed. Then, I focused on what I was feeling overwhelmed and what I needed at that moment to ask for help, so I asked my older kids to help with one of the little ones. Well, I got the other little one ready? Within 10 minutes, we powered through bedtime and we’re done, I made myself tea instead and enjoyed a bath, such a win to not feed my emotions with food. You guys, this is how you learn to get through the ups and downs of life without stress eating. This is what it looks like. Isn’t that beautiful? I’ll tell you this woman has been in our  Community four weeks, for weeks, for weeks. That’s how your life can change with these tools in less than a month.  

What I love about this iIs that she knew there was trigger food she protected herself with, she told her brain, brain, if we’re going to have that we’re going to do it in a safe way. No problem, and then once that food was put aside, because she knew it wouldn’t help bedtime in any way.  She said, what am I feeling? Ah, I’m feeling overwhelmed. What do I need? I needed help and she knew how to ask for help. And what I also love is that she gave eight timestamps on this within 10 minutes; we had powered through and once she had returned her brain to calm she could then reward herself in the way that made her feel good. Now, if she still would’ve had that cookie dough, that’s not a problem you guys, she would have felt good about it whether or not she had their cookie dough doesn’t matter.  It’s what she feels good about. Obviously you can see that tea in a bath is going to get you to your weight loss goals, even faster.  

But what happened way before the tea and bath way before she would have eaten the cookie dough, is the real win. Being able to calm herself down and take care of her real needs and to be able to say, what a win to not feed my emotions with food, amazing! Another woman says this program has helped me to carve out a second prayer time in the evening, doing my evening reflections. Now this comes from a homeschooling mom. She said I’ve tried for years to create a habit of some evening prayer time without success. I’ve even been able to get this prayer and quiet time before putting the kids to bed if my husband is home at a decent time in the evening. So when her husband’s home, she’s asking for help, she said bedtime goes so much smoother. 

If I am able to carve out the quiet time beforehand, it’s not amazing. She’s been trying to do this for years and I don’t think this program helped her carve it out but what I do think this program helped her do was say, whoa, what do I really need here? What do I really need? And when you say, what do I really need? The truth is, it is not only what I need but it’s kind of like, what do I need to show up to be my best? So I’m not strung out so I’m not overwhelmed. And she identified that a second prayer time is what would help her, so she made that happen and the problem solved to make that happen because she’s able to articulate. What’s my real need here? we’re not using food to meet needs that food was never meant to meet, I love that. Another woman said, I became frustrated at work. I acknowledged I was frustrated and why frustration subsided, snow eating cookies in the break room.  

Again, Hey, I’m frustrated, how can I handle these cookies? Well, I love that. Another woman said, I felt my sucky feelings this afternoon. I love that, sucky feelings, I didn’t freak out on anyone and I didn’t eat, win period. I mean, seriously guys, isn’t that the best? Felt my sucky feelings this afternoon. Didn’t freak out on anyone and didn’t eat, win. Love that. I’m going to keep going because these are just so fun. I hope this isn’t too long for you, but they just keep getting better because this is the work that the holy spirit is doing in women’s lives. Another woman says made a safe eating plan this morning, excited to practice this weekend. And then at the next two parties I also ate zero popcorn last night when my family had some, because I wasn’t hungry; zero, not one. I think of checking in with myself as working. I thought I could eat it. 

I have the freedom to eat it, but I’m really not hungry, I’m just thirsty. So I grabbed a fun drink and that was enough. And I really tried to focus on all the other things I was enjoying that evening, besides the popcorn. I am a woman who’s becoming focused on all the things that are good besides the food. She said, that’s the script that I wrote for myself this morning. That’s what happens when we can pull our heads up. I like to say when I pulled my head out of the plate, I just saw there was so much more to life. And that’s what this woman is intentionally trying to do is to open her eyes and to see all the beautiful things that are happening that isn’t food.  

Another woman said the holy spirit continues to slowly reveal additional things to write on my I’m becoming a woman page. So, uh, that is also something that you create and after you do the  vision exercise with the Lord and he reveals the woman that he wants to create with you, you write down a few bullet points and read them daily. And we do this because the more you can visualize this woman, the more you start to become her. And these aren’t affirmations gangs. These are truths that the Lord has revealed that he is creating in you. So that I’m becoming a woman page, she said, it’s beautiful. She said the most recent one that she’s added is I am becoming a woman who speaks kindly to herself.  

I know that seems simple but what if you could speak as kindly and tenderly as you would to a child?  What if you could speak that way to yourself as encouraging and uplifting and one of the ways that I say that the weight loss with the holy spirit program is way different than conventional weight loss is that we start treating ourselves the way that the Lord would treat us. So you see, we don’t have to wait to be uplifting, encouraging, and kind and gentle until we meet our goals. No, we do it the whole way through the entire journey and this isn’t the only woman who says, oh my gosh, I’m speaking kindly to myself for the first time in my life. How many decades have you been just a whipping post and criticizing yourself? And we think that if we’re hard on ourselves, we’re more motivated.  

But the proof is in the pudding, you can see when you’re hard on yourself and condemning and critical. All you do is feel horrible about yourself and we feel horrible about ourselves. We don’t show up in a way that takes care of us, we don’t tend to our own needs, we don’t even check in with ourselves. So by speaking kindly with ourselves, gosh it’s the very first step and repairing this relationship with yourself. Oh, this is a fun one, this woman says I took a shower and read a fiction book for enjoyment instead of relying on food and drink and that’s what we start to do. We start doing things in our lives that bring us so much pleasure, enjoy food that aren’t drinks.  

And this is my final one I want to share with you. This woman said I was dealing with an emotional roller coaster with my 15 year old daughter and her problem. My win was that I stayed calm, listen to her and did not give into emotional eating. All as well now with her and I’m proud of myself and her for working through her feelings and facing her dilemma. I was coaching myself, and this is, this is what she said, she was saying to herself while she was coaching herself I can remain calm and not let my daughter’s emotions affect my choices. And that’s kind of what we want to do, do you see how that mom was in it with her daughter? And helped her daughter. It wasn’t like she was indifferent; we didn’t care, but she was truly able to be present for her daughter and help her daughter through her feelings and here’s what I want to point out. 

Do you see how she could have eaten over that? That’s stressful, she had some feelings about it and she probably could have numbed out with food but did you see  how she said all is well with her now. See, that’s what happens, problems eventually will work themselves out.  

But we were stressed, and ate over it and felt horrible about ourselves. So my point is, my friends, this is a new life. This is the new life that the Lord is giving women, helping them get through the ups and downs of life without stress eating, helping them shed the excess weight.  The body’s just don’t need not only the excess weight that their physical bodies don’t need, but also the mind drama and feeling controlled and confused by food. The Lord is opening their eyes up to the beauty that he has in store for them of the lives that he’s given them. and if you want to start your wins for yourself, I invite you to my free workshop, weight loss, over 40 What’s really holding you back? I will be revealing to you the three things that are holding your weight loss, and what to do about them.  

Go to weightlosswiththeholyspirit.com. to get your spot. It’s April 6th. At 8:00 AM Pacific, 10:00 AM Central, 11 Eastern. You’ll find what’s really holding up your weight loss and what to do about it. So go to weightlosswiththeholyspirit.com and get your spot today. My friends, happy Easter and start letting the Lord create a new life in you. Have a blessed day.