But anyway, I digress. So today we’re going to be talking about how to know when to actually quit when it is just time to quit  and the truth is you guys. As Catholics, as people who love the Lord, the only thing we really want to quit are things that take us away from the Lord and that aren’t of Him and aren’t for our ultimate best, right?

Everything else is things that we want to keep going. We want to persevere and we want to cultivate fortitude. So today I’m going to help you discern whether or not what you’re doing  should be stopped, should be quit, should be modified so that it does align with the Lord so that it does bring you closer to him so that it is of him.

And so let’s just talk about weight loss right now. And I’m just going to give this a hodgepodge of concepts and ideas, and I hope that by the time we get done with this podcast, do you feel really clear that what you’re doing is something you want to continue? Or, what you’re doing is something you want to stop doing.

Or, what you’re doing, you’d like to tweak it a little bit. Okay? So really, it  doesn’t mean what you’re doing is wrong or bad.Or right or wrong, but by the time you get done here, you’ll be able to discern, hey, this is totally exactly what I want to be doing. And that just feels so good, doesn’t it, to say, yes, I love this is exactly what I want. 

Okay, so when it comes to weight loss, sometimes one of the reasons it feels so stinking hard is because we’re following someone else’s rules. We have simply  tried to take our lives  and adhere to someone else’s rules. Whether it’s a meal plan, their style of eating, and it just doesn’t necessarily work for you.

And that’s why it might feel hard. It might feel like a square peg, round hole, and it just doesn’t feel comfortable, it doesn’t feel natural, it doesn’t feel gentle.  And I really encourage women to just do it. Give themselves permission to trust that they do know what is right for them and that they can take people’s suggestions and implement the parts that work for them, but do you really have full permission to discover what works for you in this season of your life?

I was working with a client the other day and her doctor said she was one point away from being diabetic so she was given the diagnosis of being pre diabetic, but one point away from being diabetic and you. So during our conversation, she said, Oh, should I do keto or should I do Mediterranean? And she was telling me all the pros and cons of doing keto, all the pros and cons, which keto is what her doctor had recommended and all the pros and cons of doing Mediterranean.

And, you know, we just kept morphing the conversation to what parts work for you? What do you like? What if you make it your plan? I have one client, her name is Anne, and I use it because it rhymes, and she’s you know what? I’m just going to do the Anne plan. And I really wish we all just had the name Anne so it could just rhyme that beautifully, like the Denise plan. It’s just not as fun. And so if weight loss is feeling hard for you, it could be because you aren’t just taking the parts that you like and really implementing it and morphing it into your life. So I give you full permission to discover what works for you in this season of your life. 

Another reason why you may want to quit something or modify it is because it’s just not ordered.  And what do I mean by that? You guys, our Lord is a God of order. And how he wants our life to be ordered is he’s at the top and then he informs us of how we should take care of ourselves. We should sleep. We should be kind to ourselves.

We need to make sure that we are at his hands and feet to us. You know, we’re putting lotion on our elbows and we’re taking care of ourselves. And then from this full place where we are cared for and loved and whole in a really way that the Lord would, not overindulgent, not excessive. We are then fortified and he and I, he and you and him, then go out into the world and we are his hands and feet in the world, whether it’s to our families, to our parish, to all the other humans. 

Okay. But If we are putting our service to other humans before him, before our own self care, which is called self neglect, by the way, then it’s out of order. And that’s why it feels hard. It feels too much. And we have to do that same thing with weight loss. We have to keep the Lord as our guide and confide in him.

Consult with him on how he wants us to take care of us. How does he want us to eat? How does he want us to sleep? Okay. So he’s the one that we’re consulting with and just taking care of ourselves in a really gentle, tender, and loving way. Now, if we instead don’t consult with him and we’re simply taking some other humans advice on how to eat, how to sleep, how to take care of ourselves.

And we’re really saying, Hey, Lord, I’ve got this. And it’s just us on a human level, taking care of our humanness without inviting the Lord or even asking him, Hey, do you like this? What do you think about this? He’s not even part of the journey. It’s out of order because he wants to be part of every area of your life. 

So this is an area where you can tweak that. No matter what you’re doing, if you find that the Lord is not part of it, you can just go talk to him about it. Hey Lord, do you like this? What do you think should be different? Do you want me to keep doing this? Do you want me to not do this? It can be that simple. 

And I believe you guys, I really believe this. I think the Lord will sometimes prevent earthly success, like weight loss, like money, like whatever. I think sometimes he will prevent us from having, I’m gonna say earthly success or earthly values and attain or obtain things like that  because we’re chasing that as a mini God. 

And that’s so common with women who struggle with food and weight is we chase the perfect diet as a mini God. I’m okay if I’m eating the right foods or is the scale, I’m okay if the scale says the right thing or even our body image. And I’m okay.as long as I look a certain way,  instead of saying, Lord, how do you want me to feel about this?

And I don’t think the Lord wants us to take away earthly success at all, but I think sometimes he may withhold it so that we can have that pause and say, hey, am I even bringing the Lord in here so that it’s an opportunity for us to continue our struggle so that struggle eventually leads to him. I mean, I don’t know that for sure, but that’s what I believe. 

And so if you find that you are doing things and attempting weight loss in a method that feels devoid of the Lord, or that’s taking you away from Him, then that might be something that you’d like to stop doing or modify so that it does include him. And when I say it’s taking you away from him, one of the keys that you can look at is how you feel with regard to what you’re doing? Does it feel punishing? Does it feel deprivation? Does it feel like you’re being left out? Does it feel like you, that mean girl-voice in your brain is getting louder? 

Which can happen with conventional diets. Now, I’m not saying that we can’t coach you through seeing where actually, this is the best thing for you, but we want to be able to align your thoughts to the Lord. So for example, with my client who is one point away from being pre diabetic, she may get to a point where she says, no, it is so important for me to be able to treat myself with what I eat that I am willing to  sacrifice certain foods where it becomes her choice, where she’s actually happy to do that. 

And as crazy as that sounds, that is absolutely possible to do once we are no longer emotionally eating. And because what I find, and this is a side note about when food becomes the treatment for a medical condition a woman in one of our challenges recently had asked me, because I believe that really the root cause of what’s keeping the majority of women overweight is that our food choices are tied up with our emotions. 

And she said what if you have like hormone or thyroid or some other like metabolic conditions, isn’t that what’s keeping you overweight? And I said it could be, but here’s the thing. If you have a condition that requires that part of the treatment is the way that you eat. You are unable to adhere to eating in a way that can be medically beneficial to you if you are an emotional eater  because, or you’re using food to get through the ups and downs of life.

And that is because you can know the diet or the meal plan or the foods that are therapeutic for you, that are beneficial to you, but you are unable to continue that because you are still  attached to food and food is still helping you get through life. It’s still helping you cope. And so that is why, in my opinion, learning how to separate your emotions from your food choices, learning how to get through the ups and downs of life without stress eating, is the place to start so that you do have freedom to use your food in a medically therapeutic way because you have other things that will help you get through the ups and downs of life that aren’t stress eating. 

You will learn how to handle your emotions and comfort yourself without using food. So I believe that’s one of the first places to start. Okay, I digressed a little bit, but let’s get back on track. So if you find that whatever you’re doing is taking you away from the Lord, or you haven’t even consulted Him, my friends, it is time to talk to the Lord about whatever the heck you are doing,  because you don’t even know if you should quit it or not.

Ask Him. He will tell you. Invite Him in. And if you have no idea what that could possibly look like, I want to tell you a little bit about something that will help you. We have a challenge and it is called the 63 Surrendered because it is 63 days of surrendering your food and weight struggles to the Lord. 63 days because it is grounded in the Surrender Novena.

The Surrender Novena is nine days long and we do six. Seven of those, which is a very biblical number, but I want to give you a little insight because we do have another 63 surrendered groups coming up starting this week on Wednesday, but I started one last week, the Monday before quitters Friday or whatever quitter’s day is. And I want to tell you what happened after our very first meeting and a little peek and decide a little peek inside how these women knew that they were exactly in the right place and the little they knew in their bones that the Lord had call them here.

And so as you listen to this, whether you do 63 surrendered or you do whatever you’re doing, these are going to be the signs that you know this is exactly what the Lord wants for you. One of the signs, there’s five. The first one is that you will feel peace and calm. One of the women said, I feel peace and not stressed, encouraged to continue this journey. Another one said, I have a warmth in my core and feel at peace rather than overwhelmed and nervous. It feels peaceful, like it’s just right. I feel a sense of peace about this. This other woman said, I prayed to St. Andrew Novena during Advent and then she came across our program on Instagram and I knew from reading about it that it is where she should be. 

So just ask yourself, do I feel peace about what I’m doing? The second one is they feel a guidance from the Holy Spirit. This woman said, the Holy Spirit kept bringing this to my heart that I was supposed to do it. Another woman said, I know exactly, I know I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be because this is an answer to prayer from the Lord after crying out for help for so long. Another woman said, the Lord has guided me here. I felt drawn to this method after letting go and letting God take over. The Lord brought it to my attention repeatedly, and I feel eager and excited to do this journey with Him.

So if you feel guided by the Holy Spirit, you know you’re in the right place. The third one is that it’s just the right time. The women who answered that they knew that the Lord called them here and they knew it in their bones 100 percent this is where they should be  because God’s timing is always perfect. And this is it for me. She said, I prayed for it and it found me. 

The Facebook ad appeared when I was coming to the realization that I cannot keep weight off and stay on a diet without God. So you know the timing of when you heard about what you’re doing, that it was totally divine. She said it was an answered prayer for health and change in my lifestyle. She said I’d been praying and then the advertisement kept coming up on my feed without even going to Google or anything about weight loss.

That’s interesting, huh? The fourth thing that you’ll notice is that you feel a sense of surrender and trust in the Lord. One woman said, because there’s a greater degree of freedom as I continue to journey closer to surrender and trust. They said the surrender prayers changed my life. And I’m so excited that this program is based on that prayer. 

I know I’m supposed to be here because my fear and anxiety of overeating is a barrier to my sanctification and my relationships. Wow. Another woman said, I felt drawn to this because I need him to take over my weight loss journey. She said this program seems directed to the root of my weakness. Huh? Yeah, it sure is and finally, one of the ways that women know that this is what the Lord wants for her and I hope that you know this no matter what you are doing is that you are unable to do it alone. This woman says, I can’t do it alone.

I’ve prayed. I’m open. I’m ready. I have faith. I’m at peace because I have tried and I cannot do this on my own. So many of the women said that. Another woman said, I’ve been asking the Lord to take charge of my weight loss and health and I need God to help me fight my sugar addiction. Which, by the way, if you haven’t heard my podcast interviewing one of the other graduates from 63 Surrendered, she has more than one, but this is the one I interviewed, has been relieved of her sugar addiction.

Isn’t that just amazing? It’s just so amazing. So I could read on and on about how these women know that they’re here and what they want, but essentially what they want from the program is a strengthening and faith of their faith in their relationship with the Lord, freedom from food and emotional eating, having more calm and peace in their life. 

And they joined this program because they want the accountability and the commitment. And I hope you have that no matter what you’re doing. You are surrounded by other people who are cheering you on. And in our 63 Surrendered program, we have group coaching calls, of course, every week. And then we have a separate check in where women just get to come together in a small group and say what’s working, what needs work.

And then every day they get to check in online with each other. This I think is the most important part, and I want you to think about whatever you are currently doing and ask yourselves, do I need to quit it? Do I need to tweak it? Do I need to keep doing it? Because I want you to be feeling what these women that are in 63 surrendered feel after one phone call. 

After one group coaching call, it wasn’t a phone call guys. It was just a group coaching call.  They use words. Hope. Hopeful. Excited. Empowered. Gratitude. Lightness. Gladness. Peace. Blessed. Equipped. Encouraged. Eager. Loved. Ready. Calm. Reassured. Settled. Surrendered.  Safe. But guess what? There’s some women who came in and they still felt after one of our coaching calls, they still felt apprehension.

They still felt that they were on their own strength. They were feeling nervous and fear and anxious and scared and doubt and unsettled and afraid and heavy and frustrated and sad and tired. And I tell you that because you can still experience those things, but if you are surrounded and plugged in to whatever your program is doing that teaches you how to endure that feeling, what to do about it, how to align that so that you can hear the Lord’s truth and not just live with  fear and doubt and unsettled and afraid of failure, which is definitely part of normal human change.

Anytime we’re trying to change something, we are going to be doubtful about it. And one of the reasons why is because we’ve never done that before. But whatever you’re doing, I want you to be plugged in to a system that helps you process those feelings. So you know what to do with feeling doubt. You know what to do when you’re feeling scared. 

You know how to surrender that. You know how to align even those feelings to the Lord. So today, friends, I hope you have more perspective on what you’re doing. Is it time to quit it? And you know, if it’s time to quit because it is not aligned with the Lord, it is taking you away from the Lord and it is not including Him. 

So do what you need to tweak whatever you’re doing so that it does include him. Talk to him about it. And  if you say, listen, I just want a program that I can just be plugged into that will bring me closer to the Lord, where I can surrender my food and weight struggles every day, surrounded by a community of other Catholic women, then join us.

Wednesday, we start January 15th with our kick-off call, our next round of 63 Surrendered. And what’s so amazing is you need to do nothing until then. All you have to do is go to weightlosswiththeholyspirit.com and you’ll see a banner that says 63 Surrendered. Just get signed up 

You are not quitters. We’re quitters of things that lead us away from the Lord, but things that bring us closer to the Lord, that is what we do. So I want you to go to weightlosswithaholyspirit. com, click on the banner at the top, it says 63 Surrendered, and then I will see you on our call January 15th. Have a blessed day.