What Is Weight Loss Freedom?

I only asked the most important question about weight loss freedom a year ago. You would think after being a career dieter for 30+ years, and pursuing several health coaching certifications, I would have asked THE most important question about food, body, and weight struggles years earlier. 

But the truth is – I was afraid to ask the most important question about it all. I’d spent more than my fair share of years stacking up knowledge, strategies, and weight loss plans. I experienced the greatest highs and the lowest lows…yet I continued turning to diet culture for more of the same (unhelpful) answers. 

During those years, my main question was this: “What should I do?”, or it was a request to anyone in the diet world who might have an answer: “Just tell me what to do”. 

I sought out what to “do” because it was easier. If there was a better protocol, book, or supplement to take – then I could finally be free. I just wanted to stop thinking about everything I ate, or shouldn’t have eaten, and how my clothes fit. I wanted to stop living a conflicted life of “all or nothing” patterns. 

But instead of asking the right question, to the right person earlier…I kept looking for answers elsewhere. 

I remember when the stirring for more began inside of me five years ago, at 45 years old. It was hard to admit that there was something more to my struggle with weight and food than finding the right diet, or the right approach that “worked for me”. But I wanted to know what the root cause was related to food. And I still wanted to experience weight loss freedom for good. Could both of these seemingly conflicting things exist together? 

I stumbled upon mindset and behavior change philosophy (and became certified in behavior change). As I started applying these concepts to my life, I began to experience some perspective shifts, and some new results. 

I was excited! I started coaching women, and developed a program for losing weight in a kind way to yourself, using balance and healthy mindset approaches. 

But I still didn’t ask the most important question to the most important person…

And after coaching for a few years, I began to feel conflicted. I know weight loss can be a good desire. But I wasn’t enjoying teaching it or living it out anymore. More and more, I was drawn to the idea of “food freedom” – and explored some interesting approaches with intuitive eating and food psychology.

I resonated with these concepts, but again struggled with how to apply them to my life in a realistic way. 

Imposter syndrome started setting in – because I was still struggling with my own food story, but people wanted me to help them lose weight. 

I was STILL missing something…I was still lacking the entire solution to the struggle.  

I was grateful for my growth, but something still felt “off” related to food. And I wanted to experience a deeper freedom and peace.

Through that authentic desire, I found my heart finally asking the most important question to the most important person:

“God, where are you in this struggle with food, and weight?”

I was almost afraid of His answer. 

Because, honestly, in the past I had assumed God would take things away in order to work in this area of my life – that he would ask me to remove more foods, more often, and I also assumed that I would need to work up more discipline, and strive harder to “be good”. To risk asking God about something is to risk being judged…or so I thought. 

But asking God this important question surprised me and has since taught me more about the love of God than I could imagine.

Because instead of God telling me what a shameful sinner I am for struggling so much of my life, He asked me what I wanted. And this began a conversation that has remained between myself and the Lord over this past year. 

This ongoing conversation with him has helped me realize that all He’s ever wanted was to be involved in my struggle. And that He has so much mercy, love, and compassion to offer. Without even realizing it, I had kept this part of my life – this part of ME off limits to God. It separated us. Not because of His condemnation, but because of my pain, and my resulting withdrawal. 

I had wrongly assumed that the answer to my weight pain was to lose weight – to fix it. And when I would overeat or eat things I didn’t think I should – I did all of that alone. 

I knew God loved me, I just wasn’t used to including him in EVERY aspect of my life. 

It was a habit to do the food thing alone. 

To research the next eating plan alone. 

To try to heal…alone.

As I began opening this part of myself up to God, I started seeing the Bible through a completely different lens. I started reading what his Word had to say about freedom in Christ, and the life that Jesus died for me to have. 

And one day I came across John 10:10, which has always been a favorite. But this time I read it with food freedom in mind: 

“I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.”

I’m a believer, and I love Jesus. Yet, I still didn’t feel like I was living life abundantly, or that I was living free. And if Jesus died to give me an ABUNDANT life – how has my focus on diets, protocols, exercise plans, and scales helped me engage in that life? On the flip side – how much had comforting myself with food kept me from living an abundant life? 

Over time and through His Word, He started revealing to me that my food journey was teaching me something about the most important things in life. It was pointing me to explore what had impacted my identity related to food and body image, and where I needed healing – primarily from the legalism of diet culture.

I discovered that what God stirred in me 5 years ago was still correct – I wanted food freedom. But not in the way that I had thought of it before. I didn’t want food freedom so I could be thin. I wanted it so I could just BE: 

• BE the best version of who He created. 
• BE present in this amazing life.
• BE free in my mind to think about other things. 
• BE available to live the abundant life He died for me to have.

So a year ago, I closed my weight loss program, and accepted a job in a different field for a while. I embraced God’s invitation to personally get free. I called it my “Freedom Experiment”. 

And that is the purpose of this blog…to share about the journey to ongoing, authentic food and weight loss freedom, and to discuss the many other topics that come with living life ABUNDANTLY.

My weight, your weight – is not the be all, end all. It’s not the most important thing about me or you.

I hope you will continue on this journey with me so you can also experiment with what true, weight loss freedom could be like. 

Let’s turn to him together – and finally get free!