Revelation Within On the Go!
Victorious Holidays: Surviving Festive Feasts without Fear
What if you could truly enjoy your holiday meals without guilt or shame? This Thanksgiving and Christmas season, let's expose the liberating practice of eating within the parameters of physical hunger and satisfaction. You'll learn how the Revelation Within approach can help you appreciate your holiday meals, and free you from debilitating food rules. Discover how renewing your mind can eliminate the dread of holiday eating, and instead, fill your heart with gratitude.
As you prepare for the festive season, let's explore how we can glorify God in our thoughts and actions. Let's strategize together about how to keep our eating boundaries firm while focusing on God's purpose for us. In this episode we share how to create a truth list to maintain emotional health, especially when dealing with tough emotions like missing loved ones. We'll share with you two questions that will help keep you grounded and focused on God's will: “What is most important to God right now?” and “Does this glorify God?”
Lastly, we want you to remind yourself of your identity in Christ throughout the holiday season. You'll hear strategies for staying within your eating boundaries, serving others well, and pacing yourself. We also have a gift for you - a free two-page PDF list of who you are in Christ, supported by scripture, to keep you encouraged. Additionally, we'll share how to renew your mind, express gratitude to God, and avoid falling back into self-condemnation. And remember, we're here to walk with you, so join our community on Mighty Networks to learn more about these transformative strategies. Let's make this holiday season truly victorious!
Ashley T. Lee Podcast will cover many life issues such as overcoming stress, anxiety...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts
Learn more about our Revelation Within Community: https://www.revelationwithin.org
What if you could truly enjoy your holiday meals without guilt or shame? This Thanksgiving and Christmas season, let's expose the liberating practice of eating within the parameters of physical hunger and satisfaction. You'll learn how the Revelation Within approach can help you appreciate your holiday meals, and free you from debilitating food rules. Discover how renewing your mind can eliminate the dread of holiday eating, and instead, fill your heart with gratitude.
As you prepare for the festive season, let's explore how we can glorify God in our thoughts and actions. Let's strategize together about how to keep our eating boundaries firm while focusing on God's purpose for us. In this episode we share how to create a truth list to maintain emotional health, especially when dealing with tough emotions like missing loved ones. We'll share with you two questions that will help keep you grounded and focused on God's will: “What is most important to God right now?” and “Does this glorify God?”
Lastly, we want you to remind yourself of your identity in Christ throughout the holiday season. You'll hear strategies for staying within your eating boundaries, serving others well, and pacing yourself. We also have a gift for you - a free two-page PDF list of who you are in Christ, supported by scripture, to keep you encouraged. Additionally, we'll share how to renew your mind, express gratitude to God, and avoid falling back into self-condemnation. And remember, we're here to walk with you, so join our community on Mighty Networks to learn more about these transformative strategies. Let's make this holiday season truly victorious!
Ashley T. Lee Podcast will cover many life issues such as overcoming stress, anxiety...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts
Learn more about our Revelation Within Community: https://www.revelationwithin.org
Hi and welcome to Revelation Within on the go. I'm Heidi Bilesma-Epperson, one of your hosts and the owner and lead coach of the Revelation Within Ministry.
Speaker 2:And I'm Christina Motley, your other host, also a Revelation Within coach and Heidi's partner in all things Revelation Within, and we're so happy to invite you to join us for this episode of Revelation Within on the Hello, hello, yay, welcome, we're so glad you're here.
Speaker 1:Definitely, we are going to kind of get back to our roots a little bit for this episode. Many people who have found us found us when we were still in Within, and we have, of course, rebranded we are rebranding Revelation Within but many people were looking for a non-diet way that kind of meshed with their faith, to be able to experience freedom and peace with food eating in their bodies. What better time for us to talk about that again than during this time of year when already we've seen an onslaught of all kinds of foods that seem very seasonal, I mean how many times a year do you get a chance to have any fey cookies or Halloween candies?
Speaker 2:Or whatever it might be Well. I'm just walking around the stores right now, oh my gosh, everything is pumpkin and spice and everything nice and just like the hot beverages.
Speaker 1:The hot beverages, the peppermint, mochas, starbucks and other places like that. I mean, I know people love that stuff. Eggnog Michael's been bringing eggnog home from work. Oh really, it is such a good eggnog too, I have to tell you, but it's like okay, I am not accustomed to having that as a temptation. So we thought we would talk about, just in time for American Thanksgiving, how to keep within your boundaries and have a Thanksgiving victory. Now, if you're not in the US or you aren't celebrating Thanksgiving for some reason, you can find something in this episode that you can benefit from too, I am sure, because we're going to talk about any event, any gathering together, any place where there might be food how to stay within your eating boundaries.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay. So, heidi, you mentioned the word boundaries, and so I think, maybe for someone who might be new to us or haven't heard us talk about boundaries, what are you talking about with food and eating? Boundaries what? Is that about.
Speaker 1:Well, a lot of people are familiar, maybe not with the word boundaries, but they're used to using food rules to direct their eating or not. And we have something so much better because God's boundaries have fallen for us in pleasant places, and that's straight out of the Psalms. I think it's Psalm 16-3, I should have checked, but anyway that's what I'm reading right now. His boundaries have fallen for us in pleasant places. When people come to Thin Within now Revelation Within, we teach that we can eat as we want to within the realm of physical hunger and physical satisfaction, or what I like to call enoughness because, satisfaction has so many interesting connotations to it.
Speaker 1:But enoughness is like okay, I know, I've had enough. That is enough. So that's kind of how I think of it, and what is so awesome is that's a wonderful boundary for us to have, especially the time of year when there's so many rare foods. I mean when I say rare, I mean there are a lot of things being baked and created, and all of that this time of year that we don't see many other times of year.
Speaker 2:So these kinds of boundaries that we're talking about, these are our life-giving boundaries, these are like restrictions or rules that are going to drag us down? Not at all. These are life-giving, joy-filled. These will make your holiday feel really, really good.
Speaker 1:Yes, actually I have gone through so many holiday seasons now since coming to Thin Within, originally in 1999. That's a lot of holiday seasons.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of holidays 24 or so and going through the holidays this way is so wonderful compared to any other way. You know you don't have that guilt and shame that, oh, I ate the cookie, I am off program and now I feel shame. I feel shame, I feel like a failure. I might as well forget it, throw in the towel and start again on January 1st. No, no. So we're going to leave our holiday season with no regrets and just listen to the, the leading of the Lord, lean into him, renewing our minds and recommitting to our boundaries and to him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so, so good. Even the first probably six, seven, eight years that I did Thin Within, I was still having very stressful holidays and not eating within my boundaries. Certainly I had turned Thin Within into a diet and I know that you've had that experience as well, heidi. But there is something that really really helps us with this. We could say, okay, I've got it now. Zero and a five. The zero is hunger, the five is enoughness. I'm just going to jump right into my holiday, I've got it. It's not quite so easy. We need some things to really shore us up and give us strength, and that's why I know, heidi, that you mentioned the renewing of the mind. So what is that?
Speaker 1:Well, hopefully, if you've listened to us at all, this is something we've mentioned in every episode, every podcast, because it's the premium, it's most important because what we do with our minds is going to form and shape our beliefs, and our beliefs are going to drive our actions. And so, if I know in previous years I have acted in a way that isn't going to serve me this holiday season I don't want to come out with regrets, with shame, with boundaries broken and all of that stuff. I want to have a different belief system in place. Maybe, maybe, I believe that I need to go off the rails to enjoy the holidays. Well, that's a lie, I don't. I can enjoy just right size portions between the parameters of physical hunger and physical enoughness and have a lovely holiday time, focusing on other people, remembering the Lord is present in all of it, looking to the beauty of the season. That is something outside of just what I'm going to eat next.
Speaker 1:I mean really is so we wanted to come up with some practical strategies that might support you listener, or how you can experience a victorious holiday event. We're going to talk about Thanksgiving just because it's coming up in a couple of days. Yes.
Speaker 2:And I remember. I have to just tell you, heidi, let's go way back to nine and a half years ago, when I first started coaching with you, and that those first holidays came after I had learned how to renew my mind. I remember thinking is this even possible? This is going to be like my first time going through a holiday season eating within my boundaries, enjoying food for what it is just food, thinking my emotions to the Lord instead of to the kitchen.
Speaker 2:Wow, I mean, I really wasn't sure. To be honest, I wasn't sure if it was even possible for me. Right but it was, it absolutely was, and wow. So I think I mean, if I think about it, I've really had nine holiday seasons where I have enjoyed eating within my boundaries and taking my emotions to the Lord. Like I said, because that's the big one for me is emotions.
Speaker 1:Right, right, definitely, and preparing in advance for the day can be so helpful. I not yet have any big Thanksgiving plans, but I am going to see my sister as of this recording time, this time next week I will be with her, and visiting my sister brings with it a lot of similar emotions and similar concerns to what people have when they gather for family events of any kind, whether it's holidays or otherwise. So I have already started renewing my mind about seeing my sister being with her, the things that I think she might say, the food and eating that we might do together, all of it, what I will wear and what I won't wear, looking out for what. Do I need to be comfortable?
Speaker 1:What does God want me to do to love her well, and just telling myself his thoughts about it all. She's precious in his sight. She has cancer, and this visit may be one of the lax that I get to have with her while she's still present. In her mind. I mean, it's very possible, and so I want to love her. Well, I want to not be so self-absorbed that I miss an opportunity to love her in a way that she's maybe never been loved before.
Speaker 1:And I would say that many of us might be in that position. We may not know it, you know, we don't ever know how long a life will last, but we can love those precious people in our lives well, and the food doesn't need to be front and center. We want other things to be front and center.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, I love what you said, heidi, about self-absorbed. Oh my gosh, that was definitely me for a lot of years during the holiday season, not like look at me, look at me, but more like don't look at me, right? You know, I felt very much filled with shame, like you mentioned, and guilt, and very, very uncomfortable in my own skin. Oh my gosh, so uncomfortable, just really unhappy about my body. Honestly, it didn't matter what size I was. You know, some years I had just finished a diet and I was smaller. Some years I had given up on diets, you know, and then I was larger and I went back and forth and back and forth. So it didn't actually matter that much what size I was. I hit the holiday season feeling unhappy, unsettled and full of shame Every time I was red.
Speaker 1:Did you ever feel dread when the holiday season?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and my birthday comes at the holidays Christmas, two days after Christmas. So with my birthday, it feels like let's look at the year, let's see how far you've come. Okay, let's see how far you haven't come, let's see how far backwards you've gone. Oh dear, no, no, no, I'm serious. I really struggled with my birthday and the holidays, but then I want to go back to what else that you said. That was really even more important, and that is loving others. Well, I mean, what a concept, what an idea to prepare for the holidays with that thought in mind. How can I love others? Well, so it's really the opposite of that self-absorption that I was just talking about.
Speaker 2:It's really the opposite. So which one would God be calling us to?
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. And renewing our minds before the event to be thinking of others, to recognize that God is going to look out for my needs. I can go to him and ask him what is a proper balance. But, god, how can I think differently about this coming holiday event, whatever it might be Thanksgiving or some other Christmas dinner maybe, whatever how can I think in a way about it that will keep me focused on others and on glorifying you, Lord, so that I'm not self-absorbed and I don't have regrets afterwards?
Speaker 1:So, leading up to the event, one of my favorite things to use is I Deserve a Donut by Barb Ravelling, and she has an app that I think is free.
Speaker 1:I don't know if the Android one is available right now or not. She was doing an update up to that but there's also a book called I Deserve a Donut and Other Lies that Make you Eat by Barb Ravelling, and this is a great resource. She's not a revelation within participant, but we use this resource a lot and have for years, and in this book she has lists of questions that are separated by emotions that make you eat and lies that make you eat, and then, underneath the emotions that make you eat, she has all kinds of different emotions and underlies. She has examples of lies that can cause us to dive in and eat more than we need outside of our boundaries. So what I like to do is I use this and there's sets of questions underneath each emotion, underneath each lie. For me, one of the most common ones that I use in this book as I prepare for a holiday event or really any kind of event where I'm gathering people, is under the insecurity emotions that make you eat Insecurity, social situations.
Speaker 2:That list of scripture in there. That's the one I have used the most.
Speaker 1:Yeah, barb does. She has all kinds of great scriptures that can be used to renew your mind directly. I like to also use the questions, and the insecurity sets are wonderful. So, there's, for instance, living up to expectations. I feel that with my sister, like I really want to deal with my sense of wanting to live up to expectations because I just can't. I found that I can't. These questions lead me. I like to think of them as God asking me these questions and my responses are a prayer back to him.
Speaker 1:For instance, what does this person want you to do? And I could respond to him in prayer. Well, I feel somehow like she wants me to be just like her and she's not a believer.
Speaker 1:A lot of interesting expectations. Are you capable of doing what she wants you to do? I am not capable and I need to be okay with that. God has not called me to that. And see, when I speak that way to my own soul, I become settled in the place he's called me to be, instead of chafing, and I worry when I feeling that chafing and a kind of agitation feeling that's going to lead me to overeat.
Speaker 1:So I would be more likely to have trouble with my eating boundaries If I didn't settle that question before I see my sister. The book even goes on and asks why do you feel like you need to live up to her expectations? That's a really good question for me to invite God into. And so there's other sets of questions that are so helpful as I'm looking ahead at an event, whether it's a holiday meal or even a vacation of some sort. So that's one of the tools that I use to prepare before the day even comes. I can prepare a week out, two weeks out, or the day before, or all of the above. How about you? What do you use, christina, to actually prepare for the big day beforehand?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, and I love that book that you just mentioned. That was one of my very first introductions to Mind Renewal when you introduced it to me, Heidi, and I've been using it ever since. My book is dog-eared and there's coffee stains on it and it's all kind of ripped up because I've used it so much. It's really more of a resource. You can jump around in the book. It's not like the kind of book you'll read You'll sit down and read, right Cover to cover, but that's really really a good one.
Speaker 2:Another one is just in the moment, even while I'm there, but ahead of time is inviting God in and asking one of these two questions, and these are both from Revelation Within participants. These have been shared in our classes and they've become two of my favorite questions. The first one is what is most important to God right now? I mean, I love that question, I love that, and so I can think about that, I can pray through that, I can ask God, lord, as I look into my holiday event, whatever it is, what is going to be most important to you during that time? What are your thoughts? What are you calling me to? What is your purpose? As your hands and feet, what would you like me to do?
Speaker 2:And then the other one can also be ahead of time or in the moment does this glorify God? What I'm doing right now, what I'm saying, what I'm thinking? What I'm thinking? Yeah, yes, does it glorify God? Wow, that's a tough one, you know, but it also really puts boundaries there's that word boundaries around my decisions. Yeah, definitely, because I know if this doesn't glorify God, I don't want to do it. I don't. I've had so, so many years of going the opposite direction. I think of what might glorify God, especially in my thoughts over the years. I want to walk into this holiday event glorifying God and having already thought about what is most important to Him. That just really helps me to have a focus that is really healthy and I don't know, strong, focused Honoring to God yeah, honoring to God and it's healthy healthy in all the right ways Emotionally healthy, spiritually healthy and physically healthy.
Speaker 1:Years ago, when my daughter was going to school in Illinois and then afterwards she stayed in Illinois for four more years. We're in California, so I didn't get to see her all the time. I planned a holiday, a Christmas with her, where I was going to just be with her at Christmas time and I could write in my heart of hearts as I looked ahead at that trip. At that event, if you will, I saw some things that if I were to ask those questions wouldn't honor God. Right now, in this moment, my heart was like, ooh, and then we'll eat here and then we'll get that, and then we'll make this and all about holiday baking together and holiday this and that together. And God encouraged me to put the brakes on that because that doesn't honor him. I would not be living without regret. I would have total regret after that and because I was a bad influence on my own daughter, I would feel doubly bad.
Speaker 2:And so.
Speaker 1:I created a truthless and I know I've shared it on the show before about Christmas with my daughter and I won't read it all right now, but I asked God, okay, what is true about my time with my daughter? And he just brought home to my heart and I put him in my phone so I could read over the list out loud several times before ever going to Chicago to be with her. What is true is I do not need to eat in order to bond with my daughter.
Speaker 1:I could eat within my boundaries and that would be fine, but additional eating was not going to do anything for the bonding process, right, right. And so, wow, if you take that out of the picture, the temptation to overeat was diminished, probably at least 80%. Yeah, and so that's another way I prepare for these kind of big days, for events. Do you have another way that you prepare?
Speaker 2:Definitely having a truth list. I'm just gonna say me too, me too. That is so important for me. I need to go to the Lord and write those things down ahead of time. What is true? What is true about food?
Speaker 1:It's just food and what is true, you know, even about rare foods, foods that come out during this season. I could actually make a peppermint mocha some other time of the year.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. I think that I used to attach so many emotions to food, and so for me, it's really, really important that I renew my mind, not once, but many, many, many, many, many times Before an event like this, to remind myself that the food is not going to comfort me, the food is not going to bring my grandma back, for example. The food is not going to help me in any way. That is emotional.
Speaker 2:In fact if I eat too much of it, I'm gonna be emotional about eating too much and not feeling well and having regret. So for me, I really need to separate out my emotions from my eating. Eating is just it's food. It's abundance from God. It's wonderful, it's a gift, but it's just food. It's nourishment from my body. That's where it stops. It has no power to help me in any other way, and I need to remember that, because I tend to get very emotional around the holidays, especially when I'm seeing people I haven't seen in a long time. My birthday is around the holidays. That's a big deal too for me. Also, the fact that my parents are gone. Now I'm gonna start crying. It's an emotional time for me. So, yes, a truth list, but especially focusing on what is food and how can I go to God with my emotions. How can I deal with my emotions in a healthy way? I need to be ready. I need to be prepared.
Speaker 1:I know this time of year is hard for many because of people who have gone on, but also for me. I struggle with this time of year because it was when my first husband announced that he was going to be moving out, and Christmas that year was exceptionally difficult, and all the holidays I've known since have been so different than they were for 33 years, and so I have to renew my mind every holiday season about the losses that I have felt and still experience. Here's another tool that I need to use as I look ahead and then we'll go on to strategies the day of, and that is the I wonder tool that we teach.
Speaker 1:And it's gosh. It's great if you think of somebody who you struggle with in the way you get along, or they're just maybe abrasive in some way, or you don't feel understood by them, or whatever. First of all, invite God in, of course and ask them to show you how to love them well.
Speaker 1:And this is what I have to do with a couple of people in my life. And then I wrote out a list. It ends up being kind of like a truth list and you can do it on the fly and just pray it to God. But I wrote it out and then I find that over the months because this is something that's been a big deal in my life over the last year- I find that the truths in it come to mind again and again when I need them to.
Speaker 1:The way that, I wonder, works is you ask God to help, you be empathetic for a moment as you consider what are the things that have contributed to this person's life that maybe explain why they're kind of caustic or rough around the edges. And then you say I wonder what it would be like if and you fill in the blank there, like it might be I wonder what it would be like to have been rejected by a significant other not a spouse in this case after 23 years finding out that he was unfaithful. Well, I don't have to wonder about that. But anyway, that's another story, because that's happened to somebody and I think it's caused a bitterness in her life and a loneliness that makes her a little bit edgy, if you will.
Speaker 1:What would it be like or I wonder what it would be like to live alone all your life, not have anybody around to learn how to get along with. Or wonder what it would be like to live this life without Christ. I wonder what it would be like to have a diagnosis of cancer and to wonder about what's happening next, how long will I live, and so on. And so what that does for me is it helps me to see that there's more here than just my feelings being hurt the way they are.
Speaker 1:That is actually really helpful for me as I look ahead to connecting with people I haven't seen in a while, or maybe people I have but don't want to yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, and as you mentioned, Heidi, I mean this is a really hard time of year for a lot of people. You know there's a lot of fun and joy and activities, but for many people it seems like as we get older, there's just been more loss. You know there's been more things that have happened there's been more illness. There's been more struggle, more people in our families have gone to be with the Lord. It's it's hard.
Speaker 1:Hopefully. Yeah, in my family I know yeah.
Speaker 2:I hope, but it's. It's hard because we remember how things were and for some of us we want it to be that way. For some of us we want it to be different. But all of those do come up around this time of year.
Speaker 1:So when you create a truth list or an I wonder list, or when you use the I deserve a donut book or app I like to do it often out loud In my car I can remember some of the things that God has brought to mind, and the more I tell myself what to believe, based on truth, hopefully, the more my beliefs will change and reflect the truth. And the more I believe, change and reflect the truth what God has to say, the more I will act according to the truth. And so that's the whole principle behind the mind renewal thing that we jump up and down about. Really, yes, we eat over just about everything. Everything rooted in what I believe about food, eating and emotions and situations. So let's tell ourselves what to believe and let God be the one that writes that dialogue, and then, as we see that kind of unfold, we will experience a change.
Speaker 2:So one more thing I want to make sure that we say because wow, this has been so huge for me and I know that our participants and our groups and one on one coaching this has been life changing for them we need to be sure that we are very, very much rooted in our identity in Christ as we enter into the holidays.
Speaker 2:It is so, so important. Our circumstances change all the time. We've talked about loss, we've talked about things that we wish were a certain way around the holidays and all of that, but there is something that absolutely stays the same and that is who we are in Christ. So if we can renew our mind about that a whole lot during the holidays, before after any time at all, we can remember that we are God's chosen ones, we are His beloved, we are redeemed, we are forgiven. You know we're His and that's what our identity is. Whether you have a different job this year, or maybe you don't have a job this year, or maybe something different has happened, you've had something really you know broken happen in your family, and here come the holidays, or a health crisis, or whatever it is, your identity in Christ remains the same, no matter what, and I just feel like that is so, so important going into this time of year.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree wholeheartedly and we want you to have access to I don't want to call it a free gift- but it is a free gift. So if you want a list of who I am in Christ, we have a printout for you, a PDF printout and just navigate to team life is good teamlifeisgoodcom. Forward. Slash identity and you will see this two page PDF that you can download and use to speak truth to yourself about who you are in Christ.
Speaker 1:The cool thing is it doesn't have a thing to do with how clean you can get your house before everybody comes, or how great a meal you can prepare for everybody, or how well you can sing in the church presentation of whatever it is you're doing this season.
Speaker 2:Or what size you are.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, or what you ate the night before, or or anything. It has to be only with what Christ has done. His quote performance if you will air quotes performance on the cross, where he went to the cross for all of us so that he could attribute to us more than a conqueror, you are his beloved. I mean, we could go on and on, but just go to teamlifeisgoodcom, forward slash identity and you will find that sheet there. I hope you'll download it. That would be so cool.
Speaker 2:Well, and every phrase on that sheet is coupled with scripture, so that's also just an amazing resource.
Speaker 1:Definitely All right. Well, we certainly spent a lot of time on that first one how to prepare for the big day but let's go on to the next one Strategies the day of how do we stay within our eating boundaries? Eating less, stay within our thinking boundaries loving God well, loving others well. The day of what are some strategies? Let's just really, let's cut to the chase. Let's what are some strategies to eat less. Let's just cut to the chase here. Okay, any regrets? We have been celebrating a theme in our community since the beginning of October of holiday season 2023. No regrets. That's our theme for these three months.
Speaker 2:Okay, one of my favorite strategies for the day of is to be a servant. Okay, so I'm going to come on in whatever the event is, and I'm going to help out. The food is going to be the last thing on my mind. I am going to be helping, I'm going to be moving chairs, I'm going to be setting out the napkins. I'm going to be asking can I help with this? If I'm not the host I'm going to be serving, I'm going to be looking for that person that looks uncomfortable, maybe is sitting by themselves. I'm going to go over there and say hello, I'm going to you know, if it's someone I know, I might ask them how can I pray for you? How are you doing? I'm going to come to the event as a servant, as God's hands and feet, as Jesus with skin on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what's so awesome about that is that helps us get the focus off of me myself and I, my food, my will, my way, me, me, me, me, me, and on to others. We love God and love others well, the same time that we are not putting the premium on the food, and that's really a cool strategy. I love that strategy. Another way is, of course, bring your truth lists with you in your phone and, when you take breaks away to go to the restroom or, if you need to be intentional, take a break away, renew your mind, pull out your truth list, pull out, if it's on your phone, the I Deserve a Donut app and renew your mind for five minutes.
Speaker 1:Chances are nobody would miss you and get your focus off of you, off of the food, off of poor me if that's how you're feeling, because I know that can hit me. Sometimes it's like, oh, I hate food events, I just hate them because of my upbringing, and so it's like, oh, I want to get my focus off of me and on to others. So what's another strategy, christina?
Speaker 2:Another strategy would be to be the last person to take a first bite. I love this one. This is one of my favorites. It's so simple, but I do it actually at any event, any eating event, a potluck or, you know, the Bible study gets together, or a staff meeting or whatever.
Speaker 1:Or the wedding rehearsal dinner. Your wedding rehearsal dinner, Heidi.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. We're all sitting around with our delightful thin within participants who are at the wedding and nobody's taking a first bite.
Speaker 1:Because they all want to be the last one to take the first bite, Because it's just so cute Well just talking about that.
Speaker 2:That was so cute, anyway, but letting everyone else take a first bite, and my focus is going to be on the conversation and the people and does everyone have what they need? And then I'm going to be the last one to start eating and that feels really good in itself. There's a real victory there. That feels really good.
Speaker 1:Similar to that can be pacing myself If I can sit down near or have my eyes looking to somebody who is a person who doesn't inhale their food, who eats at a slower pace and typically seems to be at peace with food and eating. I want to let their example minister to me and help me to kind of gauge how quickly I should eat.
Speaker 1:I know that putting my fork down in between bites helps. Taking sips of whatever beverage I'm drinking with my meal. That all helps. Years ago, when I went to a thin within retreat, there was a gal there. Her name was Samantha and she had experienced so much of victory with food, eating and her body and all of this the things that we long for. When we joined thin within now, revelation within she said that she had this boundary for herself that she felt God gave her. She took a plate with her her own size plate and it was a smaller size and then any food that she put on her plate couldn't overlap the sides and couldn't touch any other food and that was for just right size portion and that just really worked well for her. So I mean we could try things like that, actually adjusting the portion size based on something like that, so that might work for some of you.
Speaker 2:Another thing that I'm going to do when I'm at an event like this is I'm going to choose small amounts of food that make my body feel really good Physically. We call those whole body pleasers. I'm going to choose those foods because I don't want to choose something that's going to cause my stomach to hurt or that's going to cause me to crash in an hour. I'm going to choose foods that are good for my body, give me energy and make me feel strong for the rest of the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know what to add to that? I'm not going to choose foods that are super common to me like you know, french bread.
Speaker 1:I can get French bread at the grocery store and it'll be fresh out of the oven. You know that sort of thing. If I fill up on French bread because I love it so much, I'm probably gonna eat the other food on top of it and I don't want to do that. So it helps me to survey, if there's a buffet type of laid out Survey, what is being offered here, what is available for me to eat, and kind of go, okay, maybe even rate the foods in my head like, okay, that I don't need, that might be a zero on my list. Oh, that looks really good and I bet there's desserts coming out later.
Speaker 1:I want to save space for that because I don't want to fill up and then fill up again on desserts Just because I didn't plan right. So the strategies the day of those are some practical strategies that you can use as well as Continue to renew your mind. By now you will have known your truth lists in your head. The eye wonder can be something that you kind of have in your head, you know, if you feel that little edginess coming on towards a person that you feel like, ooh, that wasn't very nice what they said to me, it's okay. I wonder what it would be like if and I can help you to just move on past and deal with that later if you need to and love them well right now Okay so the event is coming on, and now what?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a really good question, heidi. We can't skip this part. No so often, and I know this was true for me for many, many years. I did fine during the event, and then I got home and the emotions overwhelmed me, the exhaustion Overwhelmed me, and I ate everything in sight.
Speaker 1:Yes, celebration of whoa.
Speaker 2:I did so great yesterday I can eat whatever I want, because I deserve a donut, yes, and leftovers and pie, pie and yeah there's really kind of a letdown, and it can be, you know, because it was such a great event or maybe it was such a challenging event. There's really a letdown after, and also the next day maybe even the next day.
Speaker 2:We have to be ready for that as well. We want to be renewing our minds about Keeping our boundaries in place after. And where do we go with all those emotions? We go to God and we go to a safe person. You know somebody who loves us.
Speaker 2:If we need to process those things with a person and be prayed over, but, definitely going to God, and one of my favorite things and I know it is yours too, heidi, because you taught it to me is praise and gratitude during that time afterwards Certainly before and during too, but after the event, going to the Lord and just saying God, you are, you are my strength, you are my redeemer, you are what is good in my life, you know everything is is okay everything that's important is still in place.
Speaker 2:Pull out that who I am, in christless too. I am your girl, lord, I am your beloved. Everything is the same, I'm okay, you know, and bringing those emotions to him.
Speaker 1:Right, I'm so glad that you mentioned the day after, or even the hour after, when you get home after an event like this, because I don't know if you remember I think you probably do but whenever we've had coaching group, people gather together for the class, that comes immediately after holiday events. Yes, it's a common confession. Yes, right on Thanksgiving day or Christmas day or whatever it might have been, but the next day was just awful. Yeah, I made up for everything I did need on Christmas day or Thanksgiving day, all right. So we want to renew our minds before the temptation hits. That's one of the blessings of renewing our minds. So maybe even while you're still on cloud nine about how well you did, you want to say okay, what is true is God loves me, no matter how much I eat, how little I eat. This victory is one victory of many he can give me.
Speaker 1:There are possibilities for more victories coming up in the next hour and tomorrow, and I want to depend on him, the same way I've depended on him For this event victory as well, and so that's definitely. We want to be aware that that could be a problem and tell ourselves from God's perspective what is true. And kind of along with that, I'd say be sure you jot down the victories. You have Love keeping a victories list and jot down you know this chocolate pie or whatever it might be.
Speaker 2:We hear a lot of people also say my favorite thing about the holidays is the leftovers.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's a good one.
Speaker 2:And it's like why? Okay, why is that so attractive to us? Is it because we're in our own home and nobody's really, you know, watching anymore and we can go to the fridge and get all of that extra. Whatever it was, the taste is so good and it's like, is that really a reward?
Speaker 2:No it's really not. It's really not a reward. Yeah, we want to look for things after this holiday event that are going to bring life to us. Maybe we just need rest, maybe we're just exhausted. You know, we just need Life-giving rest. I like to have a lot of praise music going on after the fact, so that my mind is so filled with God's truth. I like to be in the word. I like to, you know, just be very Surrounded by who God is, who I am in Christ, the truth that comes from the Lord, so that I don't get pulled down into those old patterns that were so destructive for me.
Speaker 1:Right, one of the old patterns that the day after often feeds is this idea that, okay, I didn't behave. If you will, I, I did break my boundaries and I was a failure. I Beat myself up because I didn't eat the way that I had intended to eat. Even after all that mind renewal See, even minor, know, doesn't work for me. Okay, let's jettison those kinds of thoughts.
Speaker 1:All I think thinking is a good indication that we aren't thinking with the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2 16 tells us we have the mind of Christ, so let's think, let's put it on each day and try to think with it. If you feel that way the day after, the best thing to do is ASAP, or even on the drive home or before you go to bed, right after you've experienced a sense of failure, is to invite God into that and look and learn with him. And we Teach a whole lot about looking learn in community and trainings that we've recorded and in other podcasts too, but For lack of time, we're not going to go into a detailed teaching of what look and learn is basically. In a nutshell, it's inviting God to show you. Okay, I messed up. What can I learn from this so that the next time all things are equal, I can be victorious? He will redeem it, but we've got to invite him in because he's the one that knows. Our own wisdom is just not enough. So the day after.
Speaker 1:We can do a look and learn. We can do a victories list. We can anticipate the temptation will be there to overeat if we were successful or not. If we weren't successful the day before in stinking our boundaries, we might just want to throw in the towel on the whole holiday season. We don't want to do that.
Speaker 2:We want to live without regret this holiday season.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining us, and if you do want to learn more about some of these strategies Mind or Null strategies hope that you'll join us at our community on mighty networks. It's like having a whole facebook community, but just for us. There isn't a whole lot of other stuff going on, and you'll find us at revwithinrevwithinteam. We would love to have you there. You get the first week for free and after that it's $9.99 a month, you can get a better deal.
Speaker 2:We would love to see you there. We would love it. So and join us for our next podcast episode of revelation within.
Speaker 1:UK.