The most common reasons holding people back from finding freedom in the area of food are fear and unbelief. These are effectively forms of self-sabotage, because they keep us from recognising that God wants us to be healthy in body, spirit and soul.

In the Fitfish Healthy Whole and Free course that helps people to break free from emotional eating and dieting, one of the first things we do is look at foundations for freedom. The video and blog below explore two things that are essential for building a firm foundation to underpin your healthy journey.

Being healthy is not about being a size 12 and 10 and half stone, but instead having body, spirit and soul in balance and looking after ourselves in the best way possible. People might see others finding a healthy balance in their lives but still not believe that it’s possible for them to find freedom in this area and so they don’t move forward.

It’s not always easy to change things, but it is possible! So, if you have a bit of unbelief around the fact God actually does want us to be healthy in body, spirit and soul, then the best place to go is to the Bible.  Ask God to show you some verses and to speak to you about this area of your life. You may also want to talk to other Christians who are looking after themselves in this way to get some encouragement from them.

And if you don’t believe it’s possible for you, if you think: “I’m nothing special, it can happen for other people, but it can’t happen for me”, then what you are really saying is God is smaller and you don’t think it’s possible for Him to help you to change. This is effectively putting God a box. However, Jesus died on the cross for so many reasons, including to help us break free from things that hold us back or trap us in all areas of our life.

So, what can you do if you feel this kind of doubt or unbelief that God really does want you to look after yourself, or that it’s possible for you to find freedom in this area? First, you need to be sure what God says about all this in the Bible. Spend some time with God, deepen your connection with him and believe in the promises that he has given us: that can protect us from any kind of fear that things won’t work out for us.

And then it may help to look at specific questions generated by your doubts and unbelief and basically shoot arrows at them. You can do this by praying, by worshipping and by declaring words of truth from the Bible.

In fact, if there are any areas in your life where you’ve got some unbelief, doubt or fear, which ultimately comes down to you unintentionally putting God in a box and telling him that it’s not possible for change to happen, then there’s some good news! It is possible to open up slowly, to rebuild some firm foundations and get our belief reset on the relationship we have in God.

If we protect ourselves with the fortress of God’s promises we have a firm base from which we can fire specific arrows out: specific prayers, worship songs or bible verses, that can combat those area where we struggle or have some unbelief.

And if you do these two things, then it is possible to break free from a dieting mentality, from thinking about food all the time, from aiming for a certain weight, from worrying about eating something or feeling guilty, from that confusion about what you should or should not do that sends your round in circles. Instead, you can start to move forward.

Our next Healthy Whole and Free course starts in May, keep an eye on our website for more information and details of how you can sign up when registration opens. In the meantime, you would be very welcome at our Fitfish Online Exercise classes,  we would love to see you there!