Episode 57 - Breaking free from emotional eating with Barb Raveling

Do you have a stronghold you feel you’ll just never be able to overcome? If so, you’ll want to tune in for today’s episode because we are dropping some life-transforming truth bombs! But first, for the next four Fridays, we will be releasing an extra “BONUS” series of four episodes about self-care from a biblical perspective!

In today’s episode, we are welcoming a super special guest, Barb Raveling. Barb struggled with emotional eating for 25 years, and she felt like it was the one stronghold she would simply never overcome. That is until God taught her a life-changing discipline that helped her finally end the cycle of emotional eating for good—the renewing of the mind. 

Today’s episode is so full of truth and goodness to speak into your life, regardless of what stronghold you may be dealing with. This episode will help you really dig into those deep layers of your heart and your belief system and apply God's truth to it in a very practical manner.

Today you’ll hear:

• The background about this whole topic of emotional eating;
• What it means to live by desire versus living by design. 
• The life-changing discipline that helped Barb to end the cycle of emotional eating FOR GOOD!
•  Part of renewing our minds is remembering that God is enough. We see life again from a biblical perspective.

Emotional eating means eating according to your emotions and desires rather than eating according to your will. That means eating when depressed, anxious, fearful, lonely, or whatever other emotion that sends us to food for comfort or to feel better.

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. - PSALM 37:4 

God wants to give you the desires of your heart.  This is important for us to understand! He is for us. But we need to remember that God is enough. A lot of times we go through life thinking, “I need this to be happier.”

That’s when we need to renew our mind. This is when we need to see life again from a biblical perspective and remember, God is enough. 

What exactly does it mean to renew your mind?

Renewing the mind is not so much an activity as it is an outcome. So that means our mind is actually renewed. Our mind has to be engaged with the Bible. And when we renew our mind for breaking habits and getting rid of negative emotions, we're tackling specific lies that make us feel like overeating. We're taking off the cultural perspective of food and body image and we're putting on a biblical perspective and we're taking off what we learned growing up and putting on what we learned in the Bible.

Functional saviors is a term that means something we rely on outside of God. Oftentimes it can be food, when we rely on it to satisfy our souls or to bring us joy.

And anything that we rely on outside of Christ is simply not going to satisfy. 

In many areas of our lives, it's far better to live by design rather than desire. And to do that, it is important to create boundaries. We should not let ourselves become wrapped up in our fleshly appetites.  It takes practice and trust to turn to God, even if it's a struggle, and even if we don't get it right every time.  

Don’t miss this episode for some really practical examples of how to renew your mind. These tools are applicable for any struggle you might have in your life!

Meet the Guest

• Barb Raveling is a podcaster and author of seven books and Bible studies in the area of personal growth. Her top-ranked podcasts, Taste for Truth and the Christian Habits Podcasts, have earned over a million downloads and continue to inspire people to break free from their strongholds and grow closer to God. Barb writes from her own experience and her education as an executive Christian coach, certified through Coach Approach Ministries. Nearly 150,000 copies of her books have been sold. You can connect with Barb at barbraveling.com.

• Barb’s new book invites readers to renew their minds and bodies with spiritually healthy strategies for losing weight & keeping it off. In her two-part book, Raveling inspires readers to join her on a journey to transform their approach to weight loss while also growing closer to Christ.