Sweet Grace For Your Journey

Episode 150-My Family Won't Eat Healthy

My family won’t eat healthy. This is an excuse that I understand and yet I think it is one of the poorest excuses. When we are blaming our bad eating habits on our families we place all the responsibility for what we’ve done to ourselves on our families. I really don’t believe that is fair to them.

Most of the time us women are the ones who are both the cooks in the family and the ones who want to lose weight. Blaming our weight gain on our family’s eating habits is just crazy. If we are the cooks, we have the control over what we serve. We can change how we feed our families. If our families won’t eat healthy, it is our fault. Not theirs.

The same thing is true if our husbands are the cooks in our families. Many times, though, I find the husbands are cooking what they know their wives want. So that’s actually the wife’s fault. Or the wife is scared of hurting the husband’s feelings and won’t tell him what she needs to be eating. Communication is really the key here.

Maybe our families don’t need to lose weight but if they’ve been eating what we have been cooking and we’ve been gaining weight, then they need the same kind of changes we do. This is because when they grow up and they begin feeding their families the way we’ve programmed them to eat, they will gain weight.

So how do we fix healthy foods for both us and our families? Check out episode 150 of Sweet Grace for Your Journey podcast, My Family Won’t Eat Healthy.

Overcomers Academy— https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers/

One-on-One Freedom Coaching— https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/one-on-one-freedom-coaching/

Episode 149-No Diet Works for Me

Many times an excuse we have for not losing weight leads us to the correct way to lose weight. This is true of the excuse I had and many have voiced as well. No diet works for me. 

This was more than an excuse for me. It was the truth. No diet worked for me because I always treated it as a short-term fix for what I knew in my heart was a long-term problem. I wanted to think my obsession with overeating certain foods was something I could overcome with a simple diet, special kind of weight loss pill or some new pre-packaged diet foods. 

I tried everything and nothing worked for me to lose the weight and keep it off. I felt doomed to a life of super morbid obesity. Which, according to a cardiac surgeon, was going to be a short life if I couldn’t figure out how to lose weight and keep it off but how was I going to do that?

Diet programs don’t work to keep the weight off, but they are still popular. They make their money from return customers. I’m raising my hand here because I returned to the diet program I was most successful on many times. Each time I spent thousands of dollars taking weight off only to put it back on again and add more to it.I learned is that the only way to lose weight and keep it off is with habit change. Though it sounds difficult, it isn’t. It actually saved my life.

Overcomers Academy—https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers/

One-on-One Freedom Coaching— https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/one-on-one-freedom-coaching/

Episode 148-Too Old to Eat Healthy

Are you too old to eat healthy? When I asked people what their excuses were for losing weight and getting healthy one excuse that came up often was I am too old to lose weight. 

One woman said, “I don’t have long at my age, so why not enjoy what’s left?” That made feel sad for her because if the only enjoyment we are getting out of life is eating, then we need to re-examine our lives.

As I look back over my life, though, there was at least 50 years where food was my main enjoyment. The problem was overeating was a very destructive type of entertainment for me. I began to not enjoy it because I couldn’t seem to say no to. Even breads and hot rolls were things I couldn’t stop eating. They were controlling me.

I got to the point where eating excessive amounts of my favorites garnered me a death sentence. When I was 46 the doctor told me I would be dead in five years if I didn’t lose at least 100 pounds and keep it off. 

I wasn’t ready for such a pronouncement. It was the first time I realized that I played a role in my own life expectancy. Of course, anything can happen to us at any time, but that day I realized I needed to do something about my weight. I recently turned 69 and I’m so glad that between the ages of 46 and 60, I surrendered the foods I love to God and lost over 250 pounds. After age 60 I began really living the life God wanted me to live.

Want to know more, listen to podcast 148: Too Old to Eat Healthy.

Overcomers Link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers.

Episode 147-Do I Have a Voice?

To say we have no voice or say in what happens in our lives is an excuse for not surrendering to the Holy Spirit. We do have a voice but it means we are just living by every whim we have and not by God.Galatians 5:16 TPT: “As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life.” This is telling us that our voices will be dynamically powerful or marked by continuous productive activity and change in an energetic way when we make sure we have left behind our desires and cravings which seem to lead us down the wrong paths.

However, with so many other voices competing for our attention, it can be difficult to hear our own voice.  That makes us feel we don’t have any input into our own lives. In this episode we are exploring what our voice is and how it is connected to our souls, which is the essence of us.

Overcomers Link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

One-on-One Freedom Coaching Link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/one-on-one-freedom-coaching/

Episode 146-God Doesn't Speak to Me

One of the biggest excuses we have is that we somehow feel God doesn’t speak to us. This excuse shuts down our ability to hear from Him, trust Him and surrender to Him. All three things are integral when we are trying change our habits, lose weight, get healthy, transform and follow God’s plan for our lives. 

When we don’t think we have any clear direction from God, we are relying on our own intellect. When we know what we should eat in order to maintain our health but instead violate our own boundaries, we are abdicating to our fleshly desires, which are driven by our emotions.

Romans 8:5-6 TPT tells us more about this. “Those who are motivated by the flesh only pursue what benefits themselves. But those who live by the impulses of the Holy Spirit are motivated to pursue spiritual realities.  For the sense and reason of the flesh is death, but the mind-set controlled by the Spirit finds life and peace.”

Only the leadership of the Holy Spirit can override our emotionally-driven will and give us the strength to say no and mean it. But if we believe God can’t or won’t speak to us, our ears will be closed to His voice. When that happens we are on our own. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He won’t speak to us unless we ask Him to and want His guidance.

Overcomers Academy link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

 One-on-One Freedom Coaching link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/one-on-one-freedom-coaching/

Episode 145-Stop All the Noise

Voices, voices everywhere. We hear them from friends, family especially if we have small children, mother, father, extended family, best friends, worst enemies, television, social media, music, podcasts, speakers, preachers, teachers, mentors, casual acquaintances, total strangers we hear in the line at Wal-Mart.  

It makes us think we are going crazy with the noise in our minds. It becomes so overwhelming that we can’t even focus on what our thoughts are. The noise that seems to be inspired by the evil one is so loud it overtakes us and we can’t think so we just do whatever voice that is hollering at us is the loudest. 

Our excuse for not doing what we know God wants us to do is that there is too much noise in our heads. Our thoughts seem to compete and fight with each other. We have no good way to figure out what we really are thinking because there are just too many thoughts to choose from.

So how can we sort through the voices and listen to God? This episode focuses on that. In addition, you’ll learn 10 things about God’s voice and 10 things about the evil one’s voice.

Overcomers Academy Link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

One-on-One Coaching Link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/one-on-one-freedom-coaching/

Episode 144-Food is My Friend

I’ve learned a lot on my journey that I love sharing with you so that you don’t make the same mistakes I did. It’s been at least 10 years since I’ve had cake for my birthday. Strawberries with nuts are my favorite treats today. That was definitely not my choice.

It went deeper than just my birthday. I would have eaten desserts made with sugar and flour every day of my life if possible and many days I did. For years I counted on desserts like I would a best friend. I was like the woman who told me straight up, “Food is my friend.”  To her the kinds of foods she loved to eat were always there and helped her fill a void.

When I finally realized I was addicted to sugar, it helped me understand that sugar was not my friend. It was actually evil in disguise. It didn’t care about me. It was a real tool of the devil, just like drugs or alcohol. It gave me a feeling of peace for a moment and then when the high wore off I had to have more to get the same feeling. I was like an alcoholic, only with sugar.

Finally, I began to see that food was not my friend. It was only acting like my friend to drag me into bondage in another of Satan’s schemes. My mindset was crazy and so is yours if you think any type of food is your friend. We aren’t supposed to have a relationship with sugar or any food. 

I promise if you listen to this episode, which also includes a short story, you’ll realize what you need to do in order to say good-bye to sugar for good.

Overcomers link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/.

One-on-One Private Freedom Coaching: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/one-on-one-freedom-coaching/.

Episode 143-Food Protects Me

Protection is one of our core needs when we come into this world as helpless babies. The member of our biological or adopted family whose role it is to protect us is our father or father figure. 

Many who have grown up mainly with single moms or an absentee father feel that their mother is fulfilling that need. But in reality, if this need is filled, it will be by a father figure. Otherwise we learn how to self-protect, probably by watching how our mother does it.One of the main ways we self-protect is by making ourselves physically larger. Many who have food issues will self-protect by overeating. Even though the adult part of them wants to lose weight, they can’t figure out why they keep eating. Part of it is an emotional need for protection.

However, the majority of women I deal with who have food issues and know they are self-protecting with food have a root issue that began in childhood somewhere. And many of them who were abused at very young ages, feel like it was their fault, rather than the abuser’s fault.

Overcomers Academy link: https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/ 

One-on-One Private Freedom Coaching with Teresa Shields Parker: https://Teresashieldsparker.as.me/

Episode 142- Food Keeps Me Sane

Food keeps me sane was my excuse for continuing to indulge in the foods I loved the most, which was mostly desserts or anything made with sugar. This was because most of my life I tried to avoid one thing—being insane or becoming like my mother. 

When I was growing up Mom had emotional issues and saw a psychiatrist regularly. She was on medication which only seemed to make her mood swings worse. She had high highs and low lows. 

When I asked my dad what was wrong with her, he would only say, ‘She’s sick.” I knew she wasn’t sick like with a stomach ache. So I didn’t quite understand until she had to go into the hospital and was on the psychiatric floor. I knew that was where the people who were considered crazy or insane went. 

Contrast this when the times I’d get to go to Grandma’s house and spend the weekend or longer in the summer. There everything seemed perfect, completely idyllic. I’d help her with all her chores. We’d bake cookies and cakes and pies. 

So it made a whole lot of sense to me that I equated food with sanity. My grandma was sane. She wasn’t the least bit crazy. And she cooked delicious foods all the time. It became ingrained in me that Grandma’s way of doing life was sane and Mom’s was insane. 

I thought food was my secret weapon to keep me sane until I gained up to 430 pounds and realized what I was doing to myself was totally insane.

Learn more about how I lost the weight and finally embraced my emotions. 

Overcomers Academy link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

Episode 141-Fear of Success

The fears we have keep us stuck and one of the biggest is the fear of success. We are afraid of moving forward because we might succeed and then have to continue the hard work that we think success will take. We are afraid of what success might do to us and how it will change us.

I have been coaching since 2014 and in that time literally thousands have come through my coaching groups, courses and free programs. Many have lost weight and kept it off. Others, though, have left because they finally understand the level of commitment they need to lose weight and keep it off. 

They leave without getting what they need because they say, “That’s great for you. You must just be special because I could never do that. I could never give up sugar.” I thought the same thing and it was fear of being without my crutch that kept me stuck. 

Most want a quick fix. They don’t want to put in the time and effort it takes to change our ingrown habits. Friends, so far no one that I know of has successfully invented something that makes you lose weight and keep it off without any work on your part. It didn’t take you a day to gain your weight and it will not come off in a day or even in a few months and stay off. 

It’s true that any kind of success is going to take hard work to maintain. However, it will be made easier by surrendering completely to God. Then, that’s where I hear a lot of other excuses. 

Many people also have control issues. They don’t want to turn over the control of their food to God. They see it as the last thing they have control of. 

Surrendering control of what I eat to God was the best thing I ever did. Listening to His advice on every aspect of my life has made me realize how out of control I was. 

This podcast episode includes a very pertinent short story about the Fear of Success. Don’t miss it and be sure to share this one with others.Overcomers Link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/ 

One-On-One Coaching: Send request for more information to [email protected].