HEALing by healthy habits, hula hoops and the Holy Spirit

ARTICLE IN THE HORIZON - WESTMONT COLLEGE'S NEWSPAPER

By Karissa Young
Copy Editor

Women from UCSB, Santa Barbara City College and Westmont came together to confront eating issues and the challenges of healthy body image at a workshop called HEAL (Healthy Eating and Abundant Living) this past Saturday.

The workshop was brought to Westmont by HEART, the Healthy Eating Awareness Resource Team, led by Debbie Ulrick, as an extension of the “Be Comfortable in Your Genes” Focus Week, which “was really about raising awareness about these issues [while] HEAL was about presenting a solution,” said sophomore Rachel Stroud who works with HEART.

The HEAL program was created by Allie Smith, founder of Wonderfully Made, a women’s ministry with three chapters on different college campuses. The aim of the program is to “bring God into our relationship with food” in order to rise above disordered eating and refocus on a relationship with God, said Smith.

The workshop included practical advice for relating healthfully to food, as well as activities that varied from reflective journaling to playing with hula hoops. The hula hoops were used to remind the women of the joy that they can take in being able to use their bodies to move, instead of reacting negatively to the way they were made.

“One point that really hit home for me was the idea of eating when you’re actually hungry and stopping when you’re satisfied … it’s how we were made. It really made me realize that I need to step back and figure out what hungry and satisfied feels like for me.” said first-year Kelsey Brownsberger of HEART.

Smith’s book Healthy Eating and Abundant Living: Your Diet-free, Faith-filled Guide to a Fabulous Life is a six-week study based on the HEAL workshop and will be released in December 2008.

The Book Cover!

The book is almost here! Just 6 more months! Contact HealJourney@gmail.com if you're interested in leading a small group study with the book once it's out!

A Prayer for Your Journey

Merciful Father,

I ask that you help me to live a life in step with your Holy Spirit - to bear good fruit that will honor you and bring you glory. May your strength be made perfect in my weakness as I surrender every part of my life to you. Indwell in my life and daily guide my thoughts and actions. I want to know what it is like to allow your Spirit to reign over every area of my life including the way I eat and treat my body. Through your power equip me to rise above the sinful nature of my desires and give me your strength and wisdom as I listen to and trust the way you made my body. Jesus, as your child I can be set free and live an abundant life under the gift of your grace. I love you and thank you for the many blessings in my life.

The Tightrope of Perfection

Here's a sneak peak at an excerpt from Lesson 5, "An Aisle of Grace" of my book:

As young women today it seems like we’re raised feeling pressured to walk upon a tightrope of perfection. We cling desperately to this tightrope afraid of losing control or not measuring up. We may be able to balance on this tightrope for a while, but eventually we’ll fall and get wounded. The tightrope of perfection is unrealistic and not of God. God wants us to take our gaze away from this high, dangerous place and to call out for Him to rescue us. When we stumble, He will gently pick us up and set our feet firmly upon the path of His grace, love and provision; an aisle of grace that leads to the abundant life He desires for His beloved daughters. In Psalm 18:36 David praises God with gratitude as he acknowledges the grace he offers: “…You broaden the path beneath me so that my ankles do not turn.” (Psalm 18:36 NIV). God does not want us to see us stumble and slip as a result of narrow expectations ourselves or others pressure us to pursue. I pray that you will have the courage to live in the freedom contained in God’s grace.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ….For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35 NIV)