Hungry for Hope Conference

Hey There -

Just thought I would fill you in about an amazing conference I had the privilege of attending last weekend hosted by Remuda Ranch, a Christian eating disorder treatment center. I attended the conference with my friend Debbie who is a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and my mentor Judy Halliday (Thin Within).

The conference consisted of several workshops hosted by Remuda staff and Constance Rhodes (founder of Finding Balance). I was impacted by so many of the sessions, but my 2 favorite sessions were called "Heavenly Bodies" and "Hope and Glory." I walked away more equipped and eager to allow the HOPE we have in Christ to fully invade our present - to invade the way we think about ourselves, our future, our body and the world we live in. God isn't done with us yet and He's not going to give up on His creation. So if you're bent over and broken from life (I know I've been there!), I pray that you can grasp on to the truth that you have a HOPE and a FUTURE. That all that is broken will be redeemed.

I also want to formally tell you about the True Campaign - Constance Rhodes (of Finding Balance) and Travis Stewart (from Remuda) have partnered together in an effort to change the culture and end the crisis. Check out their website for some great encouragement! Constance, Travis, Judy, Debbie and I had a chance to meet for a bit and will be talking about possibilities we can partner together! So we'll keep you posted!

Love & Hugs,

Allie

Respect Your Body First

We must first learn to love and appreciate our body before we look to someone else to find it beautiful. This awesome appreciation for for our body opens the door for others to find us desirable and worthy of respect. Like a fast-moving virus or a silly laugh, how you feel about your body is contagious. If you carry yourself and your body in a way that communicates confidence, security and contentment, others will get this vibe and reciprocate it. If you are blessed to become a mother or a mentor someday, you will have the opportunity to teach your daughter (or encourage another girl) to be confident in her own skin, even though some of our moms or mentors may not have been able to do that for us.

As a friend, you can model to your girlfriends how to love and find beauty in their own bodies by finding beauty in your own. If you walk and talk like the body beautiful daughter of God you are, you can liberate the women around you from the bondage of negative self-image. How can we expect our boyfriends, husbands, children and friends to cherish us if we don’t see ourselves as worthy? God has already called your body “good”. You are the crown of His creation and He wants you to walk in this truth and communicate it to the world around you. So walk tall and carry your body like the temple of God it is. If we are going to change the ways of this world, it has to start with us.

Let's do it!

*Excerpt from HEAL: Healthy Eating & Abundant Living by Allie Marie Smith & Judy Halliday (Coming December 2008)

Inner Beauty Exercise!

I think I was around the age of twelve when I started visualizing my ideal body. It resembled the tall, lean and rock hard physique of Gabrielle Reece (minus about four inches in height). I remember cutting her out of a magazine and coveting those tan legs, washboard abs and lean biceps as my own. Twelve years later (yes, I’m a very stubborn, slow learner!) I’ve realized that this hasn’t gotten me anywhere. As far as I know, my physique hasn’t yet been compared to Laird’s bride and the color of my skin can be more likened to a bar of ivory soap.

I recently came across one of her ads and admit that I felt pretty envious of her statuesque frame. And while I was tempted to run about five miles and do a plyo-metric workout in the sand in addition to the exercise I'd already done for the day, I felt God's gentle touch convincing me to do otherwise. So, I did something new! I closed my eyes and imagined myself more beautiful within than ever before. And as I did I couldn't really make out what I looked like, but I "saw" or "felt" a radiant glow that overpowered my external beauty. I felt alive, whole, and eager to love others. During this "inner beauty workout" as I called it I was so focused on filling others up because my heart was filled to the brim with God's love. "We love because He first loved us." My spirit of striving subsided and I was able to rest secure in God's presence.

So God has been teaching me, and slowly I've been listening. While I still have an affinity for fitness and sports (confession: I daydream about being on American Gladiators someday!) I'm realizing that envying other women's bodies for my own isn't going to get me anywhere. Rather, as I allow God through His Holy Spirit to refine me from within I am transformed into the person He desires me to be (in body, mind and spirit) for HIS GLORY, not my own!

Have you gotten your inner beauty exercise today?

Facebook Ads Driving You Up the Wall?

Okay, so I'm getting really fired up (not in a good way) about all the ads that flash in front of me everytime I'm on facebook. I'm so fired up that I almost created a whole facebook group called "Facebook: Take down Your Diet Ads!" or something with a little more pizazz. I mean that's what our generation does when we want to change the world, right? We make a facebook group! Haha...

I know fb has way too much information on all of us, but is our BMI index one of them? Have weight-loss companies gone so far that they've resorted to the "muffin-top" ad campaign. Come on people!

Gggrrrrrrr......

Time to HEAL Promo

HEAL Photo Shoot

Last week we gathered a bunch of the girls in HEAL from Santa Barbara to take some photos for our upcoming book. We were in the search for the perfect cover shot! Our amazing photographer was Jessica Fairchild Conrad who is going to be spending this summer working as Invisible Children's photographer in Uganda who was an inspiration to all of us! We wanted to capture the essence of the heal journey! That it's about FREEDOM, AUTHENTIC HEALING & JOY!!! We felt like little girls the whole time playing dress up and dancing around in a field of wildflowers! The thing that I love is that each girl represented in the photos is really on the HEAL Journey! She is rising above the world's strongholds and stepping into her TRUE IDENTITY - that she is loved, whole, free, fearfully and wonderfully made, and that the God of the universe has called her to such a time as this! She has a BODY TO SERVE, TO GIVE and TO LOVE THE WORLD AROUND HER as JESUS DID! This is what this journey of HEALing is all about!

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.