Episodes

The concept of stewardship is often used with our bodies and money, but are there more connections between money and body image than we may know? Today's episode explores these connections, how eating disorders show up in the way we deal with money, how eating disorders can connect with hoarding and more. Have you heard of financial anorexia? How about having "shopping bulimia?" How about an "orthorexic" view of what we spend money on? Or, how about a possible connection between anorexia and a t...

Do you ever just feel sad about your body size or shape? Part of finding body image freedom is recognizing the truth that sometimes you will just feel sad or discouraged about your body. Grieving the lost dream of a "better" body that would "cure" everything or the loss of youth or the loss of the body size or shape you once had is a normal and healthy process. On today's show, Heather looks at what body grief is and offers three suggestions for how to process grief and how to not stay in the pi...

Today Heather talks with one of her Intuitive Eating Coaches, Erin Todd, about step one of Intuitive Eating, which is giving up the Diet Mentality. Erin and Heather hash through how conditioned we are to believe that diets and plans are the only ways to be "healthy" or be on the "path" to a better body or better health. They also talk about the following: How we feel "safe" when we are conforming to the way everyone else is eating or dieting. Why we cling to diets or eating plans even if we kn...

Let's face it. We all want to be special. We all want to know that our lives are significant. We each desire to know that we matter. But, sometimes our lives can feel anything but significant. We may know that God says we are, but then we look at our schedules or our days and think: Does any of this really matter? Today, Heather's guest is Rachael Adams, author and host of the Love Offering Podcast. Rachael talks about how she's journeyed to find significance and shares truths from her new book...

In today's interview with Amy Carlson, MS, RD, LD, Amy and Heather talk about the ways that "Purity Culture" a movement in the church through the 1990s, has paved the way for Diet Culture in the church. The duo explores the language we use around our food choices like "being good" or "being bad," how we admire those who can "abstain" from eating, and how we've put a lot of weight and value on our food choices to give us standing, worth, or value. Amy and Heather explore the good, bad, and ugly f...

"But I feel better on a plan!" This is a sentiment Heather's heard many times and even said herself. But, today, she talks with a dietitian and eating disorder expert, Amy Carlson about what's underneath that feeling of needing a food plan to feel like we're doing "okay" in our bodies. Amy and Heather unpack why we feel guilty or like we're doing something "wrong" when we aren't following a plan. They talk about who and how we decide to follow certain diets or adopt certain food rules. They als...

Today's episode is a compassionate letter to Gwyneth Paltrow who, on Instagram this week, talked about her "wellness plan" which included her sharing what she eats in a day. If you didn't get to see the interview, you can learn more in this New York Post article which quipped that Gwyneth's daily food routine sounded like, "colonoscopy prep." But the goal of today's podcast is not to criticize or condemn Gwyneth. Instead, in this open letter, author and Christian body image coach, Heather Creekm...

Today Heather continues her conversation with Dr. Kari Anderson about binge eating. They discuss what's going on in the brain when we binge, how the brain sends signals that lead to a binge, how binges can connect with attachment and relational issues, how fear connects to inflammation issues, and more. Dr. Kari Anderson is a licensed professional counselor and is a national authority in the treatment of binge eating disorder. The pair also discuss: how to befriend your body, how to talk to you...

Today Heather interviews Dr. Kari Anderson, a licensed professional counselor, eating disorder coach, author, and a recognized authority in treating binge eating and Binge Eating Disorder (BED). Today, Dr. Anderson shares her story of struggling with food as a child and young adult. Heather and Kari talk about everything from Kari's secret affinity for downing sugar packets for comfort to going to Weight Watchers meetings and how Kari's faith and training helped her come to a place where she has...

What do you do when you feel fat? Of course, most know by now that "fat" isn't really a feeling. Yet, how many of us say it? It's what we say when we don't know any other words to express displeasure with how our bodies look or feel. Today, Heather explores six things you can do when you feel fat. Heather talks about what's under the surface of our "bleh" body feelings and how we can ask ourselves questions to try to separate what we are feeling, emotionally from how our bodies look. Heather als...

Today we’re going to talk about what to do if there’s a part of your body that you hate–that you want to change or maybe even are obsessing over changing. In particular, we're going to talk about hating our stomachs. But you can take today's content and apply it to any body part that bothers you. Heather shares how she tried to research and figure out what culture's advice is for those who hate their stomachs. In short: the answer is always to change it. It's as if your stomach is a broken pipe ...

In Numbers 13 and 14 we read the story of Joshua, Caleb and the twelve spies that were sent out from the Israelites to scout out the land of Canaan. Canaan was the promised land - the land that God was leading them to and had promised to them after freeing them from slavery in Egypt. Yet, ten of the twelve men sent as scouts decided that they were too small to fight the inhabitants and take over the land. In today's episode, Heather explains how this story can help inform and encourage our body...

On today's show, Heather re-introduces herself, shares her story, and explains in more depth the ministry of Compared to Who? Heather tells of how God helped her overcome a lifetime battle with food, a likely eating disorder, and other body image issues. She shares how God revealed to her she had made her body image an idol and how the revelation of the body image idolatry was life-changing. Heather also shares what Compared to Who? is all about, including the resources Compared to Who? offers b...

Personality, identity, and image are topics that get fuzzy and blurred for many women who struggle with body image issues. We are told that we need to find our identity in Christ and root it in him, yet, it's difficult to understand how to do this. Today, Heather explores how to find our identity and build an image and identity in Christ. Today we explore the following topics: How we can create identities around the foods we eat, diets we follow, exercise programs we do, or other things that we...

Heather continues her conversation with Travis Stewart, LPC - a leader in the world of Christian eating disorder treatment. In today's episode, Heather and Travis discuss a model Travis developed to help people work through tricky emotions, thoughts, and feelings in order to process in a way that is both healthy and God-honoring. This "three chairs" model Travis developed offers a tremendous framework for us to think through the decisions and responses we have and figure out what is motivating u...

Today Heather talks with Travis Stewart, a licensed professional counselor and leader in the eating disorder recovery world. Travis and Heather discuss how understanding our core needs and motivations, which some may classify as part of "personality" can help us understand our proclivity toward certain behaviors around food and body. In today's show you'll hear Heather and Travis discuss 9 self-protective strategies along with the 7 core needs of the heart (cased on work done by Mark and Debbie ...

What if managing your image was about more than just your body? Have you ever felt yourself trying to manage your personality? Have you ever tried to portray an "image" of yourself that was more like your ideal than perhaps like you were actually wired? Today, Heather explores the world of personality and image. She shares her personal story of feeling like she needed a personality makeover and how she "changed her image" by becoming more out-going, but what she has learned in the decades since....

Today Heather talks to her Intuitive Eating Coaches — Erin Todd and Char-Lee Haze from the Intuitive Eating for Christian Women podcast — about whether or not you can be “sugar-free” while practicing intuitive eating. Char-Lee lays out a framework for making authentic decisions for our health that are: purposeful, personal, and peaceful. The coaches walk Heather through a journey where she explores with them the science, scripture, and her lived experience come together so that she can make wise...

I pray that this month-long series to help you pray for your body image and "Tune in" to God while you tune out the voices of marketers and Diet Culture has made a powerful impact in your life. Today we finish the series with a look at what's next. What should you do if you started feeling freedom? How do you stay on the road to body image freedom without falling back into hold habits and patters of behaving or thinking. Heather gives suggestions today to help you stay on track and stay connecte...

Today we pray that God would make us more holy. It sounds like a strange thing to pray for. But, throughout the New Testament we are encouraged to be striving for holiness. There are many things we strive for on this earth--beauty, power, money, success, love of others, acceptance, approval--but striving for these types of worldly treasures leads us to stress and burnout. It's never enough when we're chasing these worldly things. We'll never be satisfied. But, chasing holiness? That's when we ha...

Today we pray to be more loving. There are many ways being more loving can help us overcome body image issues and insecurity, but today we talk about how believing and receiving God's love can help us feel more of that love so that it overflows into the way we love others and the way we treat our bodies. Loving our bodies is something talked about a lot in culture today, but I don't believe the way culture talks about it is helpful. Culture says to flaunt what you have and show your middle finge...

God gives us so much grace. When we're struggling with issues like body image or insecurity or comparison, his grace is our only cure. As Heather writes in the Burden of Better - she thought that she had a comparison problem, but what she really had was a shallow understanding of grace. If we truly understood all the different ways God's grace was at work in every aspect of our lives, we'd be free from comparison and even body image worry! It's also essential to have a good grip on grace so we c...

Today we're talking about praying for peace with the boundaries of our bodies. One of the hardest aspects of our body image struggles may be accepting the way God made and "sized" our bodies. For some, there's frustration over height or size. For others its frustration over specific body parts. But, either way, recognizing that God made us on purpose, for a purpose, means our bodies were made with intention. Today we pray for the grace to be able to accept our bodies and even thank God for the "...

Who doesn't want to be radiant? We all long to shine with a beauty that draws others to us and that those around us would describe as "radiant." While marketers promise that radiance comes from using the right skin care products, cosmetics, and beauty rituals, the Bible tells us that radiance comes from turning our faces to him. So, today in our series where we are praying every day for our body image issues, we're going to pray for this type of radiance. Today we ask God to make us radiant and ...