March 20, 2026
When Weight Loss Becomes an Idol: Recognizing Body Image Idolatry and Finding Spiritual Rest WfW Series Ep 14
This may be the most important episode in the Waiting for Weight Loss Series. Today, host Heather Creekmore dives deep into the topic of body idolatry and the spiritual dynamics behind an over-desire for weight loss and body change. Raised in a Christian home, Heather Creekmore shares how her pursuit of body transformation became a central idol in her life, promising fictitious "salvation" that only led to disappointment and frustration. Drawing from her work with women across all body sizes, she explains that this is a heart issue, not just a body issue—one rooted in expecting rest, security, and hope from physical goals rather than from God.
Through heartfelt stories, biblical insight, and practical encouragement, Heather Creekmore exposes the empty promises of body "idols" and invites listeners to honestly evaluate their motivations. She encourages confession, repentance, and shifting priorities to experience true freedom and purpose. If this message resonates or feels new, join the supportive community and consider participating in the 40-Day Body Image Journey starting right after Easter for deeper exploration and lasting change.
Call to Action:
Ready to break free from body image idolatry and find lasting rest? Join Heather and other women in the transformative 40-Day Body Image Journey—starting April 6th! Head to waitingforweightloss.com to sign up and be part of a community pursuing health with grace, not guilt.
Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
00:00:02
Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hey there, Heather Creekmore here. Thanks for watching or listening to the compared to podcasts. Today, we're in our Waiting for Weight Loss series. If you haven't joined us in the community yet, go join us there Waiting forweight Loss dot com. We would love to just get to know you and hear your questions there. Our coaches are there reading your questions and we're playing and there's been some great interactions over there. Today. The topic is how I knew weight loss or our body change had become too important to me. And if you're no stranger to this show, then you may have heard parts of this before. But if this is all new to you, I'm so glad you're here today because today we're going to talk about what's going on spiritually when we have an over desire for weight loss. And I'm going to just explain what I mean by overdesire in just a minute. But I'm glad you're here today. This could be the most important episode of this whole series. So maybe share it with a friend, invite someone to listen to it with you and talk about it. Right, That's how we actually change. It's not just listening, right, it's doing in fact, that's why we do the forty day Body Image's Journey. We've got another one starting right after Easter. Because it's not just about like reading something or listening to something and letting it go in here, we actually have to take action on what we've read, what we've heard. And one great way to do that is encourage a friend say, hey, we just listen to this, see what you think, have a conversation about it, and then encourage each other in any changes you need to make. So that's my encouragement for you as we get started today, let's get into the day's episode. Okay, so to happen today? How I knew body change had become too important to me? And you know, friend, I was raised in a Christian home. I said the Sinner's prayer before I was old enough to tie my shoes. I knew the God and Jesus answer for everything. But here's the truth. I knew I was fearfully and wonderfully made, but I didn't feel like I was, or at least if I was. I just was kind of mad at God that he didn't make me fearfully and wonderfully as her or her or her right like I kind of felling. Maybe got cheated me a little bit, right, like she had a faster metabolism I had. All of my friends growing up were all taller than me, and they could live on potato chips and candy and still stay thin, while I was trying to do diets with my mom and would just drink lemon juice with I think it was maple syrup in it for three days to try to lose a couple of pounds. I mean, it didn't seem fair. And so if I was fearfully and wonderfully made man like God got a wrong because I wasn't fearfully and wonderfully made like she was, and that was frustrating to me. I also knew that from first Samuel I'd looked at my heart right, just like he looked at David's heart instead of David's stature, as David was compared to his brothers. Now he looked at his heart. I knew what was important to God was my heart, but I kind of didn't think that was that important. I know that sounds a little silly, but it felt like well, but I already believe in Jesus, I already got the God in Jesus answers. I know I'm going to have in for eternity, so check check. Now I can deal with these things that are important in my life right now, which is trying to get a body that I can feel good about, a body that I feel is acceptable to everyone, like a body that I can love, or you know, have the freedom to wear clothes I want, Like, all of these things are really important goals. And I didn't see any disconnect there, honestly, Like most people I knew lived like that, And most people I knew had their God and Jesus answers and then went about pursuing whatever it was they felt like they needed to pursue here on this earth. Money wasn't really a big temptation for me, Like I didn't really feel like, you know, I was after the dollar and trying to make a quick back like you know whatever. Right, But my body goals, that's where, as we talked about in the last episode, that's where my greed and lust came in. Right. I wanted a.
00:04:24
Speaker 2: Better body, whatever it took, I needed a better body. Now here's where this gets tricky, right, And I'll admit right like I was a thinner person. I was never a size of zero or even a size two. But I was a smaller person. I fluctuated right, smaller, bigger, smaller, bigger, which is what often happens with dieting, right, And so so my vantage point might be a little different than if you've kind of always had a larger body. I hear that, I understand that. But here's what I want you to hear today. After working with hundreds and hundreds of women, I can tell you that my conversation with my clients who do wear a size two and struggle with this is very much the same as my conversation with clients who wear a size twenty and struggle with this. This is a heart issue, and that was the part of the issue I never saw. I always believes that if they could just get the body, then I would feel good and then I could rest right, Then I.
00:05:30
Speaker 1: Would have earned rest. It would be my reward. And we talked about rest in an earlier episode. Go back and listen to that, right, because Jesus promised this as a rest that doesn't come from meeting our body goals. In fact, meeting our body goals never brings rest, right, because then you just go to maintenance, and then you're aging against the maintenance, and oh, it's it's hard. It's just plain hard. And so if we're looking for body change to allow us to rest, it's never gonna come. It's just not. But here's the spiritual side of that that I didn't see until I was really in my mid thirties, and that is that rest I longed for, or that peace I longed for, that joy that I was sure what commised. And as I got my body right right, all of those things were indicating something. They were indicating that I had made my body change goals into something that scriptures pretty clear about. I had made them into idols. Now, Friend, like I said, I was raised in church, so I didn't think I had an idolatry problem because idols were statues that people bowed down to. They were kind of weird. I didn't have that. And yet that wasn't actually a really good definition of idolatry. Right for those of us, especially in the West, right, idols are much more subtle. In fact, Tim Keller calls them idols of our heart because they're not statues, just things in our hearts and often in our heads as well, that we have made into I'm gonna call it like vehicles of rescue. These are things that could rescue us, or maybe a better way to say it, and you'll see the idolatry connection here. These are things that could save us. And so if I could just get the body I wanted, it would save me now, not for heaven, right, Like that's old. I had my gun, Jesus answer check check. I wasn't gonna save me for heaven, but it was gonna save me here on earth. It was gonna offer me a type of salvation. And it's a fictitious salvation. This salvation does not actually exist, but this idle promises a type of salvation that here on the Earth, I would never feel insecure, I would never feel bad about my body, that I would never be rejected. People would always love me if I just looked like this, right, rainbows and sunshine, right, meeting this body, goal would just make everything wonderful. It would save me from suffering. If I could just get this body, then I won't suffer. But idols lie. They just do because idols can't protect us from suffering. And if you don't know if that's true or not, if you're like, yeah, I don't believe it. I'm pretty sure that my friend who has the size two and the great body, I'm pretty sure she doesn't suffer like I do. Friend, it's just not true. Watch the Taylor Swift documentary. Watch Ted talks by Supermodels. Right, do some research about your favorite celebrity and just google person's name and body image, and what you'll find often is either they've become like a big body positivity fan, right, and so that's kind of covering your body image problems with pride. Which if that doesn't make sense to you, hey, join us on the forty Day Journey, because we get into that. We talk about body positivity and body neutrality and kind of what the difference is and how those aren't really the answer for our problems. In fact, I don't even believe you have to love your body the way culture says to love your body. That's not the alt there's no Bible verse that says love your body, that says love your neighbor as yourself, right, but that it's about a sacrificial kind of love and service to those around us, which should be equal with the way we love and serve ourselves. It's not about what to look like or loving your stretch marks? Right, and we just we've taken scripture way out of context to make that verse mean that do you have an idle problem? Thikes, this is something that only you can know. But I promise you that if you take it to the Lord and say, God, have I made this an idol? Am I looking for weight loss or body change to do something in my life that only you can do? Am I looking for this to bring me rest? Am I looking for this to bring me security? Am I looking for this to bring me hope? Right? Weight loss can't do any of those things. It's just an idol that tells us it can. And so, Friend, like I said, this is probably the most important episode of this series. I've done other episodes on the Compared To podcast around body image Idolatry. I share my story even more on some of them too, But friend, asking yourself this question today because this is a lynchpin. Okay, So if you can figure out like I did, that you've made your body changed goals your body you know, weight loss goals. If you've made these into an idol, friend, then this is how you can change the shift that priority. This is how you can recognize that this has taken too important of a role in your life. And this is how you can ungrip your clenched fists and relax as you pursue health, as you pursue body change. This is what gives you the freedom to not be impatient. Because here's the thing. Idles stand between us and the Lord. It's really difficult for us to hear from him when we've got an idol in the way. It's really difficult for us to obey him when we've got an idol in the way. Idle Idolatry is sin, and it separates us from God right and so confessing that sin, repenting of that sin, and saying God help me with this, it's probably the most important thing you can do for your weight law school. If you've got questions about this, come to the community waiting for weight loss dot com. We'd love to chat with you about this there. This is one of the most important things for you to consider. I would say, maybe in all of your life, because as I've observed it, there are so many women that think they have the God in Jesus' answer, and then they're pursuing body change goals as if they will save them, and they're missing out on true life, on true salvation, on the purpose God has on and for their life. And I don't want you to be one of them. Reach out if you need help. This is what we coach women around all the time, and you can always join us on the forty Day Journey starting I think it is April sixth. We'll talk about this more. If this is a brand new concept for you, Hey, thanks for listening today. We'll see in the next episode, come Bo Babe. Compared to podcasts, it's proud to be part of the Life Audio podcast network from were a great Christian podcast Go to life audio dot com.
Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hey there, Heather Creekmore here. Thanks for watching or listening to the compared to podcasts. Today, we're in our Waiting for Weight Loss series. If you haven't joined us in the community yet, go join us there Waiting forweight Loss dot com. We would love to just get to know you and hear your questions there. Our coaches are there reading your questions and we're playing and there's been some great interactions over there. Today. The topic is how I knew weight loss or our body change had become too important to me. And if you're no stranger to this show, then you may have heard parts of this before. But if this is all new to you, I'm so glad you're here today because today we're going to talk about what's going on spiritually when we have an over desire for weight loss. And I'm going to just explain what I mean by overdesire in just a minute. But I'm glad you're here today. This could be the most important episode of this whole series. So maybe share it with a friend, invite someone to listen to it with you and talk about it. Right, That's how we actually change. It's not just listening, right, it's doing in fact, that's why we do the forty day Body Image's Journey. We've got another one starting right after Easter. Because it's not just about like reading something or listening to something and letting it go in here, we actually have to take action on what we've read, what we've heard. And one great way to do that is encourage a friend say, hey, we just listen to this, see what you think, have a conversation about it, and then encourage each other in any changes you need to make. So that's my encouragement for you as we get started today, let's get into the day's episode. Okay, so to happen today? How I knew body change had become too important to me? And you know, friend, I was raised in a Christian home. I said the Sinner's prayer before I was old enough to tie my shoes. I knew the God and Jesus answer for everything. But here's the truth. I knew I was fearfully and wonderfully made, but I didn't feel like I was, or at least if I was. I just was kind of mad at God that he didn't make me fearfully and wonderfully as her or her or her right like I kind of felling. Maybe got cheated me a little bit, right, like she had a faster metabolism I had. All of my friends growing up were all taller than me, and they could live on potato chips and candy and still stay thin, while I was trying to do diets with my mom and would just drink lemon juice with I think it was maple syrup in it for three days to try to lose a couple of pounds. I mean, it didn't seem fair. And so if I was fearfully and wonderfully made man like God got a wrong because I wasn't fearfully and wonderfully made like she was, and that was frustrating to me. I also knew that from first Samuel I'd looked at my heart right, just like he looked at David's heart instead of David's stature, as David was compared to his brothers. Now he looked at his heart. I knew what was important to God was my heart, but I kind of didn't think that was that important. I know that sounds a little silly, but it felt like well, but I already believe in Jesus, I already got the God in Jesus answers. I know I'm going to have in for eternity, so check check. Now I can deal with these things that are important in my life right now, which is trying to get a body that I can feel good about, a body that I feel is acceptable to everyone, like a body that I can love, or you know, have the freedom to wear clothes I want, Like, all of these things are really important goals. And I didn't see any disconnect there, honestly, Like most people I knew lived like that, And most people I knew had their God and Jesus answers and then went about pursuing whatever it was they felt like they needed to pursue here on this earth. Money wasn't really a big temptation for me, Like I didn't really feel like, you know, I was after the dollar and trying to make a quick back like you know whatever. Right, But my body goals, that's where, as we talked about in the last episode, that's where my greed and lust came in. Right. I wanted a.
00:04:24
Speaker 2: Better body, whatever it took, I needed a better body. Now here's where this gets tricky, right, And I'll admit right like I was a thinner person. I was never a size of zero or even a size two. But I was a smaller person. I fluctuated right, smaller, bigger, smaller, bigger, which is what often happens with dieting, right, And so so my vantage point might be a little different than if you've kind of always had a larger body. I hear that, I understand that. But here's what I want you to hear today. After working with hundreds and hundreds of women, I can tell you that my conversation with my clients who do wear a size two and struggle with this is very much the same as my conversation with clients who wear a size twenty and struggle with this. This is a heart issue, and that was the part of the issue I never saw. I always believes that if they could just get the body, then I would feel good and then I could rest right, Then I.
00:05:30
Speaker 1: Would have earned rest. It would be my reward. And we talked about rest in an earlier episode. Go back and listen to that, right, because Jesus promised this as a rest that doesn't come from meeting our body goals. In fact, meeting our body goals never brings rest, right, because then you just go to maintenance, and then you're aging against the maintenance, and oh, it's it's hard. It's just plain hard. And so if we're looking for body change to allow us to rest, it's never gonna come. It's just not. But here's the spiritual side of that that I didn't see until I was really in my mid thirties, and that is that rest I longed for, or that peace I longed for, that joy that I was sure what commised. And as I got my body right right, all of those things were indicating something. They were indicating that I had made my body change goals into something that scriptures pretty clear about. I had made them into idols. Now, Friend, like I said, I was raised in church, so I didn't think I had an idolatry problem because idols were statues that people bowed down to. They were kind of weird. I didn't have that. And yet that wasn't actually a really good definition of idolatry. Right for those of us, especially in the West, right, idols are much more subtle. In fact, Tim Keller calls them idols of our heart because they're not statues, just things in our hearts and often in our heads as well, that we have made into I'm gonna call it like vehicles of rescue. These are things that could rescue us, or maybe a better way to say it, and you'll see the idolatry connection here. These are things that could save us. And so if I could just get the body I wanted, it would save me now, not for heaven, right, Like that's old. I had my gun, Jesus answer check check. I wasn't gonna save me for heaven, but it was gonna save me here on earth. It was gonna offer me a type of salvation. And it's a fictitious salvation. This salvation does not actually exist, but this idle promises a type of salvation that here on the Earth, I would never feel insecure, I would never feel bad about my body, that I would never be rejected. People would always love me if I just looked like this, right, rainbows and sunshine, right, meeting this body, goal would just make everything wonderful. It would save me from suffering. If I could just get this body, then I won't suffer. But idols lie. They just do because idols can't protect us from suffering. And if you don't know if that's true or not, if you're like, yeah, I don't believe it. I'm pretty sure that my friend who has the size two and the great body, I'm pretty sure she doesn't suffer like I do. Friend, it's just not true. Watch the Taylor Swift documentary. Watch Ted talks by Supermodels. Right, do some research about your favorite celebrity and just google person's name and body image, and what you'll find often is either they've become like a big body positivity fan, right, and so that's kind of covering your body image problems with pride. Which if that doesn't make sense to you, hey, join us on the forty Day Journey, because we get into that. We talk about body positivity and body neutrality and kind of what the difference is and how those aren't really the answer for our problems. In fact, I don't even believe you have to love your body the way culture says to love your body. That's not the alt there's no Bible verse that says love your body, that says love your neighbor as yourself, right, but that it's about a sacrificial kind of love and service to those around us, which should be equal with the way we love and serve ourselves. It's not about what to look like or loving your stretch marks? Right, and we just we've taken scripture way out of context to make that verse mean that do you have an idle problem? Thikes, this is something that only you can know. But I promise you that if you take it to the Lord and say, God, have I made this an idol? Am I looking for weight loss or body change to do something in my life that only you can do? Am I looking for this to bring me rest? Am I looking for this to bring me security? Am I looking for this to bring me hope? Right? Weight loss can't do any of those things. It's just an idol that tells us it can. And so, Friend, like I said, this is probably the most important episode of this series. I've done other episodes on the Compared To podcast around body image Idolatry. I share my story even more on some of them too, But friend, asking yourself this question today because this is a lynchpin. Okay, So if you can figure out like I did, that you've made your body changed goals your body you know, weight loss goals. If you've made these into an idol, friend, then this is how you can change the shift that priority. This is how you can recognize that this has taken too important of a role in your life. And this is how you can ungrip your clenched fists and relax as you pursue health, as you pursue body change. This is what gives you the freedom to not be impatient. Because here's the thing. Idles stand between us and the Lord. It's really difficult for us to hear from him when we've got an idol in the way. It's really difficult for us to obey him when we've got an idol in the way. Idle Idolatry is sin, and it separates us from God right and so confessing that sin, repenting of that sin, and saying God help me with this, it's probably the most important thing you can do for your weight law school. If you've got questions about this, come to the community waiting for weight loss dot com. We'd love to chat with you about this there. This is one of the most important things for you to consider. I would say, maybe in all of your life, because as I've observed it, there are so many women that think they have the God in Jesus' answer, and then they're pursuing body change goals as if they will save them, and they're missing out on true life, on true salvation, on the purpose God has on and for their life. And I don't want you to be one of them. Reach out if you need help. This is what we coach women around all the time, and you can always join us on the forty Day Journey starting I think it is April sixth. We'll talk about this more. If this is a brand new concept for you, Hey, thanks for listening today. We'll see in the next episode, come Bo Babe. Compared to podcasts, it's proud to be part of the Life Audio podcast network from were a great Christian podcast Go to life audio dot com.
