I Didn't Know I Had Body Image Issues Part 1/2 [Podcast Transcript]

Title: I Didn't Know I Had Body Image Issues Part 1/2

Podcast Date: October 22, 2024

Listen Here: 

Description

Angie Baughman, Bible teacher, author, and host of the Steady On podcast shares her personal journey of overcoming body image issues tied to childhood trauma and disordered eating. Together, Heather and Angie explore the detrimental effects of diet culture, highlighting how its pervasive "if-then" mindset impacts our spiritual and personal growth. 

Angie shares her experiences with disordered eating, calorie counting, and the facade of normal eating, which connected to her emotional control struggles. She also discusses how support from her counselor, nutritionist, and husband proved crucial in navigating her healing process.

✨ Key Highlights:

• Embrace Your Worth:
  
  Discover how Angie found joy and nourishment in food without guilt, transforming her relationship with eating.
  
  
• Diet Culture Critique:
  
  Understand how societal standards around thinness and appearances have infiltrated even religious communities, and why it's crucial to shift our focus back to spiritual freedom.
  
  
• Stop Comparing, Start Living:
  
  Explore the impact of comparison on our mental health and relationships, and find encouragement to live fully without constraints.
  
  

Learn more about Angie here: https://livesteadyon.com/

Connect with Compared to Who? or join the 40-Day Journey here: https://www.improvebodyimage.com

Grab Heather's 40-Day Workbook here: https://www.improvebodyimage.com/books-for-christian-women-body-image

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.

Heather Creekmore [00:00:02]:

I didn't know I had body image issues. I had body issues…

Angie Baughman [00:00:10]:

that I was trying to fix. If I can just fix them, I'll be fine. 

Heather Creekmore [00:00:14]:

Right. But body image, that's something different. Hey, friend. Heather Creekmore here. Thanks for listening to the Compare To Who podcast today. Did you know that you had body image issues, or is that kind of a weird way to phrase it? That's what we're gonna be talking about today as I interview my friend, Angie Baughman. Angie is a podcast host of the Study On podcast. She is a Bible teacher, she's written a bible study method called the step by step method, and she's founder of study on ministries.

Heather Creekmore [00:00:45]:

And I think you're gonna really enjoy her story today and be able to relate to it too. So thanks for listening. I'm glad you're here. Hey. Are you thinking it's time for you to do something proactive for your body image issues? It's time to actually start addressing them? Well, if so, I've got just the thing for you, our 40 day journey. It It starts January 7th. You can sign up right now on the website, improve body image.com. We'd love to have you.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:12]:

Now let's get to today's show. Welcome to Compare to Who, the podcast to help you make peace with your body so you can savor God's rest and feel his love. If you're tired of fighting body image the world's way, Compare To Who is the show for you. You've likely heard lots of talk about loving your body, but my goal is different. Striving to fall in love with stretch marks and cellulite is a little silly to me. Instead, I want to encourage you and remind you with the truth of scripture that you are seen, you are known, and you are loved no matter what your size or shape. Here, the pressure is off. If you're looking for real talk, biblical encouragement, and regular reminders that god loves you and you're not alone, you've come to the right place.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:56]:

I hope you enjoy today's show, and, hey, tell a friend about it. Angie Baughman, welcome to the Compared To Who podcast.

Angie Baughman [00:02:05]:

Thank you for having me.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:08]:

Well, I'm excited that we get to chat again. I've been on your show, Steady On. And I participated in a panel discussion. That was years ago, but it was really fun. A panel discussion on was it on body image issues? Do you remember what the topic was?

Angie Baughman [00:02:24]:

It was on comparison at that time. Right. Yeah. We were talking about comparison, and then, yeah, you've been on the show a couple of times. It's Erin Todd that introduced us. So hello, Erin. Shout out to Erin.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:36]:

Shout out to Erin. But as we've talked, I've kinda heard in our conversations for your show, little hints of a personal journey that you've been on around this topic of body image. And I think my listeners will be blessed if we could just have a conversation today around how your journey's been, what you've learned as you and I were kinda talking about it preparing for this show. You joked that this show could be titled, how do you know if you have body image issues? And I was like, Angie, you don't realize what, like, gold that is because a lot of people - I didn't know I had body image issues. I had body issues.

Angie Baughman [00:03:26]:

That I was trying to fix. If I can just fix them, I'll be fine.

Heather Creekmore [00:03:29]:

Right. But body image, that's something different. So can we start by just you sharing your story? Like, what does this look like for you over the years?

Angie Baughman [00:03:41]:

Yeah. So I'm in counseling right now, and I have been for a long time because I have trauma and abuse in my background in my childhood. So, really, I think it starts with coping mechanisms to try to overcome some of the places where I have felt like I didn't have a voice. I didn't have value. You know, these things I think for most of us, these issues around body are deep. Right? They go deep. And so it's from that counseling journey that I began to talk about food, and, my counselor, who's just a beautiful woman, began to ask me questions about food in a way that I kinda didn't know that we were talking about something that was an additional issue in my life.

Angie Baughman [00:04:24]:

Right? Let's talk about that. Let's talk about that, and so it's been about 6 months ago, from the time we're recording this that I began to understand that my behavior around food fell into the category of disordered eating because I had this control. I used this app on my phone and counted every calorie all day long. Yeah. And when I was under my calorie restriction, which was way too low, by the way, when I was under my calorie restriction, I was good. When I was over my calorie restriction or allotment or whatever, I was bad. You know, that was kind of the feelings that I was having, and a lot of it I did. I've realized this.

Angie Baughman [00:05:01]:

The behavior was, like, I deprived myself. Is that a good word for that? I deprived myself kind of in secret so that when I was around other people, I could eat what they were eating and not seem like I had issues around this. I did not know why I was doing this. I thought I was being disciplined. Like, I just thought I was being disciplined because I didn't want to add some of the pounds over the years that other people were adding. It was important in our family, my family of origin, that we didn't look like some other people in our family that had let themselves go, you know, some of those things, right? So I thought I was being disciplined, but what I didn't understand was that I was really with my control around food, I was masking some of the control I did not feel like I had over my emotions. And so it's been a difficult process because one of the things as I've relinquished control over the intentional calorie counting, there are other things in me that have surfaced that have been quite honestly pretty hard to deal with, but because I have support in this counselor, in a nutritionist now that I'm seeing who's aware of kind of some of the things that I've been battling, and my husband's support because I have that support, it's been it's been actually quite, it's felt quite, not easy.

Angie Baughman [00:06:26]:

That's not the right word. It's felt gentle. It's felt right.

Angie Baughman [00:06:30]:

To be able to say, oh, this is something that you've held on to for a long time to try to tell you, I'm okay. I'm not falling apart. If I have control over my food, if I'm staying in the calorie count that I have set for myself, then I am okay. And when I let go of that, there were some other things in my life that I had to look at and realize, this part of you is not okay, and that's really the part that needs to be looked at. I hope that's not just rambling, but that's kind of where that's where I've been over the past few months, Heather. So Yeah. I'm working,

Angie Baughman [00:07:03]:

I'm stumbling in the right direction as I like to say.

Heather Creekmore [00:07:07]:

That's all so good. You know, you said something, like, in one of your very first sentences. So let's go

Heather Creekmore [00:07:09]:

back to that. Yes. But it it I don't know. I'm,

Heather Creekmore [00:07:13]:

like, sitting here having my own counseling

Heather Creekmore [00:07:14]:

moment actually because you said and maybe your counselor pointed this out. I don't remember exactly how you phrased it, but because of your history of trauma and abuse, you didn't have a voice in some things.

Heather Creekmore [00:07:32]:

I was thinking, like, for me personally, you know, I would have never said that I grew up in a house with trauma and abuse. Because I had 2 Christian married parents. And so in the world I grew up in, like, that was, you know, check. What do you have to complain about? But now I realize and I just did shows on this topic of, like, control and subjugation. Now I realize that even if you don't have, like, big T traumas or capital A abuse, I don't know if that's a thing or not.

Heather Creekmore [00:08:09]:

But it's like just not having a voice. Around your emotions. Not being able so in in my house, there wasn't enough room for my emotions because a family member kinda had the monopoly on, if you will. And so I learned to bob and weave and adjust. And this is not a day when Heather can be upset. This is not a day when Heather can be angry.

Heather Creekmore [00:08:40]:

This is not a, you know, Heather has to, you know, act so that, like, we can keep the peace. The family and and just thinking about that reality. So I know for listeners, like, did you have a voice? And if not, goodness, like you said, there are wonderful counselors out there

Heather Creekmore [00:09:01]:

Who can help walk you through that. But but I think it's just important to kinda pull that out as a starting place.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:07]:

And then thinking about the connection between eating disorders slash disordered eating with not having agency, which is another show we just did recently here. Like, you know, if you don't have a voice, you don't have agency. Right? You don't get to choose what's best for you and what and and so even as I coach women who are well over 50, it's still that, like, I don't know if I can trust myself. I can't.

Angie Baughman [00:09:33]:

Oh, yes. Decisions.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:35]:

Have you felt that too?

Angie Baughman [00:09:36]:

Oh, yes. Talk about freeing as I've worked with this nutritionist to just help like, I didn't have any idea that I could, without an app to count calories, decide, allow my body to say what I needed, what I was hungry for, what even I liked. Heather, I didn't even ask myself the question, do you want to eat this? Do you like this? It didn't matter. It fits into my category of being an okay food. I didn't have any kind of relationship with food other than it was a necessity that was really kind of bad, but I knew I couldn't stop eating altogether. I wasn't willing to do that, and so I would live a lot on sugar substitutes and granola bars because that could, you know, and I didn't feel I didn't feel terrible, but I feel so much better now. I didn't know that you know, I didn't know that I was really depriving my body of things that it really needed. And just the joy that's come into my life to shop, to buy the avocado that I want, to go and buy fresh fruit, to buy something that I'm gonna cut up and roast in the like, I didn't ever do that before.

Angie Baughman [00:10:38]:

It was just a necessary thing that I had to do, and I resented the time that it took for me to even nourish myself.

Angie Baughman [00:10:49]:

And it's really taught me a lot about some of the lies that I was aligning with about my own value. Like, I've believed for a long time that I was valuable to God in that he has called me into ministry and called me to serve people that he loves and to love people that he loves. And so I believed in that, like, equipping and that calling, but this idea that he was like, actually, I wanna teach you to enjoy a kiwi. I wanna teach you that you can have, like, enjoyment in your kitchen, you know, as you cut up a sweet potato. Like, I know these things sound so silly, but, there there was no there was no friendship with food before this process. And now I'm like, oh, I'm not scared of you anymore.

Angie Baughman [00:11:32]:

It's really just opened my heart to a different part of his creation that he wants me to have enjoyment from. I hope that makes sense too. Because like I said, I'm new at this, but at the same time, I'm like, oh, no. I'm experiencing this freedom. And if my story can help anybody else today then I want that, then I'm willing to share it in the mess. Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:11:55]:

Well, the other thing I hear in that, Angie, is just this kind of concept of, like, so so like you said, like, worthiness. Like, I understand that intellectually and biblically. Like, I'm worthy of God's grace and I'm gonna get to heaven because

Angie Baughman [00:12:09]:

Check again.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:10]:

Right? Alright. Check. Check. Check. But am I worthy to feed my body well? Am I worthy to enjoy satisfaction? Right? It's like almost and I think that this is actually what diet culture has done. And and it's sad for Christians.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:29]:

I mean, sad for everyone. But diet culture, I think and and by diet culture, just defining it for anyone who's brand new to that term. Like, diet culture is really like, the culture we live in that says, like, thinness and a certain way to eat is is almost a religion. Right? It's what is best. It is what is, you know, most morally acceptable.

Angie Baughman [00:12:50]:

And "healthy". It's what's "healthy". Right?

Heather Creekmore [00:12:53]:

Right. If you're if you're on a diet, you're healthy. If you're not on a diet, you're not doing anything. Right? Yeah. But it's almost like, a gnosticism. Right? Or a, a cynicism. Right? Where it's like, sort of the Gnostic separated, like, body from soul. Right? Or the ascetic, like, punish, it's a similar concept, but they punish the body.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:16]:

Right? You have to make the physical body submit. Like, the body can't enjoy anything. Right? And, like, the spirit can thrive, although

Heather Creekmore [00:13:24]:

I don't know how many ascetics

Heather Creekmore [00:13:25]:

had that happening. But I guess the spirit was free to do that, but the body was not. And it was like body bad. Soul good. Right. But if you read scripture, God called his whole creation good.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:41]:

Adam and Eve body and soul. They are, they were good. Right? Actually, soul, not so much after a couple minutes. But actually, right? And, and so this, I think it's crept into the church so much. And I mean, it's the way I believe too. Like I, you, you said it in a slightly different way, but for me it was like trying not to eat. Like I knew I had to eat, but the goal of my day was to try not to eat.

Heather Creekmore [00:14:08]:

Like whatever I could eat to get by, like that was enough. But shifting to this concept that, like, nourishing my body or feeling satisfaction or enjoyment from food, like all those taste buds he gave us. I don't know the number. Right. But all those taste buds, like, what a waste it is if you're only eating rice cakes. Yes. Like, I didn't know rice cakes were still in stores. Like, I didn't know that was still a thing.

Heather Creekmore [00:14:40]:

Like, I thought that kinda went out with SnackWells in, like, 1992.

Angie Baughman [00:14:44]:

Snackwells. I haven't thought of that in a while.

Heather Creekmore [00:14:47]:

Yeah. You know, fat free cookies, you can eat the entire box. But yeah, I accidentally got

Heather Creekmore [00:14:55]:

some rice cakes the other day because it was like

Heather Creekmore [00:14:56]:

a free thing when you you ordered something. And I was like, oh, I didn't, I didn't know

Angie Baughman [00:15:00]:

Didn't know we were doing this again.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:02]:

I don't think I can stand the thought of tasting those. But when we act like it's sin, and I think that's what diet culture has taught us. It's sin to be satisfied by food. Right? Like we call it devil's food cake or it's guilt free. Well, why would you feel guilty about eating something?

Heather Creekmore [00:15:23]:

You know, food isn't a sin. Alright? But we've made it. Diet culture has made it into this righteousness and sinfulness and the path to heaven, the path to thinness. So it is a complicated thing. So what in all of that, my question was going to be, and I went way far away from it, but, like, the feeling worthy side of things. Right? Like, how has how has that part of your journey been? Because that's hard stuff.

Angie Baughman [00:15:54]:

It is hard. Yes. I'm getting there. I feel like I'm getting there. I think one of the things that always motivates me to change and to heal as I've gone through this years long process of healing from trauma and abuse is wanting to be all that I can be for my family and for the people that I serve. And so one of the things that you said, I don't know if it was in your book or in the most recent 40 day journey, is how much powerful, correct me the way that you said it, but how powerful we are when we're a woman who isn't distracted by our own body image issues. Right? You say it the way that you say it

Angie Baughman [00:16:29]:

if you want to, but something like that,

Angie Baughman [00:16:30]:

but it really struck me because I'm like, oh, wait a second. What if my boys I'm a mom of 2 boys. What if my husband, what if the women that are in my Bible study group how how much better can I serve them? How much more powerfully can the Holy Spirit move through me, you know, to help them connect with him when I'm not distracted by, how much power there is in not being a woman who is distracted by her body image issue. I'm not looking right and left and deciding, oh, they must think that I don't look as good in this dress or they must like, these things that are in my head, and I just, like, I really felt like the Lord was saying not only are you worth it, but they're worth it. They're worth you knowing that you're worth it. Does that make sense? Right? They're worth you knowing that you're you're worth it. Yeah. And it's okay to say

Angie Baughman [00:17:15]:

I'm gonna stop working right now on this because I'm gonna

Angie Baughman [00:17:16]:

fix myself a lunch that I want to enjoy and I'm gonna pause for a moment and I'm gonna I'm going to put the good nutritious foods together which takes a little bit more time. Right? And so, yeah, I think I'm still learning that. And and the next phase of this that the Lord's really asking me to look at is, like, my schedule. I think there's so much with my schedule because I'm the kind of person that I want people to think I'm responsible. I want people to think I'm disciplined and with my food, with my finances, with my schedule, like, I see how all of this is related and how I've held on pretty tightly to these things saying this is what it looks like to be responsible. This is what it looks like to be disciplined, but he's like, but how about some spontaneity? How about some choices? What if we trust ourselves? What if every moment isn't scheduled? What if every calorie isn't counted? And you can say, what do I feel like today? Lord, how are you moving me today? What would you have me do for this meal, for this hour? And and I can see how it's all related, and it all comes down to this belief that, you know, that he calls us his. He calls us daughter. He says it is good, and he's inviting me to lean into that more fully.

Heather Creekmore [00:18:27]:

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Well, and the truth is when you're hungry, you can't think about anyone else or anything else. Right? And that's not about discipline. That's about, like, physiology. A hungry body needs to be fed.

Angie Baughman [00:18:44]:

There was something that 2 things that you said that made me realize how much I was denying myself food. The the 2 things that, like, were tangible that stick out to me is you said at one point, you know, when it gets to be, like, 2, 3, 4 in the afternoon and you can't stop eating because you haven't, like, I'm, like, oh, the after when my kids were little or the after school hour when they would bring home the lunches and I'm, like, trying to, like, throw the stuff away, but actually I'm eating it and I can't stop you know, because I'm so hungry by that time of day. I'm like, okay. There's that. But then also when I stopped counting calories last about 6 months ago, you know, immediately I put on like 9 lbs, which I mean, like, I say it that way because I, like, it was terrifying. I'm just like and but I'm like, you have to do this, but I Heather, I was so hungry, not for, like, a day, but for a while, and you addressed that at some point in when we were going through that. And now that I'm eating better it's like stabilizing, but I also, my husband was asking me actually just this morning he's like he's like you seem like you're doing so much better, you look really good, what's your weight like? And I said I've just kind of stopped measuring it.

Angie Baughman [00:19:52]:

I don't feel the need every day to get on the scale. What a beautiful thing when for 20 years, almost every day, I have gotten on that scale. Right? And so I see those things as a growth in my own understanding of how God sees me and what's really important. I didn't know I was missing it. I didn't know. Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:20:14]:

Well, yeah. Because I think I think it's been so convoluted that diet culture is part of Christianity. Like, it's actually in the Bible. That you have to step on the scale every day to make sure that you, like, have been a good steward of your body by not letting it fluctuate at all. Like, that's kind of, like, its own separate religion that we've added to the Bible.

Angie Baughman [00:20:36]:

I know.

Heather Creekmore [00:20:37]:

And, you know, if you think about it, people didn't weigh themselves until a 120 years ago. Like, they did not have any concept of how much they weighed, and they were just fine. They went through life just fine. Right? I mean, I guess with tunics, maybe it's not as like you can't tell if your tunic's a little tight.

Heather Creekmore [00:20:55]:

I don't know. You got

Heather Creekmore [00:20:56]:

a little bit more grades and flexibility there, but it just wasn't a thing. Right? And it really only became a thing because of life insurance companies. And life insurance companies like doing this really weird Jenga math with something called the BMI chart, which was not even supposed to be used for this. It was just some anthropologists observations of the size of people in the late 1800 in Europe. Right? So the size of white European men in the late 1800 has somehow, like, worked its way in to where we think about that number on the scale every day. I mean, that should kinda tick us off. That it's had that much influence on our lives.

Angie Baughman [00:21:44]:

Yes. Yes. That does tick me off. And I'll tell you what else ticks me off is watching in the Zoom boxes the women who've been in your group over the last 40 days and looking at how beautiful they are and how much Satan uses, first of all, how much diet culture uses this to make money off of us. You know, you talked about that the collapse of the economy if we stopped buying the things. Right? How much the diet culture makes money off of this, and how much time and confidence in the Lord it steals from us. There are women who are called to powerful places in ministry that we can, we can reach out and serve and touch and heal and we can't because we're stuck in our own mind in this. How do you say it? Right? Because we're so distracted by this.

Angie Baughman [00:22:29]:

We're so hungry. We can't talk. You know? Yeah. And we're missing the joy of Christianity, but we're also missing the calling, some of us, because we don't feel because I'm not something enough, then I actually can't answer this call until I get this way and there's not an asterisk by the calling. He doesn't say, when you fit into these genes, then step forward to lead this Bible study. When you do this or that appearance wise, right, then answer this call. When he calls us, he calls us. He knows who we are and what we look like, and there's not a, we say this in church, you don't have to get cleaned up to come to church, but I think we don't say you don't have to get, I don't know, something else about your body and

Heather Creekmore [00:23:15]:

Good looking or acceptable or yeah.

Angie Baughman [00:23:18]:

I think we we miss the, we think, well, we don't have to be cleaned up inside, but we do outside or something. Yeah. There's a message there that's not it's twisted. It's something Right.

Heather Creekmore [00:23:28]:

Well and that because I think that's the diet culture message of arrival. Right?

Angie Baughman [00:23:33]:

Yes.

Heather Creekmore [00:23:33]:

So diet so the diet company sells us the before and after. Right? And you believe when you sign up for that program or buy the pills or whatever, you believe you will become an after. Yeah. Right? And and the message is that you will stay in after. You know, that after will last forever. Like, that after is the, like, the rest of your story that you've arrived somewhere.

Heather Creekmore [00:23:55]:

And so using that, like, we become, I don't there's a psychological term for it. I can't think of what it is now, but it's like if-then thinkers. Right? Or, like, if when thinkers. Like, so if I can just get to this look that I want, this body size that I want, this weight I want, then I will be released to go do all the things God has called me to do.

Angie Baughman [00:24:17]:

But they just keep moving the line. May I say it that way? Right? They just keep moving the line.

Heather Creekmore [00:24:24]:

Or or you're aging. Right. Right? And so then you're, like, fighting the line. It's like Yeah. Oh, we moved it. Oh, but now now menopause. Oh, like, what am I supposed to do with that? Right? So it's, and it is the enemy scheme

Heather Creekmore [00:24:39]:

To keep us. And I would say not even just from calling Angie, maybe you've you've observed this as well, but from relationships. Right? From getting close to people or from initiating friendships. I mean, what what have you observed?

Angie Baughman [00:24:53]:

I think just this, it's this arrival place. Like, when I get this place, then I can whatever I think. And and there's so much comparison among women too that I feel like there is. I know I do this when I'm looking right or left. I was just talking about this the other night and, like, I've heard you say something similar too. We can't win when we look right or left. And so if we have a friend that's I don't even wanna say these words. If we have a friend that we think we're doing better than can I say it that way?

Angie Baughman [00:25:21]:

Then then how are we winning? Right. Because actually now I think I'm better than you. If we have a friend that we are like, she's doing better than me, then how are we winning? Because then we don't measure up. Like, and so I think in our friendships, in our women friendships, it limits us because we're well, ultimately, and this is the hardest part for me. It goes back to your Jonah verse of scripture. Ultimately, we're actually thinking about ourselves. As we're at dinner and I'm trying to measure how many, I'm sitting at Panera with a friend and I'm remembering how many calories are in this, bowl of broccoli cheese soup or whatever. Am I listening to her day? Am I listening to her struggle with her child? No. I'm like, I can't eat this side of bread because I got you know, I'm like, no.

Angie Baughman [00:26:03]:

I I want to be here with you. I don't want to be here with this enemy food that isn't actually an enemy at all. Okay. I got a little bit, you know, excited about that, but that makes me crazy because we're missing the connection because we're distracted by, I should speak for myself, because I was distracted by what was in front of me, not wanting not to eat it, but not wanting to eat it either, and how how

Angie Baughman [00:26:27]:

engaged are you with the conversation when really that's what's on your mind?

Heather Creekmore [00:26:30]:

Right. We're distracted by these man made rules. Right?

Heather Creekmore [00:26:32]:

And keeps

Heather Creekmore [00:26:32]:

that keeps us from being obedient to what God's

Heather Creekmore [00:26:35]:

called us to

Heather Creekmore [00:26:35]:

do ultimately, right, which is to love him and love others.

Angie Baughman [00:26:43]:

Right.

Heather Creekmore [00:26:43]:

Right? And it's like, oh, but I got my food rules.

Angie Baughman [00:26:45]:

Right. Yes.

Heather Creekmore [00:26:46]:

Right? Like, oh, but my food rules, you know, like, no. No. Like, there's no verse there's no verse about that. I'm pretty sure God freed Peter from food rules.

Angie Baughman [00:26:57]:

Yes. Yes. Read it. It's in there.

Angie Baughman [00:27:02]:

Acts 10 if I can just, teah. Yeah. I mean No. And and the parties that we either don't want to go to or we stress about having a piece of cake at, you know, our kiddo's birthday party or something? Or you know, and eat it or don't eat it, but what what's it doing inside us? Where you know, where's our focus, I guess? You know? Because sometimes I don't wanna eat it. But sure. But is it because I think I'm bad if I do?

Angie Baughman [00:27:26]:

Or is it because I kinda just I choose to not eat that today?

Angie Baughman [00:27:29]:

And then there's a big difference in that.

Heather Creekmore [00:27:31]:

Right. Right. And I think all this living in our head and to your point, either thinking I'm better than someone or I'm not as good as someone. Right? It makes us lonely.

Heather Creekmore [00:27:42]:

Right? And then I think when we're lonely, like, that distorts our relationship with food even more. Hey, friend. Come back next time, and you'll hear the rest of this really insightful interview with Angie where we're gonna flush out the loneliness, and we're gonna flush out some of the other issues around food and body that Angie struggled with and you just may have struggled with too. So thanks for listening today. I hope something today has helped you stop comparing and start living. Hey, before you go, take a listen to what one listener had to say about the 40 day body image workbook and the 40 day journey. I think you'll be inspired.

Testimony [00:28:15]:

I just wanna encourage anyone that is struggling with body image issues to be encouraged that this book will absolutely change your life. If you feel held back and you struggle to accept your body as a gift from our creator, then buy the book. Freedom is possible. The journey isn't linear, but it's worth tackling the strongholds in your life that have set you on a course of feeling defeated and alone. Heather has an incredible way of tackling a multitude of issues we face head on with grace, compassion, and the love of Christ. Don't let body image keep you in bondage any longer. Freedom really is attainable. If you just dive into this book and give your heart to Christ, he will transform your life.

Testimony [00:29:04]:

Start your journey to freedom today.

Heather Creekmore [00:29:06]:

And you can pick up a copy of the 40 day body image workbook anywhere books are sold, and join us in the 40 day journey in January. You can sign up at improved body image dot com. The compare to show is probably part of the Life Audio Podcast Network for more great Christian podcasts with live audio.com.