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 Creekmore gently encourages Gwyneth with some data and science to help her see that her "wellness" plan may actually be related to sickness. Heather shares the truth in love with this celebrity who has pressures around her body and appearance that are greater than what most women can understand. Heather shares with Gwyneth some of the data around how dangerous it is to a body to eat this little each day, and how many of the health issues--both mental and physical--that we face as epidemics today--may be connected to starvation diets and calorie restriction.

Gwyneth isn't a woman who needs more criticism. She's a woman who needs more love and compassion to help her fight the lies of body image idolatry and disordered eating. Let's pray that she will see the freedom offered through Christ alone.

Find out more about Heather Creekmore, Christian body image coach, and Compared to Who?.

Find out more about what 1500 calories a day does to your body and brain by listening to this interview with Erin Kerry, Integrative Nutrition Coach.

Learn more about the dangers of eating disorders in this interview with a dietitian.

Find the entire text of the letter Heather reads on today's show on the Compared to Who? body image for Christian women website.

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 <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/03/15/gwyneth-paltrow-slammed-for-wellness-routine-sounds-like-colonoscopy-prep/">New York Post article which quipped that Gwyneth's daily food routine sounded like, "colonoscopy prep." </a>
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 Creekmore gently encourages Gwyneth with some data and science to help her see that her "wellness" plan may actually be related to sickness. Heather shares the truth in love with this celebrity who has pressures around her body and appearance that are greater than what most women can understand. Heather shares with Gwyneth some of the data around how dangerous it is to a body to eat this little each day, and how many of the health issues--both mental and physical--that we face as epidemics today--may be connected to starvation diets and calorie restriction.
Gwyneth isn't a woman who needs more criticism. She's a woman who needs more love and compassion to help her fight the lies of body image idolatry and disordered eating. Let's pray that she will see the freedom offered through Christ alone.
Find out more about <a href="https://www.comparedtowho.me/">Heather Creekmore, Christian body image coach, and Compared to Who?.</a>
<a href="https://comparedtowho.me/what-1500-calories-a-day-does-to-your-body-and-brain/">Find out more about what 1500 calories a day does to your body and brain by listening to this interview with Erin Kerry, Integrative Nutrition Coach.</a>
Learn more about the <a href="https://comparedtowho.me/eating-disorders-versus-disordered-eating-releasing-control/">dangers of eating disorders i</a>n this interview with a dietitian.
<a href="https://comparedtowho.me/gwyneth-paltrow-wellness-plan/">Find the entire text of the letter Heather reads on today's show on the Compared to Who? body image for Christian women website.</a>

**The Go-to Podcast for Christian women who want to improve their body image and stop comparing themselves to others!**
Are you a Christian woman who is tired of the same old answers to your body image and comparison struggles? 
Have you "tried everything," yet still feel like your body isn't enough or should be better? 
Do you know that "God looks at the heart" or "You're fearfully and wonderfully made" yet STILL feel like maybe God should have made your body better?
Bonus: Have you ever prayed for God to zap you skinny? ;) (Your secret is safe here.)

If you answered yes to any of the above, then Compared to Who? A Biblical Approach to Body Image Issues is the show for you!

Twice a week, we tackle tough topics like feeling out of control with food, body shame, disordered eating, weight loss, aging, dieting, body dysmorphia, body hatred, and more from a practical, grace-filled, biblical, and gospel-centered perspective.

I'm Heather Creekmore, author of several books (including a forthcoming body image workbook), speaker, and Christian body image coach. Our approach to body image issues is relatable, authentic, and truth-driven. We hope every episode is filled with grace and hope for your personal struggle. I spent decades battling the scale and the mirror. But, now I help women get free from body image issues so they can stop comparing and start living. Listen to laugh about all the common ways we struggle and find encouragement for our journey.

Find out more about Heather Creekmore and the ministry of Compared to Who? or to get Christian body image coaching, visit: https://www.comparedtowho.me

Want to join our podcast community on Facebook? Visit the group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/764271297116024

**The Go-to Podcast for Christian women who want to improve their body image and stop comparing themselves to others!**
<ul>
<li>Are you a Christian woman who is tired of the same old answers to your body image and comparison struggles? </li>
<li>Have you "tried everything," yet still feel like your body isn't enough or should be better? </li>
<li>Do you know that "God looks at the heart" or "You're fearfully and wonderfully made" yet STILL feel like maybe God should have made your body better?</li>
<li>Bonus: Have you ever prayed for God to zap you skinny? ;) (Your secret is safe here.)</li>
</ul>
If you answered yes to any of the above, then Compared to Who? A Biblical Approach to Body Image Issues is the show for you!
Twice a week, we tackle tough topics like feeling out of control with food, body shame, disordered eating, weight loss, aging, dieting, body dysmorphia, body hatred, and more from a practical, grace-filled, biblical, and gospel-centered perspective.
I'm Heather Creekmore, author of several books (including a forthcoming body image workbook), speaker, and Christian body image coach. Our approach to body image issues is relatable, authentic, and truth-driven. We hope every episode is filled with grace and hope for your personal struggle. I spent decades battling the scale and the mirror. But, now I help women get free from body image issues so they can stop comparing and start living. Listen to laugh about all the common ways we struggle and find encouragement for our journey.
Find out more about Heather Creekmore and the ministry of Compared to Who? or to get Christian body image coaching, visit: <a href="https://www.comparedtowho.me">https://www.comparedtowho.me</a> 
Want to join our podcast community on Facebook? Visit the group here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/764271297116024">https://www.facebook.com/groups/764271297116024</a>

Compared to Who? Body Image for Christian Women

Dear Gwyneth: Your Wellness Plan is Not Food or Body Freedom

Today Heather chats with Amy Connell about the ways we as moms who were fully entrenched in diet culture can start to change the conversations in our home around food and body. Amy and Heather were both fitness instructors and focused on “health education” trying to, out of love, do what was best for their kids around food and exercise. But, as they discuss today, some of what they did was likely unhelpful. As the research shows, some of the rules they enforced and the ways they modeled a restrictive relationship with food or over-emphasized exercise may have sent the wrong message to their kids. 

Amy and Heather talk about how our children and teens are on the journey with us out of diet culture, whether they know it or not. They talk about how tricky it can be to have our children watch our pendulum swing from restricting all the foods or maybe always being on a diet to giving up dieting and trying to eat more intuitively.

They also discuss how our kids—both boys and girls--are being influenced by social media and YouTube influencers around what they should eat and how they should look or exercise. They talk about how to manage this challenge when you are trying to teach your children and teens a different way.

Similarly, Amy and Heather talk about helping our children see the agenda that the culture has for them--and how diet culture plays into this agenda that wants them to be so focused on food, exercise, body, and appearance that they can miss out on what God has for them and find themselves in anxiety, depression, eating disorders or worse.

You'll be encouraged by today's podcast, share it with a friend or leave a review!

Ready to sign up for the 40-day body image workbook reading journey? We start May 21st! Learn more or sign up here: https://www.improvebodyimage.com/40-day-challenge

Purchase Amy's new book, Your CORE Strength on most online stores including Amazon and Bookshop if you prefer to support independent bookstores. All formats, including paperback, ebook and audiobook are available.


You may also grab the Parents Guide - a Cliffs notes version for you to learn the main concepts as well as receive other helpful resources like recommended Instagram accounts, books and podcasts, and ways to support your daughter.


Want some more Christ-centered, diet-culture-free encouragement for your daughter? Invite her to listen to Amy's podcast for Christian teen girls, Lessons to My Teenage Self (also on YouTube if they aren't regular podcast listeners.)
Connect with Amy:@gracedhealth (for women over 40)@lessons.pod (for teens)
GracedHealth.com

Today Heather chats with Amy Connell about the ways we as moms who were fully entrenched in diet culture can start to change the conversations in our home around food and body. Amy and Heather were both fitness instructors and focused on “health education” trying to, out of love, do what was best for their kids around food and exercise. But, as they discuss today, some of what they did was likely unhelpful. As the research shows, some of the rules they enforced and the ways they modeled a restrictive relationship with food or over-emphasized exercise may have sent the wrong message to their kids. 
Amy and Heather talk about how our children and teens are on the journey with us out of diet culture, whether they know it or not. They talk about how tricky it can be to have our children watch our pendulum swing from restricting all the foods or maybe always being on a diet to giving up dieting and trying to eat more intuitively.
They also discuss how our kids—both boys and girls--are being influenced by social media and YouTube influencers around what they should eat and how they should look or exercise. They talk about how to manage this challenge when you are trying to teach your children and teens a different way.
Similarly, Amy and Heather talk about helping our children see the agenda that the culture has for them--and how diet culture plays into this agenda that wants them to be so focused on food, exercise, body, and appearance that they can miss out on what God has for them and find themselves in anxiety, depression, eating disorders or worse.
You'll be encouraged by today's podcast, share it with a friend or leave a review!
Ready to sign up for the 40-day body image workbook reading journey? We start May 21st! Learn more or sign up here: <a href="https://www.improvebodyimage.com/40-day-challenge">https://www.improvebodyimage.com/40-day-challenge</a>
Purchase Amy's new book, Your CORE Strength on most online stores including <a href="https://amzn.to/3xudBt1">Amazon</a> and <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/102856/9781737707646">Bookshop</a> if you prefer to support independent bookstores. All formats, including paperback, ebook and audiobook are available.
 You may also grab the <a href="https://www.gracedhealth.com/parents-guide/">Parents Guide</a> - a Cliffs notes version for you to learn the main concepts as well as receive other helpful resources like recommended Instagram accounts, books and podcasts, and ways to support your daughter.
 Want some more Christ-centered, diet-culture-free encouragement for your daughter? Invite her to listen to Amy's podcast for Christian teen girls, Lessons to My Teenage Self (also on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLithM8wPjNsncmwS6t0Xm8Xc72Tpp-upu">YouTube</a> if they aren't regular podcast listeners.) Connect with Amy:@gracedhealth (for women over 40)@lessons.pod (for teens)<a> </a><a href="http://gracedhealth.com/">GracedHealth.com</a>

Changing How You Talk About Food & Body With Your Children

Are you trying to do everything right to be “healthier” but feeling overwhelmed with all the rules? Have you been sucked into watching a "master class," influencer videos, or subscribing to the program of an influencer who offers the “right” ways to eat, act, and move so that we can beat all our diseases or live a long life? Today Heather questions the food rules, whether or not they are helpful, too severe or disordered, and whether or not they are healthy for us spiritually and mentally (do they invoke humility or pride?). Is food the most important thing to our health or, if we look at history, are we putting too much emphasis on our food rules and the connection they have to optimal health? What about the ways we personally believe or hold to our own health and food rules? Are we willing to try anything and do anything to get what the idol of health gives us? Do we believe that we’ve “lost our lives” and do we try everything because we are desperate to “get our lives back”?

In this information age, it's easy to believe that the end of all of our suffering is available if only we just work hard enough to find it. This can put us on a wild scavenger hunt to find the end to our sufferings. But, if it doesn't work, or even if it does, how does this affect our mental and spiritual health?

Heather closes the show with five suggestions to help anyone be more discerning about health programs and their offerings, and what we click on.

Learn more about Heather and Compared to Who? by visiting: https://www.improvebodyimage.com

Join the 40 Day Reading Challenge here: https://www.improvebodyimage.com/40-day-challenge

Are you trying to do everything right to be “healthier” but feeling overwhelmed with all the rules? Have you been sucked into watching a "master class," influencer videos, or subscribing to the program of an influencer who offers the “right” ways to eat, act, and move so that we can beat all our diseases or live a long life? Today Heather questions the food rules, whether or not they are helpful, too severe or disordered, and whether or not they are healthy for us spiritually and mentally (do they invoke humility or pride?). Is food the most important thing to our health or, if we look at history, are we putting too much emphasis on our food rules and the connection they have to optimal health? What about the ways we personally believe or hold to our own health and food rules? Are we willing to try anything and do anything to get what the idol of health gives us? Do we believe that we’ve “lost our lives” and do we try everything because we are desperate to “get our lives back”?
In this information age, it's easy to believe that the end of all of our suffering is available if only we just work hard enough to find it. This can put us on a wild scavenger hunt to find the end to our sufferings. But, if it doesn't work, or even if it does, how does this affect our mental and spiritual health?
Heather closes the show with five suggestions to help anyone be more discerning about health programs and their offerings, and what we click on.
Learn more about Heather and Compared to Who? by visiting: <a href="https://www.improvebodyimage.com">https://www.improvebodyimage.com</a>
Join the 40 Day Reading Challenge here: <a href="https://www.improvebodyimage.com/40-day-challenge">https://www.improvebodyimage.com/40-day-challenge</a>

What I Learned from Internet Influencer Master Classes About Food and Taking Care of My Health

You know those ads you see on social media or in your YouTube sidebar? The ones that tell you they have all the secrets to weight loss, optimal health, healing your thyroid, or fixing your autoimmune disease? Heather decided to investigate! She clicked, watched, and studied. Today she reveals what she learned, how the answers were the same, and how they were different. Today's show tackles the challenge of how we all want to take care of our health and steward our bodies well, but how easily manipulated or over-whelmed we can be by influencers who have the programs and solutions that are supposed to fix us. Today Heather explores how we reconcile this tension between being responsible and taking care of my health and being obsessive and feeling like it’s all on me to make sure I keep my body as healthy as possible to live a long healthy life.

She also talks about the temptation we face when we start fantasizing about how great life will be if we can follow the plan and get optimally healthy and avoid all struggle. And, how eerily similar this is to the same game many of us played around trying different diets that promised to solve our weight "problems."

Today Heather talks more specifically about the ways these influencers approach the  “science” and the “root cause” of our thyroid, autoimmune, or weight loss issues. And how their solutions varied.

Learn more about Compared to Who? here: https://www.improvebodyimage.com

You know those ads you see on social media or in your YouTube sidebar? The ones that tell you they have all the secrets to weight loss, optimal health, healing your thyroid, or fixing your autoimmune disease? Heather decided to investigate! She clicked, watched, and studied. Today she reveals what she learned, how the answers were the same, and how they were different. Today's show tackles the challenge of how we all want to take care of our health and steward our bodies well, but how easily manipulated or over-whelmed we can be by influencers who have the programs and solutions that are supposed to fix us. Today Heather explores how we reconcile this tension between being responsible and taking care of my health and being obsessive and feeling like it’s all on me to make sure I keep my body as healthy as possible to live a long healthy life.
She also talks about the temptation we face when we start fantasizing about how great life will be if we can follow the plan and get optimally healthy and avoid all struggle. And, how eerily similar this is to the same game many of us played around trying different diets that promised to solve our weight "problems."
Today Heather talks more specifically about the ways these influencers approach the  “science” and the “root cause” of our thyroid, autoimmune, or weight loss issues. And how their solutions varied.
Learn more about Compared to Who? here: <a href="https://www.improvebodyimage.com">https://www.improvebodyimage.com</a>

Dear Gwyneth: Your Wellness Plan is Not Food or Body Freedom

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