How Do I Know if I'm Listening to My Body?

What we talk about in this episode

In Episode 4 of the Joyful Health Show, we interview registered dietitian and co-host of the Intuitive Eating with Christian Women Podcast, Char-lee Cassel to answer the question “How do I know if I’m listening to my body?”

Char-lee shares her personal testimony of ignoring her body’s signals and experiencing an autoimmune disease and the redemptive work God’s done in and through that experience. She shares practical advice from her expertise as an intuitive eating dietitian and exercise physiologist.

In this episode we discuss:

• Sign posts that our bodies are not getting what they need

• Consequences of not listening to our bodies cues

• A variety of physical cues for rest, movement, and food

• mindset shifts and practical tips to take begin listening to your body

Resources Mentioned

1. The Intuitive Eating for Christian Women Podcast Workbook

2. Our free class, "stop dieting and discover the joy in food and fitness"

3. Sign up for our Joyful Health Course here.

4. Get started with Intuitive health by grace today with our Body Blessings Course

Guest Bio

Char-Lee Cassel, MS, RDN, CEPT

Char-Lee obtained her master of science degree in dietetics, nutrition and exercise physiology from Washington State University. She is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and a Certified Clinical Exercise Physiologist. She is the co-host of the intuitive eating for Christian women podcast and she loves teaching individuals how to eat in a flexible and attuned manner that values pleasure, honors the internal cues of hunger, satiety, and appetite, and gently incorporates nutrition information. Connect with Char-lee on instagram @intuitive.eating.podcast or on the Intuitive Eating Website.

Episode Transcription

Introduction

Hey, friends. Welcome to the Joyful Health Show. I'm Aubrey, registered dietitian, and I'm Kasey personal trainer. And together we are here to help you discover joyful health by grace. In today's episode, we talk with registered dietitian and co-host of the Intuitive Eating for Christian Women podcast Char-lee Cassel about learning to listen to the built in signals of our bodies. Char-lee shares her personal testimony of ignoring her body signals and experiencing an autoimmune disease and the redemptive work God's done in and through that experience. She shares practical advice from her expertise as an intuitive eating dietitian and exercise physiologist.

The Joyful Health Course Is Open for Enrollment

If you're ready to take steps towards trusting God with your eating movement and health but you'd like support along the journey are signature. The Joyful Health Course is open for enrollment for the next two weeks. We've distilled six months of our dietitian and fitness services into just twelve weeks of coaching to teach you how to eat well and move free for life. No calorie counting or step tracking required.

In this course, you'll get:

• twelve weeks of video teaching from myself and Kasey, along with additional support from our coaches.

• We'll send you your own workbook in the mail to guide you through the course principles and into to prayer as you go.

• There will be a small class size to personalize your experience and give you full access to our team for answers and encouragement with a private, joyful health community.

• There’ll be monthly Live Group coaching sessions over Zoom and an optional accountability partner to keep you in step with the spirit along the way.

• Plus access to the course along with continual improvements as long as it's running.

Head on over to joyfulhealth.co to grab your spot today. Enrollment is open for the next two weeks only. We hope you'll join us.

All right, we know you're going to enjoy this week's episode. Let's get into it.

Char-Lee’s Story of an autoimmune disease and learning to listen to her body

Aubrey

Hi, and welcome to the joyful health show. We are so excited today to have our guest Char-lee Cassel. Char-lee is a registered dietitian and the co-host of the Intuitive Eating for Christian Women podcast. She's also a dear friend. Char-lee’s going to talk about the common question we get when we're first starting intuitive eating or intuitive movement which is, “How do I know I'm actually listening to my body and not some other voice?” And so hi, Char-lee, thanks for being here.

Char-lee

Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to get to talk to your listeners.

Kasey

Yes, and OK. So for those of you who may not know Char-lee, she obtained her Master of Science degree in Dietetics Nutrition and Exercise Physiology from Washington State University, so she knows her stuff. She's a registered dietitian nutritionist and a certified clinical exercise physiologist. She's the co-host of the Intuitive Eating for Christian Women podcast. And so we love listening to that podcast, and we encourage you to listen to it, too. She loves teaching individuals how to eat in a flexible and attuned manner that values pleasure, honors the internal cues of hunger, satiety and appetite, and gently incorporates nutrition information.

So that is exactly what we need to hear and what we need to learn from you. But Char-lee, if we can hear kind of a little bit of your background, your history, how you got to, where you are, how you got to where you are today…And a lot of times God speaks through our struggles, so could you share with us how you first struggled with this and then how the Lord has brought you kind of to this side of things?

Char-lee

Yeah, absolutely. So I went the route of really obsessive exercise and dieting very much like tied up in my worth and value morality, just really pushing my body to follow exercise plans and meal plans. And, you know, just following it kind of like the law religiously on paper and not really listening to my body much. And it really caused a lot of stress in my body that I ignored and ignored and ignored. And after years of that, I just started having really, really bad joint pain and exhaustion in the gym. Like I couldn't hold on to the bar in the gym anymore. It was like flying out of my hands. And so I ended up, you know, seeking help and ended up with a rheumatologist and like some autoimmune arthritis that just my body kind of shut down. And I always say, you know, I was ignoring my body and then it was screaming at me and the Lord forced me to rest, used that for some rest. And it was like years, and complicated, and ups and downs. But the Lord really met me in that and helped me to get back in tune with my body and in honoring him through that, honoring my body, listening to it, and finding eating and exercise, and really just lifestyle, that was better suited for me.

Aubrey

Yeah, I think it's crazy, you know, sometimes we think, well, when we have an autoimmune disease or something like that, we can be like mad at our bodies and mad at God. Sometimes like, why do I have this? I can't trust my body. Look what's happened. But it's just another way, really, like you pointed out, that our body was communicating to us and is telling us, "Hey, this is what we need like, I'm really on your side. And this, the way this is manifesting, is me trying to protect you, right? Or like, you know your body is trying to protect you, to get the rest that it needs. So that in itself is so interesting.

Why it can be hard to recognize our body’s cues

Char-lee, today, you know, when people are, our listeners, a lot of them might be in that place where they’re meal planning and exercising really stringently. And they're trying to shift away from that, but they're just unsure of how to take those first steps towards trusting their body. Why do you think it's so hard for people to kind of hone into those cues at first?

Char-lee

Yeah. Well, I think especially people that have been following meal plans and exercise plans, following so many things kind of outside of themselves for many years. Often, you know, often since childhood, you're kind of taught some things, not to listen to your body with eating times and things like that. We don't really connect to our bodies. We follow these outside influences to decide what to do. And, you know, God created us so amazingly with all of these cues and all of this information that our body is giving us about movement and rest and eating. But if we ignore them for so long, our body can stop sending them and we can lose touch of kind of what it feels like to be hungry, what it feels like to be actually rested or overworked. We just ignore, ignore, ignore, ignore until, or to this place of like, I don't know what anything feels like in my body. And, you know, health gurus and maybe my practitioners, like all these things, tell me I can't trust anything my body's telling me, that it's wrong. And so there's just a lot of confusion and a lot of feeling lost, I think. And I think what is so important is coming back to this place of remembering that you were created by God. He created your body and he created these systems. And if you can trust him, you can trust those systems.

Kasey

Yeah, yeah. And I'm hearing like the resistance from my own self, and I'm sure a lot of people experiences too of like, what if I don't want to listen to my body? What if I, you know, I I don't want to rest, I want to keep doing this thing because I like the way it makes me feel. But you experienced the burnout in your body and you experienced literally not being able to hold on to a bar and then your body breaking down. So we don't want people to get to that point. But how did you start? Like, is there, do you see people getting to that point as well before they want to start listening to their body? Or what do you think is like a way that can bring some maybe like compassion or a way to listen to your body to start wanting to do that instead of just like, you know, there's a practical way of slowing down but what if you don't want to slow down?

When you aren’t sure you want to listen your body’s cues

Char-lee

Yeah, yeah, no, that's very true. And I identify with that very much. I'm a very stubborn person and you know, like, I want to do these workouts. I want to be successful. I want all of these things. And you know, I told that story very, very quickly. But it was full of dealing with anxiety and depression and, you know, just massive denial. And just it was a really, really messy story of trying to figure that out. And for me, I had to get to the place of like, Well, I either have to do this or I'm going to be absolutely miserable, and I hope that we can get people there before that time. And I think the biggest thing, if you're just trying to like, well, you know, this sounds good, listening to my body sounds good and trusting God, Of course I want to do that. But I really want, you know, my body to look like this or I really want this performance or whatever it is, I would say that you can have an “and” for some period of time, and you can be very honest with God about the “and.” I really want to trust the body system that you created for me, God. And I'm having a hard time doing that because I also really want X, Y or Z. And can you please work in my heart to help me trust you, to help me have the desire to listen to my body?

You know, if it's that whole, you know, God, I want to, and I'm having a hard time doing that, so help me. I think that's a big part of turning towards, OK, maybe I maybe I will start to listen to my body in some way, shape, or form is just opening that up to God. I want to do this. Will you help me do that? And then so often we think things are black and white. We think things so all in or all out, just take a teeny tiny step. Just take a teeny tiny step, maybe that teeny tiny step is just starting to ask yourself how your life feels. How do I feel when I wake up in the morning? How does my body feel during or after a workout? How does my body feel when I eat this? How, you know, just observing. Just that act would be a huge step in starting to listen to your body.

Aubrey

I love that you talked about having the “and,” and just holding space for the fact that we can have these desires that don't seem to fit with each other and still get started, still take a little step of faith and bring that to God and be completely honest with Him. Like, Hey, my desires aren't there yet, and I need you to help shape those to what you want them to be. And that is so important for so many people who look at intuitive eating or trusting your body for movement and are just like, I can't. That seems overwhelming. Like you said, take a teeny tiny step.

And I think another thing that we can maybe shift instead of thinking, I'm just going to full-blown trust my body when you're new, is like, I'm going to stop fighting it. And how can I care for it? Like, what's a way I can move towards body care? You know, honest body care. Not like body care twisted up with, you know, how can I deprive it? And that can be a small first step. I think that at least I was comfortable with in the beginning.

But you know, there are some things that we're doing right now that we might be doing if we're in the middle of like dieting and, you know, working our body to the ground with these painful exercises that we might be able to release, like some practices or mindsets that we need to release in order to start listening to our body. So can you talk about some of those, Char-lee?

Release strict eating or exercising rules that prohibit you from listening to the Holy Spirit and your body

Char-lee

Yeah, absolutely. So anything that is a really strict set of like rules, laws about food, body exercise, whatever that's completely outside of your body that you're following is ignoring your input from your body or intercept of awareness, and it's ignoring input from Holy Spirit as well. So any of those things are the things that you want to look at and start thinking about. So if you're following a meal plan that offers no room for your taste preferences or doesn't allow any room for you to question how the food makes you feel or how it energizes you, it's probably not serving you. That's kind of stopping you from listening to your body.

Same thing with exercise plans if you're following an exercise plan that doesn't leave room for. I didn't get any sleep last night, and I don't really have a lot of energy, and so I'm going to modify to a light walk or, you know, if you're not allowing yourself any space there, you have to follow this work out the way it's written. And there's no room for a life to happen or for your energy level or body to change.

And the same thing with schedules, right? So if it's your your sleeping schedule, maybe you only allow yourself eight hours or nine hours because you have to get up to achieve this work. But you went through something traumatic or who knows why this day and you need eleven hours of sleep, but you're forcing yourself to get up , you know, whatever those things are, like a set of rules that you're following that leave no room for you to be human or no room to for you to receive input from Holy Spirit. Those are the things that we want to release.

I think about, you know, as we make our plan for our day, for our family , for anything, any of our plans. You know, God, these these are my plans. This is the way I'm going, but help me be open to your redirection and help me listen to you. And I think that that applies to every aspect of our lives, including what you're eating, including how you're moving.

Kasey

Yeah. And what I'm hearing you say is a common theme of what or who are you following and how are your habits flowing from there? And how is that working for you?

I am reminded of. I think it is Dr. Phil who used to say, And how is that working for you? And so you've kind of briefly touched on your story of how it was working for you and then how you had to find a new way. How you had to start listening to your body. And so sometimes, like, it's not a matter of do I? It's like we ultimately, we are designed to follow the joy. So it's like, what does our heart actually want? And sometimes we can see our habits going away from that. So can you share a little bit more of like with your story of how it was not working for you because I love your story with like movement in particular of how you had to stop everything, how you had to rest and then how those signals kind of started coming back and how that felt in your body. And maybe some like how I also felt spiritually and how like where your heart was going?

Char-Lee

Yeah. So specifically with movement, I mean, I couldn't, I could not keep going the way that I was. And I had all of these beliefs. That, you know, the only thing that counted as exercise was the specific things I was doing, like if it wasn't powerlifting or CrossFit, then it was wimpy and it didn't count and it was dumb and I wasn't doing it. And so when my body, like, just wouldn't do it, my body stopped. It wouldn't do it, and I did not know what to do. Like, honestly, like, my identity was so wrapped up in that it was everything to me and my friends, my husband. Everybody kept going the way we were and I couldn't. And I took a long time of not doing anything with my body, which didn't feel good, I was definitely like experiencing depression and just laying around all the time, and that just made the joints worse, but I didn't know what to do.

I had all these thoughts about what was good and what was wrong, and I had some really lovely friends that were like, OK, Char-lee, like, Come do this yoga class with us or come try this spin class. And I felt so dumb, like I just totally, you know, like I felt like this is so dumb. And like, I was embarrassed to be there because I had all these thoughts about what that stuff meant and. I was like moving my body in this new way. And it was uncomfortable and like, it was all this messy. And so I went through lots of periods of like doing nothing and then my body just hurt. And I had this desire to move and I went through so many times of like, OK, I'm going to get back at this and like trying to do like Olympic lifting and like just so many workouts that were horrible and, you know, didn't feel good. And finally, I got to a place of like giving myself permission to just move in whatever way felt good.

Something that has stuck in my brain. So much was this quote, and I never remember who said it, but it was like anything worth doing is it worth doing like at 1%, which is not always what you hear? Right? People say, like if you're going to do it, do it right, do it 100%. But this person was talking about it kind of in light of working through depression or something like that. So if you know that getting outside and going for a walk would make you feel better, but you can't muster up the strength, energy, whatever, to go, do it like what if you just go open the front door and look outside? Like, what if you just do that? So like giving myself permission to have really small five minute workouts or just a little walk, or just get on the mat, even if it's a few minutes giving myself permission to that really started cultivating listening to my body because I didn't have a quota that I had to meet. I didn't have any expectations other than I know. Moving will feel good. My body is calling me to do that and I'm just going to go try it.

So that's really what helped me start connecting with my body is giving myself permission to figure out what I liked, what felt good and kind of follow. What my body was telling me and what my schedule allowed and things like that.

Aubrey

OK, so I'm hearing, coming from like my athletic background and having a very kind of similar story to you with exercise, I think about the people who maybe exercise has always been this very goal driven activity, like you had, you were doing CrossFit or running marathons or half marathons or 5Ks, whatever it is. Not that goals are bad, but when you're coming away from that where like, it was always about either changing your body and achieving a certain weight, physique, percentage, whatever or about performance like athletic performance that, yeah, we take in giving yourself permission to just cultivate a relationship with exercise that's lifelong.

Like, you're not, you know, like what can you do that you can do every single day and focusing on ways that you can feel good in your body? And so I think you talked about a lot of really good movement cues there. You talked about, just even when we don't move, like feeling sluggish and depressed and like your joints hurting. And I know for me, not sleeping well is a really big one, when I don't move at all. But it doesn't take running a marathon.or joining the CrossFit gym. No problem with that. If you have a healthy relationship with that, but to get those little benefits like it can literally be just walking outside for a few minutes can really, at least for me, it can change how I feel. 

Physical Cues for Rest, Eating, and Movement

Aubrey

So with movement and with listening to your body for food, can you talk about some more of those cues? And I know they're different for everyone, but how it feels in your body when you need rest, when you need movement, but also when you need food and when you are full?

Char-lee

Yes. OK. So rest for, So my doctor said to me the other day, Let me just say that like my body is like, my response to things is extremely physical. Like, for instance, I had the first time I ever did like a webinar. I had so much stress. I am not kidding that the night before I like broke out in hives. And that's the only explanation we have for it is my body was covered in hives from the stress, so my body tells me so much. But sleep is the biggest thing for me. If I do not get enough sleep, I will usually have like a flare up of the autoimmune arthritis, so I will have achy joints and like brain fog and some pain. So that's one thing for me. Like, I know I have to get enough sleep, and if I'm waking up with like really swollen, achy joints, I can recognize, like, OK, I'm not getting enough rest.

Food wise, I definitely will get kind of like a feeling in my stomach. I know I wouldn't say that I normally get like a grumbly kind of thing, but just kind of feeling like it's like there's room in there, you know, for hunger. And I really will get like a headache or shaky if I haven't eaten enough. Like if I get busy at work and I don't like eat a snack before going into a meeting, then in that meeting, I'll start to get like kind of the shaky headache thing. So that's a big hunger signal for me. Um, movement wise, I mean, I have like, you know, the the joints will ache if I don't move my back or hurt, like a lot of it is like if I sit at a desk and work all day like, you definitely feel that my body is so tired and uncomfortable, but even like digestion, like I don't digest as well. Like, I'll have more like GI upside if I don't move or going to the bathroom might get a little stopped up. If you don't move, that's a big thing for me, just to be honest. Um, what else? What are some other things? Definitely with water, like if I don't drink enough fluids, I feel that pretty right away with like headaches. Mm hmm. What about you guys?

Aubrey

Well, well, I'm going to answer forKasey because I know she's like, she won't, no, she told me, Kasey has had like a cough, so she's like, Just talk the talk as much as you want. So I'm taking it back.

Kasey

Thanks a lot. 

Aubrey

Yeah, no problem. We all know I love to talk. And yeah, I. All of those, I also think, you know, for me, I know if I drink like coffee and I don't even, I can eat, But if I don't eat like a good balance or if I don't have protein basically, is my main issue in the morning, I will get like, I get anxious, I get shaky, but I can even like I get like, I have more, I almost I notice mine in like emotional stress tendencies like it's real, especially as a mom. Like, my patience is so much less and I'm like irritable. And so that can be a very real, like, physical and physical sensation and also like a cue for us. You know that? Oh, maybe the solution is simple here. Maybe I just need to eat breakfast or add some protein to my breakfast.

And then, the other one that we've talked about, and some, I think some episodes that are going to come out later is like mental hunger. So, you know, a lot of times before we've even had the stomach grumbling, you know, I just feel like thinking about food like, oh, you know, food is starting to sound appealing. And a lot of us can really like, condemn that and shame ourselves when we're in diet culture. Like, you just have no self-control. You know, all the things like, you know, you don't really need food, you're just thinking about it. So go distract yourself or go, you know, do all these diet tricks. So for our listeners, can you talk about just like a normal range of hunger for people and and how, you know, as far as like frequency of eating and how that can change? 

Range and types of hunger

Char-lee

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's such a huge range of hunger like physical hunger. And then there's also like so many different types of hunger. So take me back to the so many types of hunger, um, the physical range of hunger. You know, there's that we kind of talk about, like, there's the neutral, I'm not hungry or I'm not full, and then we can go towards like, I'm full and satisfied. Or maybe like I'm kind of uncomfortably full or like so stuffed that I'm sick or leading up to like kind of that set point. I'm ready to eat you. You might be feeling, you know, I could eat, you know, when people say that, Oh, I could eat like it kind of sounds good, but I'm not like super hungry I could eat. Or you might get to the point where like, Oh yeah, my body is starting to feel hungry, like my stomach is kind of feeling like there's room in there, or I'm getting a little bit of grumblings. And then you might get to the point, Aubrey. I think for me, where like, Oh, I'm being a little impatient or, you know, like, I'm starting to have some attitude. So you might get to the point of being like hangry or ravenous. And I don't I don't like to throw out rules, right? Like, you don't have to be a certain level of hunger to eat and you don't have to eat at certain times or whatever. But I know for me and for many people like ravenous does not feel good. I don't enjoy the way that that feels. So I try to avoid that with properly nourishing my body. So there is a whole range of hunger and and then there's, you know, sometimes it's not always this physical hunger that's driving your eating, and that's not a bad thing.

So let's talk about like planning hunger. Like, I just said that sometimes if I don't eat a snack and then I go into a meeting, I get, you know, like my head hurts or I start to feel shaky, like I didn't eat enough. And sometimes before that meeting, I don't feel like really physically hungry, but I'm kind of doing this. This care for myself, this pre-planning hunger by eating a little something before I go into that meeting because I know how my body reacts. I know I'm going to end up hungry while I'm in that meeting.

And there's like situational hunger, right? Like, you might not necessarily be hungry when a birthday cake is served or wedding cake, but you're celebrating and it sounds good and you eat it, and there's nothing wrong with that. Or maybe you're not really physically hungry, but somebody brings donuts and coffee to morning meeting at work, and you would love to partake in that. And. So you do. So there's all these different types of hunger, and we can even talk about like sometimes feeding yourself, this hunger simply comes from a place of I want to care for myself so we can think about if you really have struggled with maybe an eating disorder. And really, those hunger and fullness cues are gone and you don't feel hungry or, you know, it's hard to eat. Your hunger is like this choice of I know my body needs this and I'm going to care for it by eating . So there is lots of nuances there.

Kasey

Mm hmm. Yeah. I feel like so much of this talking about listening to our body is so humbling. Yeah, I like when you were talking about exercising and like, you felt dumb and embarrassed to do these low intensity movements. And because they weren't high level, they didn't feel exciting and performance driven. And those are all of the really flashy things. And you know what it's like the way of Jesus is he's gentle and lowly, and Paul says to lead a light like to to be ambitious, as I like to lead a quiet life, to work with your hands, to mind your own business. And it's like, just like the way of the world versus the way of the Lord is like so contrasted and told to listen to our body is a really humbling thing because it's acknowledging that we are created and that we are limited. And in doing that, it's like being able to, to listen to and to slow down.

And I think and then you can talk about this too of like how that relates with our spiritual health. And so before we get to those points of like our body screaming at us, we're like noticing those hunger and fullness and movement and rescues. Once we've been humbled by the Lord to to you to be able to to allow ourselves to sit in the stillness. And and I think we can do that because Christ is already said that, you know, we are his and he has brought us with his blood. And I think that that is where we have the permission to do that, to be still and to be and to listen in. And that's where we can, you know, find our life.

How to start checking in with your body

Kasey

Mm hmm. So would you say that there are certain practices that you can do throughout the day? Like what do you recommend? You know, getting an app where it tells you to tune in to your body or to be present? Or did you start off with like certain meditation practices or check in throughout the day? Do you have any like practical ways of starting to listen to your body?

Yeah, I think I've used a number of different things I have used, like meditation, timers and guided meditations. Abide is a really good Christian meditation app. I used that for a season of just kind of creating the space to be quiet. I really liked the Oh case. He'll know what they are. They're called the Revelation Wellness podcast episodes that are like rest and be still and be loved. Yeah, he yes, I love that. So like anything like that that helps you slow down has been really beneficial to me in the past. Something that I had to start that I really wasn't doing was like praying before meals that massively helped me like, slow down and connect with Holy Spirit and with my body. That was a really good check end point.

So and like journaling really served me for a long time, I really enjoyed that taking the time to do that. I'm in a season of life right now where I like. I have a five month old almost and a five year old and I work and I have this little side hustle. And you know, like, late life is so busy and I don't get a lot of time to myself and I am like really missing that like long periods of check in time. And in the past, I would get kind of set on, well, this can't be what I want it to be like. I want it to be like an hour of reading my Bible and prayer and journaling and connecting and reflecting on yesterday and setting intentions for today. You know, like all of those things had served me in the past, and they don't really work in this season of life. So for me right now, it's honestly like, resisting the temptation to like, pick up my phone when I have two minutes. Right, like if if if there is a quiet moment that my son is playing by himself and like the baby's content. And it's not like, it's not like a lot of time that I can sit down and do some meditation, but it's like a second, if I'm reaching for my phone and I have a second to like , scroll on my phone, just like resisting that and closing my eyes and taking a few breaths. And, you know, it depends on what's going on and what I need. But I guess kind of that's the question that I'm asking in those moments of like, what do I need? Sometimes I'm praying a quick prayer.

Sometimes I'm taking some breaths. Sometimes I'm giving myself permission to not do the workout that my trainer wrote for me and do some yoga instead, because the workout isn't going to happen with the baby or whatever it is, you know, it's just kind of giving myself a moment to check in. So I guess what I'm saying is like your moment to check in can be as simple as instead of picking up my phone right now, I'm going to check in. Or it can be extensive as I'm going to sit and journal, I'm going to pray for a long time, you know, whatever those things are, but just getting quiet with your body.

Aubrey

Yes. And the reason we love this just body trust in general is that it opens us to just be still and connect with the Lord overall. And you know, all of the Christian walk is about seeing what Jesus did, what God did for us through his son, Jesus, and just responding and responding to all the grace that we've been given and not controlling. And that's what's so beautiful about just asking yourself, how do I feel, asking Holy Spirit, you know, like, what do you have for me right now? And what do you want to show me, what gifts, Show me all the gifts that you've given me and help me respond. And our bodies are one of those gifts. And so one of the ways yet how do we respond to the grace that God's given us for our bodies? And I'm not going to go on preaching my sermon, but surely we could talk to you forever. And I just love everything that you're sharing, and I know you have a million resources for our listeners. So can you just share, like any last thoughts that you have for them? And also, you know, if you could share with them a couple of resources that you just really hope that they plug in to? Could you do that now?

Char-lee

Yes. OK, so I'm trying to think like last thoughts. What do I want you to take away? I I think the biggest thing to take away is. Anything worth doing is worth doing at 1%. So if the only like if the only step you can take today towards leaning in to trust your body or connect with your hunger and fullness cues or your movement cues, whatever they are, if the only thing you can do today is say, I want to be able to do that, it's it's a good step and it's worth it. So I would just say you now share that desire with the Lord and ask him to help you implement or to make that desire stronger than the desire to have a six pack abs or whatever it is. And you can find us at like the longest website ever - https://intuitiveeatingforchristianwomen.com . That's really the best place to find us and all of our resources there. You can listen to the podcast there. We have online courses there. I would say the the best resource we have in terms of like bang for your buck. Reachable for pretty much everyone is our podcast workbook. So our first season of the podcast, you can turn it into an online course by purchasing our podcast workbook. It's only $7 and then you can listen to the episodes and do the workbook with the episodes. I think that's the resource I always send people to. It's a great place to start, and yeah, that's super helpful. It's such a great idea to run. So thank you.

Kasey

Well, yeah, we're we're just grateful that you have all these resources that you've like freely given. So which is the verse. It's like we've been freely given to now we can freely give. So Char-lee will you will you pray for our listeners as we as we close? Thank you.

Char-lee

Father in heaven, thank you so much for Aubrey and Kasey and for encouraging them to hold the space for these discussions. Thank you for being here with us. Thank you for sending your son Jesus to come and live a senseless life and die on the cross. Taking our punishment God so that we can have relationship with you so that we have Holy Spirit with us and help us to get attuned to Holy Spirit. To hear your still small voice, to walk with you, to listen to the signals that our body is giving us and that you're giving us, give us the desire in our heart to honor you with our bodies to trust the body that you created for us. And just to live out of grace and this abundance that you have for us. God to trust that by moving and eating and resting the way that you're calling us to the way that our body is calling us to will serve us and serve you, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Aubrey

Amen. well, thank you so much, Char-lee, and hopefully we'll get to have you on here again.

Char-lee

Absolutely would love to. Yeah.

Aubrey

So to everyone who's listening, may you rest in his grace and follow the joy.

Thanks so much for hanging out with us today. We hope this episode helps you connect to the father as you respond to his good grace. Learn more about our course and resources at joyful healthcare and make sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review so more people can discover joyful health by grace.