3 lies to stop believing about your body. Are you believing these lies about your body image? 3 ways the enemy is keeping you stuck and stopping you from achieving your health goals

Are you the type of woman who is used to not believing in yourself? When it comes to having a healthy body, we are so caught up in looking at other people rather than looking at our progress. I’ve heard many clients tell themselves lies just because they don’t believe they can achieve their body goals. 

In this episode, I’ll be sharing 3 lies that I often hear women tell themselves when it comes to having a healthy body. The key to achieving your goals is believing in yourself. You have to know that this journey won’t be easy but it’s doable. 

As I talk about the 3 lies that I often hear, I’ll also share some scriptures that contradict these lies. It’ll help you be inspired and believe that things are possible in your fitness journey. 

If you’re someone who’s having a hard time believing that you can achieve your fitness goals then tune in to this episode because it’s insightful and will definitely give you inspiration. 

Let’s do this, friend!

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Today we are going to talk about our bodies and discuss three lies that we need to stop believing about our bodies. 

I’ve done a little research and I feel like these are three common lies many women have come up against sometime in their life. If you’re currently believing them, today, you get to stop and you get to break the chains.  

You get to start hearing the truth about your body.  I want to invite you that if you are ready to go deeper, or if you’ve been believing these lies, and you’ve been stuck in your weight loss efforts, that I am starting a challenge.  It’s going to be a two-week challenge to help jumpstart your weight loss. 

We’re going to do the challenge from February 15 through March 1.  It’s going to be 14 days and this is going to help you start to lose those first five pounds.  It will give you the momentum to continue on changing your body and stepping into any weight loss goals that you may have. You’ll have full access to me, we will be doing group coaching calls so you can ask your specific questions.  

Let’s dive in. Our bodies to see our outward appearance, right? They’re the first things people see. They communicate many things. They tell people our skin color, our heritage, people may see our eye color, hair color, if we haven’t changed it. 

Our bodies let people know if we’re tall or short, fat or thin, but our body doesn’t always reflect what’s going on inside, right? 

Maybe your mom told you growing up, that it’s on the inside that counts. And I think there’s so many phrases like that that are pulled from the Bible. And I really think that one, ‘it doesn’t matter what’s on the outside, it’s on the inside that counts’, I think that that one really comes from 1 Samuel 16:7. The latter part of that verse mentions that the Lord does not look at outward appearance like people do, but instead looks at the heart. 

I just think that it’s so funny to have been imparted some of that knowledge at a young age, even if it’s a little bit different, and not directly scriptural base, but that it’s an inside that counts, right? So we want to make sure that we are having a good heart, a fresh heart and looking at things correctly and identifying them truthfully. 

That’s what this episode is all about: how to identify any lies that we may be believing about our body and how to replace them with truth – with biblical scripture. 

Really, if the Lord does not look at our outward appearance, whether or not you approve or disapprove of your appearance, God has made you uniquely you. 

No one looks exactly like you, even if you’re a twin. Even if you’re an identical twin, right, there are subtle differences in your makeup that makes you uniquely you. So with that being said, there are many lies that we have been told as women that give us a warped sense of body image. 

I really want to point out three of them that we need to stop believing. 

I tried to think about this in a way of like the first time I ever struggled with body image, or the first time I ever felt pretty, or the first time I ever felt ugly. And really, I don’t know exactly when and sometimes there might have been a traumatic moment for some of you out there that you remember exactly when that happened. And I’m so sorry that that has stuck in your mind or in your childhood but for me, I can’t remember an exact time – but I feel like our body – the way that we think about our body – can shift at any age. 

The lies that we believe can be cemented in, either by the way we were talked to or by the way we were treated in accordance with our appearance.

And it’s really sad, because if we learn these things at young ages, we just believe them as truth because we really don’t know any better. 

Some of these are more common in adulthood, while some of them may have come from deep-rooted childhood traumas. So if we developed this way of thinking from when we were younger, and it could be cemented in, it really could happen at any age.

So like, if you were young, and maybe you developed early, and boys started to notice you and your body at a young age, maybe you were over-sexualized. And then that’s kind of the way that you view your body or maybe if you never developed, and you had more of an athletic figure, and boys didn’t pay much attention to you, you might have felt unattractive. That might have been a way that you viewed your body. Or if you were a little hefty, and children made fun of you. You could have easily accepted their opinions as facts and began to think less of yourself. 

These are a few common ones that I didn’t experience all three of those right, because those are three different body types but I know I can remember back and think about these things like riding the bus and the comments, I would hear about other girls with those body types. 

They’re definitely if I heard them being one of those body types, or not being one of those body types, and the people that they were directed at definitely heard them too. And if you can think back of your own self and back to your childhood, whether you rode the bus, whether you went to private school, public school, homeschooled, and you would have come into contact or into a situation with someone that was judging you by your outward appearance. 

Most likely, we all have a story like this, just being women. 

It might have even been not in childhood, but later in your adult life, where we’ve been judged or mistreated because of our outward appearance. And if you’re nodding along or shaking your head, or remembering back to the way that you are, I just want to identify a few common lies that many women have experienced in their lifetime. 

With these three common lies, I just want to break partnership with them, and bring you God’s truth. Because these lies have kept you from being fully you, because they’ve stifled your spirit and they’ve kept you from being all that God has called you to be.

And these lies that keep you from expressing your full self, of who God intends for you to be because they’ve just kept you limited – whether they’ve stifled you in being bold or speaking out because of your outward appearance, or if you’ve ever felt less of yourself, standing next to someone else that looks different than you. You’re not- we’re limiting who we are. And we’re not walking in who God is calling us to be. And we want to do that because that is where life is lived. We want to walk in all who God is calling us to be because it’s so free. 

If we’re believing lies, we’re stifling ourselves, and we’re not able to walk in who God is calling us to be. And when we believe these lies, we’re not partnering with Jesus because Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Right?  And God is love and God is truth. 

So who is the opposite of the truth? Satan, right? He is the king of lies. And when we choose to believe lies about ourselves, either consciously or subconsciously, we’re giving Satan power in our lives. And that’s just something that we do not want to do. 

So let’s bring this in. So when we realize what our body is – its flesh and it’s dying. So we should not give it that much power over us. 

It definitely should not be able to stifle our spirit because that is dying and our spirit is eternal. So we want to make sure we keep the body in its place and this is why I stress alignment so much. 

The Bible says in Matthew 10:28, ‘do not be afraid of those who, who want to kill your body, they cannot touch your soul for your only God who can destroy both soul and body and how’. So our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit living inside us. And, we do need to care for them. But I think Matthew 10:28 shows us that our body has a place, right?  It’s not eternal and it could be destroyed by many things. 

It’s very fleeting, so we want to care for it. But we don’t want to put more emphasis on it than what is needed. This is really why I stress alignment because this isn’t really a balancing act of like, ‘Okay, today I will give to my body. And tomorrow I’ll give to my soul. And then the next day I’ll give to my spirit.’  It’s not like a give and take, it’s not a balancing act, it’s alignment, in the spirit has to take priority first. And the Spirit can take control over the soul and the body if we allow it to. 

Let’s jump into the lies that we either tell ourselves, or maybe that have been spoken over us, and start to identify them so we can replace them with the truth. 

So one of the lies that I hear a lot of my clients talk about, or just women in general, is the lie that ‘I’ll never get my pre-baby body back’. Or if you don’t have children, like I’ll never get my high school body back. Well, part of that is the truth but this is how Satan does it. He takes partial truth and then wraps it up, and makes it look like it’s full truth. 

So the partial truth is that yes, we can’t go back, right.  That’s just the fact that’s part of aging, right, is that while our body is getting older every day, no one has found out how to reverse time. So there is truth in that we can’t get our high school body or our pre-baby body back but if you’re referring to it, due to the weight gain, you can get back to that pre-baby body in a sense of equal to that on a scale. 

Of course, our hips might be a little bit wider, or other things may have shifted. But when it comes to having a strong body and having our pre-baby body or high school body, in regards to weight, absolutely we can achieve those things. And if you continue to tell yourself this lie, you will never make it there. Even if it’s 50 pounds, 100 pounds, or more away, you can get back to that weight, if that’s your focus. 

So, while it’s somewhat true, because we can’t reverse the effects of time, so we can’t go back, we won’t ever be able to go back, we still can have an amazing body, and amazing strength and the number that we want to see on the scale here, post-high school and post-baby. 

I want you to look at the scripture of Haggai 2:9 because this references the temple which we know we are a temple. And it gives us hope and a future to see that the future – the present and the future can be better than the past.  I don’t want you to be limited and think that those were the glory days, those were your best bodies because you can have your best body now, you can have your best body in a year from now because that’s all we can control. Right? 

We can’t control the past. All we can do is participate and work on the future. 

So having the limited belief and staying stuck in the past is not serving you and it is actually sabotaging any of your weight loss goals and any of your efforts. So Haggai 2:9 let’s kind of jump into this. And what it says is ‘the glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former House says the Lord Almighty. And in this place, I will grant peace, declares the Lord Almighty’. 

So what this is referring to in the sense of the Bible, I’m going to break this down is that the destruction of Solomon’s temple so Solomon’s temple, if you don’t know, was a beautiful vast temple right? 

King David had planned it. And then his son Solomon was the one to actually build it and bring it to fruition. And King David was a very wealthy king. And then he bestowed all of this to his son, Solomon. So when they talk about Solomon’s temple, it was very vast. It had the finest of everything – timbers that came from, I believe, it’s like Lebanon, like all the cedar timbers, the finest of the finest things were covered in gold, and everything was high quality, it was really a tribute and an honor to the Lord. And that’s how they built it with the best of everything. 

With that being said, when we look back at our bodies, we may have that same outlook, right – is that it was the glory days, or that was when I was thinner. That was when I was younger, I might think that I had a higher quality of life, I might have had less aches and pains, or you were able to do more, or you’re limited with your body now. Maybe you’ve gained a little bit of weight. And you look back at your body very highly. And you think of it as this vast temple, right? 

So although let’s continue on with digging in the Scripture, although the house was destroyed, look what God promised. And he said ‘the glory of the present house will be greater than the glory of the former house’. And this is true of our bodies too because we are the temple right? We’re the temple for the Holy Spirit. We cover this in 1 Corinthians 16,19 and 20 and that was in episode four.  So if you’re, if you’re not sure, or if you want a more deep dive into how we are temples of the Holy Spirit, check out episode four. 

Listen to that promise so ‘our present temple will bring glory to the Lord, more so than our former temple’…

which is amazing because he is always growing us and maturing us and whenever you’ve accepted the Lord, every day then sent is what we call sanctification, right?

We’re working on being more Christ, like we’re working on understanding what the Bible says and being. I don’t want to say like a better Christian, but being more like Christ, right. So that process of sanctification is drawing us closer to God and a deeper relationship with Jesus. So that sanctification is already making your temple more beautiful because right, the Lord looks at the heart. 

So we’re already working on the inside work that’s that sanctification process. So you’re already becoming a more beautiful temple. We kind of just want that outside to catch up too. A lot of times we do it, and I don’t want to say that in vain because it is important, but we are working on inside as well as the outside. And that’s that alignment process. So have hope and be restored that knowing that the Lord is promising, right, he promises that it will have peace, which I never had peace in my high school body, right, there was so much judgment, so much striving so much trying so much different. 

And now in this current body, and in this present body, I can have peace.

Whether or not I’m at my high school weight, or my pre-baby body. But I am working on strengthening and being the healthiest in this present temple. And that is bringing peace. 

So let me re-read Haggai 2:9 so you can look it up if you don’t have your Bible with you. And then so that you can just let this sink in. So we can stop believing the lie. So here’s the lie. ‘I’ll never get my pre-baby body back’. Or if you don’t have children, I’ll never get my high school body back. 

And this is what Haggai 2:9 says, ‘The glory of this present house, meaning the temple will be greater than the glory of the former House, says the Lord Almighty. And in this place, I will grant peace, declares the Lord’. So I want to just wrap this up in a quick few sentences.

So although we can’t go back, because that is the truth, right? We can’t go back. Nobody has figured that out yet. What we can do is make this current body – this present temple better than the former. 

But we have to have the right thinking because if we’re believing those lies, if we’re believing that lie, we are sabotaging our effort because we can never get there. Whether it was consciously or subconsciously believing that, if that’s one that you know that you’ve said, or thought in your mind, you need to kick that out because the Lord promises peace with this beautiful present temple. So we don’t want to get caught up in that limited thinking. 

And another way to look at this is Isaiah 43:18, and 19 kind of reminds us not to get stuck in the past. So Isaiah 43:18 and 19 says, ‘Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old, Behold, I am doing new things now, it springs forth, do you perceive it, I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert’. 

So don’t limit your former self by staying stuck in the past, you CAN create a better body suited for you now.

And the Lord will grant peace in this place. And if you’re following the Lord’s guide for total health, and that’s the Spirit leading, and the soul and the body succumbing, there will be peace. 

Now, lie number two that I’ve heard many people say or speak over themselves is that ‘I’m stuck with this body’. Or I’ve also heard ladies just say, ‘I’m fat. And that’s just the way it is’. And for this, that is just a way of keeping yourself guarded and keeping yourself stuck, and not allowing yourself to take that step forward into giving yourself the body that you want. 

So if we look at Ephesians 4:31 and 32 it says this, ‘Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you’. So when we look at Ephesians, it’s really unlike any other letter that Paul wrote, because it was really written to expand the knowledge and the thoughts of the readers. And really what it was supposed to do is give those reading this letter, a better understanding of the dimensions of God’s eternal purpose and His grace, that really comes with God’s higher goal, the higher goal he has for the church, which we are all members of. 

So this section in Ephesians 4 is talking about the speech, right, and the way we talk to each other. And the previous verse to this, talks about how such talk, meaning like anger, and clamour and slander, it grieves the Holy Spirit. So think about grief. And that’s what we’re doing to the Holy Spirit when we talk this way. 

And it’s really important how we talk to ourselves. A lot of times we put this off, or we bring a lot of negative self-talk to ourselves but if this is instruction for us to talk to other people, it’s definitely instruction for us to talk to ourselves in the same way. So think about your talk, is it building you up? Or is it tearing you down? 

I like to run it through this kind of filter: If I wouldn’t say it to my 10-year-old daughter, then why would I say it to myself?

So sit with that, if this is not something you would tell a teen or a tween, when you stand in front of mirror, and if you degrade yourself, if you would not talk to a young girl that way, because you know, it tears them down, or it’s going to make them think poorly of themselves, then don’t talk to yourself that way. You’re keeping yourself stuck, because you’re not supporting your own goals and your efforts. 

And especially if it’s weight loss, because you’re consciously or maybe even subconsciously, sabotaging yourself.  

You’re not going to be able to reach your goals if you’re not talking to yourself correctly. And if you’re telling the lie that ‘I’m stuck with this body, or that I’m fat, and that’s just the way it is’, that’s not true. And if you continue to believe that lie, it is going to become your truth. It is going to be you’re going to be stuck in that place. So let’s realize that all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander need to be put away, along with malice and be kind to one another, tender-hearted and forgive one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. 

Many times self-talk can sabotage us before we even start. It holds us back from taking that step. And that’s exactly where Satan wants us. If we’re not acting and if we’re not acting in accordance with God’s will and we definitely are partnering with Satan. It can be as black and white as when it comes to certain things, either we’re believing God and we’re following in his way, or we’re not. And if it’s not of God, then I don’t want any part of it. I hope you guys are tracking with me. 

So a lot of times, when we think about this, or we give ourselves a lot of this negative self talk, what we are doing as well is really just standing there and affirming the third lie, which is that ‘my body reflects me and my worth’ which is just certainly not true. We know that right? 

Man, I spent years in this third lie, the lie that my body reflects my worth. I can remember that, I don’t know, even when I was 16. And then the teen years that I would think that for boys to notice me and I I’d have to be over sexualized, or wear the tight clothes or the skimpy outfits. And then in college, it was similar. Or I would spend hours, at least one hour a day at the gym, if not more, trying to burn off the calories that I ate, thinking that my body reflected my worth. 

And it’s just so sad, and so many hours wasted that I could have been studying, or I could have been, you know, building those relationships with the friends working on the things that matter. And I was just killing myself thinking that that was the answer. And that’s it’s not it was just a lie, I was believing. And I had to find Christ and find my identity in him until I broke those chains and was set free. Because my body is your body. Ladies, our body is not a true reflection of me. And it’s not a true reflection of my worth. And I want you to say the same thing. 

I want you to know that your body is not a reflection of your worth. 

And let’s jump into the scripture that’s gonna prove us true and give us the truth. 2 Corinthians 5:17 ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away, and behold, the new has come’. And this was one of those foundational scriptures. That reminds me all the time that I don’t have to live in the past, I don’t have to continue past habits, past behaviors. I can stop that with the power of Jesus in my life working through me to create and continue to sanctify me into who I am called to be into who God made me to be into who I want to be, because I am a new creation in Christ. 

Thank you, thank you, Jesus for coming and giving me that gift. The old has passed away and the new has come. And that is true with my thinking that is true with any image I had of myself. And that is true that I no longer have to keep myself hidden or in that guilt and shame or in thinking that my weight and my body reflect my worth. Because Christ has come and told me differently, the oldest passed away and the new has come because therefore if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. Often times we wonder though, like what is new? What does new entail? I’m a new creation in what areas? 

So Romans 8:1 because I like to do this right? I love it when scripture proves scripture or when it’s referred to and then sealed in another scripture. So Romans 8:1 says, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’ 

So if we think of condemnation that’s really like strong disapproval, or the action of condemning someone is like punishment. And that might be what you were doing with your negative talk right? Condemning yourself? Or would you punish yourself for strict diets or withholding food? Or do you punish yourself by eating more, to soothe yourself and all this really wraps up into this warped self image? But you no longer have to do that.

Right, that’s what the Bible is saying is that you, the old has died and the new has come and there no longer is any kind of nation for those who are in Christ Jesus, so you no longer have to continue living that way and thinking that way, if you have accepted the Lord into your life, and he has come into your heart and lived. 

Now we just have to learn how to shift from those worldly things and from those soul feelings into a life lived through the Spirit and letting the Spirit lead. If you don’t know what the new identity is in Christ, or what if you haven’t felt it one plus your Bible in search for yourself, search what the Bible says, about those who are in Christ, those who are covered by the blood of Jesus, those who are Christians, what does the Bible say about them? And then that is your truth, right? Because we know the Bible is true. 

It’s God breathed, it is alive and living, if you haven’t noticed that, because we can take these scriptures and apply them to today. That is what it means by that the Bible is alive. So if you’re a new creation, let’s talk about what that is. Because often times, if we’re still stuck in that negative self-talk, we need to find what we should be replacing it with. 

So you’re no longer going to talk to yourself poorly. Remember, if you wouldn’t say this to a 10-year-old girl, why are you saying it to yourself? So let’s talk about what the Bible does say about us. It says that we were chosen. 

And that’s Deuteronomy 14:2 ‘for you are the people, holy to the Lord, your God, out of all the people on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession’. So yes, we ask God into our heart. But the choice was already made for us a long time ago. God knows our past, present and future, right? He knew when you would accept him. But that is a gift given from him, right? He brought you to that point of knowing that you needed him. And that is a gift from the Lord. So he chose you, you are chosen. 

Out of all, just like the Scripture says, ‘Out of all the people on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession’. Let that be your identity, let that wrap in you, let that give you the confidence and the boldness to go forth. Right. And then also, ‘he’s sealed you’. 

2 Corinthians 1:21 ‘Now it is God who makes both us along with you stand firm in Christ, He anointed us that he set his seal of ownership on us and put His Spirit in our heart as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come’. So we are chosen, we’re sealed. And we’re also his children. 

This is what Ephesians 5:1 says, ‘Imitate God, therefore in everything you do, that includes the way we eat, the way we talk to ourselves, the way we exercise, move our body, imitate God, therefore in everything you do, because you are his dear children.’ And if we’re to imitate God, as Ephesians says, then there’s no place for lies in our life. So it’s time to break the chains that are holding you back from the body that you want, the life that you want, the energy that you want, it’s time to break the chains with that, and embrace the truth about who God says you are. 

So let’s do that through prayer because that’s our direct route, our direct relationship, our direct pathway with God, and let’s break the chains. And let’s bring in the truth that we are now going to declare over our lives, lady, this is so important, don’t miss this because it’s time that we take in prayer, repenting for believing these lies, right? And when we repent, we turn from them, that’s what repentance means that we turn from them. So although we believe these lies, we no longer are going to believe them. And we’re going to declare that in prayer in front of the Lord. And then what we’re going to do is declare the truth over our lives. 

Okay? So let me lead you, you can pray right along with this. You can add in what you need.

If some of this has brought up truth in your own life. You can make the prayer your own, but this will just be guidance for you. 

So, Dear Heavenly Father, we just come before you and I just want to say I’m sorry for believing the lies about my body that we’re not from you. I’m sorry that I believed the lie that I’ll never get my pre-baby body back or I’ll never get my high school body back. That’s not true and what your word says is that the present house will be greater than the glory of the former house Lord. And I declare that I know that you want good things for my future and that you are already there. And I declare that I will have the peace that you want to bring me in the future house in the present house, Lord, and I can make this present house, the best that it ever has been. And I know I can do that through your strength, Lord, I thank you that you are already there. And that if we break the chain right now, believing that I cannot go back, I don’t want to go back. Lord, I don’t want those things. I just want this body, this present temple to bring You glory. 

I repent for believing that I’m stuck with this body, or that if I’ve ever spoken words over myself about my size in my way, and that this is just the way it is. I no longer will partner with that. With those lies or with that anger and that slander, I will no longer speak that over me Lord, instead, I will speak the truth. I will stand in front of the mirror and think to myself, what you say about me, Lord, I no longer want to link my weight. With my worth. I no longer want to believe that my outward appearance reflects my inward work. I no longer want to have my value be an outward appearance. Lord, I know what you say, and I no longer partner with those lies. I know that you say that I am chosen. 

Your Word declares it and Deuteronomy 14: 2 for I am holy people to the Lord. Out of all the people on the face of the earth. The Lord has chosen me to be his treasured possession. You have sealed me, Lord, and I am your child;. I will imitate everything you do just as Ephesians 5:1 says, because I am a dear child of yours. Show me the way Lord, continue to break off the chains and continue to bring to mind when I start to slip back into those lies. And show me your way. I no longer want to believe it that way. Lord, I want you to lead. I’m going to believe your truth that you spoke about me and that is said about me. It’s in your son’s precious name that I pray. Amen. 

Thank you ladies, this has been such an amazing episode. I hope that you are feeling lighter. I hope that you were able to identify some of these lies in your life.