Ep. 1: The #1 Thing You're Missing For Better Health

[00:00:00] So tell me, what influences your health decisions? Where do you turn for your health and wellness advice? Chances are, it's your best friend telling you about her latest detox or some Instagram influencers talking about the latest method they used to drop weight and fast.

[00:00:20] In 2021, the wellness market was valued at $1.5 trillion and is expected to grow at 5-10% every year going forward. Y'all that is a lot of money we are spending on our physical bodies year after year. But yet, we seem to be a less healthy society, more so than ever.

[00:00:47] The current approach is to health aren't working and we seem to be constantly grasping for a miracle drug, food or product. One that keeps us holding on to the promises that this will be the thing.

[00:01:00] But each quick fix becomes nothing more than a bandaid to get us by to the next and deep promise. So, why are we missing? Or maybe it's more of a who? Are we missing? Welcome to the nearest de bloom podcast where you're faith, meet your health.

[00:01:23] I'm your host, Cara Traktor, a registered dietitian and certified Catholic coach, and I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection with your body, your spirit, and the nourishment that sustains them both. In a world filled with noise and confusion about food, health and body image,

[00:01:40] this podcast offers truth and healing from a Christ's inner perspective. Together we'll untangle the deep roots of diet culture, and discover what it means to truly care for ourselves through joyful nourishment of mind, body and soul.

[00:01:54] We heard a dive into the transformative power of intuitive eating coupled with the rich teachings of our Christian faith. With every episode I'll be cheering you on, offering insights, inspiration and practical tools to help you heal your relationship with food,

[00:02:09] and embrace the beauty of your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. With confidence and courage that can only be found in Christ. Join me as we journey together towards a more holistic approach to wellness, when that honors the wisdom of your body as God's creation,

[00:02:26] the teachings of our faith and the unique purpose you're called to the fill. You were made to bloom, to come into full beauty and health in order to bear good fruit for the Lord with your life.

[00:02:38] So if you're ready to nourish your body, feed your soul and bloom into the best version of yourself, then you're in the right place and you're so happy you're here. Welcome to Nurs to Bloom, where every day is a sacred invitation to thrive.

[00:02:53] As Catholics and Christians we are challenged and also really have a desire to have Christ be a common thread throughout all areas of our life. Our marriage, motherhood, relationships. You name it, we have this desire for God to be that common thread.

[00:03:25] There are definitely certain areas of our life where it is easier to give up our desire for control and surrender to God and let him take the wheel so to speak. But let's visit other areas really not so much.

[00:03:40] An area that I personally never even thought to invite Christ into for much of my life despite how much I was struggling was my health and wellness. And I really don't think I'm alone in that.

[00:03:56] I don't think many of us consider integrating our faith into our wellness efforts. But being on this side of that journey, being on this side of healing my relationship with food and my body.

[00:04:13] I wholeheartedly believe that it's the number one thing that's missing from our health and wellness plans in pursuits. I really think that for many of us it's an area that we just don't think we need God.

[00:04:27] We're not just in wellness and the way that it's presented in our society tends to be a very externally influenced area of our lives.

[00:04:36] We are looking to doctors, dietitians, nutritionists, personal trainers, celebrities, influencers, everything and everyone outside of ourselves to tell us what we need to do to lose weight or eat healthy or prevent illness.

[00:04:54] And for many of us I think it's one area of our life that we feel like we actually have control and so we don't really want to surrender that or invite the Lord into it.

[00:05:05] Because we again have that desire for control and so we just think that it's like okay well I can control this one little area and God really isn't paying attention to this he probably doesn't really care about this so I'm just going to hold on to it and it's going to be mine to control and and Stuart and Tate.

[00:05:24] Care of but I think one of the biggest problems with looking to the outside looking externally to experts and influencers for a health information is that they've largely leave out fundamentals of our Christian faith. So it tends to be inherently secular.

[00:05:47] As Christians we know when we believe our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit and that Christ has a home with an each one of us.

[00:05:56] And because we know that we know that we need to take care of this physical body that houses our soul that houses Christ.

[00:06:05] But really of a really not many of us think how we can take care of our bodies in that faith integrated way or we take things to maybe an extreme.

[00:06:17] Jeremiah 336 says, never the less I will bring health and healing to it I will heal my people and we'll let them enjoy abundant peace and security.

[00:06:31] Y'all Christ is necessary for health and healing and it's only an him only when we surrender this to him and invite him into this place will we truly be healthy enough to enjoy that abundance and peace and security that he promises us.

[00:06:51] Today's wellness culture places an over and business on physical health and outward appearance as indicators and measure of overall health. The wellness industry looks at everything separately nutrition exercise mental health weight illness.

[00:07:10] We really need to shift to an approach that like Christ looks at us as a whole person mind body and soul.

[00:07:19] We need to approach our wellness focus on the integration of all these areas and all of these areas working together and understand how each one of them on an individual basis in practice as a whole and that this makes up our mental physical emotional and spiritual well being.

[00:07:38] As I mentioned earlier health care has become vastly secular so if we are to integrate our faith into our wellness efforts, I think it's important to understand some of the churches fundamental beliefs about health care.

[00:07:52] So I wanted to kind of dive into like three things that I think are important to call out with regards to Christian beliefs about health and health care and these were shared in an article written by Ronald P. Hamel and Kevin O'Rourke for the religious traditions and healthcare decisions handbook series so these were written for health care professionals to be used in a health care setting when they're approaching the care of their their patients and their clients.

[00:08:22] And I thought it was a really really good place to go to understand how as it has a church and how as Christians we should approach and kind of be able to put on the mind of Christ and how he would approach us as the.

[00:08:37] The divine physician the ultimate healer and how we can take some of these teachings and some of these beliefs and and use them as a foundation for that integration of faith into our wellness so the first one.

[00:08:51] We are made an image and lightness of God and therefore we possess inherent dignity. You know our dignity comes from God alone and is not based on human standards or societal ideals.

[00:09:07] Every single one of us every person is unique and irreplaceable and we are called to human for human fulfillment and eternal life for God's glory. All human beings are equal. See Romans to 11 relations for 38 and Ephesians 69.

[00:09:31] And all human life because it begins in God because it comes from God it originates him is sacred. Number two, human life is a gift of God over which we are called to be stewards and caretakers.

[00:09:48] We have a duty and a responsibility to care for life and health for our own as well as for those around us our brothers and sisters in Christ our community our family.

[00:09:59] Because we are created beings we only have a limited power of control over our lives and we can't just do whatever we want. Shocker, huh? Only God has full control over our life. He is the only one who knows the whole story.

[00:10:18] We are also called to be stewards and caretakers of the gifts that God created for our use here on earth and we're called to use them wisely and in a caring manner.

[00:10:31] Okay, principal number three. Health is to be understood holistically the Catholic Christian tradition understands health holistically it includes physiological psychological social and spiritual aspects of the human and should never be reduced only to their physiological or psychological functioning.

[00:10:53] These aspects of the human should always be of secondary importance to the social and spiritual well being of the individual.

[00:11:01] So the Catholic Christian tradition understands that we are not like pieces to be torn apart and looked at on an individual basis. We have to look at it as a whole person and understand how each one of these parts is integrated.

[00:11:15] And only then will we be able to really understand our health status and be able to get to a place of a baseline of health and then from there be able to optimize our health.

[00:11:30] So when I look at these principles and I look at these church beliefs in and these guidelines for how Catholic Christian healthcare providers should approach human beings and caring for them.

[00:11:43] I can 100% promise you that when I was pursuing weight loss going from diet to diet just like hoping and praying that I could fix the problem with my weight and how I looked that I did not take these beliefs into consideration.

[00:12:01] I associated my dignity and my worth with the number on the scale. I didn't see myself as a gift much less lean into the gifts God had given me to serve him and serve others.

[00:12:17] I was too preoccupied and distracted with trying to figure out what I was going to eat what how is going to exercise how many calories ever is eating what was the perfect meal plan. Did I lose weight today why am I gaining weight?

[00:12:31] And so because of this, I reduced myself down to almost nothing I didn't see myself as beautiful I didn't see myself as love I didn't see myself as.

[00:12:49] Having anything to offer anybody else because it felt like if I didn't fix this problem, if I couldn't lose the weight, if I couldn't have that ideal body then I wasn't perfect enough. I wasn't good enough to do the work of God.

[00:13:01] It also is because much of what I was taught with regards to nutrition while I was in school studying nutrition and how nutrition impacted weight was mostly if not always focused on calories and versus calories out.

[00:13:22] And so as a dietitian, it wasn't common practice to consider anybody's mental emotional or spiritual well-being as a potential factor that influenced physical health. So that's meaning I didn't take into consideration like what were my thoughts in my beliefs about food.

[00:13:42] What was my stress level like was I stressed to the max because I was worried about this so much was there you know outside stress from you know the job that I had what was my sleep habits like was I getting enough quality sleep like again we have to look at this as a multi-backed total approach to our health and wellness.

[00:14:07] So if you're struggling like I did with embracing your dignity and worth because you don't like your body or you see your weight as a problem to be fixed.

[00:14:19] I want you to know that it doesn't have to be this way. I know what it's like to feel helpless. I know what it's like to feel utterly defeated and like a failure because you try so hard to follow all the rules and yet nothing works.

[00:14:40] Maybe you lose weight temporarily but then you find yourself gaining it back again and you just don't understand why.

[00:14:48] You just don't understand why you can't fix this problem and you're exhausted and you feel like there's no other solution to this and I want you to know that that is not true.

[00:15:04] And I would love to help you in this battle. It's one of the main reasons why I created this podcast.

[00:15:13] It wasn't until I discovered and incorporated an intuitive eating approach to how I ate and what my relationship with food with like and my overall health and well-being that I understood that God needed to not only be a part but be the center of my health and wellness.

[00:15:33] And that for so long he was the number one thing missing. Not only in my health and wellness efforts but really and truly in my life as a whole.

[00:15:45] Like I said, I was so distracted by losing weight and what my body looked like and just so solely focused on that. Like I kind of put God in his Sunday box and just kind of left him there.

[00:15:59] I didn't let him be a part of my life in my experience. But intuitive eating was the invitation that he needed, that the Lord needed to work in my life. And I know that it can be an amazing way for the Lord to work in your life too.

[00:16:19] I really think that God put intuitive eating in my path to show me how to rely on him, how to rely on how he created and designed my human body to work and be able to trust in his creation when it came to eating and my health and embracing and accepting the body that he created to find a home in.

[00:16:49] And I know that that can be something that you can get to also. So if you're not familiar with intuitive eating will be exploring it throughout this podcast, but in a nutshell it's an eating framework that was developed by two day additions of Lynn, tribly and elis rush.

[00:17:11] And they use a whole person approach to heal your relationship with food and your body. Now they're program and is a secular program, but what I have done as a Catholic dietician and someone who has been able to integrate.

[00:17:28] Catholic mindset coaching and and church teachings and my own experiences of integrating my faith into this journey is I've taken the principles of intuitive eating and I've incorporated faith scripture and church teachings to be able to coach and mentor women like you.

[00:17:46] To help them make peace with food and to build a healthy body image so they can focus on pursuing God's unique calling in their life. So we encourage you to take some time and see where God is in your current wellness program.

[00:18:06] If he's not a part of it yet invite him to be a part of it because it will. Can we be an amazing opportunity for growth in your faith and your ability to surrender control by learning to trust in God's good creation of your body mind and soul.

[00:18:28] You are an amazing and beautiful creation of God. And it's time to do the work to help you embrace that and to see yourself as a gift that you are.

[00:18:44] Okay, so with this idea of surrender and this desire to integrate your faith into your wellness a lot of times. I mean don't you hate it when you listen to something you're like, okay, this is good.

[00:18:58] Like I'd love to do this. I am 100% on board. I like this perspective. This is something I want to do. But then you have no idea where to start and so then you never take action right? How many times does this happen to us?

[00:19:11] So one of my promises to you as a listener one of the goals that I had in creating this podcast was to give you those practical tips and to show you ways that you can start to incorporate your faith into your wellness.

[00:19:27] I want you to take action. I want you to have a blueprint on where to start to start really letting go of these external influences when it comes to your health and wellness and really be able to go

[00:19:42] So while in on this idea of faith integrated wellness. So I want to help you take that next step. So if you're ready, I'm inviting you to join the seven day faith led wellness challenge.

[00:19:57] You can sign up for this challenge at challenge.careatrock.com. So I want you to consider this challenge as your starting point on this journey. Remember it is a journey to fuse your faith with your wellness.

[00:20:12] So in the challenge over the course of seven days we're going to dive into different facets of wellness and how we can start to incorporate our faith into these different aspects of wellness and how this can help us work to reach those health goals that we have.

[00:20:28] So the way the challenge to work is every day once you sign up I'll drop an email into your inbox with the daily challenge. So each email will include a video that's offering you know practical tips encouragement,

[00:20:42] that big does a support that you need as well as the specific challenge action for that day. Look I get it. I know that you're busy and right now you're like, how do I possibly have time to take on one more thing and I 100% know that trying something new can feel a bit daunting and even uncomfortable. But I want you to remember that real change begins with that first step.

[00:21:10] You're going to be right where you are now if you don't take that first step. And guess what like each challenge each day is it's rooted in activities that you're probably already doing.

[00:21:22] I'm just going to show you how to infuse them with your faith. But if you're still uncertain, here's a little sneak peek of what you can expect. So in day one we're diving into the art of mindful eating.

[00:21:35] So really getting into the what, why and how we are eating, how we approach meal time. So the goal of this is to not rush through our meals anymore. But instead work to begin to savor each bite and to express gratitude for the gift of your food.

[00:21:55] And this will all help you learn to start tuning in to your body's hunger cues. And in the video I'll be sharing my top three tips, super simple but top three tips for becoming a more mindful eater.

[00:22:08] And so then in the days that follow will explore things like how to approach movement and exercise with a joyful attitude. As well as digging into one of my absolute favorite topics, Christ centered self care.

[00:22:24] And we'll also have a community page where you can share your daily experiences tell us, you know, what worked where you're struggling and then that's just an extra way that you can get support from me as well as other people who are taking the challenge with you.

[00:22:38] But first you have to sign up. So go to challenge dot caratrock.com. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the newest blam pod cast and I just want to say thanks so much for tuning in. Your support means the world to me.

[00:23:05] If you enjoyed today's conversation and found value in this episode, I'd love for you to subscribe to the podcast. And it also helps us reach more listeners who are like you, seeking guidance and inspiration on their own wellness journeys.

[00:23:22] Thanks again for being a part of our community and for tuning in. I'll see you soon and remember beauty held its and seed beauty shared is the flower. It's your time to bloom.