Taking back your spiritual temple

Twanna Henderson: Welcome to T Time, spiritual conversations for, with and about women. I'm your host, Twanna Henderson. And we have another phenomenal podcast for you on today. Today we're talking about taking back your spiritual temple. My guest on today is author and certified Christian life coach Kimberly Taylor. Kim has an incredible heart to help others who are struggling with binge eating and weight loss. She is the developer of the Take Back your Temple program, which teaches christians how to take control of their weight God's way. She is also the author of two books, the weight loss scriptures and the weight loss prayers and you can connect with Kim and her website at takebackyourtemple.com. Kimberly, welcome to T Time.

Kimberly Taylor: Thank you so much for inviting me. I am just so excited to talk to you today.

Twanna Henderson: Well, I'm excited to talk to you as well. Because weight, of course, is something that all of us either have struggled with or are struggling with and I know that you have an amazing testimony. So let's just start off, if you can just share with us about how the Lord helped you on your weight loss journey.

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Twanna Henderson: You know, that is so amazing because a lot of times people think, you know, if someone is trained in a particular area, like you said, you were a registered nurse. And so you would think that having that knowledge, but a lot of times head knowledge is not the key to our success or our victory. How did you even come up with the name "Take Back your Temple" for your ministry?

Kimberly Taylor: Well, you know, that's interesting because the Lord gave me the name take back your temple and at first, I thought that name was like a clarion call for Christians to take back control of their health. But a couple of years after that name, God told me it's not really that the name is actually a prayer. And it's a heart cry from the individual, but the Lord to take back his temple. And so that's the thing where we began to recognize that our bodies are important not because of how they look, but whom they contain, because we have the Holy Spirit on the inside of us. So taking care of ourselves is a way to show honor to God for taking care of his temple that is how I came up with that and that's how that name came came to me.

Twanna Henderson: That is so true and that is so amazing. As you know, right now we're in the midst of a pandemic. And people have handled stress during this time in various ways, including developing really addictions, to food. What are some things that people need to look out for as it relates to food, particularly during this season of high stress?

Kimberly Taylor: Yes, um, the first thing you mentioned about stress, and you're right, that is a huge problem that people deal with. And one of the things that I think about when handling stress is I always think about two different circles, in terms of the source of my stress. One of them are things that I actually can control. And then the other is the thing that I cannot control the things that I can't control. And I think about it in terms of two circles that I put that I classify things and the things that I can control. Those are things that are within my circle of influence, which would be the food choices that we make? Yeah, so those are things that we can directly control the exercise we do, how we praise the Lord in the midst of it. Those are things that we actually can control. That's the circle of influence. And then the other circle is called the circle of concern, like the circle of concern, white baby, when is this thing over? Gotta be over with, we can't control that aspect of it. So the circle of concern, the things that we cannot directly control are those things that we pray about, and that we leave to God in that particular situation because we know that God can can see things that we cannot see. So go ahead, I'm sorry.

Twanna Henderson: No, that's true. Okay, you're gonna go, go right ahead.

Kimberly Taylor: So what I was saying is we're going to zero in on those things within our circle of influence and the things that we can control in our daily routine. And I think there are times of stress it's very important that you focus on having a stable daily routine. What are the things that you do first thing in the morning when you get up? Um, are you automatically meditating on those things that you're worried about? That give you stress and anxiety? Or are you starting your morning out with some prayer time to the Lord, pretty much as a soldier looks to a general for their marching orders. So you want to just be sure that you have a steady routine, in terms of how you're starting your morning, whether you're drinking an adequate amount of water each day, that's something so small and so simple that many people ignore, but it's something that's going to make a big difference in terms of your energy level. Whether you're eating foods that hijack your brain, that's the way I call it. Foods that you know that you cannot control yourself when you eat them, and are just going to lead you feeling, having your mood swings, your mood goes up, your mood goes down. Those are the kind of foods that you really want to stay away from, and replace them with foods that you like. Because that's very important that it be a food that you like, but keeps you emotionally stable. And also exercise is a wonderful stress reliever. I love to put on praise music and just dance around the house. Yes. And I don't care about how I look. You know, but it's something like that, because you think about emotion as e motion. That's how I think about it and it's like when you're under stress, your body wants to get rid of that extra stored up energy, that tension. So how are you doing that? And I usually think about even just a bit of a walk around the block can help.

Twanna Henderson: Yeah, yeah. You know, as you speak about emotional stability. You know, I have this fascination with a television show about morbidly obese people, and I'm particularly intrigued with how they got that way, and the emotional issues that played into it, it's just amazing to me. Have you found that emotional issues to really be a contributing factor to weight gain?

Kimberly Taylor: Absolutely, because it was for me, it absolutely was. It wasn't about the food. It was about me having emotions that that I didn't want to feel. And so from a very, from a very young age, when I was six years old, I learned that food makes me feel better. And I remember distinctly when I was six years old, my mom was a single mom. And what she used to leave me with the sitter, she used to always give me money and there was a corner store store, so she would give me candy money. And I will walk around to the store and I will get my candy money and I was lonely. I miss my mom but I didn't know how to deal with that as a little kid but candy made me feel better. And so that that same pattern that started when I was just a little kid came along with me as I grew into an adult. And so when I had emotions that I felt were too negative or powerful for me to handle, then out there was always the Pepperidge Farm coconut cake. And hijack my brain so bad that there would be times when I would come home from my shift as a nurse that I was set the cake in front of me with a knife and a fork and I well initially I say, I'm just going to have a slice, but then it was like the cake would talk to me and say, Kim, come eat me. Come eat me, you know, over and over again. Yeah, and I would just sit down finally to shut that voice up in my head with a knife and a fork and just keep on eating and eating and eating until the cake was gone. And I would feel so ashamed and so embarrassed, and I would be like, you know, you know, what the right thing to do is, why can't you control this aspect of your life? And one are the things that the Lord showed me was, how to manage my emotions in a better way. But then also, that there were certain foods that did not play well with my brain chemistry. And it would be like somebody who would go into surgery, and an anesthesiologist would give them medication and they will go to sleep well with that person when they woke up what they say, I can't believe you did that. How could you not have any self control? You went to sleep? That medication was designed to do that. So with me, there were certain foods that had that same effect where I would just lose self control. And so I had to say to myself, I want foods in my life, that don't have that effect that keep me emotionally stable so I can finish the work that the Lord called me to do.

Twanna Henderson: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, unpacking that It's so important because a lot of times we really don't want to do that hard work, to unpack those things and to really look at those things that cause us to have to deal with just life issues. You know, the thing about believers, you know, we we can spiritualize almost anything. And, and some people might say that it doesn't matter how we treat our bodies, because man looks at the outside, but God looks on the heart. Look at the heart. What do you say to that?

Kimberly Taylor: Well, you know, I was thinking, I said this earlier, that our bodies are important, not because of how they look but whom they contain. And I always think about it like this. Imagine that you were a landlord, and you had taken time to fix up your property and you painted it, you cleaned it, everything was nice indeed. And then you had a tenant that moved into that property. And that tenant, they ended up just just trashing the place. I mean, you go to visit the property and it was trash all over dish dirty dishes in the sinks, roaches crawling everywhere. And I think to myself, would you say that that tenant respected your property? And no, you wouldn't say that because that tenant did not take the time to take care of the property that did not belong to them. So that's the way I think about taking care of our bodies. And it's not about condemnation, but it's about respect and honor and recognition that our bodies don't belong to us that they are temples of the Holy Spirit we were bought at a price and we're called to glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits which belong to Him. So again, it's not about condemnation. Love is the motivator that we that we recommend to take back your temple love As the motivator because we recognize that it's a high honor to have God live on the inside of us through the Holy Spirit, and we want to take care of ourselves out of that feeling of love and respect. So I think it is God does look on the heart. I think he's more concerned about he's not well, let me just put it this way. God is not up in heaven with a scale and a tape measure. If you gain a pound, he doesn't care about that. But what he does care about is what you said, and that that those heart issues that are going on, because he desires that we bear abundant fruit, spiritual fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Jesus said that by this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. So you will be my disciple. So any behavior, or thought pattern or stronghold that you have that is interfering with your ability to bear that fruit, that fruit of the Spirit then God is concerned about that. Yeah, yeah. That's how I answer.

Twanna Henderson: Yeah. And I think that's, I think that's absolutely correct. You know, it's hard, though. I mean, it's hard because, you know, again, there a lot of things that we know, intellectually, you know, but translating that into really getting it is a struggle. And, you know, and you know, some people say that gluttony is kind of the accepted sin, you know, in the church and you we've all had those, you know, we look forward to those fried chicken dinners and everything, you know, it's like, we can't do anything else in the church, at least we can eat. What do you what do you say to that? Do you agree with that statement, or what?

Kimberly Taylor: Well, you know what I cannot say it's the most accepted sin, but it's certainly accepted. In fact, there is a friend of mine and she talked about because she, she at one point, she too struggled with her weight and she talked about how, you know, when we were, you know, going to the well the church building and, and all that she talked about, um, many people have this pattern of just church and chew, church and chew church and chew and what she was talking about was church and eating, you know. And you're right, it is a difficult thing. But as I've mentioned, as we know, we have the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, who is on the inside of us, and it's not about willpower, because in our flesh, we don't have the willpower to do the right thing, at least not for long, because I always think about it like this, expecting our flesh to want to do the right thing is like expecting a fox to guard the henhouse. That fox will have chicken dinner every night. I'm just saying we have to recognize that it's our reliance on the Holy Spirit on the inside of us to do what we know we need to do and plus make it easy for ourselves to do it not keeping foods that hijack our brains in our environment, because that's like expecting or keeping a well stocked liquor cabinet in the house and in the house of an alcoholic and expecting them not to want to take a drink. It's the same thing.

Kimberly Taylor: We have to recognize our own weaknesses and set up our environment to make it easy to do the things that help us and not hurt us.

Twanna Henderson: I agree. And you know, both men and women struggle with weight issues, but, you know, let's just be honest, in the world of women, size is a big contributor to comparison. You know, however, size and health are two different things. How can we as women, appreciate the body that God has given to us? Yet, steer away from wanting what others have.

nk I always think about Psalm: 139:14

Twanna Henderson: That's right.

Kimberly Taylor: But the real us, Our spirit is going to live on with Jesus in eternity with the Father. That is the real us. So we need to appreciate that the fact that these bodies are our home while we're here on this earth, but that is not who we are. And we're but we are going to appreciate it. We are going to take care of it out of respect and honor for the God who gave it to us in the first place.

Twanna Henderson: Amen. And I agree with that, and I think Psalm 139 is definitely one of those hold on kind of scriptures. You know, when we are tempted to compare ourselves and to, you know, because everybody there's always something that is better on somebody else. But for some women, and for a lot of women where really, they're the main cooks of their home or at least the shoppers if they don't if they don't do a lot of cooking. Without drastically changing the dinner menu, how can they gradually introduce their family to healthier options at the dinner table?

Kimberly Taylor: Well, you know, one of the things first of all, let me just tell you this, please do not tell your family when you do create a new dish or something that's healthy, that Oh, this is so good for you. Because people automatically think that if something is good for you it's not gonna taste good. And really, with the family, they may be more concerned to be sure that it's something that tastes good. But you know, there are things that you can substitute. If you have your family has some favorite recipes. There are some healthier substitutes that you can make just a little bit in that recipe. Let's say for example, like spaghetti. So what I do then with spaghetti sauce, is I go ahead and I put extra vegetables, I sneak them in like extra onions, peppers, mushrooms, and I cut those up very small and I sneak it into the spaghetti sauce. You can do that or chili. You can do the same thing with any like tomato base sauce type recipe that you have. Grow some vegetables or just take some raw vegetables or whatever, cut them up really small and sneak it in there. They won't know the difference. I'm just saying. The other thing that you can do is like with tuna fish, if you make something like that substitute the heavy mayonnaise for Um, excuse me, for Greek yogurt.

Twanna Henderson: Mm hmm.

Kimberly Taylor: And that's something that's a great substitute for that you get some extra protein in it and not as much fat. So little substitutions and we live in such a wonderful time that you can just type in whatever recipe that you want in a search engine, and say healthy, whatever it is that you want to make, and there are tons of recipes. Now one of the things I love to do is search out recipes, but I don't pick a recipe that has less than 10 reviews on it. And, um, and has four, four stars or greater. Okay? Those are road tested recipes that you could try out with your own family but we live in such a great time that there are recipes for just about anything, any recipe that your family has, but you can make it in a healthier manner. So I would recommend that, sneaking some extra vegetables in there where they don't know that is that the extra vegetables are really there and then find healthier versions of family favorites.

Twanna Henderson: Okay, I think that's a great way to be able to do that because a lot of times people may have a spouse who just does not want to have, eat healthier eating habits. And so just trying to create those things, and to help the households to stay balanced. Let's say that a Christian hasn't taken care of themselves for years but they want to start honoring their bodies as God's temple. What are some steps that they can take to get on the right track?

Kimberly Taylor: Well, the first thing I would recommend because you know the book of Proverbs tells us that to keep your heart with all diligence for out of it springs, the issues of life, and weight issues are a life issue eating issues or life issues. So any life issue you first of all want to seek the Lord in prayer because it's useless to try to provide an answer when you really don't have a deep understanding of what the problem is. Because for each person, it may be slightly different, but the Lord can give you insight as to what is contributing to your eating and your weight issues. And then just ask the Lord to say, Lord, what is one small step that I can start with where I am right now? Because I just think about it, even when I was dealing with when I had my weight issues and, and I wanted to exercise, I knew that was good for me. But I, I just felt like my legs had concrete in them where I really could not walk very far. But one of the things that the Lord showed me Is he said, you know, you can just walk down, walk down the street, and then come back. That's five minutes. You got five minutes, you can do that. And see, I think part of it is sometimes we might have some pride in there. Where we're not really willing to start small, we want to overhaul everything. And then, you know, when a few weeks later or really about two weeks later, it's like, oh, this is too hard. Forget it. It's kind of like an all or nothing mindset and see, we have to get over that because that's part of that old diet mentality, like I overhaul everything and then when I, when it gets too hard, I quit and then I have to start, I try to start all over again. It's like, No, no, no, your weight loss system has to work within the context of your life. So whether it's eating an extra serving of vegetables, whether it's substituting a piece of fruit for candy bar, whether it's taking an extra glass of water, these are small, doable steps that anyone can do. But first of all, I will ask you to seek the Lord in prayer. So he could give you the understanding as to what's really going on behind your weight problem, and then he'll give you something small to start with, that you can build on.

Twanna Henderson: Amen, so talk to us about what you offer in the take back your temple program.

Kimberly Taylor: Yes, So um, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity the Take Back your Temple Program is a Christian weight loss program and one of the things that we do is we really focus on weight loss for people who have weight problems from an eating issue perspective, whether it's emotional eating, whether it's binge eating because that's not everybody. We know for some people weight loss is just simply a matter of getting the right diet and exercise program. Take Back your Temple is not about that, we focus on the eating and exercise issues because that's pretty much my wheelhouse in terms of being a life coach with that, um, but one of the things that people can reach out to us at takebackyourtemple.com to learn more about that program and then we also have a new book called "Overcoming Emotional Eating God's Way" and that's just been released. So it's something that gives you like, an actual plan to start with if that's your your issue with emotional eating.

Twanna Henderson: Okay, amen. So everybody you got that you can go straight to the website takebackyourtemple.com to get more information about the program. You know as we get ready to close we know that the word of God lets us know that he who the sunsets free is free indeed and weight loss and binge eating is a serious issue for many. Kim, can you pray for those who are struggling and who are yo yoing and who are just seeking a lifeline in this area?

Kimberly Taylor: Yes, I'll be happy to. Gracious Heavenly Father and Jesus's mighty name. Lord we are so grateful to be here at this time and to pray to you for those who are listening here who what I've said has resonated with them, where they recognize that the eating has become a problem and they know that they need to change. So Father, we're asking that you open up their understanding about the root of the issue and show them that you are there as their comforter and their standby as the source of their wisdom. Lord, we know that your word says in Romans 12:2 that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So we want each and every listener to have your best be made manifest in their lives. So Lord, show them that next right step that they need to take to be able to overcome this issue not with willpower, but by your power because it's with your power that you will receive the glory when they testify to others about how they overcame. So Lord, we give you honor, we give you praise, we give you glory because we serve an excellent God and we thank you in Jesus name, amen.

Twanna Henderson: Amen, amen. Kim It has been a pleasure having you on T Time, again, I want to encourage everyone to go to our website, takebackyourtemple.com to get more information and to all of our listeners I look forward to connecting with you the next time be blessed of the Lord.