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1. The moment I realized something about burgers.

I remember when I was actively trying to help my brain think more neutral thoughts about burgers and it dawned on me that a burger is just a sandwich. People talk about burgers like they’re toxic and I was like…but it’s just bread and meat.  IT’S JUST A SANDWICH! WAIT, WHAT?!! Why are we trained to think these are bad? It’s protein, carbs and fat. It’s perfect.

2. How many eating disorder behaviors can you keep and still recover?

This is a trick question.

Behaviors will (many times) change before your thoughts will. You will have to stop engaging in a particular behavior before you will naturally have the thought to. It’s hard, but all ED behaviors have to go for you to recover. What are you waiting on? 

3. Your body is a temple

Growing up, when I’d hear people reference any scripture referring to the body as a temple, I felt like I was being told that temples were beautiful so I should be striving to conform my body to the standards set by our broken world (become thinner. take up less space. eliminate dessert. eliminate carbs.).

But now I realize that a temple isn’t made to be worshiped, it’s a place to worship! When your body becomes what you are worshiping…it’s idolatry.  A few weeks ago at church we had a guest pastor, Richard Beck, who shared his personal idolatry detection questions.  I thought they were helpful so I wanted to share them here:

  1. What makes me feel special or significant? Where do I get my self esteem? (other than God.)
  2. What do I lean on when I’m hurt? (other than God.)

If I have this right, a temple should be a place that allows you to have more connection to God, right? For some, pursuing a body size you’re not meant to be will break your connection to Him. It broke my connection to him for years. I have this image in my mind now of me clinging on to my excessive exercise routine and size too small pants looking Jesus in the face asking, “why isn’t this working? Why isn’t this solving my problems? I’ve got this thinness level, why isn’t everything better?” When I think back to me back then I imagine God being like, “I wish you would’ve chosen me a bit sooner, but it’s okay. I still love you.”  And even when I make mistakes now or feel like I’m drowning in anxiety I imagine God saying, “I wish you would’ve chosen me in x situation, but it’s okay. I still love you.” 

Circling back to the temple. I’m all for treating your body with respect, for many reasons, one of those being it’s home to the the holy spirit.  I think having respect for a temple could mean not littering in it. Littering a temple could be comparable to cluttering your mind with thoughts and behaviors that show what false idols you have, such as the pursuit of a certain body size, obsession with certain foods because you have eliminated so many foods, and many more I’m sure you could think of for yourself. 

4. Hair cut for curly hair.

Clearly a topic change haha.  I heard about DevaCut/DevaCurl a year ago and finally looked up a salon that is trained in the technique. The salon I went to only cuts curly hair (I don’t know why I hadn’t been going to a curly hair salon for years!).  For those in Houston, I went to Planet Curls and really liked it. I’d been wanting some DevaCurl products but didn’t know which ones to get and wanted some guidance from a stylist. I ended up taking home the below products (the DevaCurl Curl Maker Spray Gel is my favorite so far <– affiliate link) and the advice to only wash my hair once a week (not gonna happen haha, but I am going to try to wash it less).

My curls get more defined the less I wash them. Here’s my hair right after washing it…

And here it is 4 days after washing…(way more curly!).  I’m excited to play around with it more!

5. The long weekend

We had a great long weekend with a trip to the lake and a chill brunch with friends yesterday.  Looking forward to this quick week!

There’s a lot in this post! Any thoughts?

26 comments

  1. Hey Kylie! I almost clapped my hands together when you mentioned Deva Curl. I’m a fellow curly girl (I have really tight ringlets) and all I need to get by is the Deva Curl conditioner and Deva Curl defining gel. My hair is much shorter than yours so I’ve never had a reason to use their other products, but I’ve been very happy with those two.

  2. Love the comparison of littering in a temple versus cluttering your mind with lies/unhelpful thoughts. I so appreciate your willingness to share what you are learning spiritually! 

  3. AAAAh the unicorn floaty!!
    I like the temple analogy, too. I like to think of it in a way like, temples are built to last, resilient, and worthy of our respect and love. Aren’t our bodies the same?

  4. AAAh the unicorn floaty!!
    I like the temple analogy, too. I like to think of it like, temples are built to last, strong and resilient, and worthy of our respect and love. Aren’t our bodies the same?

  5. Love love love your temple anaolgy!! I am also an RD/mom/believer/curly hair gal/previous ED sufferer and it’s been a journey for me as well to reconcile my education/professional training with real life healthy practices and the gospel! Thanks for sharing your wisdom and thoughts :)

  6.  I really appreciated your thoughts on our bodies being temples of the Holy Spirit. What you shared was very profound.  Thank you for sharing your faith journey with us. 

  7. A good cut makes a world of difference on curly hair!! I have wildly curly hair and live in a pretty rural area where there are no DevaCurl trained salons within 150 miles (UGH) but the woman who cuts my hair now is certified with Ouidad, which is another great curl-cutting institute, so she rocks it out. I haven’t taken the plunge to try DevaCurl products yet, mostly because they’re expensive and I’m a recent grad on a tight budget, but maybe I should take the plunge! Also, I shower/condition my hair daily, but only shampoo it 1-2 times a week, and that has helped a lot with keeping it moisturized.

    Thanks for another great post!

  8. I LOVE DevaCurl and also get my haircut by a curly hair specialist here in St. Louis – totally worth it. Couldn’t agree more with the washing less technique too. 

  9. I love when you break down a certain meal or item into the different macros/micros each meal “should” consist of! Just like you did with the burger being perfect because it’s protein, carbs, and fats! I needed that because burgers are still hard for me to enjoy with without added food rules or on any ‘normal’ day. I would LOVE to see this more often :) 
    Thanks for being awesome!

  10. So many good things in this post!

    1: Those ED behaviors are sneaky. I’m well on my way in recovery, but sometimes find myself thinking that what I’m doing “should” be enough. I’m really starting to pay attention to the nudges I get in my gut around food and exercise. If something gives me a little flutter of anxiety, it’s time to examine and most likely challenge it.

    2. I’m not religious, but the temple metaphor really resonated. I think we get so lost in our outward appearance, wanting our physicality to match this ideal we hold in our minds, we forget our bodies are here to allow us to experience life. When my eating disorder was at its worst I was so consumed by my size and materialistic things. I have definitely felt my priorities shift as I have dived deeper into recovery.

    3. Curly hair! I am getting my first curl-focused haircut this month and I could not be more excited! I am 31 and have never been able to figure out my curls. As I’ve pushed further into recovery, I have found myself really wanting to embrace my physicality as it is, including my hair! I want to rock my curls (I love the super crazy, frizzy look) and proudly wear my white hair that’s becoming more and more apparent. I’ve put my body through a lot and its past due for some love and appreciation :)

  11. Yes! Burgers are perfect! They have protein, carbs, fat and fiber if you add veggies! Of course I don’t agree with talking about any food as if it’s bad, but I really don’t understand why people associate them with less-nutrient-dense foods. I have noticed that my hair is curlier when I wash it less too, and I have made an effort to wash it less often but I don’t think I could only wash it once a week! I’ll have to try those DevaCurl products.

  12. LOVE this perspective on treating our bodies like a temple. I think I always took that as “NO junk food, be a certain weight” etc. which was so dangerous–using my faith as a support for my disordered eating. So important to have this discussion and reflect on what that REALLY means to treat our bodies well and as a place of worship to our Creator.

  13. I love number one! Yes, burgers are just sandwiches, and this line of thinking is so very helpful! I appreciate what you wrote about one’s body being a temple. That’s a great perspective. That’s really exciting that you’ve found a stylist that specializes in curly hair! I hadn’t thought of that before (because I do not have curly hair), but that certainly would make all the difference. Have a great week!

  14. What a great reminder about our bodies being a temple! Jesus wants me to choose HIM over how much/what I eat or exercise every day. This is something I DAILY struggle with…worshipping my desired weight/size/shape, and goodness it’s exhausting. It is most definitely a discipline to fix my mind and heart on God’s truth about me. Thank you!

  15. I can resonate with believing that my body, AKA my temple, had to be “perfect”, but that’s not the truth! We are made uniquely by God for a purpose, each of us, so one size does not fit all, when we start to believe that God’s design for us is wrong, it leads to idolatry and searching for an identity that is never stable. We go to great lengths to maintain something that was never supposed to be stagnant in the first place. Eating disorders/disordered eating are symptoms of a bigger issues, an identity crisis. Thank you for tying faith into eating disorders!

  16. Hi there, 

    I’m in recovery from an eating disorder and I live in Canada! When I was in treatment we were strongly discouraged from using the term “behaviours” but instead encouraged to use the term “symptoms”. From my understanding, behaviours implies a conscious choice and helps shape the notion that EDs are a choice, whereas symptoms alludes to the fact that they are symptoms of a disease. I have noticed many Americans the the term “behaviours” and I’m just wondering your thoughts on this! 

    Thanks,
    Amanda

    • That’s a really interesting perspective! In my eating disorder recovery, I’ve actually found the use of the word “behavior” to be helpful. It has given me ownership over the choices I make in recovery. I don’t believe that we choose to have eating disorders, but I do believe that we can choose to engage with our eating disorder. All that to say that making that choice to disengage from your eating disorder is much more difficult to do when your body is malnourished and/or under-nourished. I think that’s why getting a dietitian and therapist team is so important. I can say from experience that it’s so much easier to engage with our healthy selves when our brains are being adequately fed.

  17. Ok I LOVE your thoughts on that verse, and how our bodies are what we worship IN, not what we worship! Thanks so much for sharing that insight. Also I’m super interested in the DevaCurl stuff! Your hair looks fab!

  18. Absolutely love this and could not agree more! Our body as a temple often is shown as our body as an idol but it is the exact opposite! Our body is a ~place~ to worship, not a thing to worship. Wow, so good! Thank you! :)

  19. I always love your 5 things posts because I feel like they are kind of the charcuterie plate of blog posts. Lots of little samplings of good things.

    So I’m actually not religious at all but I agree 100% with your body as a temple metaphor- your body is a house for your soul and as such it should be comfortable. Cool thought!

    Also I agree on the behaviors tidbit. I think it helps to rephrase “behaviors” as “symptoms” when calling them out. If you have a cold, and you still have 1 symptom of the cold (maybe the fever is gone but the cough is still there), then you are not healed of the cold. You can’t heal from something unless your symptoms have gone away and this makes complete sense with ED’s.

    Thanks for the tip on the curly hair products and happy week to you and your family!

  20. I so appreciate the temple analogy. The idea of using that analogy as a way to make sure you respect yourself and don’t clutter your “temple” with negative self-talk and self-hate VERSUS “respecting yourself” by eating specific things or working out a specific way is just so mindblowingly spot-on for me. As well as choosing not to worship your body, but appreciating it as the vehicle it is to help you worship what you will. Ugh. So. Good. 
    Thank you Kylie.

  21. Pingback: Three Thoughts | Dietitians on the Run

  22. 1) you’re beautiful.
    2) “a temple isn’t made to be worshipped, it is a place to worship.”??
    3) jahbless 

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