I have mentioned the Ruby show several times in my blogs, and how important social support is in aiding healthy weight loss and maintaining the pounds dropped. How many of you considered spirituality/religion to be a component to social support? In Ruby’s case, she turns to her church family and God to pray for her and help keep her strong and motivated to meet her weight loss goals.
Spirituality can be and is different for everyone. Whomever or whatever you believe in tends to give people a strong sense of being and helps with having a healthy lifestyle. When enduring a diet and focusing on having a healthy lifestyle, you can think if this as a time of self-reinvention. A few ideas behind spirituality/religion and weight loss/being healthy are:
Stress is associated with weight gain; people who experience an abundance of stress without good stress relievers may seek comfort in food. Spirituality often plays the role as a stress alleviator, once again demonstrating that spirituality can help with weight.
- In studies, having spirituality has been shown to decrease depression and anxiety of weight issues, as well as improving individuals’ awareness of fullness and have healthier attitude toward food.
- Individuals whom have spirituality (or religion) in their lives tend to be happier and more content compared to those who do not. Happiness translates into a vision of satisfaction this leads to the thinking that when one is satisfied, he/she is less likely to overeat.
- Or, spirituality could also simply provide you with a placebo effect, you believe you are getting the help therefore you are motivated and determined to stay on track and committed to losing the weight.
Whichever direction spirituality takes, it is widely believed that having faith and believing in something higher/more complex or powerful then you can be very effective in improving your health and aiding in weight loss. It may be a placebo effect, but connecting to one’s own spirituality during this time of self-reinvention can have powerful effects on the ability to see weight loss through to the end, and make lifestyle changes that will last a lifetime.
Dear Ruby,
My name is Melissa and I live here in Savannah, actually about 5 minutes out in the little town of Bloomingdale. I know that you receive thousands of e-mails probably a day and this one may never reach you but, With God’s will anything is possible and you are living proof. I have watched your journey and will continually to pray for you. I believe as long as you keep your faith and believing in yourself, you will become that women you’re striving to become and I believe that’s just simply wanting to feel COMPLETE! Complete in all ways of life. I’m not going to go into details about myself but I struggle from basically an ongoing disease and have since I was diagnosed at the age of 17 with a chemical embalance in the brain. I’m only thirty now. I have been able to follow your story and relate to so many of the mental struggles you have faced along the way. Seems some days are better that others huh? I wake never knowing how I am going to feel. I went through some pretty traumitizing things as a young child, one being over weight and now that I’m not those things still seem to have some kind of effect on me. As I try to tell myself though, we’ve got to take one day at a time and surely nothing’s going to just happen over night. I really want to let you know that you are one of the most beautiful people I’ve gotten to know and I have to say one of the most realist people. It’s so glad to know that real women still exists. I hope one day I will pass you on the street, just to say hello and tell you again what an inspiration you have been not only to me, but millions! Thank You For Being Who You Are and May God Continue To Bless You and Your Friends and Family!
Sincerely,
With Much Love Melissa