What Mindfulness and Stewardship Have Always Had in Common… And What That Has to Do With How You Eat

My journey to losing over 135 pounds started with four things.

Getting into therapy.
Opening up a Bible.
Starting to go for walks.
And starting to eat better.

That was it. The summer and fall of 2012. And I do not think I would be where I am today without all four of those things coming together the way that they did. They all mattered. They were all connected. And none of them happened in isolation from the others.

The eating better piece did not start with a program or a perfect plan. It started with learning. Learning how to cook differently. Then picking up a tracking app because I needed to actually understand what I was putting in my body… I did not know any other way to build that awareness. And then slowly starting to put together my own meal plans so I could have some structure to hold onto in a season where my kids were so little and life was full and staying on track felt like one more thing to manage on top of everything else.

I tried things along the way. Programs. Challenges. Different approaches. The way most people do when they are genuinely trying to figure it out. There is nothing wrong with any of it. A lot of those things taught me something. But I was building the plane while flying it… and what I was really searching for underneath all of it was something I did not yet have words for.

That journey eventually led me to study Human Performance and Nutrition at Liberty University and to build a career as a nutrition and fitness coach. And everything I have learned since… in the classroom, in my internship, and in the years of working with people on their own journeys… has only confirmed what I started figuring out back in 2012.

The food stuff matters. The movement matters. And so does everything underneath it.

Here is what I have seen consistently…

People come to the conversation about food and their bodies from all kinds of different places. Some are just trying to eat a little more intentionally and make better choices day to day. Some are working on understanding portions and building more balance and variety into how they eat. Some are tracking their nutrition to build real awareness around what is in their food and how it is working in their body. Different tools. Different seasons. All of it valid.

But no matter where someone is on that spectrum… the same struggles tend to show up.

The guilt after a hard day of eating. The all-or-nothing thinking that turns one off meal into a reason to give up on the whole week. The self-control that holds for a while and then disappears. The exhaustion of doing the work and still feeling like something is just not clicking.

I spent a long time thinking that the right structure or the right approach would eventually make everything fall into place. What I came to understand is that they were not nutrition problems at all… it was so much deeper.

They were foundation problems.

Because when the foundation is right… everything else has somewhere solid to land.

1. Who Are You?

Truth first. Everything else second. Always.

Before you make a single food choice… before you open any app or follow any plan… you need to know who you are. And I do not mean your calorie goal or your dress size or the number on the scale. I mean your actual identity.

And this can be so hard for so many of us because we have layers upon layers of things that we have chosen as our identity. But the truth is… You are not your body. You are not your weight. You are not the sum of your food choices. You are God’s creation.

Psalm 139:14 says “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

What this means practically is that we do not make changes to fix something broken.

We make changes to steward something that was already called good. There is no shame attached to food choices. There is no condemnation waiting at the end of an imperfect day. Just a God who entrusted you with something precious and is cheering you on as you learn to care for it well.

2. Understand Where Self-Control Actually Comes From

This is the one that changes everything.

Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. Not a personality trait. Not a willpower muscle. Not something you either have or you do not. A fruit. And fruit grows from a root.

And when we talk in the nutrition space, self-control is all about helping yourself make the right choice by alleviating obstacles or creating good obstacles. Helping be in alignment with the values that you might hold. Helping you pause.

Because our flesh wants what it wants when it wants it. And if you have ever stood in front of the pantry at 9pm not even hungry but reaching for something anyway… you know exactly what I mean.

That is the flesh doing what the flesh does.

Romans 7:18 says even Paul struggled here… “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”

You cannot manufacture self-control. It runs out. It always does when it is not rooted.

And when it does… the default is the flesh every single time.

3. Take Every Thought Captive… Including the Ones About Food

2 Corinthians 10:5 says “we take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

Gahhh! This one hits differently when you apply it to your relationship with food.

Because so much of what drives our eating is not hunger. It is thought.

It is the thought that says you already blew it so you might as well finish the bag.

The thought that says you deserve this because you had a hard day.

The thought that says you are so far gone it does not even matter anymore.

Those thoughts are not truth. They are “actually” opinions raised against the knowledge of God… and Paul tells us to destroy them.

Side note: “actually” opinions… that is the enemy at work doing the same thing he did to Eve in the garden.

Christian-based mindfulness starts here.

Watching your thoughts.
Because your thoughts become your words.
Your words become your actions.
Your actions become your habits.
Your habits become your character.
And your character becomes your identity.

Watch what you are telling yourself about food. Watch what you are telling yourself about your body.

Surrend those thoughts to Jesus and ask… is this true? Is this what You say about me? Because if it is not… it does not get to stay.

This is not positive thinking. This is alignment. And it is one of the most powerful things you can do for your relationship with your body and food.

4. Look at this as Stewardship, Not Control

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit… therefore honor God with your body.”

Honoring something looks very different from controlling it. Honoring requires presence. It requires attention. It requires listening. So when I think about how we approach food… whether that is learning to cook differently, becoming more aware of portions, following a meal plan, or tracking nutrition more intentionally… the question I want you to sit with is this.

Are you doing this to restrictively control (the type that leads to guilt and shame)?
Or are you doing this to honor?

The food you eat builds and repairs what God gave you. It fuels your calling… your work, your family life, your training, your daily life. It supports your hormones, your energy, and your longevity.

When you approach your choices with that lens… it becomes less of a transaction and more of an act of faithfulness.

Like saying… God, I am choosing to take care of what You entrusted to me.

That is a completely different relationship with food than most of us were taught to have.

5. Be Mindful of Where You Place Yourself

1 Corinthians 15:33 says “bad company ruins good morals.”

Where you place yourself matters.

What you watch, what you scroll, who you eat with, what conversations you sit in around food and bodies… all of it shapes your habits and your heart.

Being mindful of your surroundings is a biblical instruction.

If you are constantly surrounded by diet culture content that tells you your body is a problem to be fixed… that is going to affect how you approach everything.

If you are in communities that celebrate full on restriction & shame overeating… that shapes your relationship with food whether you realize it or not. Please take a note that I am talking about the extreme measures of this. The things that make you literally feel bad afterwards.

Consumption isn’t just food. It is being intentional about what you let in. Because you are consuming all of those different things.

Guarding your heart (Proverbs 4:23) includes guarding what you consume with your eyes and ears… not just with your fork.

6. Respond Instead of React

James 1:19 says “let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

And I want to look at this with why we go to eat.

So much of our eating is reaction.

We react to stress by reaching for food.
We react to boredom by opening the fridge.
We react to a hard emotion by looking for something to soothe it.

And none of that is slow. None of that involves pausing.

None of that is the fruit of the Spirit at work.

We need to learn to pause. To breathe. To respond thoughtfully instead of reacting impulsively. Before you eat… especially when you are not sure if you are actually hungry… slow down.

Ask yourself what is actually going on. Is this physical hunger? Is this emotional? Is this boredom, loneliness, anxiety, stress, exhaustion?

That one pause is where stewardship lives.

That is where the Spirit gets to show up before the flesh takes over.

7. Discipline Without Idolatry

These two words… they have a tendency to make people cringe a little. But hear me out… idolatry is everywhere. We have to watch how much we give to specific things. How much are we ruled by them? How much do we let them affect us?

And discipline… this one is even harder. There’s such a conversation around mental toughness. White knuckling through things. Beating the body. But… there’s different sides to this.

1 Corinthians 9:27 talks about disciplining the body. The ESV states… “But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

And yes… discipline matters.

But Matthew 6:33 tells us “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you”.

And those two things have to live together.

Discipline without idolatry looks like this.

You are consistent… but not consumed.

You are intentional… but not anxious.

A hard day of eating does not equal failure.

A good day of eating does not equal righteousness.

Because when the plan becomes the source of your peace… when a good food day feels like a moral victory and a hard one feels like missing the mark (the true meaning of sin)… the tool has become an idol. And no idol was ever meant to carry that weight.

The way you eat is a tool. Not your master. Not your measure of worth. A tool. And a tool works best in the hands of someone who knows what it is actually for.

8. Remove Guilt and Perfectionist Thinking

God never designed your journey to be ruined by one meal. One off day does not mean start over. It means reset, refocus, move forward.

The perfection and paralysis cycle is one of the most brutal patterns I have ever seen in this work. And it is rooted in a lie… that your worth is earned by your performance. That you deserve restriction because you overate. That you have to punish the body back into line.

That is not stewardship. That is not faith.

That is flesh trying to do penance that grace already covered.

You do not earn your worth by being perfect. Romans 8:1 settled that.

Romans 8:1 says “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

And when that truth gets into your bones… when it actually changes the posture you bring to your plate… the guilt & shame cycles start to lose its grip.

9. Invite God Into the Process… Literally

Proverbs 3:6 says “in all your ways acknowledge Him.”

All your ways.

Including the meal prep.
Including the tracking.
Including the moment you are standing in the kitchen wondering why you want to eat when you are not even hungry.

Practically… this looks like praying before meals. Not a long elaborate prayer… just a moment.

Lord, help me fuel this body well. Help me be present. Help me take good care of what You gave me.

It looks like practicing stillness. Psalm 46:10 says “be still and know that I am God.” Stillness before eating… even just a breath… is an act of acknowledgment. It slows the reaction down. It opens the door to response.

It looks like fasting sometimes. Not as a calorie strategy… but as a spiritual practice that trains the body to be under the authority of the Spirit. Fasting builds the exact root that produces the fruit of self-control.

And it looks like being in the Word. Because Romans 12:2 tells us we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. What we meditate on shapes what we reach for. A mind fixed on truth makes choices from truth. Including at the dinner table.

Romans 12:2 ESV “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

10. Consistency Over Perfection… Always

God works in daily faithfulness. Not extreme moments. Not the perfect week. Not the one day everything went exactly according to plan.

Galatians 6:9 says “do not grow weary in doing good.”

Daily faithfulness. That is where transformation lives.

Eighty to ninety percent consistency is a win. Showing up daily beats being perfect occasionally every single time.

Small obedience over time leads to transformation that willpower alone could never produce.

I have lived that truth. And I have watched it in the lives of people who stopped trying to be perfect because that is impossible for us. Only God is perfect.

Thank you for joining me here ♥️

Mindfulness can be a biblical call to live with intention… to watch your thoughts, guard your words, be present in your body, and acknowledge God in all your ways.

And when that is the foundation… stewardship of the body becomes something completely different than another diet attempt.

You are not your macros. You never were. You are fearfully and wonderfully made… and everything else flows from there.

I hope and pray this is the reframe that shifts things for you. Because you deserve a relationship with food that is rooted in truth, grounded in grace, and growing toward freedom.

And if you need “quick help” with any of these things and more, here are some really good quick references in scripture to help.

This post was inspired by a concept I was already trying to put words to… and then Kelsey Combs posted something that helped me finally crack it open. If you want another Christian take in the nutrition space, her work is worth your time. You can find her at Kelsey Combs.