Exposing the Church's Biggest Body Image Myths with Lisa Whittle [Podcast Transcript]

Title: Exposing the Church's Biggest Body Image Myths with Lisa Whittle

Podcast Date: September 2, 2025

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In this insightful episode of the Compared to Who? podcast, host Heather Creekmore welcomes bestselling author, speaker, and Bible teacher Lisa Whittle to discuss her new book, Body and Soul, and the powerful concept of "whole body theology." Together, they delve into the intersection of faith and body image, explore what it means to have a biblical foundation for how we view our bodies, and confront the complicated journey many Christians face with body image and self-worth.

Key Points & Takeaways:

• Whole Body Theology Defined:
  Lisa shares her journey into developing a “whole body theology” — a comprehensive, biblical belief system that addresses our entire personhood (body, soul, and spirit). This theology is designed to give believers a scriptural foundation for making body-related decisions, rather than relying solely on diet culture or secular self-esteem movements.

• The Need for a Biblical Approach:
  Both Heather and Lisa highlight the shortcomings of how the Church often compartmentalizes spiritual and physical health, or accidentally echoes secular body positivity without offering a theological alternative. Lisa asserts that lasting body image peace is grounded in spiritual transformation and discipleship, not just new diets or positive mantras.

• Personal Body Image Stories:
  Lisa vulnerably recounts her own "complicated" story with body image, including familial pressures, diet culture, and early struggles with eating disorders. She reveals how the truth of Scripture and God’s view of her body brought genuine freedom, something diets and cultural messages never provided.

• Discipleship Around Body Image:
  The conversation stresses the Church’s responsibility to disciple believers in whole body theology, integrating faith and embodied life. Lisa advocates for developing a framework where everyday choices with food, movement, rest, and even work are filtered through the lens of glorifying God.

• Misuse of Scripture in Body Image:
  Common verses like “your body is a temple” or “fearfully and wonderfully made” are often misapplied, leading to shame, diet obsession, or misunderstanding. True whole body theology digs deeper into Scripture for a holistic, grace-filled perspective rather than cherry-picking verses to fit societal standards.

• Rejecting Judgement & Assumptions:
  Both speakers caution against judging others' bodies from the outside or assuming someone's spiritual health by body size. Such partiality is unbiblical and harmful, and they call for more compassion and understanding within the Church community.

• Dangers of Diet and Body Positivity Culture:
  Lisa and Heather warn against simply swinging from diet culture to secular body positivity without a biblical root. They challenge listeners not to accept cultural solutions but to pursue God’s truth for genuine freedom and transformation.

• About Lisa’s Bible Study (Body and Soul):
  Lisa explains how her new six-week Bible study walks individuals or groups through the process of building a whole body theology. With videos, scripture dives, reflection questions, and practical steps, participants learn to draw their body beliefs from Scripture—not from culture.

Practical Encouragements:

• Lasting body image freedom comes from aligning your beliefs about your body with God’s Word, not with fleeting diets or positive slogans.

• True discipleship includes how we steward, honor, and view our physical selves as integral to spiritual life.

• It’s time for the Church and its people to lead—not follow—in honest, compassionate, gospel-oriented conversations about body image.

Get Connected & Resources:

• Heather Creekmore’s 40 Day Body Image Journey:
  Sign up at improvebodyimage.com to dig deep into Scripture and pursue body image freedom.

• In His Image Conference:
  Join Heather outside Dallas, Texas, this November—early registration details are here: https://www.wonderfullymadenutritioncounseling.com/events/in-his-image-body-image-conference-for-teen-girls-and-women-2025

• Get Lisa Whittle’s Book:
  Body and Soul: A Six-Week Bible Study is available on Amazon (affiliate link), LisaWhittle.com, and wherever books are sold.

• Connect with Heather:
  Visit heathercreekmore.com for more encouragement, resources, and podcast info.

Thanks for tuning in to Compared to Who? Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with anyone who needs biblical hope for their body image journey!

Loved the episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—Heather and the team love hearing from you!

For more Christian podcasts, check out lifeaudio.com.

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.

Transcript

Heather Creekmore [00:00:02]:
Life Audio. Hey friend, Heather Creekmore here. I'm glad you're listening to the Compare to podcast today. Today my guest is Lisa Whittle and she has been blowing up the Internet in some pretty amazing places on the topic of body image. And so I'm excited to have her here today. Lisa's a Bible teacher speaker, she's written a number of books, she's a best selling author, she's got her own podcast. And today we're just going to have a convers about her new book which, which is called Body and Soul. And really it's this concept of having a whole body theology.

Heather Creekmore [00:00:42]:
Here's what you need to know before you listen so you're not confused. Lisa probably has no idea the depths of which we've tackled some of these body image topics on this show. And hear me clearly, I would not have expected her to. So if she says something, you're like, I don't think Heather would say it like that. That's okay. I want you just to put that aside because here's what we're going to celebrate today. We're going to celebrate the fact that Lisa is taking this body image conversation into mainstream church world and that's a win. And so I want to celebrate her and celebrate her work and let's celebrate this truth that we really do need a whole body theology.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:22]:
We need to be looking at body image issues first from a biblical perspective. You've heard me say that before, so I think you're gonna really love the meat of this interview. Before we dig in, I have to tell you two quick things. We're doing another 40 day journey. It starts, you'll start reading October 1st. Our meetings start October 7th. So go to improvebodyimage.com today and sign up to be part of that journey. If you really want to take your first steps towards body image freedom, my 40 day body image journey is the easiest, best way for you to do that.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:56]:
We do dig into scripture. We look at what the Bible says about how you were created, why you were created. But we go so much further than that into looking at why you're still stuck with body image issues. So don't stay there, don't stay stuck. Make this fall your season to get free. The other thing I need you to know about is the In His Image conference happening outside of Dallas, Texas, November 15th. I hope you'll show up there. Look for the links to that conference to find out how to sign up.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:23]:
I think there's an early registration discount, so get in there quick. All Those links are in the show notes. Okay, now let's get to today's show. Foreign Lisa Whittle, thanks for being on the Compare to you podcast today.

Lisa Whittle [00:02:40]:
Thank you. I'm swallowing my water.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:43]:
Sorry I caught you a bit off guard there.

Lisa Whittle [00:02:45]:
Okay. No, no, thanks for having me, Heather.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:48]:
Well, it's a tremendous honor to have you on because you have been blowing up social media through connecting with Candace Cameron Bure talking about body image on her show. You've got a brand new book out on body image. And let me just say thank you. As someone who's been doing this work for a decade, we've got like a group like 60 dietitians and eating disorder people that have been together praying that God would move in this area. So thank you for carrying the torch for us on, on your platform and Candace's platform as well.

Lisa Whittle [00:03:21]:
I think you guys have been carrying the torch. I'm just grateful to be able to, to come alongside and for such a time as this, be able to bring this body Bible study is what it really is, into the, into the public. It was definitely not something that was on my bingo card to ever talk about or research and pull apart. But the Lord does what he does and has the timing he has. And I think what's been awesome about it is really joining, joining hands and joining arms with amazing women like you who have been doing the work and are doing the work and will continue to do the work. And I really just hope body and soul will be a great resource for you in the work.

Heather Creekmore [00:04:00]:
Gotta tell you. So I'm gonna just confess my envy right now. Whole body theology was such a great way to put it. And I'm like, why didn't I think of that? So kudos to you for making it palatable because I've been talking about body image idolatry for years, but that's not very palatable. No one's gonna press like on that. So just it. It's amazing. You are saying the things that Christian women have needed to hear for a long time.

Heather Creekmore [00:04:28]:
And so thank you for that. But I know you can't say those things without having your own story, without having a personal journey that you've walked on. Lisa, would you share, like, where did your body image issue start? And kind of, what has God done in your life to help you find freedom?

Lisa Whittle [00:04:48]:
Yeah, it's a huge question. I think for me, I would phrase my body story as complicated. I think that's probably a word that would describe a lot of our, our body stories. Right? Because I wouldn't say that. And I can't say that. It's just been all terrible and all, you know, in the pit. And I certainly would never say that it's been, been all good. I think what one of the things that really learning whole body theology and that's just this, this biblical belief system of who we are in our entire personhood, body and soul, and really learning that and kudos to the Holy Spirit and God for, you know, helping mine that in the Bible.

Lisa Whittle [00:05:41]:
I think what that's really shown me is the, the accurate way to have seen my whole body journey. That's kind of a surprise for me, honestly, Heather, because I didn't think that would be an aspect of this. But even now, as I look back, I think that is an important piece of seeing things the way they were rather than the way that I imagined them to be at the worst moments of my embodied life or at the, the times that I felt the worst about myself. And then I like, well, actually I've always been overweight or actually I've always struggled with consuming thoughts about my image. And that's, that's not actually the truth. So I think it's helped me not only live the rest of my life in a very different place than I've ever lived in my body for a very long time, but it also has helped me even answer this question and correct perspective, which again, is an unexpected gift. But it's certainly been complicated. You know, I, I, I did struggle for so many years to see myself correctly.

Lisa Whittle [00:06:54]:
You know, my mom was always this really tiny, little, tiny little thing. My father was on the, the larger side and, you know, loved mayonnaise and bread and so did I, you know, and so, you know, I always sort of shamed myself into the you're just like your father speech, which carried on into a lot of things, like the gifting of being able to speak and all of that. But I looked at it as like you're just sort of, you know, on the bigger side like your dad. And those narratives run deep, you know, and so it was that and then it was boyfriends exacerbated. You have one leave like an offhanded comment, and that runs deep. And, you know, then you notice the size that you're wearing for the first time and, you know, you size yourself up in a room next to other women and notice, you know, that you're not the smallest in that room and you certainly never want to be the biggest. And so I think all of those things have accompanied my whole life. I, I Struggled with an eating disorder.

Lisa Whittle [00:07:55]:
I didn't call it that. I just called it like, I'm eating Skittle. I'm having Skittles and Diet Coke. That's my lunch, you know. And then I did get into, you know, binging and purging and things like that. So I've kind of been in all the places, I think. But it has been a long journey with the Lord and then really finally come to this place only freshly three to four years ago, when the Lord really had me search the scripture for a comprehensive look at my entire self from Genesis to Revelation. And as a Bible teacher, that was a very interesting thing for me because I've heard from plenty of, you know, nutritional experts, dietitians, I love all of that.

Lisa Whittle [00:08:43]:
And so that is not to slight any of it. It's just that those body topics and all the body goals that I always had never gave me the freedom I was looking for in my mind for the long haul. And so I know as a Bible teacher that any transformative process I've ever had has all always come through my relationship with the Lord and a biblical process. So it makes sense that this would be no exception.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:08]:
Yes. Understanding that we were created like in my, my 40 day bodyman's workbook. This is kind of a premise I start with too. But I've heard you speak about it, like, how does it sound so basic, especially if you're raised in church. Right. It's like, check. I don't even think about that anymore. Of course I was created, but I think we lose sight of that and that plays a damaging, I guess, part in, in how we view ourselves.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:39]:
Can you maybe give more words to that?

Lisa Whittle [00:09:42]:
Yeah, I mean it. The whole idea of being created in the image of God. And you know, I do think we throw around a lot of Christian terms like imago day, created in the image of God. You know, those will fall flat. They won't hold the weight they need. They won't be transformative. If we don't understand what that means and what that does for us, even in our, the way we view our body in our daily life and the way we view the totality of who we are, I think what has happened and what has been missing is that we haven't had a thorough foundational piece. We have pieced together these ideas from scripture that being one of them, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit being another.

Lisa Whittle [00:10:29]:
We have heard the sound bites and we have, we have maybe studied a verse here and there. We, we just have not had that Comprehensive, that theological underpinning, to really understand who we are in the fold. And I think that's partly because the church hasn't understood that this needs to be an actual discipleship process. I think it's never really had its day, and it's been very overlooked, because what the church has been really focused on is your spiritual life. Like, we want you to grow in your spiritual life, and that's great. But what that is missing is that your embodied life, your whole person, everything is involved in that. And so being created in the image of God has to do with much more than sit down and pray and grow because God loves you. It has to do with the way that you live and live that out, in the way you eat, in the way that you walk at work, in the way that you rest, in the way that you live your sex life and the way that you have movement.

Lisa Whittle [00:11:40]:
And so. And so on the secular side, we have these phrases like, your body is good. Love your body. Those are like, you know, Imago Day adjacent, you know, things to be taught to us. But those things don't crystallize because we don't understand them biblically. And so I think on both sides of things, there's just been a real gap in the understanding of what Imago Day means. All of the things that have to do with who you are and how you were created and what your body is all about from start to finish.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:13]:
Yeah. Well, the one for me was always, you're fearfully and wonderfully made. Because I was raised in church, so I knew that. I mean, I had the bumper sticker, I'm sure had the sticker in my Bible. I'd gone to all the women's conferences, and yet I lived very compartmentalized. I had, you know, view of body and food that was completely dictated by diet culture and what was good for the season. And then I had my God and Jesus answers and was in church three times a week, you know, but those two things are entirely compartmentalized. So I love that.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:47]:
And. And you're right. I mean, I think the church has been focused on the soul, But I also feel like. And you, you know, push back on this if you think I'm wrong, but I feel like the church has just gone along with diet culture, too. Right. Like, we've made the cracks from the stage about not eating carbs or whatever the trend of the day is without maybe having good theology around food, even.

Lisa Whittle [00:13:14]:
Heather, you don't have a long enough show for me to talk about this. I completely agree. I Co signed to your entire premise there. We, we haven't had the great understanding of this theologically from the church. And yes, that includes from the pulpit. That includes pastors, that includes leadership that is very easy to have missed. I, I am not saying that to shame anyone, but we've, I mean there was, I think it was about five years ago, I, I had a podcast called Ministry Strong and we did a whole thing where we talked about why are there overweight pastors. And the reality of this is, is that when you don't understand whole body theology, that it becomes about going on diets and fat grams and carb loading and macros and all of those things.

Lisa Whittle [00:14:11]:
And again, I'm not against any type of keeping track of what you're eating. I think those things are really smart and I think that, you know, we, we all know what kind of sugar does to our system. Like we could talk about all of that. I'm well educated in every bit of it. I lived firmly in diet culture. I know probably every fat gram known to mankind. But at the end of the day, I think what has been proven, I don't need to prove this. I think we, common sense will tell us that all of those things have never produced the, the body freedom and peace that we're looking for because we are continuously in need of and in sear a new idea, a new system, a new program, a new quick fix.

Lisa Whittle [00:15:00]:
And just think about your own life. Like I, again, I don't have to prove that to anyone. And so in the pulpit, yes, I think those comments have been made. Those, those places have been believed. This has been a subtle culture that has existed and still exists to a great degree. I'm not, I don't have a preconceived idea that I'm going to change all of that. What I do believe is that God has called me to tell people what I have learned. And same for you, Heather, and same for everyone listening right now.

Lisa Whittle [00:15:39]:
And I think that it is important and I do believe the tide is turning to a degree and it needs to turn because this needs to be a absolute part of what the church disciples us in. I cannot believe in some ways that we have missed it, but we have missed it for so, so many years.

Heather Creekmore [00:16:00]:
Yeah. And I'm just thinking about the other side of that is how the church kind of glommed onto body positivity. And that was when I wrote my first book back in, came out in 2017. But that was what I was responding to because what I saw was a woman who, you know, was published as a Christian author, going on stages telling women they just needed more pride and then they'd be free if they could just find more body pride. And it was like, no, like, how can pride ever be a biblical solution to this problem? And so that, you know, that was one of the things that compelled me. But I, I'm just, I'm so grateful that you are out there speaking truth and I don't know, like, I'm hopeful that it will have an impact. I'm hopeful that the narrative will change and what we hear in church, which will shift over, over the next decade or so. So thank you for that.

Lisa Whittle [00:16:53]:
Well, we certainly do our part. Right. And we certainly. I couldn't keep it to myself even if I wanted to. I'm sure the same for you. You know, when you've learned something that has set you free from years of destruction in your own body, that's. I speak for me, I couldn't possibly keep this treasure to myself. You know, I remember when I was writing Body and Soul, my test audience was my husband and my 24 year old son, who's a gym rat.

Lisa Whittle [00:17:20]:
And we would sit across the table and I'd say, you know what I learned today? And I would tell them things that I learned from scripture and my son's mind. Like, I could see his wheels turning and he was like, mom, I've never heard anything like this before in my entire life. Like, what you're saying to me is this. And he would repeat it back to me and he was absolutely blown away by what he was hearing. And so this is not a message for women. This is a message for us. This is a message for every single embodied person. And what you're talking about, Heather, is the, is the reality of what happens when you were talking about like swinging to body positivity culture.

Lisa Whittle [00:18:00]:
I actually, this whole thing began because I was, I was sick of body positivity culture. And so I did some shows, I did some podcasts called your body deserves more than hype. Because when I was, when I would travel and I would speak to women across the, the country, the. They would tell me stories about the pain they carried from whatever it was violations or, you know, a number of things that had happened, happened to them. And I would then hear these messages on social media that were just, you know, pick up your pom poms and cheer your body. And I would think there's a disconnect here. And it's somewhat insulting. Like, I'm not insulted, but I'm insulted For the mass of us and the women that I hear their stories, and I think this is not good enough.

Lisa Whittle [00:18:47]:
And there has to be something more. And of course there is, because we know biblically, it provides every solution we'll ever have. But what happens is, is the pendulum always swings when, when the church doesn't pick up the most important messages in our lives. Secular culture will always try to fill in gaps with their level of understanding. I don't say that with, like, you know, we're up here, there, down there. What I'm saying is it makes sense. If there's not an answer from the church, if the church isn't leading the hard conversations, then secular culture is going to be talking about it. But they're going to try to make sense in a way they don't.

Lisa Whittle [00:19:24]:
It doesn't make sense. And so they're going to say, well, just love your body. That's what you do at any size, whether you're healthy or not, whether you're, you know, doing it for the right reasons or not do it for you. And it's all a humanistic message, which we know humanism is so empty, but it's what they know to do. And so what I, what I think is compelling by what you said is that the church is being led by a secular conversation, and they're going, yeah, body positivity sounds good. Let's just go ahead and do that. When in reality, we have the Bible, why would we be led by a secular conversation on this? And I think, and again, we don't have time to cover this. I think it's because believers are notoriously lazy to want to do the work and mind Scripture.

Lisa Whittle [00:20:10]:
It takes work to go throughout the whole Bible and find out what the full picture is. So I did it for you. It's in body and soul.

Heather Creekmore [00:20:17]:
Yeah. And you did a great job. Yeah. And it's a little insidious, too, because I think, you know, until you dig in and research what body positivity preaches. You know, I did a diagram in my, in my workbook kind of saying, here's a body positivity preaches. Here's what the Bible preaches. Like, these are two very different things. But as Christians, you know, maybe to the point of what you mentioned laziness, it's like, well, shouldn't we be positive about our bodies? It was like, yes, we should.

Heather Creekmore [00:20:46]:
But that's not body positivity. Like, those are two different things. So, yeah, I appreciate that. You know, you mentioned the word discipleship, and, yeah, that's I'm, I'm ringing the bell over here for that because we do a lot of coaching here and work with women one on one around these issues. And it always comes down to, this is a line I use. It's not about your biology, it's about your theology. Right. It always comes down to what do you believe? What's your relationship with Jesus, what's gotten in the way of that? Like, like speak more to what you're saying when you talk about the need for discipleship around this issue.

Lisa Whittle [00:21:28]:
Well, I mean, it kind of just piggybacks on what we were just talking about. If, if the Church isn't discipling in this whole body theology and the, the totality of who we are as embodied, whole people, scripturally, we know that is how we were created. Mind, body, spirit. It is not just about who we are as a soul, who we are as a physical being. It is a totality. It's the full picture. If the Church doesn't disciple about that, if the leaders don't understand about that and then from there disciple about that, then we will continue to have confusion regarding what we need to do about our work life, our sex life, our, you know, our eating life, our working out life. And we will see them in compartments.

Lisa Whittle [00:22:28]:
We will see them as an other part of us. And that is, there's nothing new about that. That, that's been going on for a very long time, but it has a little bit of a different face now. And I think it has its hand in a lot of things that are actually really hurting the Church. From misunderstanding the gifts in, in the body of Christ, to the breakdown of unity in the body of Christ. I mean, this is a, this is a sub subject here, but it's really important in whole body theology. If you don't understand how your body, how you as an embodied person is meant to function within the body of Christ, then you will think that you can exist outside of, outside of it. That doesn't mean the body of Christ is perfect.

Lisa Whittle [00:23:20]:
That doesn't mean that you can't be hurt by each other. Listen, we are an imperfect body of Christ. If you have a perfect body, physical body, then please raise your hand. But there's not one of us.

Heather Creekmore [00:23:33]:
No hands are going up, right?

Lisa Whittle [00:23:34]:
There's not one of us who does. And it's no different than the body of Christ. There is not a perfect body of Christ. And yet we all want that. We want to go to a perfect church. We want a perfect, you know, body of Christ. No one ever Hurts each other. Well, it's not possible.

Lisa Whittle [00:23:49]:
There's, there's no perfection here. But thinking and believing that you can exist outside of it just doesn't make sense. And so that's just one aspect of this that a lot of us have missed. We've, we think, well, I don't understand why, you know, I, you know, am having all of this angst in my body. And we don't make a correlation to the fact that maybe we've had a fracture with somebody who's another believer for many, many, many years. I'm not saying that it always manifests in your body, but I think we have to pay attention to things like this. And so the discipleship goes really deep, but it's not that complicated. And so I think what needs to happen is for eyes to be open.

Lisa Whittle [00:24:33]:
And honestly, Heather, I think just a lot of times the church just has not understood that this even needs to be taught. Just doesn't even, it's not even on the radar screen. So hopefully this will expose some, some folks to that.

Heather Creekmore [00:24:47]:
Right? Or, or I don't know. I mean this. So I spend way too much time thinking about this, Lisa, so my apologies, but I feel like part of the challenge is the church, man. We're just following diet culture so well that we don't bother teaching that part. And then we kind of do just give, I'm going to even say rubber stamp, like allow women especially. But you're right, it's both men and women to pursue body things. Just put it all in one bucket. Right? Pursue that as a different pursuit, but maybe even a holy pursuit.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:29]:
Right, but a different pursuit than pursuing Jesus then pursuing maybe what God has called us to do. And like by that I mean, right, that just the number of Christianized slogans I've seen around the way we eat or the way we exercise or even, you know, shameful terms like, like it's a sin to, you know, eat chocolate and we have to take our thoughts captive and the thoughts are about chocolate, not about actual like sin. Like I feel like we've just kind of convoluted what diet culture says and what scripture says and, and made the, maybe made the Bible a self esteem slash diet manual. I don't know.

Lisa Whittle [00:26:11]:
That's, that's, that's, I think that's a good point. I think that's a fair point. I think that comes from a lack of true understanding from people that you're, that you're referencing anybody who would teach that. And I also think it comes from maybe a A cherry picked version of whole body theology. So if you just know a verse or if you have just maybe, maybe you're a pastor, maybe you're a leader and you have just taught on a verse, but you don't understand this in the full picture and the totality, then, then I think you would lean this way, I mean, case in point would be the most famous verse in the, in the Bible about body, right? Which is, do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? You're bought with a price that. Okay, so I've heard plenty of pastors, plenty of preachers on social media with a sound bite that says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, do not put garbage into it, you should be eating better, blah, blah, blah. And while I wouldn't go as far as to say that that is misinterpretation of the verse, I would say that it is a misapplication of the verse because in reality the verse is about something so much deeper and richer and more important than don't eat junk food. Right.

Lisa Whittle [00:27:40]:
So I think that's kind of what you're referring to here, which is when you think this is really about this siloed idea of diet culture and you're still sort of bought into the idea that, you know, thin means spiritual or you know, never mind if you are thin by a means which has nothing to do with discipline or has nothing to do with, with repentance and, and you know, really seeking God in your body. Never mind that, because this is a lot to do with optics culture, which is a whole other subject. But yeah, if you've bought into that idea, then you're going to preach a message which is basically don't put junk food in your body. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. I'm not opposed to the idea that like we should be honoring our bodies in a way that wouldn't just not fuel them properly. I mean, I think there's a, there's a place for that kind of message. I just don't think that's whole body theology in, in, in reality. So I think you're right.

Heather Creekmore [00:28:47]:
Well, and to take that one step further, and I've heard you speak just a little bit to this, our tendency to judge people based on body size and just the damaging, dare I say, devastating impact I think that's had on the church, you know, what are your thoughts there?

Lisa Whittle [00:29:06]:
Oh, I mean it is, assumptions are really devastating because one, we have no idea what anyone is going through in their body. Literally we don't know what medication they're on. We don't know what their body journey has been. We don't know what they're holding in their body. We do not know if they're in process. We don't know. We know none of that. We don't know if they have a debilitating disease.

Lisa Whittle [00:29:37]:
We don't know. We literally do not know from A to Z. And for us to get into this sizing up of folks based on what our eyes see, not only is it damaging, but it's, it's actually quite unbiblical. If you literally go into. I mean, I'm thinking of the Gospels. When you even think about, you know, the, the storm, the disciples being in a boat, and, and Jesus calming the waves and, and the fact that, that Peter is looking and he's seeing this and is distressed by the waves that he is seeing. We know that eyesight is not only required in the spiritual, but it actually hinders us in the spiritual. And I think we can take that and we can see that, that, that is so damaging to how we assume and assess our brothers and sisters in Christ when we don't know anything that is going on in their lives.

Lisa Whittle [00:30:45]:
And it has caused fractures, it has caused damaging spirits, it has caused all manner of things. You just don't know. You just don't know where people are. You don't, you don't know what they're going through. You don't know what the Lord's bringing them through. And yeah, assumptions are not good.

Heather Creekmore [00:31:07]:
Right. Yeah. I've been working on an episode just about partiality. Right. And how it is our culture to just assume and give the best seat to the person who has the best body. And now we've got to do better on that front. So I appreciate that. Can you give me maybe the, the tenant of.

Heather Creekmore [00:31:32]:
What does it mean to have a whole body theology? Because we've been talking about it, but we didn't really define that term.

Lisa Whittle [00:31:38]:
Yeah, yeah. Well, whole body theology is, as I said, as I said before, a biblical belief system of God's creation of us in our entire personhood, body and soul. So a whole body theology is basically having a foundation, having a whole structure in place by which you make body decisions and set body goals. Most of us, our whole life have made body goals. We have talked about body topics, we've made body decisions, but we haven't had a foundation. And a biblical foundation is what's needed. It's not going to be because we have started a new, new nutritional System or any of those things. Those are body topics.

Lisa Whittle [00:32:27]:
It's fine. But without this step one of establishing a whole body theology, a theological underpinning for how you see yourself every day, for how you operate every day, then it's no wonder you're going to struggle. It's no wonder you're going to be exhausted and overwhelmed and question and carpenter, compartmentalize yourself. Here. Here's the reality, Heather. We have belief systems about literally everything else. We have belief systems about marriage, about family, about schooling, about politics. You might even have a belief system about grocery store shopping.

Lisa Whittle [00:33:05]:
I don't know. I, I know how I like to grocery, grocery store, shop. Say that fast. That's pretty hard.

Heather Creekmore [00:33:10]:
So, yeah, that is grocery store shop.

Lisa Whittle [00:33:12]:
Yeah, that's grocery shop. Let's just say that. But we have belief systems about everything, absolutely everything. And yet the great majority, if you were to say to them, what is your belief system about your body? They would be, well, I need to lose ten pounds. Well, I actually have gone on this new, this new system that I really, really like that is not the same thing. And so whole body theology will hold you, will be your base, will be your basis for how then you do everything. So now that I have one, I make a lot of decisions about, okay, well, here's what's going on with my migraines or, you know, here's how I'm feeling. I probably need to get some blood work and we need to kind of see about what we're doing next here.

Lisa Whittle [00:34:03]:
But also I know that I probably need to eat more nutritionally, just food that is good for me. So I think that's probably another good step. I, I sit a lot. And so I know that in my whole body theology, as I am bringing glory to God, I want to move these legs that God gave me because I know that that is honoring to him, because I am a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I want to move as long as I can because I want to be able to still move around and preach. And so all of that becomes a very important process. But there's a reason for it, and it's based in First Corinthians 10:31. Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do bring, do it for the glory of God. So I live with this glory mindset, and it's very, very different.

Lisa Whittle [00:34:54]:
And it's from an understanding of who I am completely from start to finish. I used to work really hard. I am a, I love to work. I'm. I'm a person that really enjoys doing things. I enjoy getting things done. It's not because I like to impress people. I'm actually not driven by that at all.

Lisa Whittle [00:35:16]:
I'm driven by my own drive. Like, I just love to work. And so I used to think that's fine as long as I'm, you know, doing this well. And I'm. I'm actually, you know, I check this box and my family's fine. And whatever, you know, it was, I was fine. But since I've developed a whole body theology, I don't look at it like that anymore. I.

Lisa Whittle [00:35:39]:
Because I could never understand why if my family's okay with what I'm doing and I'm, you know, my work, I've readjusted my calendar. Why am I still, like, overworking and I'm still kind of exhausted? It's because even though I had put things in place that made sense on paper, I had, you know, read good books and I had, you know, put my own system in place, I still wasn't doing it from my whole body theology. I didn't have one. So now that I am, it helps me so much in all of my decision making, including the things I say no to, the things I say yes to. And if you're good at no, you're good at yes. So it's changed a lot of things for me from my work to my rest to, you know, how I move my body. But it's, it's in a very controlled, biblical way, which makes sense because if you do things God's way, it just will be that way.

Heather Creekmore [00:36:37]:
Yeah, I love that. And I mean, I think that's part of our challenge as women who grew up dieting and basically learning to ignore and abuse our bodies. Right, Right. To hear our bodies say I'm tired or I'm hungry is something we've been taught to just shut down. No, keep going. No, don't eat. It's after 7 o' clock or whatever the arbitrary rule was. So.

Heather Creekmore [00:36:58]:
Okay, I just want to finish with this. Lisa, have you watched Fit for tv?

Lisa Whittle [00:37:03]:
Oh, yes.

Heather Creekmore [00:37:04]:
Any like, I'm about to do an episode on it. Any like, I don't know, quick one minute, like, observations.

Lisa Whittle [00:37:15]:
My observations were probably not unlike yours or maybe anybody else. I was. I loved the Biggest Loser. I watched that religiously. I thought it was the greatest show ever. I think now, looking at it, nothing was a surprise to me in watching that. I knew the methods were Crazy town. You know, you can't drop that kind of weight without those things.

Lisa Whittle [00:37:40]:
I think at the Time I envied the fact that people could just drop weight like that. I'm like, where's the magic pill now we have it, by the way. Right, but that's another show. Yes, but, but yeah, I think at the time I was thinking that, I think now I just think the same thing that I always think, which is I'm fine to talk about these topics, but I feel like until we have this theological underpinning, we are going to continue to talk about and debate was it healthy, Was it not healthy? Was it. I don't think we can debate much that it wasn't healthy. But, you know, and what should people do next? I feel like that, you know, a lot of those folks that came on now are just finding a new way. And I feel like that that will always be what it is until we decide that we're going to do something different because we're just exhausted from thinking there's just a new, a new way to do it. And so I'm glad I'm set free from that.

Lisa Whittle [00:38:50]:
I hope others will, will be as well because I think it's, it's just, it's the way of the Lord to be free. So I'm grateful.

Heather Creekmore [00:38:58]:
Amen. Yes.

Lisa Whittle [00:38:59]:
I love that.

Heather Creekmore [00:39:00]:
Yeah. I've been talking about the biggest loser definition of salvation for about a decade now. So I was excited to watch it and I, you know, saw, saw how many of them were seeking something that was never going to come through. Spending time with Bob and Jillian. So. Yeah, Interesting documentary. Well, Lisa, tell us a little bit more about body and soul. I've got my copy right here with some pages marked for the YouTube audience.

Heather Creekmore [00:39:27]:
Tell us a little bit more about how the Bible study works and where we can get it.

Lisa Whittle [00:39:31]:
It is, it's a six week Bible study and it really needed to be a Bible study versus a book because I helped take you through a process and I think a process for your body and having a whole body theology, it is well worth a six week dive. So yeah, every week is really, I, I have a video for you that kind of teaches what the week is going to be about. And then we go into like a daily process. So you can take your time. If it takes you more than six weeks, who cares? Step by step I ask you questions to have, get you thinking and have you look all in your Bible and you will, you will well know what the whole, your whole body theology is by the time you, you end on week six. And it builds on each other. So every week we'll build on another and then six really brings it all together. And it's my favorite session.

Lisa Whittle [00:40:24]:
You quit on week three and say, I don't have a whole body theology. I don't feel sorry for you because you have to go through the whole thing in order to have that. But the videos are about 12 to 15 minutes. They're not that long. And like I said, I teach you kind of what, what's happening there. And really, I would encourage you, yes, do this by yourself, but also do it with a group. It really is meant to be done in community. And I know these topics are tender, but they also are really freeing to be able to talk to people that are also.

Lisa Whittle [00:40:55]:
You realize you're not alone. This is, this is such a universal topic for us. So anyway, you can find it, Lisa Whittle.com and yes, wherever books are sold, Amazon has it. Lifeway has it everywhere.

Heather Creekmore [00:41:08]:
Awesome. Well, Lisa, thank you so much for being on the show today.

Lisa Whittle [00:41:11]:
Thank you.

Heather Creekmore [00:41:12]:
And thank you for watching or listening today. I hope something today has helped you stop comparing and start living. Bye. Bye. The Compare two podcast is proud to be part of the Life Audio Podcast Network. For more great Christian podcasts, go to lifeaudio. Com. Hey, have you been to my new site, heathercreekmore.

Heather Creekmore [00:41:29]:
Com? Go check it out. I've got 10 days of encouragement for you there. If you go to heathercreekmore. Com, you can learn more.

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.