The Healthy 5: The Gift of Limits

Welcome to GoinStrong Health Formation's Blog!

November 2025

"To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under Heaven"

Ecclesiastes 3:1

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Hi there!

As a Health Coach, I try to educate and inspire people toward a healthy lifestyle. As a Spiritual Director, I help people become more aware of God's presence and movement in their lives. In this space, I aim to integrate both. 

There is so much confusion out there about Health. I hope some of what we talk about here will clear things up and help you move your health forward.

Welcome to GoinStrong Health Formation.

Let's jump into today's topics!

The Gift of Limits

Have You Been Pushed to Your Limits?

Recently, I ended up in the ER with an elevated heart rate. I soared past my limits and came tumbling down. It was scary. When life comes to a screeching halt, we are forced to reflect. I realized there was a significant slowing down that needed to happen, and I didn't like seeing that. I love swinging from branch to branch, grabbing each new challenge and seizing the day! But sometimes the practice of slowing down can be even more life-giving.

Limits are not signs of weakness; they are signs of being human. They remind us that we are finite, that we need rest, balance, and grace. When we ignore our limits, our bodies, minds, and even our hearts start to send warning signals, sometimes subtly, sometimes not so subtly, like in my case. I learned it takes a lot of courage to slow down and say "no" to the world, to respect our limits.

The truth is, limits are actually gifts. They help us prioritize what really matters. They invite us to depend on God rather than on our own strength. When we hit our breaking point, it’s often God’s way of whispering, “Slow down. Let Me carry some of this with you.” And that whisper was life to me!

So, what are your limits? Maybe it’s time, energy, emotional bandwidth, or physical endurance. Whatever they are, naming them is the first step. Once we know where our limits lie, we can learn to build healthy rhythms of work and rest, giving and receiving, doing and being.

When we honor our limits, we make space for grace.

Spiritual Life

Why Do Birds Sing?

Finances are something we all have to think about and manage. Whether we have a lot of money, a little, or just enough, it requires our attention. Last week, I found myself feeling some anxiety about finances. Worry crept in quietly, and before I knew it, I was weighed down by all the “what ifs.” But in that moment, the Lord brought to mind the verses in Matthew about how He feeds the birds and watches over every sparrow.

I stepped outside onto my deck to ponder these verses. The air was alive with the sound of birds singing....so many different and beautiful chirps filling the atmosphere. In that moment, I felt the Lord whisper to my heart, “Why do the birds sing every morning? Do you know any other creature that wakes up singing incessantly all morning long?”

The question made me smile, and a strong knowing came over me. The birds sing because they know their needs will be met. Just as the rainbow is a sign of God’s promise never to flood the earth again, the birds are a sign that He is our faithful provider. Their song is a daily reminder: God will take care of you.                                              

I lifted my hands to the heavens, praising our wonderful God, who is always eager to reveal His truth in unique ways. So the next time you notice a chorus of birds, pause and remember: God is taking care of you.

Weight Loss

Breaking Up with Diet Culture

Diet culture is harmful, and we need to understand it in order to avoid falling into its mindset, especially if we need to lose weight.

Here are a few pitfalls to be aware of:

• Diet culture moralizes food, labeling it as “good” or “bad” and making people feel shame or guilt for eating certain foods.

• Diet culture sets unrealistic societal standards for beauty and fitness.

• Diet culture promotes extreme dieting and restriction to achieve quick results rather than sustainable change.

• Diet culture equates a person’s value with their body size or weight, creating damaging beliefs about worth.

If you find yourself slipping into any of these mindsets, it may be time to step back and ask: Is there a healthy way to lose weight?

In the GoinStrong program, we focus on Lifestyle Weight Loss. Each person becomes a research project on themselves, and together we explore their habits and unique needs with curiosity, not judgment. We talk about what to eat, how to eat, and we measure things. Over time we create a sustainable health and weight loss journey that produces a healthy life, and we honor the body, mind, and spirit in the process. Instead of diet culture, it's cultured dieting. Weight loss is not the main focus, but it is the outcome.

Betty's Story of Renewal

Betty's Before & After

The year before working with Lisa, I had been diagnosed with high cholesterol, fatty liver disease, already had hypothyroid that was being poorly managed, high cortisol, insulin resistance, overweight, and working towards Type 2 Diabetes and SIBO. I changed meds and tried to take control of all these things while also trying to eat better and lose weight, but I couldn’t get my mind motivated.

I finally decided to put myself first again to work through all these health issues. I worked with my doctor and my blood work started to get a little better, but I needed a more focused approach to what I was eating because everything I did in my 20s and 30s to lose weight was not working for me, and I was referred to Goinstrong.

I took Lisa’s class and felt hope for the first time that I could turn my health around, and I did. It has been a long, slow, and steady journey, but I have completely reversed all my health issues. I have mental clarity and peace about food and myself that I don’t think I have ever had. I’ve lost almost 50lbs, wearing clothes in sizes I haven’t seen since I was a teenager. I am incredibly thankful to have learned the framework that helps me stay consistent in this journey. I could not have done any of this without the daily guidance at GoinStrong and help in understanding how my body reacted to the food I was eating and what my mind was telling it. Here are some things I have learned.

• Her methods were a huge mindset shift away from the standard crash diet methods I had learned. This is a practice that I must be mindful of daily, rather than living in vicious cycles of binge eating and starving myself. 

• This is a rollercoaster ride, and one needs to be patient. Just because I don’t think anything is happening doesn’t mean it isn’t happening, because it is.

• I needed a “plan” in place that I could use the rest of my life, instead of meeting “goals” with no course of action after that was met. I’ve met goals and reverted right back to weight gain because I had no lifestyle practices in place.

• My body is its own chemistry set, and what works for me does not work for the person next to me. I didn’t think I was addicted to sugar, but even foods that turn to sugar in our system were my downfall, and I was in a constant state of being miserable to some degree. 

• This isn’t about willpower! I take it day by day, and if I mess up, I reset again the very next day and no longer throw in the towel. I never want to feel deprived. If I want to eat it, I do it without guilt and adjust my diet to get back on track.

• I will always live by a “ceiling weight” rule and never go back! I consistently bounce up 5lbs and down 5lbs for a while before I see actual loss, but I know that means I will never go back up above that 5lbs mark as I continue to go down. I’m 5lbs away from my goal weight, so I’m excited to learn the next part of the journey on how I will keep it off.

I have moved away from a place of feeling very desperate and lost to a place of confidence and feeling like I will have a long, healthy life ahead of me. I am very optimistic about the next steps in my health journey, but I could not have done any of them without Lisa.

Question For You to Ponder…

As this year comes to an end, are you happy with how you spent your 525600 minutes in 2025? What would you change? How we spend our time becomes our life.

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Until next time!