Are you struggling to find your identity with Christ? Failing to involve the Lord in your life decisions and relationships that you partake? The journey towards deeper wellness begins with you knowing who you truly are in Christ Jesus.

show notes:

In this episode, we have Robyn Wright, a fitness, nutrition, and lifestyle coach who helps women find their identity in Christ and create intimacy with Him. She helps create that connection with deeper wellness. Robyn shares her story about a traumatic childhood, languishing in sin for many years, and how she found peace and love in the Lord.

One day the Lord challenged her saying, “Robyn, I didn’t deliver you from an eating disorder for you to keep that to yourself.” So, in faithful obedience she began to take steps into unknown territory and co-create with God something that would help bring breakthrough and freedom to mamas who are lacking body confidence, feeling guilt and shame about their weight, are frustrated with themselves, and feeling overwhelmed and stuck in negative self-talk because they know the direction they want to go with their health – and perhaps have even hit that mark in the past, but as a busy mom, they just don’t know how to get back there again. 
 
Does that sound like you, beloved? 
 
I know that it sounds like me, and if like me, you are motivated to do things differently this time around, and finally ditch perfection, put yourself first, and simplify your health habits in order to create lasting results so that you can walk in true freedom and all that God has called you to be, then stay tuned because you are not going to want to miss this interview and invitation at the end of this episode! 

Listen in to learn how you can transform your health and fitness journey by inviting Jesus and leaning into Him first.

“Every season of life provides an opportunity for that identity to continue to evolve.” ~Robyn Wright

Top Takeaways:

• Learning how to move from dysfunction and finding your true identity in Christ
• The power of allowing Jesus to wash you clean and free you from shame
• Taking the action towards who you are and inviting the Lord to guide you through your relationship with food journey

What you will learn:

• [4:22] Robyn shares her traumatic childhood, her history with lack of self-worth, and finding love in Christ.
• [8:57] How allowing God to take control of her life has transformed Robyn’s life over the last 10 years.
• [11:40] How to reform your relationship with food as a woman and stop it from being your master.
• [15:27] The five foundational things you can create habits around to bring your body where it functions and looks good for your individual being.
• [20:52] Learning to lean into Christ and invite Him into your health and fitness journey, plus how to be clear with your goals as a working mom.
• [23:33] How to first create a relationship with Jesus and His kingdom and then reaping the fruits of it.
• [28:48] Robyn talks about her 8 week ‘Feast in Freedom’ challenge that’s going to help women find their true identity with Christ and transform their relationship with food over the holidays.

Relevant Links:

• Website: https://faithfullylivingfit.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faithfullylivingfit/

“I really believe that our behaviors are a product of our belief system. And so many women that I’ve encountered and even in my own life had, or have, this really unhealthy relationship with food to where we’re seeking comfort and satisfaction in something that God never meant to satisfy or comfort us in the way that we’re using it. And so, because many women have not stepped into revelation and belief of who they are in Christ and how valuable they are to him and what access we have to him to boldly approach his throne of grace in our times of overwhelm. In our times of stress in times of pain and hurt. You know, motherhood can be very, very challenging and oftentimes what I see in women and what I saw in my own life was turning to food to satisfy and to comfort. And so I believe that part of redeeming our relationship with food is reforming our identity and really exposing the lies that we’ve believed about ourselves and lies that we’ve believed about food, so that food is no longer our master.” ~ Robyn Wright

Detailed Transcript:

Speaker 1: All right, and we are live! Welcome beloveds. I have a special guest here today. I’ve already shared with you in the intro about Robin and that she’s a fitness and nutrition and lifestyle coach who helps women find their identity in Christ and create intimacy with God. But also she helps connect that foundation with deep wellness, fitness, and nutrition, living healthy as a busy mom (I know you can relate!), lifestyle transformation, and building healthy habits. So welcome Robin!

Speaker 2: Thanks Heidi. I’m so honored to be here and to share with your beloveds!

Speaker 1: Yay! And this is my first guest interview, so give me all the grace and we are going to hold on tight. I want to open it up for Robin to share her story with fitness and food, and then we’ll get into some more direct questions that I know are on all of your minds. Those really juicy questions. So Robin, if you wouldn’t mind sharing just a little bit about your background and your story with all of the mama listening.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I’d love to! This could definitely be a drawn out story as I’ve lived kind of a dramatic life, but I’ll try to give you guys the short of it. I didn’t grow up in a Christian home and just lived with a lot of trauma in the home environment. My mom was an alcoholic. My dad was a drug addict and there was just a lot of chaos, I guess, would be a great word to say it, not a lot of involvement with my parents raising me. And we were just kind of on our own to raise ourselves. So, you know, you can imagine the effects that that has on a young girl and then into the teen years, navigating hormones and boyfriends and friendships and all that can be so hard as it is to not have great examples to help you walk through that season of life left me really searching for who I was and trying to figure out what was going to define me.

And for me at that young age and in those situations, sports really defined me and my looks. And then also just what, what men thought of me. So from a young age into my twenties, I was really on this journey of trying to figure out what in the world I was here for. Growing up, my mom had an eating disorder and I vividly remember observing that and seeing how that affected her. I spent many years trying to find affirmation, attention and value from how successful I was with my sports and really what men had said about me. And it left me very broken and loss to the point where I became a bodybuilder, trying to earn some sort of value about myself. You know, we’re bombarded in life with airbrushed women and the world has really painted this standard for beauty – even fitness and wellness, that I was trying to achieve through my physical looks.

And so I ended up doing figure competitions for three years and found myself just in complete bondage to an eating disorder, just like my mom had when I was a young girl and watched her walk through that as well.And it was really just a tormenting place to live. At that time I really didn’t have a relationship with the Lord. He was certainly pursuing me and I was kind of living this double life of wanting to be a Christian and wanting to go to church and wanting freedom and actually even crying out for God to save me, but really wasn’t in this place of knowing what it meant to be a disciple of Christ or to really live under his Lordship. And so for three years, while I was doing bodybuilding, still this broken girl from all the trauma of my childhood and bound by this eating disorder, eventually I came to this turning point where I really cried out to the Lord from a really broken place and just said, okay, I’ve tried it all. I’ve slept with the men. I’ve won the bodybuilding shows. I’ve gotten the attention, I’ve earned all of this worldly attention and I still feel so hopeless and broken.

And so when, when people talk about repentance, you’re going one way and you literally turn around and go another direction. That’s really what I did. I cried out to the Lord and he broke the chains of bulimia off of me. And I just, I began to pursue him with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. And, and that was when I was, Oh, I think 19, 20 years old. And I’ve been walking free from an eating disorder for, you know, 10 years now. And God has been taking me on this journey of progressive sanctification. Of giving me this new identity and affirming who I am in him and redeeming that relationship with fitness and food so that I could now minister to women who are in a very similar situation as I was for so long.

Speaker 1: Wow. I think a lot of people can relate to coming from an area of dysfunction, just growing up in what we have modeled for us and trying to do life differently, but maybe not exactly knowing what that looks like and where to go for help. So thank you for sharing that. And you’re passionate about calling women up into their true identity in Christ, so they can run unhindered towards all God has created them to be and do. And that really makes a lot of sense. As you share your story and you’ve done a lot of work on identity, it seems like an endless process, this process of becoming would you agree?

Speaker 2: Absolutely. And you know, I think that every season of life provides an opportunity for that identity to continue to evolve. When I was that broken girl in that just really broken place where I was crying out for God to deliver me from this eating disorder and to set me free from all of the pain first it was like the first thing God showed me is his mercy and his grace. He didn’t come to me and waive all my sin before him, if anything, he just lavished love upon me. That captivated my heart. And there’s a scripture that says those who’ve been forgiven much love much. And man, my sins were like scarlet and the Lord washed me white as snow. And so really the first place he began to reveal to me, my true identity was in clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, where he cast my sin as far as the East is from the West.

And when I walked down the aisle on my wedding day, I, I held my head high free from shame and really just clothed in the purity and the whiteness – as white as my wedding gown was. And because I had so much trauma around my relationship with my father, my biological father, I didn’t even know he had left before I was ever born. And another man raised me and that relationship was really strained. And so then, he began showing me that I was his daughter and he restored my, almost like that purity of a child and really showed me the love of a father and that he was my provider and my protector. And so he just began to take these, the truths that I was reading in the word and really write them on my heart and my mind. And they transformed the way that I thought and the way that I lived and the way that I processed so much about life through the changing seasons over the last 10 years.

Speaker 1: That is so powerful. I think it’s one thing to kind of know in your mind, like you said, you were reading the Bible, you were wanting to go to church, you were wanting to be free, but then to actually experience it and experience God’s character, that’s super powerful. So can you share, if you don’t mind with all the mamas listening, what our identity in Christ has to do with redeeming our relationship with food and body image? I mean, does God even care about our fitness and our food?

Speaker 2: That is such a great question, Heidi! And I think a lot of women, especially Christian women really aren’t sure how to bridge that gap or make that connection. I really believe that, well, I’ll just put it this way – Jesus came to give us life and life abundantly. He came to give us freedom. It says, you’ll know the truth and the truth will set you free. And so I really believe that our behaviors are a product of our belief system. And so many women that I’ve encountered and even in my own life had this, or have this really unhealthy relationship with food to where we’re seeking comfort and satisfaction in something that God never meant to satisfy or comfort us in the way that we’re using it.

And so, because many women have not stepped into revelation and belief of who they are in Christ and how valuable they are to him and what access we have to him to boldly approach his throne of grace. In our times of overwhelm in our times of stress in times of pain and hurt, you know, motherhood can be very, very challenging in oftentimes what I see in women and what I saw in my own life was turning to food to satisfy and to comfort. And so I believe that part of redeeming our relationship with food is reforming our identity and really exposing the lies that we’ve believed about ourselves and lies that we’ve believed about food. So that food is no longer our master because there’s a scripture that says all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. And it says, all things are lawful, but I will not be mastered by anything.

And I think if many of us women are really honest with ourselves, food has had mastery over us for years. And even to the point of idolatry to where, if we looked at our relationship with food, we seek more comfort and satisfaction in the, in sugar and in food than we are in our intimate relationship with the Lord.

Speaker 1: Yeah, that’s really good. And this is something I haven’t, because this podcast is new – this is the third episode. So I haven’t shared about my journey with food and my history and my relationship with food. But it’s been about 30 years, this sort of dysfunctional relationship with food and using food as my source of comfort. There have been times where I’ve been on, you know, kind of swinging to these extremes right on the one end I felt like I was doing pretty well. Although I was living a restricted diet lifestyle, it was okay. And I got results from that and I felt good, but as soon as chaos would come into my life or something would be thrown out of balance, most likely a pregnancy, my body would change.

And I wouldn’t recognize my body where I would gain weight more quickly than I wanted to or afterward I wouldn’t lose it as quickly as I wanted to it, that really affected me in my mindset. And so I would swing to the other end and just be like, well, I’m not taking care of myself in that way right now, so I’m just going to be eating what I want to make me feel good. And so looking at you’re well aware of, and I’m sure a lot of women are, that there’s a lot of confusion out there in the world and on what we should or shouldn’t be eating. I mean, there’s a lot of voices, a lot of chatter, a lot of noise. What would you say is the best diet?

Speaker 2: Great question, Heidi! And, you know, before I even answer that, I kind of want to speak to what I really believe is a gap in the way that we approach this journey. I believe the world often deals with the fruit, right? We see an unhealthy relationship with food that could look like disordered eating. It could look like, you know, gaining weight. It could look like under-eating and starvation and restriction. We have all these different things. We don’t like the way that our body looks or feels or performs. And so we want to fix those problems that we’re experiencing. And we just go after the root or the fruit of that tree, right? The fruit of that pain. And that’s kind of what the world does. Where I’ve seen the church or Christians, is that we often turn to the world systems to try to fix it.

And it’s often, like you explained it in your own life back and forth between kind of what I refer to as license and law, where we’re either on this extreme diet of controlling and restricting, that ends up being too hard and we’re not able to sustain it, or we get so overwhelmed or frustrated. And then we throw off all restraint and then we’re bingeing for six months or whatever, until the shame gets so heavy that we go on this restrictive diet again, and that cycle repeats itself. And we never see true breakthrough, a transformation at a heart level. It’s always just, I’m going to restrict food. It reminds me of the scriptures in Colossians that say, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. And they have an appearance of self-control, but they never really transformed the heart.

And so the way that I approach this journey is I invite women to ask the Lord really what is his desire for their relationship with food, for their fitness, for their deep wellness, and invite him into the process because we invite him into our marriage and our sex life and our parenting and our business adventures and stuff like that, but we often turn to the world to try to fix this problem, and what’s the next fad diet. And so once we’ve invited the Lord into this process, we really have to go to the root. And what I believe is that identity of exposing those lies and then building a process. If you could picture a tree and the trunk of the tree being your process, then automatically what goes to the root flows up through that trunk and then goes to the root of the tree.

And so I believe that we’ve approached this in a way that doesn’t really get to true transformation. And so dealing with the heart and renewing the mind, healing the heart so that the fruit is just automatic. I don’t know if you’ve heard of James Clear, but he wrote a book called Atomic Habits. And he talks about how so many people set outcome goals rather than identity goals.And we really have to get at the identity of who we are before we can see the fruit of what we want to see. So hopefully that answers some of the question. And then once you’ve got, you know, that clear identity solidified about who you are, what God wants for your health and your fitness, you know, scripture says that we are the temple of his Holy Spirit. I think sometimes we take better care of our houses and our cars and our clothes than we do of the dwelling place of the living God.

And so once you get revelation about who you are, then we put together a process that moves you individually and uniquely towards where you want to go. And again, we look to the world and we put on the standards of the world and we try to live up to those standards instead of God’s standards. And once you have God’s standards, you can put together a process that moves you to where you want to go. And so I think vision is really, really important for that, but I want to make sure that I answer your question as far as what is the best diet. The reality is that there is no one single diet that’s going to be great for everyone all the time. Each person is going to have some unique individual needs where they look, feel, and perform their best. But we do have these overarching principles that we know across the board.

Most people do best with increasing the amount of whole foods that they’re eating. And so minimizing processed foods, drinking more quality water that’s not full of fluoride and different things like that. Moving their body regularly. God created our bodies to move, and it’s not just for fat loss and weight loss, but just as much for our hormone health and our mental health. So moving better, managing our stress, and prioritizing sleep. I really believe that there’s these five foundational things that if you can create habits and a lifestyle built around these five things, you’re going to feel really, really well. You’re going to perform well. And your body’s going to come to a place where it functions and looks well for your unique individual being.

Speaker 1: Yeah, that’s so good! We can’t get around eating right, exercising, resting and managing our stress, and reducing our toxic load. That is so paramount. And you mentioned something, this is so key. So I want to repeat this and you tell me if I’m receiving this correctly, but build upon our identity foundation in Christ and the fruit will automatically come as a result.

Speaker 2: Exactly! Yeah. And it’s not going to be cookie-cutter, but I believe that if you’re a born again, believer and you’re leaning into intimacy with the Lord and you’re listening for his voice and you’re asking him, he is going to make your path straight. So he’s going to show you the process. And that may be reaching out to a fitness coach. That may mean ordering supplements. It may mean changing your meal plan, different things like that, but you want to do it from a place of the word of the Lord, because that’s where he says, come to me all who labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon me and learn from me. And so I think so often because we don’t invite them into this journey, we just go, we move forward with the latest and the greatest fad diet, and we see that it wasn’t a right fit for us. And so I really encourage women to lean into the voice of God and ask him, Lord direct me on the path that is going to lead me to that abundant and full life that Jesus paid his blood for.

Speaker 1: I’m so glad you talked about his way being easy and straight, you know, light. I should say his yoke is easy and his burden is light. What does that look like for a mama who’s been stuck in this all-or-nothing mentality and wants to make progress forward. What is your kind of viewpoint on that? Where does a busy mama even start on a health transformation? And what does that look like?

Speaker 2: In America, and the day that an age that we live, we want quick and we want easy. And we often approach this with an overhaul mentality of, I am going to those five foundational things that I just shared with you. I’m going to cut out all of my sugar. I am going to work out five days a week; I’m going to sign up for a marathon. I’m going to drink my gallon of water. I am in bed at 8:30, right? We go into this extreme overhaul mode and it’s just overwhelming and unsustainable. And that’s just the reality. And I think what we need to put off, and part of that identity reformation has kind of putting off some of these mindsets from the world of all or nothing.

And striving for perfectionism is assessing, okay, considering what I have going on in my life right now, all of the demands on my life, whether you’ve got, you know, kids with special needs or many kids, or you’re working 40 plus hours a week, or whatever, you know, financial limitations, whatever your limiting factors are, you have to be really clear and honest and real about those things and ask yourself, okay, I can’t do XYZ, but what can I do? And I always ask all my clients, what are you willing to do for it, what are you not willing to do for it, and what are you ready and able to do for it? And so we have to go into this journey, just being really real and honest of where we are, and that can change over time. But I really encourage moms especially, and really anyone who wants to step into lasting transformation, is how can I do 1% better?

So if I can’t overhaul all these things, like if I can’t eat free-range, organic grass-fed, you know, from the farmer’s market, can you increase the amount of produce that you’re eating? Can you increase the amount of water that you’re drinking? And can you commit to a lifelong journey of becoming the best version of you that there is? Because if we draw near to God, he’s going to draw near to us. His promise is that he will finish the work that he has begun in us. And so little by little, we enter into that promised land and we take back ground that the enemy has stolen from us rather than thinking, how can I overhaul everything all at once to get the quickest results possible? Instead, how can I make one step forward and commit to doing that one thing every day until it becomes a habit? And then once that becomes automatic, how can I add in another thing and build upon it? Like scripture says line upon line precept upon precept.

Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. And I love how it’s about giving ourselves permission to be imperfect as we continue to make progress and move forward, you know, ditching that all-or-nothing mentality. I mean, a lot of moms I’m sure can relate right now where students are remote learning again, everybody’s home. You’re not getting the space that you would normally have perhaps if you’re a stay-at-home mom or maybe you’re working from home or you run a business from home and you always have, but you’re used to having that time to yourself. And so being able to shift and adapt with grace and being like, this is what my life looks like these next three months. What’s my plan? What can I do? Yeah, that’s good. So we have a verse for Covered Beloved and it’s 3 John 1:2, “Beloved, concerning all things I pray you to prosper and to be in good health, just as your soul also prospers.” What does that verse mean to you when you hear that?

Speaker 2: Well, I have to laugh because as I told you, that is the verse that I have chosen as a tagline on my, on all of my email replies. So anytime I send an email, people get that scripture at the bottom of the email. I really feel like that verse encompasses starting this journey from the place of identity. Our health is going to prosper as our soul prospers, as our spirit prospers. God created us with a spirit, a soul, and a body. And I believe that he didn’t just die to get us to heaven and that we have to look forward to glory someday off in the distance, but that we can actually step into that glory and that wholeness and that deep abundance in all areas of our life. So in our spirit, in our soul, in our body. But I think at the root, you know, scripture says, seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you as well.

As we lean into this intimate growing, evolving relationship with Jesus as our Lord and our savior, the automatic fruit of that is going to be wholeness. And it doesn’t promise that we won’t suffer that we won’t get sick or that we won’t have health challenges, but it promises that he is who he says he is, and that he is going to be faithful in the midst of all of the seasons of life. And so I really believe that deep wellness starts with realizing who we are in Christ. And I want to share this quote with you actually, because I think that this speaks to it. I just started reading this book and it says, “identification is a discovery of what you’re loaded with in Christ, what Christ has made available to you, what he has made you to be in him.” And so I believe that you are health and your soul and your spirit will all prosper as you continue to get to know who you are in him.

Speaker 1: That’s so good! I love it! All right. I’m so excited because so you have an upcoming challenge called Feast in Freedom. Can you tell us a little bit more about that and how people can get connected with you for more information or to sign up?

Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely. I’m so excited for this too! I was not planning on doing a challenge around the holidays, but I was cleaning one day, and I just kept hearing that phrase, “feast in freedom.” And I just had this increased desire to come alongside of women and walk them through the holiday season that can be so full of stress. And it’s really meant to be this sweet season where we celebrate the harvest and we celebrate the birth of our savior. And we enter into this new year full of new mercies. And oftentimes it becomes the season of rather than feasting. It’s really bingeing and it’s really bingeing out of stress and overwhelm. I often refer a lot of the women that come to me. They feel overwhelmed, overweight, and totally out of control in their relationship with food, but also just in life. Their relationship food really is an overflow of what’s going on in their life.

And so I am inviting 12 women on a journey through the holidays starting November 22nd through January 16th to not wait for the new year to get their resolve. But to really say, I’m going to go through this holiday season different with intentionality, with community and seeking first, the fullness that we have in Christ, because as we fill up on the fullness of God, we will see that we are no longer turning to food to comfort us or to relieve our stress. And so it’s going to be a spirit, soul, and body transformation. As we get clear about who we are and exposing those lies and putting on the truth of our true identity in Christ and create in a process that’s created to move you towards, whether it be weight loss or fitness, or just deep wellness, whatever your specific goals are. The process is going to be put in place to move you towards that little by little working on practices that become habits. And also we’re going to be going through a study. If any of you are familiar with the book of Colossians, it’s an identity rich epistle from Paul. And so we’re going to be studying the book of Colossians together, using a book called He Is Enough.

We’re going to kind of hit this on all levels of our relationship with the Lord, our lifestyle and our habits, but also doing it linked arms with other women who are on the journey towards faithfully living fit as well.

Speaker 1: That sounds amazing! I definitely need to look at that. So where can we direct people to get more information?

Speaker 2: If you want to, you can go to my website, it’s www.faithfullylivingfit.com. And when you get there, you can download this great PDF that has three body weight workouts that you can begin doing right away. If you have been wanting to start a practice of working out, you can do these right from home. And when you download that PDF, it’ll take you right to information about how you can learn more about the challenge. I am only accepting 12 women into the challenge. So there are a limited amount of spots; you’re going to want to go check out that as soon as possible and reserve your spot if this sounds like something that you would love to do this holiday season.

Speaker 1: Awesome! Thank you so much. I just want to end with a blessing and just say, thank you so much for sharing your story and being vulnerable. I know that’s not an easy thing to do, but just being here and being that voice to help encourage women and the passion that you share about body, spirit, soul, and just being able to run free in all that God created you to be. Thank you Robin for joining us today!