The Chic Creative

An Unconventional, Effective Approach to Weight Loss, Excellent Health and Revived Spirit for Women over 40.

Have you ever been on a diet?  Keto, Atkins, Jenny Craig, etc?  

Every woman I know, myself included, has at least been on one diet even if it only lasted a day.

While some experience permanent weight loss, most lose the weight only to find it and more.  I did. 

When the diet fails, do you blame yourself, give up then eat an entire bag of Oreos? Did that too.

Here’s the truth. You didn’t fail. Your diet did.

Women are emotionally driven creatures yet most diets never address emotions. 

I’m convinced diets are created by men who have no idea that we eat when we’re bored, restless, anxious, uninspired, overwhelmed, confused, angry, hurt, happy, sad or frustrated.

Diets thrive on making us feel broken, not enough or in need of repair. All untrue.

Here’s the real truth.

I’ve learned that whatever I tell myself I will always create evidence for. You will too. 

Your friend who repeatedly tells you she’s broke will stay broke. She’ll try to lose the financial weight of debt but her belief that she’s always broke will keep her broke, sabotaging any efforts she makes to get ahead.  Until her “money story” of lack changes she’ll always be lacking.

The way to change your external circumstances around anything is to begin changing your internal story.

Your thoughts and words today are prophesying your tomorrow.

For years, I had a love-hate relationship with food and my body, starting diets determined to get healthy only to fall off the wagon and into the fast food line, overeat, feel guilty, beat myself up, give up then start the cycle over again. 

Same with exercise. Start strong, work hard, burn out, quit. It’s exhausting, discouraging and depressing.

I know now my issue wasn’t what I ate but how much I ate. I couldn’t eat just a few cookies and be satisfied. It was all or nothing.  

One day while scrolling Pinterest for diet and fitness motivation, I realized three hours of my life had passed.  Gone. Forever. 

THIS WAS MY “I’M SO OVER THIS” MOMENT.  

I slammed my laptop and was done trying to meet society’s ridiculous standards of a woman’s appearance.  There had to be a better way.  

Taking my journal and Bible I sat down kindly informing God I was done with impossible expectations and just wanted increased energy, a clear mind, a healthy relationship with food and my body and an enthusiasm for living.

He showed me a better way. 

Food is not our enemy.  

God created food to nourish, fuel and heal. Fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, fish, bread (no that isn’t a typo), honey, meats and more all available for our nourishment.  

Food is meant to be savored, enjoyed and shared, not some necessary evil to be counted, calculated or altogether avoided.

So, if food isn’t our enemy, what is?  Excess. Too much of anything isn’t healthy whether it’s on our waistlines, closets, pantries, finances or in our minds.  

I can eat to misery vegetables or sweets. Food isn’t the issue. A lack of self-control is.

God’s Word is information for transformation, your daily handbook on success.  

Paul proclaims “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control (discipline/sound mind). 2 Tim 1:7. Self control is discipline that leads to freedom.

We all know swearing off foods makes us want them more.

Swearing off sweets just makes me want them more. I bargain with myself that I’ll buy the bag of Dove Chocolates promising myself one piece a day only to find them devoured in three. And the cycle just goes on. 

Diets “all or nothing” approach to excellent health is a set up for a let down.

God calls us temples not trashcans.

Temples, churches and synagogues are holy places we enter in reverence and awe. 

Just like temples are sacred so are we, fashioned into living, breathing, moving, feeling, thinking, acting holy spaces of worship.  

And no bread is not the enemy. 

Jesus broke bread, blessed bread, shared His bread. He calls Himself the bread of life.  

Even sugar isn’t the enemy. A light dusting on fresh strawberries is decadent. Excessive helpings of sugary foods everyday is deadly.  

So if the real enemy is excess and our bodies are temples now what? 

Answering this question became my goal when choosing what to EAT, THINK, BELIEVE and SAY to myself and about myself. Because yes we get to choose.

I started asking myself two questions.

One being “is what I am about to eat, think, believe, say or do belong in a temple or in the trashcan?”

The other of “how much of this becomes too much and takes me from elegant to excess?”

Asking and answering these questions throughout my day was the game changer and the solution that worked! When friends noticed my health improving, they asked what diet I was on. 

Several were shocked to hear I wasn’t on any diet but I did have an unconventional, highly effective approach to better health, increased energy and a clear, fog-free mind. 

I call it The Temple Theory, a realistic, grace-based foundation on which to build a healthy, loving relationship with my body and food.

Nowhere in my Bible have I read of any woman who’s dieting, stepping on the scales every morning, counting calories, criticizing her body or obsessing over her weight. 

The Temple Theory begins with rewriting your “food story” using past experiences, beliefs, triggers and words because they are impacting your health WAY MORE than the Doritos.

You are a temple, hand carved, delicately crafted and adorned by God on purpose to be respected, loved, nurtured, nourished, appreciated and revered. 

Because I believe God intended the second half of a woman’s life to be her absolute best.

Sandra Hubbard

Author/Speaker/Master Motivator

Word Wisdom 

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 1 Cor 6:19 

Then He took the five loaves and two fish and looking up into heaven, He blessed them, and broke them and kept giving them to give to the disciples to set before the people. Luke 9:10 

And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them saying “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Luke 22:19 

I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger and he who believes in Me will never thirst.  John 6:35

But I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples. Lev 2:11 

And put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite. Prov 3:22

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Gal 5:22-23