The Nourished CEO Podcast Finding True Strength with Laura Lindahl
Key Takeaways
Faith and fitness are not two separate things. By centering how you approach fitness with your spiritual identity, you will find a more authentic sense of worth.
Actually losing weight, getting stronger, and staying as healthy as you can take regular exercise, eating enough food, and maintaining muscle mass.
Many of us feel frustrated, upset, and disappointed when we look in the mirror. This is because we often place our sense of worthiness in the wrong place. Today’s guest works hard to help others find their true place of worthiness by combining fitness and faith.
About Laura Lindahl
Laura is a Nationally Certified Exercise Physiologist, Eat to Perform Nutrition Coach, wife, dog mom, Enneagram Three, and avid lover of Jesus. After graduating with a degree in Exercise Science and spending years in the fitness industry, she started to realize all the negative effects that fitness can have on a woman's view of her body and her faith. She saw bodies shamed, relationships hurt, and faith neglected all in the name of being fit. That's when Laura founded True Strength Collective. The True Strength Method guides women on a journey to identify what limiting beliefs they have about their body and faith so they can finally find freedom from body pressures, knowledge to confidently build strength, and unshakable faith. Laura's clients train smarter not harder, find peace in their true identity, and best of all can see their body in the mirror with confidence.
The True Source of Self-Worth
Laura is all too familiar with the lies frequently told within the fitness industry. She explains how all these stem from the false notion that your worthiness is rooted in your body. By believing that you can fix yourself by following some societal prescribed fitness regime, too many people devalue their own worthiness. Laura tells us that no matter how well we try to fill this gap, we’ll come up short. A true sense of worthiness should be rooted in faith.
Working out until you are a puddle of sweat on the floor; cutting every carb out of your life; spending all your free time at the gym - these may sound like achievements, but they are simply idols. The idols that we create to find a sense of peace and wellbeing never last. Often, they make us feel worse in the end. Laura explains how freeing your emotional and physical wellbeing from these idols and rooting them in God leads us to what we’ve actually been after all along.
Overcoming Common Fitness Fears
When in the gym, Laura wants us to stop fearing heavyweights. Becoming bigger and stronger is not a bad thing. Furthermore, even though it’s a common fear, few women actually grow in bulkiness. Instead, they get stronger and healthier. Also, eating less and trying to burn fat with cardio often leads to a host of new problems. That’s why Laura teaches her clients to eat more of the right foods and exercise to build strength.
What idols do you have in your life? How can you ditch them? Leave a comment on the episode page!
Got a question you’d love to hear me answer on the show? Leave me a voice message here!
In This Episode
- When a passion for fitness combines with faith [6:10]
- The root of the lies told in the fitness industry [12:38]
- How idolatry exists in fitness and health [17:00]
- Common mistakes many women make in the gym [31:00]
- Why so many Christian women struggle with perfectionism and exercise [41:56]
- Putting emphasis on effort, not results [50:00]
Quotes
“God gives us acceptance. God gives us success. God gives us contentment. God gives us peace. And when we’re looking for those things in something other than God, that’s an idol.”[18:25]
“Becoming bulky is not bad. If you change to become bigger and stronger, it’s not a bad thing.” [33:28]
“Eating less and doing cardio is not the way to burn fat. The way to burn fat is by changing your body composition overall. That’s by improving muscle, eating more food, getting enough rest.” [37:05]
“To overcome the pressures and burdens of the perfectionist mindset we need to first accept our innate brokenness.” [45:57]
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