Two years ago at a prayer retreat I was given a word from a complete stranger: "You will lose the weight when you draw near to the Lord." Yes I knew I had weight to lose, yes it was an obstacle holding me back from life but I knew the Lord or so I thought I did. Seven months ago I found Grace and Strength Lifestyle while browsing Facebook. It sounded wonderful ...

While I have tried many diets over the last 30 years, I always went back to my old way of eating and gained all my weight back once the diet ended. In February 2016, I was discouraged about where my weight was and knew I wanted to make a lifestyle change, but had tried so many other things, I wasn't interested in yet another diet. As I was reading my Bible one morning, Psalm 107:13-14 jumped out at me.

In summer of 2015 I watched a lady in our church lose weight and I was struck by her posts on Facebook that talked about her growth in her relationship with Christ while losing weight. Wanting to know more about the Grace and Strength Lifestyle I poured myself into reading, researching, and talking with Grace and Strength staff.

Christine's Story: Months ago, I was being distracted by diets that weren't working, overweight and still gaining, having increasing health concerns, and saddest of all – a complete focus on self and continual thoughts about food. Food and eating food was how I was spending my time; celebrating with food, consoling with food, enduring boredom with food, getting through the day with food. Food had become my constant companion and was what I turned to during the day.

Little did I know what freedom would come from what I knew as a "weight loss" program. Of course, I was the typical dieter. If I saw a new infomercial, I would convince myself, this must be the one that works and I would "try" it for a month and fail. Or, I would commit to eating healthy for the week and reward my efforts on the weekend only to gain back my progress from the week, hence the yo, yo dieting.