LET ME ENCOURAGE you to take your eyes off food for a moment and dream together with me, asking the simple question, “What if . . . ?”
What if you could be the healthiest you’ve been in years (or maybe in your whole life), reversing some life-threatening diseases and finding yourself more vibrant at sixty than you were at forty, all without drugs?
What if you could be fit and trim, having tons more energy for your family, your friends, your job, your ministry, your hobbies, and your life, not to mention for your Lord?
What if you would never feel bloated or stuffed and never feel bad about what you ate?
What if you weren’t ashamed of the way you look?
What if:
• Your stomach didn’t sit on your lap.
• You could tie your shoes.
• You could see your toes.
• You could wear normal clothes rather than clothes that looked like tents.
• You didn’t have to stealthily unbutton your pants at the restaurant (and remember to rebutton them when you got up to leave).
• You didn’t have to wear stretchy pants.
• You didn’t have to avoid mirrors (or plate glass windows).
• You didn’t have to worry about buttons bursting off your shirt.
• You didn’t have to buy all kinds of loose-fitting clothing to cover your fat.
• You didn’t have to buy even bigger clothes the next year after the holidays and your latest weight gain.
What if ? Only you know what bothers you most about your weight, and I write this not to shame you but to encourage you, since I too was once fat.
From Nancy: Some people might be offended by Mike’s use of the word fat, but both of us like to tell it like it is. Many prefer to call it “overweight” (that certainly sounds more pleasant). But there was nothing pleasant or pretty about the fat on my body! So we will be using the words overweight and fat interchangeably throughout the book. But this is not meant to insult or criticize others. My fat was a hindrance to me and a burden that was choking and destroying my life. And the bottom line is, there was nothing nice or redeemable about the fat that encumbered my body.
What if you could do all this simply by changing your relationship to food? Would it be worth it? Would it be pleasing to the Lord? Would it enhance your witness and effectiveness? Would your loved ones appreciate it? Would you appreciate it?
The answer to these questions is obvious. Of course it would it be worth it. Of course it would be pleasing to the Lord; positive, not negative; good, not bad; for the better, not for the worse.
Then why do so many of us find ourselves overweight and obese, weighed down (literally) with food addictions, our energy sapped, our blood vessels clogged, our hearts overworked, our later years plagued with unnecessary disease? For the most part, it is because of our unhealthy relationship to unhealthy foods and, more specifically, because we don’t know how to break free (or we’re simply not willing to break free) from our bad habits.
I’m here to tell you that if Nancy and I could break free and change, you can too, with God’s grace and help. I’m here to tell you that there is hope for your physical transformation. It’s not a pipe dream. It’s not hopeless and impossible. It’s not too late, even if you have tried a thousand times, read the latest diet fad book, and taken the latest weight loss pill, all in vain.
In August of 2014 I weighed 275 pounds. Less than eight months later, after I began a new lifestyle of eating a healthy, plant-based diet, I weighed 180 pounds and had lost more than ten inches around my waist. I cannot tell you how wonderfully vibrant I feel!
From Nancy: In July 2012 I completely changed my lifestyle and started eating a healthy, plant-based diet. I did not weigh myself that first day—I didn’t have the courage to get on the scale. A week later I finally weighed in at 195.5 pounds, so I’m quite sure I was over 200 pounds when I started. And I’m only 5 feet 2 inches! One year later, I was 114.5 pounds, which was less than I weighed in high school and, most likely, even junior high.
GETTING YOUNGER AND STRONGER
Recently, while ministering in Italy, I was talking with a colleague I’ve worked with there since 1987. He and I are about the same age, and we’re watching our friends age along with us. He said to me, “You’re the only one I know who’s getting younger and stronger as you get older.” That says it all!
Over the years my cholesterol has been as high as 240. Fifteen months after I began my lifestyle change, it was down to 123. My blood pressure got as high as 149/103. Today it averages 105/65. I used to get headaches two to three times a week. I have not had a headache in over two years.
For several years I battled a chronic cough, which was a real drag for me as a public speaker and talk-radio host. I saw several doctors and even a voice therapist, trying different medications and herbal solutions, without lasting success. About six months into this new lifestyle, I realized that the cough had disappeared. I can’t tell you why; I just know it happened.
From Nancy: Most of the time I was in physical pain throughout my entire body. I didn’t know exactly what was wrong and why I hurt so much, but I’m pretty sure that lugging around an extra 85 pounds every day of my life took its toll. Just try picking up an 85-pound dumbbell! (I don’t even know that I could lift that much weight now, but I was forcing my body to do that every single day.) My joints hurt. My feet hurt. I just hurt— was up to 238 and my blood pressure was climbing, as were my glucose levels (all these had always been low before). The bigger issue for me, though, was the constant shame of wearing my overeating for all the world to see.
Almost fifteen years ago I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, meaning that I had to sleep with a breathing machine (called a CPAP machine; it forces a continual flow of air into your nose)—which meant that I had to travel with the machine wherever I went worldwide, taking it out for inspection when going through airport security (at airport after airport in country after country), trying to figure out how to use it on fifteen-hour overseas flights (where do you plug it in?). Oh yes, Dr. Michael Brown, the mighty man of God on his way to preach across the Atlantic, with the mask on his face, the blanket over his head, and the tube running into the machine. What a sight! And what do I tell the flight attendant when she comes by to make sure I’m OK?
The condition was getting worse, not better, to the point that it went from moderate to severe, meaning that without the breathing machine, my sleep was absolutely horrific, making my overseas trips much more difficult. So in addition to all the other challenges I faced, I was always sleep deprived.
Having sleep apnea also creates a vicious cycle of weight gain, since the worse your quality of sleep, the harder it is to lose weight, and the more weight you gain, the worse your sleep apnea becomes. By God’s grace, the cycle has been broken in my life, and I no longer need to sleep with the machine. No more breathing machine! No more extra piece of carry-on luggage. No more trying to find an outlet near the bed in a small hotel in India. No more having to cover my head with a blanket while flying overseas. (From Nancy: And no more having our bedroom sound like a hospital room with someone on oxygen!) This is exclusively the result of weight loss.
Today not only has the sleep apnea been dealt with, but my immune system is radically stronger, something that is very important when you have a nonstop ministry lifestyle, with travel around the world, constantly moving from time zone to time zone and climate to climate. My energy level is off the charts, and sometimes I feel so light and free I just want to run—up the steps, into the grocery store, across the parking lot, everywhere. (Remember that I’m sixty-one years old as of this writing.) And miracle of miracles, this is all without energy drinks, special vitamins, or magic pills. (I have a whole chapter in the book about how much of a sucker I was for these energy-boosting and weight-loss products.)
From Nancy: There’s something about getting down to your ideal weight. Something clicks in, and your body just feels amazing. There’s a lightness, an airiness, an energy that’s hard to articulate. Just as with Mike, all the physical heaviness disappeared. But it wasn’t until I got all the way down to my ideal weight—when people said I was too thin—that I felt incredible. It’s funny, we are so used to seeing people pudgy that we have lost sight of what a healthy person at a healthy weight actually looks like, which is why people told me I looked too thin.
My physical appearance now matches the way I have lived for decades—sold out to the Lord, living a Jesus-centered, countercultural lifestyle, saying no to the flesh and yes to God. Let me say it again: if I was able to make this radical change, with the Father’s help, so can you.
What about the role of exercise in my life? Actually, for a good number of years, I exercised fairly regularly and quite intensively, to the point that much younger men couldn’t keep up with me. Yet I was still overweight and eating a very unhealthy diet. My cholesterol was still too high (even though it had gone down from its highest point), and my blood pressure was reaching the early stages of hypertension. And here I was pushing myself to the limit, virtually to the point of collapse. Nancy kept warning me that it was unwise and even dangerous to exercise like that while eating the way I did.
Today when I exercise, I want to push myself even harder and my muscles recover much more quickly. But the reason I bring up exercise here is simple: all the exercise in the world can’t take the place of changing your eating habits, and if you really want to be healthy and vibrant, you cannot escape the fact that you need to put good fuel into your body, not junky fuel. The food you eat is the fuel.
On a regular basis people ask me about the importance of exercise, and it certainly does play an important role. But if you had to pick between healthy eating and exercise, you must start with healthy eating. And then as you start to feel better, you’ll be much more inclined to exercise because you won’t be bogged down with exhaustion since you’re no longer carrying around all that excess weight. So pick your battles carefully, and put your whole focus first on changing your eating habits.
From Nancy: Exercise—ugh! I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of formal exercise. I understand the importance of it and know it’s a major key to a healthy lifestyle, but I find it to be a boring, mindless activity and something that I rarely enjoy. I do exercise on occasion, but I have to absolutely force myself. We’ve had the machines—a treadmill, a rowing machine, a stationary bike. We have videos and dumbbells, exercise bands, and weighted vests. And I just recently purchased yet another video (an exercise dance program that’s not supposed to feel like exercise—they lied). So I know I should exercise, but truth be told, I usually don’t. I’m still trying to learn to enjoy it, and I do attempt it once in a while. But I’m still in the process of conquering this.
On one occasion when I joined my husband and his trainer for some exercise, his trainer tried to push me as he does with all his clients. He did it in a very nice and gentle way, though. I explained to him that rather than the “no pain, no gain” philosophy most had, mine was, “When I feel the pain, I refrain.” As soon as it gets hard, I stop. There’s something about pushing my muscles to the point of the “burn” that just feels “wrong,” uncomfortable, like having a finger stuck in your eyeball. I don’t like it.
In any case, I was able to easily lose all the weight with little to no exercise, and even though I still don’t participate in a formal exercise routine, my stamina has greatly increased. I do spend a lot of time outside gardening and moving my body. We live on seven acres, half of which is wooded, and you can find me there sawing down trees and branches and hauling the wood around, so I’m not totally a couch potato. But I’m still learning to enjoy exercise.
When it comes to food being your fuel, let me ask you a question. What would you think of a top NASCAR driver whose team spent millions of dollars fine-tuning his vehicle, yet he always finished last because he liked the smell of one particular fuel, even though it caused his car to run slowly? Wouldn’t that be the height of folly? Well, if we want to be totally honest with ourselves, isn’t it even more foolish to cut our lives short, to rob ourselves of energy and vitality, and to hinder our effectiveness for Jesus simply because we would rather eat ice cream, pizza, and french fries than salads, fruits, and beans?
The reality is that your palate will crave whatever you feed it so that over time you will enjoy healthy foods as much as you once enjoyed unhealthy foods. This was almost impossible for me to believe when both a doctor-friend and Nancy told me this years ago. No way! A bowl of fruit could never compare to a breakfast of Oreos, and a spinach salad could never hit the spot at midnight like jelly beans and peanut M&Ms.
The truth be told, not only did I not believe that I could ever change my palate, but I had no desire to change my palate. I thoroughly enjoyed unhealthy eating, and it’s all I knew my entire life. And every year for the holidays and my birthday, my family and friends gave me every kind of sweet treat wrapped up in the most beautiful paper. Even the graduating class of my ministry school once gave me a special gift of sweets. And when I traveled to preach, chocolates and sweets were always waiting in the gift basket in my hotel rooms while in every airport I knew where to get my favorite treats. (There are a lot of airports around the world!)
Today, when I walk through the grocery store, I crave apples. I can’t wait to have fresh fruit in the morning in my hotel room, and I absolutely look forward to my massive, super-healthy salad every night. I promise you: your taste buds will change if you give them a chance. It just takes time.
From Nancy: This was a biggie for me. I do not naturally crave broccoli or apples or healthy foods in general (fruits and vegetables). I do not gravitate toward them. I would much rather have piles of pasta with gobs of a buttery, cheesy, creamy sauce and a bag of Lindt chocolate truffles. When I started eating healthfully, I absolutely despised the new food. It made me nauseated. I literally felt like I was going to vomit.
I actually thought to myself, “I’m going to have to quit because I just cannot do this.” But I knew that my health was at stake and I was eating myself to death. So that’s the thing that drove me. I pressed on, and I tried to have a positive attitude. I shopped for the healthiest foods, and I tried new recipes, cooking like a mad woman.
On my very first attempt at preparing something healthy, I made a huge pot of vegetable soup using a well-tested recipe I had discovered online. I cooked it in the biggest pot I had—it was enough for a small army—and I couldn’t wait to try it. But when I had my first spoonful, I was shocked to find it tasted so horrid I just couldn’t get it down. I didn’t have the heart to throw it away, so I divided it into individual servings and put them in the freezer (not actually having a clue what I was going to do with them).
Some months later, after my taste buds had truly changed, I defrosted one of the servings and had a bowl of the soup—it was absolutely scrumptious. I devoured it. Truly a miracle in my eyes! And it proves the point that we’re making here: If you genuinely want to eat healthy things and have never been able to eat them before, you can train yourself. Your taste buds will change. Guaranteed. It just takes a little time and effort.
Most of the time, when we taste something new and we don’t like it, that particular food gets added to our “Do not eat” list, never to be tried again. But if we know it’s good for our bodies, and we are determined to change our eating style, we can overcome the taste bud issue. We just have to be willing to push ourselves a bit. I was absolutely convinced that I could never learn to like food that I, well, didn’t like. I was told just what I’m telling you here—that it’s possible to change. But I believed I was the exception to the rule. As it turns out, I’m not an exception at all. I have put in the effort to train myself, and the training was successful. It can be done. Things that I literally gagged on (such as mushrooms), I now eat and actually enjoy. But it took practice, determination, and trying over and over again to get to the point where my palate changed. So, how important is it to you to gain your health and life back? How badly do you want it?
What stops you, then, from making a life-changing transition? Is it ignorance? Lack of willingness? The power of food addictions? Lack of time?
I LOVE MY FOOD . . .
Consider this scenario. Your doctor says to you, “You don’t have to be on medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol, you can avoid serious and invasive heart surgery, you can be cured of your type 2 diabetes, you can add years of health and vitality to your life, and you can have so much more energy for your family, friends, job, and ministry work.”
You say in reply, “I know it’s true, but I love my food.”
Is this an acceptable answer for a believer? Would it be acceptable in any other area of life? Would we ever say, “Yes, Lord, I know Your will, but I love my pornography (or adultery or violence or stealing or gambling or drunkenness or gossip)”?
Obviously, there’s nothing inherently sinful about food itself, but at the very least, we should recognize that food addiction and bad eating habits can be powerful strongholds in our lives—they certainly were in my life for decades—and if they are controlling us, we should confess this to the Lord. Acknowledging the problem is the first step to solving the problem.
One Christian leader once said, “Make it your habit to have no habits.” I would quote that to others and then say to myself, “But you have your habits. You’re addicted to chocolate and pizza and other foods. You’re not free.” I recognized the problem and realized that these habits were potentially deadly, but I wasn’t willing to do anything about it.
Honestly, making changes in my diet seemed like an utter impossibility. Plus, I thought to myself, everybody eats like this anyway. It’s the normal American lifestyle. Why should I be the one eating lettuce leaves when everyone else is feasting?
For many years I had my list of excuses, and to me they were quite compelling. (Isn’t it funny that when someone else makes the same excuses you do, those excuses sound so weak and wimpy? We’ll take this up again in chapter 13.) I was so bound by certain food addictions and mental strongholds that even when I had a bad cold and couldn’t taste, I would still eat unhealthy foods. (Sound familiar?) To say it once more: if I could make this radical lifestyle change, you can too, especially if you have the Lord in your life.
From Nancy: I never, ever once thought for a moment that I had an addiction. I’m a strong individual, and I consider myself mentally tough and always assumed that nothing really had power over me, which begs the question: How did I get to 200 pounds, all the time knowing that it was extremely detrimental to my health? And why was I unable to get that weight off?
It wasn’t until I was well on my journey of healthful eating that I realized the pull food had on me. Even in the beginning, when I felt I couldn’t make the change, it didn’t dawn on me that I was addicted. Sometimes we can be so blind to our own weaknesses. The real clincher for me was when I was well within reach of my weight goal, and I allowed myself a little cheat here and there, just a little something forbidden (unhealthy). It started out as a minor, once-a-month splurge. The timing was always controlled and planned out and never a spur-of-the-moment temptation I yielded to. This worked for a little while, but eventually, each time I indulged in my splurge, the very next day I had zero desire for all the healthy foods I had come to enjoy. And one splurge day became two and then three (you get the picture).
It opened up the floodgates of almost uncontrollable cravings. Just as an alcoholic cannot have a sip of alcohol, as a food addict there was no such thing as moderation for me. There was no such thing as a little taste or bite. That would open Pandora’s box. You hear many people say, “Everything in moderation.” But to the addict, moderation is not a possibility. Now that might not be the case for everyone. Some people can have a little taste now and then of certain “treats” and they’re fine. It doesn’t thrust them into a binge. But that just does not work for me. I know my limitations, and my past behaviors bear it out. It’s extremely important to be able to pinpoint your weaknesses and adjust your lifestyle accordingly. If eating a bit of a chocolate cake has the potential to cause you to eat the entire bakery boxful, it’s pretty clear there is a problem.
Yes, food strongholds are powerful, but isn’t the power of the Spirit greater than the power of doughnuts? Isn’t the life of Jesus inside of you—the life of the resurrected Son of God—greater than any food addiction? When God says you are an overcomer in Him, yes, even more than a conqueror, doesn’t that include victory over potato chips?
I’m not talking about some kind of dieting gimmick or fad. I’m talking about transforming your life and totally changing how you relate to food. I’m talking about being a disciple when it comes to eating, about taking on a whole new way of living—a wonderful way. And the great thing about it is that when you make the change and renew your mind and reprogram your habits, you won’t feel deprived at all. You’ll thrive. Nancy and I are living witnesses to it, and you can be too. So what stops you from taking the plunge?
From Nancy: What a wonderful feeling it is to have the guilt removed from your eating and to know that you’re pleasing the Lord with your lifestyle. There’s a cloud that lifts off. I wasn’t always consciously aware of this, but there was a constant, underlying tension that I felt all the time. Interestingly, I wasn’t fully aware of this until it went away and I felt so free (as a result of eating healthily).
Why not take a moment and prayerfully write down what stops you from making a radical change in your eating habits: fear that you won’t be able to do it; love of certain foods; intense dislike of wholesome foods; food addictions; lack of desire to change; lack of money to buy healthy foods; not knowing what to do next; the seeming impossibility of maintaining a healthy lifestyle; juggling the needs of your family and your schedule; lack of faith that you could ever change; lack of confidence that anything we’re presenting in this book will work. Whatever the reasons may be, write them down and present them before your Father and say, “Lord, I’m weak! I need Your help! But I do want to change. Manifest Your grace in me and empower me to do Your will.” I tell you again: if He did it for us, He’ll do it for you.
I am sure the changes in our lives did not happen simply because of Nancy’s amazing—and I do mean amazing—willingness to learn a new, better way of eating, or because of the willpower we exerted. God intervened and helped us. He’ll help you too.
From Nancy: I really devoted myself to praying for Mike—I mean heartfelt, fighting, persistent praying—prayer that prays through, the type of prayer that knows it has to obtain the answer. I knew that, naturally speaking, this change was a complete impossibility for him. He was so set in his ways and had such a limited palate. That coupled with his traveling, the excuses he always made, and the amount of weight he had to lose—I knew it was impossible in the natural. Although Mike was always eager to try the newest energy pill or herbal, miracle fat buster, he was not the type to always be on a “diet,” and the idea of making a sincere dietary change was truly a foreign thing (unlike many of us ladies who are always dieting). God absolutely poured out His grace on him.
God will pour out His grace on you, but you must realize how crucial the issue is in order to make a serious, lasting change. For me, being overweight was draining my energy and potentially cutting short my life, yet it didn’t stop me from living a normal, active, and very productive life. But for many of you, being overweight has totally dominated your life: it has robbed you of normal relationships; it has stolen your confidence and caused you to hide yourself away because you’re ashamed to be in public; it has stopped you from functioning as the parent or spouse or employee or friend or family member or minister that you’re called to be; it has permeated every area of your life and hindered everything you do.
From Nancy: What can I say? That describes me to a tee. I despised being overweight. It was a gigantic cloud over my entire life. It was a stronghold beyond all strongholds. It was the stronghold. It permeated everything, controlled everything, and affected everything. It dominated my entire life—and really, I had no life since I rarely left the house. I had removed myself from social functions because I was just too ashamed of the way I looked. My life was on hold. I was eating enormous quantities of food and just felt sick all the time. Some of you can totally relate to what I’m saying here. For others, though, while your situation is not as extreme, being overweight is still an underlying, constant hindrance in your life. You’re perpetually on a diet, you always hate the way you look, and you’re always dissatisfied with where you’re at because of your weight. Certainly that’s no way to live and is not God’s design for us.
The good news is that you are not doomed to die without victory over food, and there is definitely a way out for you. There is a place of freedom, health, and vitality and a whole new life that is hard to imagine from your vantage point of being so weighed down.
That’s why we have written this book: to give you hope, confidence, motivation, and a vision for a brand-new, incredibly blessed life. It excites us as we write these words!
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
1. Do I love my food more than I love my health, my family, or my Lord?
2. Is food a genuine stronghold in my life?
3. Do I believe that, with God’s help, I can change my relationship to food and break the stronghold of food?
4. If the Lord is calling me to make a change—or if my health or just common sense calls for a change—am I willing to make sacrifices to see that change come?