Would you say you have a pretty healthy relationship with food? Do you consider yourself pretty balanced in that area of your life, or is it more of a struggle? We often don't consider how much that relationship, our relationship with food, can effect our lives. Why would we when we have so many other relationships we need to focus on? I think we can all agree we would love a beautifully balanced diet but it's not that easy. Many of us struggle with this area of life and we all want to be free from fighting for control of our diets. Just when we think we finally found control, we lost the weight or we found the discipline to restrict our greatest temptations- we find our diet completely controlling us. We think freedom means eating whatever we want without regret. I think we get confused about what freedom really means and what it really looks like. We think we have found freedom, but it doesn't last.

I want freedom that lasts.

I want the freedom that comes from an everlasting God.

And I want it for you, too.

I'm Rachel Hanes. I am a registered dietitian nutritionist and I work in a residential setting for women struggling with eating disorders and other life-controlling issues. What an eye-opening experience it's been, to say the least! Those precious women have inspired me to help reconstruct the way we think about food and help us all find the healthy balance in diet and exercise we desperately want.

My dream for this space is to cultivate a place where you and I can come to share the joys and struggles of our relationship with diet and exercise. I've seen first hand this is a journey best shared with others. There is so much we can learn from each other if we're willing. Here's what I plan to bring to the table:

Interviews with women who have found meaningful freedom through their relationship with Christ and have maintained a healthy relationship with diet and exercise;
Devotions, scripture, and other messages and my own thoughts and experiences that have been helpful in this journey towards freedom;
The basics! We are overloaded with information about nutrition and exercise. I can help simplify that for you so you can find the balance that works for you;
Trending topics related to nutrition and the facts you should care about;
Recipes that I find simple, affordable and delicious!

In my work with women with eating disorders, and in the lives of many other men and women I know, I see not only the difficult struggle they have with finding and maintaining balance with their eating, but also the destruction to their minds, bodies, and spirits this struggle has caused. It's like they are enslaved to a master that will never satisfy. Unfortunately, our culture has, for many, become the place where we get the standards for how we should look, dress and act. These standards are always changing. So we end up on this endless cycle of trying to please a master that demands perfection, giving up and losing hope, then finding some new way to get back in the game. This bondage takes different forms. We might be consumed with having the perfect body or even consumed with eating the food we love. It's all distracting and it's all destructive. It infuriates me. (If you knew me you would laugh thinking about me being infuriated about anything.) This really does get me fired up!

In summary, I love nutrition and I love to talk to people about it. I'm not ignorant to the fact that our issues with food are not due to a lack of information, but it's an issue of the heart. This is a place where I can organize my thoughts (and I have A LOT on this subject) and share my heart. I really love to see people find real, lasting freedom from these issues.

I'd love for you to join me in this journey towards real freedom!