Articles

Reshaping It All: Chapter 1

Published

11 years ago

February 23, 2012

Hi Friends! Ashleigh here.

Welcome to Day 1 of our book club. I’m excited to dive into our first selection, Reshaping It All: Motivation for Physical and Spiritual Fitness, with you.

But first, we do have some ground rules. They are:

Please don’t “blurk.” If you’re reading along with us, please participate.
We’d love for you to have a copy of the book, but if you don’t, that’s OK. You’re welcome to read the posts and respond to the questions.
Stay on topic. We want to hear personal anecdotes, but be sure they don’t distract from the main points of the discussion.
It’s OK to disagree with or challenge another member, but do so respectfully. The overall environment of our book club should be one of encouragement. One way to do this is with the “feedback sandwich” — layer praise, then critique, then praise.
When mentioning our book club on Twitter, please include the hashtag #ungrindbookclub.

OK, let’s get started with chapter 1.

In a “Full House of My Own,” Candace does three things. She introduces — we learn what she’s been up to since her days on Full House. She relates — we discover how her life is ordinary in many ways as she seeks to establish common ground with us. She qualifies — we hear about her personal struggle with food and how God has transformed that area of her life.

These all lead up to the main purpose of this chapter: what we should expect from this book.

Yes, its purpose is to help us in our weight loss — but by first addressing our faith. How does our faith impact our journey to be healthy? How can we bring our physical body and our spirit into alignment? And why does this matter?

These are questions that will be answered in the coming chapters. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to learn more!

I’m also excited to have co-author Darlene Schacht with us as we explore this book. Darlene will provide us with a thought or question for each chapter. For chapter 1, I’ve asked her to introduce herself.

I’m Darlene Schacht, mother of four awesome kids and help meet to my husband Michael. These days you can usually find me jotting down thoughts at timewarpwife.com where I encourage wives to joyfully serve.

And as you probably know, I am the co-author of Reshaping It All: Motivation for Physical and Spiritual Fitness. The question is how did a dyslexic kid who failed grade 12 English end up co-authoring a best-selling book with a celebrity? I ask myself the same question sometimes because it’s all too surreal to wrap my brain around it. All I can do is thank God for His grace and trust that He has a plan for this book.

During the writing process Candace and I would often take our thoughts to prayer asking God to bless our work so that our words might inspire women who are looking to reshape their lives to also seek a deeper walk of faith. That is my prayer for this book. I’m excited to join you on this journey as together we go through the book chapter by chapter, encouraging each other along!

OK, your turn. Introduce yourself and then answer these questions:

What drew you to this book? Why is this book, as Candace says, “for you”?
What do you hope to gain from it?
What stood out to you the most in chapter 1? (If you are still waiting for your book, no worries. You can skip this question.)

I’ll go first.

My name is Ashleigh. I’m a 33-year-old wife, mom to four daughters, and writer. I’m also the editor of Ungrind.

Weight has always been an issue for me. In my late teens, I struggled with anorexia. But, if you had asked me then if I had an eating disorder, I would’ve answered, “No.” I wouldn’t have been lying; I simply didn’t recognize it for what it was at the time. Through prayer and resources, I found freedom and haven’t struggled with it since. But I have struggled with unwanted weight. After giving birth to four full-term babies in seven years, I’ve gained and lost the same 50 pounds several times. At this point, I’m trying to find the motivation and self-control to lose the remaining 20-25 pounds I’m carrying from my last pregnancy.

This book is for me because I need fresh motivation to eat well, exercise regularly, and get back into my pre-pregnancy clothes. I can’t seem to grasp it this time around. What stood out to me in this chapter was when Candace wrote, “There’s something oddly comforting about food, or better said, the thought of food that tricks our minds into believing that it can and will fill our void.” Later on that same page, she says, “I ran to comfort food instead of running to God.” I’ve done this. When I’m stressed or my kids have been fighting constantly, I’ve looked for comfort in food — especially Askinoise chocolate (a local chocolate company in Springfield, Missouri). This made me realize that I need to be intentional about praying in these moments instead of opening the fridge or pantry.

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Ashleigh Slater

Ashleigh Slater is the author of the books Braving Sorrow Together: The Transformative Power of Faith and Community When Life is Hard and Team Us: The Unifying Power of Grace, Commitment, and Cooperation in Marriage. With over twenty years of writing experience and a master’s degree in communication, she loves to combine the power of a good story with practical application to encourage and inspire readers. Ashleigh lives in Atlanta with her husband, Ted, and four daughters.

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"Real life is not always pleasant. Every marriage experiences disappointments, misunderstandings, sickness and financial crisis. Ashleigh doesn’t camouflage the pain in her own marriage, and offers practical ideas on how to walk through the difficulties and find intimacy on the journey. If you are anything like me, I predict that as you read, you too will find yourself laughing, wiping tears, and saying 'Oh, yes.'"

-- Gary Chapman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 5 Love Languages