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Today, we’re diving into what it looks like to live happy. healthy and well. For me, that means pursuing wellness in a holistic way so that I’m able to live out what God has for my life, and I really believe that it means the same thing for you. Living a happy, healthy, fulfilling life is not out of reach.
Today’s guest, Robin Rhine McDonald, the Founder, CEO and Health Coach of Madewell Health is here to share about ditching chronic dieting and disease for holistic health and wellness. Robin is a Faith-Based Holistic Health Coach, proud mom and wife with a passion for supporting and empowering Jesus-loving women to gain true health while losing weight through her sustainable, grace-based process. She mixes her seminary background with her study of integrative nutrition to help women develop the energy and vitality to live out their unique God-given calling. I think you’re going to love what she has to share today.
Robin’s Passion for Holistic Health
I had to start off my conversation with Robin by asking her why she is so passionate about the work that she’s doing and why is this messaging so very important?
Robin shares that she really loves being able to speak to our worth and our value. Every single person, every single human being that God created has a unique individual calling. We all have this amazing purpose in our lives, and we need to have the vitality to live out those callings, to show up in all the ways that we want to. And the last few years, she says more than ever it’s been made very clear that health is important. We need to be caring for our bodies, we need to be on our A-game with our health. Robin is passionate about seeing the bodies that comprise the body of Christ healthy and well. We need to have able hands and feet…we need to be able to show up and do the work.
It makes me just think of the story of Esther and the scripture in the Bible that says, “Perhaps you were made for a time such as this.” And I think that relates to what Robin is doing and it relates to the timeframe that we are living in. And I think it also relates to each and every listener living in this timeframe.
Experiencing God through Healthy Living
Robin has had an opportunity to experience God in the mundane aspects of healthy living and as she shares, in order for our lives to be filled with joy, we really need to allow God to be poured into every crevice of our lives, including and especially the mundane areas. And that result of pouring Him into those areas is life changing. And healthy living is really similar to that. In order to experience the health and vitality God has designed us to have, we must also allow him to be a part of every aspect of the process. Robin shares that she has two boys, a three year old and an almost six month old, and dependency on God’s grace is the name of the game. It’s like okay, well I am feeding them, I’m playing with the little guy, I’m breastfeeding the baby, I’m caring for clients, all these things going on. And then laundry is just a whole other story. She fully depends on God’s grace and in those moments, it takes His grace at the end of the night, after she’s so spent and has spent all day caring for them and caring for other people to say, “Okay, I am now going to work out”, or in the middle of the day, when they’re down for their nap and it’s like, alright, it’s me time…to have the grace like, you know what? I can start something in the crock pot for dinner, and then we can have a healthy meal. It’s God’s grace that enables her to be able to show up in those mundane things that make a healthy lifestyle possible, and actually sustainable. Robin mentions that that’s the unique thing that we have as believers is we have Jesus. If you don’t have Jesus, I don’t know how people create sustainable, healthy lifestyles, amidst all the things but with Him, we have an advantage. And it just makes a huge, huge difference.
I just love that and I truly believe that He is in every little thing, every little detail. And each and every little moment, everything that we’re doing to faithfully serve and love and live well and to pour into our families and even including taking care of ourselves and our own body, that brings glory and honor to Him. And He is in each and every one of those moments. And I find that just beautiful and true and inspiring and honestly motivating to live well. Just knowing that He’s in it, that we don’t have to go it alone, but that we can partner with Him because He truly wants the best for our life because He wants us to live healthy and well.
Robin shares that there’s nothing quite like health to see how we view God and how we experience Him in the tangible mundane things. She talks about a client she had who kind of started to ghost her, and when she checked in with her to see how things were going, the client mentioned that she had some pizza the other night and was beating herself up. And she really started to spiral because she had these expectations that she was not going to eat that and Robin says she just felt prompted to ask her, “Do you struggle with shame and guilt in your life in general, like outside of this incident?” And she said yes. And then Robin asked, “Well, do you find that you struggle also to receive God’s grace in those moments as well?” And again, she said, yes. And it just became this awesome conversation opportunity to talk about who God is, and how He shows up in those moments where we feel like we’ve fallen short and you know what? He provides. And so pizza and this attempt to create a healthy lifestyle created this incredible opportunity in a mundane thing, to have a very real assessment of her heart and posture and understanding of who God is in her life.
Here’s the Evidence – God Cares
So, speaking of God and the God winks, biblically speaking, what evidence do we have that shows that God truly does care about our physical well-being?
Robin shares that when looking at the Bible and Scripture and all the different cues God has given there, it’s really apparent how much God does care about health and our bodies, even if we just look at Genesis, the creation narrative. God says to be fruitful, multiply. And by the way, here’s what your food is. Eat this. It’s within the first instructions given there. And even as you move through the Old Testament, and I know everybody’s favorite book of the Bible is Leviticus, that Levitical law, there are gold nuggets in Leviticus, and they’re tricky to find. One of the fun ones to see are the Levitical laws around food, which again, would just kind of seem like, okay but those are the Old Testament laws. But we see that God gave very specific instruction…don’t eat pigs, don’t eat rodents, don’t eat shellfish, don’t eat birds of prey. And it’s like, okay, why all those animals? If you eat them outside of our current modern cleanliness practices, you get super sick. And God has this group of people who are called to be a blessing to the nations. And so it would make sense that you give very specific instruction on how to make sure they don’t die off. And the cool thing, too is, for Jews who still practice those laws we saw back in the 1400s during the bubonic plague days that the Jews weren’t getting sick, it’s because they were still following the laws God gave to eat foods that were benefiting their body and cleanliness practices that kept them healthy. But even as we move forward to Jesus’s life, Robin mentions that our whole experience of being Christians is we’re following Jesus. And actually 38.5% of the verses in the four Gospels are describing Jesus healing bodies. That’s a massive portion of the Gospel story to be talking about physical well-being. And Robin argues that if physical well-being weren’t important, then the Son of God was wasting His time. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t think He was wasting his time.
I think that’s so good and so true. And just referencing the Bible, I believe that it always has been and always will be an intentional living guide. And the whole thing about it is that it is truly God’s best plan for our life. And it is awesome to read through it and see who He was speaking to, and what intentional living rules or guidelines He was laying out. I’ve talked to my kids about this before, it’s not like God doesn’t want you to have fun, or doesn’t want you to have it, right? But it’s like, He really cares deeply about you, and He wants the best for you. And He wants you to be healthy and well. And so He lovingly laid out these guidelines, and like a good parent, He does expect you to follow the guidelines. And I believe that God disciplines when we disobey, because He loves us.
Robin agrees as she shares that God is our parent and we don’t tell our kids to eat a certain way or do certain things because we’re trying to make things restrictive or punishing. It’s out of love and I think that’s such an important key as we look at what God has provided us as instruction. And then again, going back to the grace factor of like, we have that grace, and when we do make choices that are not going to be as supportive to our health, He’s like glad you enjoyed the pizza but now let’s move on and make some healthier choices. And hey, it’s also not the end of the world to enjoy that every so often as well.
I just find that so relatable because even when we are believers, even when we’re saved, even when Christ dwells within us, we are still sinful human beings, and we’re still going to make mistakes. And the Lord, He knows that and He sees us, not that we should do it on purpose, not that that gives us an excuse to do things on purpose, but He knows we’re going to mess up. And it really is His grace. And I know everyone listening is like, Yep, I’ve been there where I’ve snuck into the pantry and ate an entire chocolate bar. I know I’ve been there. And you just pick up and you start again. You partner with Him and you start moving forward.
Robin mentions that the last couple years have created that kind of a pattern for a lot of people and the cool thing about grace is often we know it to be that thing that covers the mistakes. She shares that one of the most powerful and exciting things about grace is it also fuels our transformation. It’s by His grace that we can begin to make different choices. Grace is twofold, it covers and it actually enables us to make better choices moving forward, which is again, that secret sauce that we have as followers of Jesus.
Our Calling & Our Purpose for a Healthy Lifestyle
I believe that God has a calling and a purpose in each one of our lives. And I personally define them as two different things. But how does our calling and purpose play into the necessity and consistency of a healthy lifestyle?
Well first, Robin shares that she also defines them differently. For her, she says that we’re created with this purpose to glorify God, to be His light, to be His hands and feet. It’s that innate purpose and value of being a human, God’s creation, and then our calling is what carries out our purpose. And Robin shares that our calling shows up in different ways. There is this idea that a calling is this elevated ministry capacity where you’re going be a missionary, or there’s some sort of element to it that looks like that. But really, our calling is, you know, to show up as a wife to your husband, as a mother to your kids, as an influence in your community, in a way, again, that is shining Jesus’s light. And then there’s also that calling that God lays on our heart to use our unique gifts and talents to bless and impact in whatever way that looks like for our unique dynamic.
I couldn’t agree more. Our purpose, I believe, is to know God, to love God, to honor God, and to point others to God. And our calling is how we’re called to walk that out. And that looks different for everyone as Robin said. And we can, I think, have more than one calling on our life, a wife, a mother, maybe we’re a small business owner, maybe we’re called to work a 9-5, maybe we’re called to be a missionary, maybe we were called to serve in the local church, or maybe we’re called to pour into the lives of our teenage daughters. But absolutely, that’s how God asks us to faithfully walk that out. So how does that all tie into a healthy lifestyle?
Robin shares that with all of those things that we’re called to do, as we all know, they require energy. We need to have the strength and vitality to live out those callings to be able to show up for the ones we love. One of the biggest breakthroughs that Robin has consistently seen with clients is that “aha” moment when they realize that the very people who they maybe kind of feel like take away from their ability to implement the healthy habits, those people are usually the very people by whom you can be most motivated to make those healthy choices. Her clients will say, “I want to have the energy and vitality to have the energy to have a conversation with my husband at the end of the night. I don’t want to be so spent that I just pass out on my pillow or on the couch. I want to be able to play with my kids and not just lay there while I reach one hand out and tinker around with the toy. I want to be on my hands and knees, I want to be able to play with my grandkids, my great grandkids.” And so when we can see the way that our purpose and calling is actually the very motivation by which we make those choices, and also that those choices enable us to do that in a greater capacity, it just becomes this beautiful circle and cycle of motivation and vision and inspiration to continue to make progress on those healthy habits to show up in the ways that God has called us to.
A Sustainable Grace-Based Process to Healthy Living
I briefly mentioned at the beginning about Robin’s sustainable Grace-based process that she uses to help women live healthy and well. And here’s what it’s all about:
There’s two big key factors that make the sustainable, healthy, process unique. And one is that we’re vision driven and very similar to what we just talked about is we’re driven by the reality that we’ve been created by God with a unique purpose and calling that, again requires that energy and vitality, that’s our driving force. Yes, we have goals, we want to lose a certain amount of weight, we want to fit into these jeans, we want to learn how to meal prep better, etc.. But those are all informed by this vision. So we’re vision driven is number one.
Number two, again, we’ve alluded to throughout this conversation is we’re grace fueled. It’s not just the grace that covers those shortcomings. It’s the grace that enables us to partner with the living God in having the vitality that He’s created us to have by consuming the foods that He’s provided, and really, again, operating based on His design. And we do that through a very simple process, which Robin calls the E4. So the first thing we do is, we just evaluate. And in this first phase, we really just take some intentional time to cultivate awareness. Without awareness, it’s really difficult to make changes. And so she evaluates where each client is, where they need to be in order to actually experience their healthy vision and make that a reality for themselves.
From there we go to the second E, and that’s equip. So once we’ve set that foundation of awareness, we know our areas of growth and our roadblocks, let’s equip you. Do you need more recipes that are just quick and easy? Do you need more recipes that are more family-friendly that everybody’s going to like? Do you need to learn how to set a schedule for meal prep? Do you need workouts? Do you need to just really work on some self-confidence because every time you look in the mirror, those negative thoughts come up? Do you need a practice for actually inviting God and inviting Holy Spirit to speak to you as you’re going through these processes? So we equip you and ensure that you are being led sustainably into a lifestyle change.
The third thing is execute. Change doesn’t happen without implementation. Once we’ve got that awareness, you’ve got the tools, you’re equipped, we have this phase that kind of varies from person to person, where we’re just continuing to work with your unique context, and the goals that you have to make sure that you get these new healthy habits until you can’t imagine getting them wrong. And Robin shares that for some people, this is the most difficult phase, because we kind of want to graduate through the process. And for Robin, she’s not just interested in helping people lose weight. She’s interested in people transforming their lives, because if someone goes through her program, and a year later, they gain back the weight that they lost, that’s not a win. And so she has this execution phase where we’re really making sure that you have taken these habits on, they feel good for your unique context, and you can see yourself doing this from now until things change, and maybe you need to make some adjustments. But this is the lifestyle, this is your new thing.
From there, Robin then goes into the elevate phase where she actually takes what’s been implemented, what’s been created, and we do a little bit of a reevaluation. We celebrate what’s been created, and then to make sure, again, this is a lifelong process, we take what has become habitual, and get clear on the next steps to then solidify that, and again, make it that forever lifestyle.
And when Robin explains this to clients, sometimes they’re kind of like, okay, so like how long until this, that or the other thing, and what she explains is there’s a timeline of expectation for transformation, and it’s not a perfect timeline, it’s kind of varies from person to person, but habits, they take about 21 to 56 days to be created. Lifestyle takes 15 to 18 months. And for your identity to shift, to go from being someone who feels like you’re weak-willed, who never keeps up with anything, who yo-yo diets, who can’t keep the weight off, all these things that we’ve allowed to become part of our identity that actually aren’t true for who you are in Christ, to shift that can take three to four years. Again, people hear that and they’re like, man, that’s so long, but then she’ll say, it’s been how many decades that you’ve been living a certain way and thinking a certain way? If you can reverse 30-40 years of negative thinking and unhealthy habits in three to four years, that’s actually pretty short. That’s pretty exciting.
I absolutely love this process because I can see it being so effective. And what I’m really hearing and seeing is an individualized journey through lifestyle change where Robin is partnering with her clients based on their individual needs and she’s walking alongside them with support and accountability which is very effective. I think my favorite part is that she goes in and digs deep and does the hard work and what I call the heart work as she’s addressing their identity in Christ. She’s going from outside to inside and inside to outside. And that is a full comprehensive makeover as a human being in Jesus Christ, really knowing from your heart and letting that radiate out through all parts of your life, just the light of Christ. I personally get fired up about it and about the way that Robin is helping people because I see it being so very impactful.
If you want to learn more from Robin, she has graciously gifted everybody listening with her masterclass “How to Prioritize Your Health Amidst the Chaos Without Added Stress”. It’s a way to really get a clear idea of how God shows up in your health, how you can make some simple changes to prioritize your health, do some meal prep, there’s recipes in there and there’s various different resources as well. You can grab that here.
I want to encourage you sweet friend to head on over and check out Robin’s masterclass and all the value that she has waiting for you over there. I’m personally really excited to go check it out!
Connect with Robin!
