And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. John 8:32


Monday, December 9, 2013

Taste for Truth: A 30 Day Weight Loss Bible Study - Book Release and Giveaway!

TasteOfTruth-LARGETaste for Truth, A 30 Day Weight Loss Bible Study is now available on Amazon.

If you'd like to enter a drawing to win one of 5 free books, go to barbraveling.com for details! The drawing will be held on Saturday, December 14th at 5:00 mountain time.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

New Christian Weight Loss Companion: I Deserve a Donut

Do you ever feel like you deserve a donut with the way life has been going lately? I know I do.
The truth is, we want life to be fun and easy. And what could be easier than eating what we want when we want?
Especially when everything we watch on television and everything we read in magazines is telling us we deserve the good life. And of course the good life by definition would include good food in good (i.e. all you can eat) quantities.
The Problem: A Cultural Perspective
But here’s the thing, God never said, “You deserve the good life, and if you can’t get the good life, you at least deserve a good treat!”
When we believe all those things the culture tells us—life should be fair, you shouldn’t have to suffer, indulge yourself, the more the better, etc, etc—we always get messed up in one way or another.
Either we do what the culture tells us to do and bear the consequences. Or we muster up all our self-control to walk the straight and narrow, but feel like we’re somehow missing out on the good life by doing so.
The Solution: A Biblical Perspective
If we want to lose weight and keep it off and be happy about the lifestyle we’ll have to live to maintain it, we’ll need to start seeing life from a biblical perspective.
And if we want to do that, we’ll have to renew our minds over and over and over again—until we see life and food through eyes of truth.
That's where I Deserve a Donut comes in. It’s a book, but it’s also an easy-to-use renewing-of-the-mind tool.
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Here’s how it works: When you get that old urge to eat like crazy, turn to the table of contents. It lists 20 different lies that make you overeat and 13 different emotions.
Choose the one that fits your current situation and flip to that chapter where you’ll find some questions and Bible verses.
Answer the questions (preferably in your journal). Pray through the verses. Read the tips.
As you do, you’ll notice your desires changing.
Here’s why: The lies we believe about food make us want to throw caution to the wind and eat what we want when we want.
When we take those lies off and replace them with truth, our desires change. It’s easier to say no because we’re seeing the situation through eyes of truth.
In Romans 12:2 Paul says we’re transformed by the renewing of the mind. I Deserve a Donut will help you renew your mind so you can experience transformation in the area of weight loss.
If you're interested in this book, it's available today at Amazon.
Note: I am currently blogging at barbraveling.com. Would love to have you pop over and say hello! 

Friday, May 10, 2013

New 30 Day Weight Loss Bible Study Coming Soon!

After five years, I am finally finishing a new book! It is a 30 day weight loss Bible study scheduled to come out in mid-August or early September. If you'd like to find out more about the Bible study or sign up to receive an e-mail when it's out, please click here.

Update: The book won't be out until late December or early January as I had to take a break and publish another book that goes along with the Bible study. The other book is called I Deserve a Donut (And Other Lies That Make You Eat) and is available on Amazon. Click here to check it out.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

I Deserve a Donut App: Questions and Answers

Hi Everyone, Since launching my emotional eating iPhone app last summer, I've had lots of questions  about how to use the app. I thought I'd use this post to field questions. If you have a question, leave a comment, and I'll reply with a suggestion.

Here are a few of the questions I've had so far:


How do I use the questions?

My friend Heidi Bylsma who helped write Thin Within wrote a great blog post on how to use the app. In fact, she explains it better than I can! Click here to see that post.

My iPod keeps going dim before I can think of the answers to all the questions. Is there any way to stop that? 

Yes. You just need to change the settings on your iPod. Click on the Settings button. Then click on the General button. Then click on Auto Lock. I set my auto lock to 5 minutes which is enough time for me to answer the questions without the screen going dim.

Do you have a book that goes along with the app?

Not specifically. But I do have a free online Bible study that goes along with my app at my other blog. Here's the link to that: Weight Loss Bible study. My Bible study, Freedom from Emotional Eating, is also helpful is you struggle with emotional eating.

How do I know which set of questions to use?

This is where I hope this post will help you. Describe your situation in the comments below, and I'll help steer you to a set of questions. For a general idea of which set of questions to use, click on the About the App button on the app and read the material there.

Here's a question I received the other day:

Do you have questions on the app on forgiveness?

I would use the annoyance questions - at least, those would be the questions that would make me feel sorry enough for the person that I would want to forgive them. The judgment and pride questions would also make me see my own sin and want to ask God for forgiveness, which would in turn help me to forgive the other person.

How about you? Do you have any questions about the app? Or about how to use it? Or weight loss in general? Ask your question below and I'll get back to you!


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

How to Stop Emotional Eating: 9 Questions That Will Help


Do you ever get so frustrated with life you just want to eat everything in sight? The next time that happens, try not to eat right away.  Instead, do an experiment.

Ask yourself the following questions (write out the answers if you can) and pray through the following Bible verses. 

9 times out of 10, when I do this, I no longer feel like eating. Why? Because God uses the truth to set me free from unholy desires (Ephesians 4:22-24). The truth actually changes my desires, setting me free from the tyranny of the lies that control me.

Note: These questions and Bible verses are from I Deserve a Donut (And Other Lies That Make You Eat). For a short online Bible study on emotional eating click here. For a full-length Bible study on emotional eating click here.  Also available: Taste for Truth: A 30 Day Weight Loss Bible Study.

Emotional Eating Questions and Bible Verses

1.     What’s going on in your life right now that’s making you want to eat?
2.     What emotion are you experiencing?
3.     Will eating make you feel better? If so, for how long?
4.     Will eating solve your problems?
5.     Will eating create any new problems? Explain.
6.     What do your boundaries protect you from?
7.     Do you need protection today?
8.     What do you think God wants to teach you through this trial?
9.     Is there anything you need to accept?

Note: If these questions and Bible verses don't change your desires, spend some time truth journaling through the situation that's creating your negative emotion. Often the best way to overcome emotional eating is to deal with the situation itself rather than just the eating behavior.

Bible Verses

Psalm 3:3 But You, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head.

Psalm 61:1-2 Hear my cry, O God; give heed to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Jeremiah 32:27 Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?

Romans 5:3-4 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope.

Philippians 4:11-13 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Hebrews 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Note: If you don't have an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad (newer version), check my other blog as I'll be posting more questions over there. Here are the ones I currently have posted: click here.


Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Coming Soon: Christian Weight Loss App

Note: This app is now available. Click here to see the app in the iTunes store.

Last year I was teaching a Bible study on habits and emotions to a group of teenagers when one of the boys in the class said, "Hey, you should put these questions on an iPhone app - call it iBarb!"

I laughed. iBarb. That would be fun - but of course I would never be capable of making an iPhone app.

Still, I thought, it was an interesting idea: an app that wouldn't just track behavior, but would help you renew your mind so you wouldn't even want to do your behavior.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Spiritual Warfare Bible Study


Note: I'm currently writing about how to break free from strongholds at a new blog. The following Bible study goes along with a post on that blog. Here's the link:  Spiritual Warfare and Your Project.


Who is Satan?
How does he operate?
How will this affect your project?
John 8:44









1 Peter 5:8, Luke 4:13








Revelations 12:9-10








Genesis 3:1-6








Luke 4:1-13