In this video, Dr. Chuck talks with author Kathy Willis about her past medical issues and how having God with her during these struggles helped her through all of it and her wellbeing.
Greatest Tool for Wellbeing with Kathy Willis
Dr. Chuck: Hi, I’m Doctor Chuck, the best guy to see on the worst day of your life. Welcome to the show. Kathy is a speaker, life coach, and author of multiple books. She calls herself “God’s Grin Gal”. Now being a surgeon who performs bariatric surgery, I’ve noticed something. Having a Roux-en-Y bypass or a gastric sleeve will not get you there. It’s one tool among many which are used, but I have observed that the most successful people are those who have a more holistic approach in their weight-loss. In these segments of Spoonful of Courage, we’re going to visit with Kathy Willis and discuss her new books, The Grin Gal’s Guide to Wellbeing and The Grin Gal’s Planner for Wellbeing. Let’s listen to Kathy’s approach about the body, the soul, and the spirit.
Kathy Willis: Yeah, and really I had to live the book before I could even start writing it, unfortunately. God gives me all this wonderful experience to make sure I’m the expert on it before I can write the book. I want to write a book on maybe traveling around the world.
Dr. Chuck: Being a millionaire?
Kathy Willis: Yeah, you know? But I got to write these books on trial and suffering, but I also get to write books like joy and grace. So for this it’s just that finally, in all those health things, I’ve had over 20 surgeries.
Dr. Chuck: Oh my goodness.
Kathy Willis: I know, it’s crazy. Crazy amount of medications and all of that and, like you said, it kind of set me up for failure, because then the weight started gaining more and more weight. I gained over 100 pounds during this medical journey, and I went from being really fit to being not fit at all. And what I realized when I had a shoulder surgery, that went wrong and they told me it was a failed surgery. When I failed PT, I couldn’t move my arm and it was in a lot of pain, and I realized I needed to take care of myself. Not in the way of fixing your own problems, but God was in that journey with me.
Dr. Chuck: Really, sometimes, Cathy, it seems like when we get to that position of helplessness, that’s when really we can begin to have, not a self-help, but more of a God-help.
Kathy Willis: That’s exactly it.
Dr. Chuck: And really, that’s your book. You know, The Grin Gal’s Guide to Wellbeing, it’s really about how we invite God into our struggles.
Kathy Willis: Right.
Dr. Chuck: So tell us, Kathy, for someone who’s going through whatever circumstance they’re facing, what would be your spoonful of courage to tell them to begin to take the first step, that “ah ha!” moment that you want them to have when they read this book.
Kathy Willis: Yeah, I think it’s just really important to seek out that balance of body, soul, and spirit, and don’t rely on just one. I mean, if you were sitting on a three-legged stool and one of those legs disappeared, you would wobble. You need all three of those legs to be steady so you can sit and be firm, and that’s what it is with our lives. We need body, soul, and spirit in the body. We can do as much as we can to help it, but if we’re not starting with that inner person, the soul is what makes us who we are. It’s our personality, it’s our will, it’s our heart, it’s all of those things inside of us. And then, if we have the spirit part, which is how we talk with God and how we worship him, how we let him identify who we are, because if we get our identity in Christ and not in how bad our body is doing, we’re going to do okay with that struggle and for the ones listening that maybe it’s not a physical struggle, maybe it’s a different kind of struggle. The thing that you need to grasp is that you can have joy, and that’s why they call me the Grin Gal, because you need to have joy to get you through whatever that stinky day is, and you can do that when you really focus in on who God says you are and who he is and your life, and it does get better than this. You know my worst days, I can tell myself “I know it’s going to get better than this”, and that’s what gets me through that bad day.
Dr. Chuck: That’s what makes you keep grinning. Kathy, keep grinning, we need it, and so here we are with Kathy Willis, The Grin Gal’s Guide to Wellbeing. I would encourage you to check this book out and you can find it at kathycarltonwillis.com. You can find on Amazon and all the other typical venues, and she also has another guide to go with this, The Grin Gal’s Planner for Wellbeing, and we’re going to unpack what this is here shortly, but this is more practical. This is more something that helps you to begin to make those small steps in both your body and your spirit and your soul, and learn, you know, kind of how to begin to take that journey. So Kathy it’s been good having on the show. Stay tuned, we’re going to talk with Kathy some more about what this body, soul, and spirit and how this works in wholeness.
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