Your Story Isn’t Over

“Believing it's over will just prolong what God has for you.”

Sep 24, 2025

Below is part of a conversation with Laura Acuña, a life coach, speaker, and author of the book, Still Becoming: Hope, Help, and Healing for the Diet-Weary Soul.

For 50 years, Laura struggled with disordered eating and body image issues, living the cycle of shame and defeat. Laura shares how the Lord set her free, enabling her to walk in the fullness of who He created her to be.

If you prefer listening, you can listen to or watch the full conversation on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.

Tell us your story.

So it's a story I never thought I'd ever tell publicly. And God is faithful. A lot of times when He heals us, He's not going let us keep it buried. And actually, once He heals you, you don't want it buried. You're like the woman at the well — you can't wait to run into town and tell everybody.

But when I was 11 years old, I gained 100 pounds out of the blue sky. And it was 1970s, and it alarmed everyone. I was terrified, my parents were alarmed, my grandparents were alarmed, and no one really knew what we know now.

So they took me to the doctor and there was nothing wrong, according to the pediatrician. So my mother took me to Weight Watchers and that was the beginning of a very toxic relationship with my body.

And it was very traumatic. I would have never called it that until recently, but I know now it was. And it changed the trajectory of my life because I went from being a straight-A student to failing school. I couldn't keep up. I was greatly distracted. I barely made it out of high school. And everything that comes with body image issues — just self-hatred, disdain. Everything came back down to what I look like, what I felt like.

So I went to community college and I spent four years there trying to get a two-year degree and I didn’t get anywhere. So I dropped out. And that was a big thing. I'd be here all day explaining all the fallout from all of that, but I will tell you that only 10 years ago (I’m 66) did I go for help for my food issues.

My mother had died and my sister had died within three months of her. And that drove me to therapy for food issues. I knew then I couldn't stuff my feelings anymore. I was in so much grief that I went for help. And that decision changed my life.

How did you come to experience healing and freedom?

What I learned from the therapy that I received for trauma, grief, and for body image and disordered eating has nothing to do with dieting. It has nothing to do with losing weight. It's all about grace and giving yourself grace to be your true self and take a breath. Just take a breath and see what God does with all that.

And I want to make it really clear: I was never abused. A lot of times when you tell people you gained 100 pounds when you were 11, the first thing they think of is, she must have been sexually abused and then she hid. But that's not what happened.

But there's something called “little t” trauma that I learned about right away. And that is a pervasive sense of not being safe for various reasons while you're growing up. And in my case, there were a lot of those things going on – very high expectations and language around body image and what women look like and what women should look like. So that can be as impactful as a “major T” trauma. You just don't have the PTSD.

So the journey was self-acceptance. I mean the entire therapy was around dealing with the traumatic memory and dealing with grief because I was so sad. And then just reframing my thinking about myself.

So we also worked with a dietitian who was an anti-diet dietitian who works closely with women with eating disorders. And it wasn't like she was sitting there and telling me, ‘Ok, eat three pieces of bread a day and more fats.’ No, it was about how does your body feel? When you eat that, how do you feel? The first question she asked me was, what does full feel like? What does hungry feel like?

So she had to teach me what my body was saying to me because I'd cut off all the connection to my body. I had to reconnect.

What role did renewing your mind play in your healing?

Romans 12:2: “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” God created our brains to heal. And that’s exactly what happened to me through therapy.

So for instance, you have neuropathways in your brain. And my therapist described it to me as a superhighway — it’s where your thoughts automatically go every single time, and you're trained to do that. So for instance, I would look at the fridge refrigerator and completely go into a panic, thinking am I going to be good? Am I going to be bad? What am I going to eat today? If I eat a salad, I'm going to be hungry later, but I can't eat a sandwich because that’s bad.

But when you are nudged gently over time to think differently, new neuropathways are created in your brain. And that super highway gets all grown over with grass and stones and sticks. And the new neuropathways, as you plow through them over and over again, become the superhighway.

But it took time. Therapy is not a quick fix. And the Lord puts us through a process. And I've come to treasure it because, honestly, if we were healed in a minute, we'd forget Him in a second. I mean, we would just move on. But because He puts us through a process, we learn more and more about Him. Our relationship with Him grows, that trust muscle gets strong. It was painful because I had to uncover some stuff, but it was well worth it.

And I want to say this too, none of this had to do with losing weight. It's about treating your body the way God wants you to treat your body. And that does not include starving it. It doesn't include restricting yourself all over the place and yo-yoing up and down. It’s really about getting to a stable place and then saying “we’ll see.”

What God is most concerned about is what's going on in the inside. And all that chaos keeps us from God.

The first time I actually went to a retreat for women who struggle with this, the speaker came out on the stage the first night and said, ‘Imagine what it would be like if your brain was free enough to think about the things of God and not about how much you ate today and what you weigh and what your clothes look like and whether you're going to fit into your jeans and on and on.’ And I sat there at 55 thinking I have no idea what that feels like. But I do now.

What role did identity play in your healing journey?

God changes you and aligns you to think more like He does. And something I had to realize was the voice of shame was not the voice of God. I mean, I thought it was God shaming me. I thought it was God telling me at 11, ‘I can't work with this. This isn't working for me, Laura, so you're going to have Plan B. Because I can't give you Plan A. You've messed up.’ And that's ridiculous, but I believed it.

So the shamer pushes you down. He wants your head low. He doesn't want you looking up. So that's what that voice does to you.

But the voice of God, the holy conviction that comes from the Holy Spirit, is meant to heal you and to help you. Scripture says, ‘You are the one who lifts my head.’ That's exactly what holy conviction does. And so there is a difference.

So as my thinking was transformed, then I began to line up my thinking with God. So now I understand that the voice of shame is not from my God. I know the voice of God now in my life. I know He's loving.

I know that the moment you put your toe on the healing path, He's right there to confirm, go girl, keep going daughter, I love you, you're wonderful, keep going. You don't have wait to be healed for God to tell you how much He loves and how proud He is of you for keeping going.

What’s the most important lesson the Lord has taught you over the years?

Your story is never over. I had a boyfriend when I was in community college and I was talking to his father — this was when I was dropping out of school — and I remember saying to his dad, ‘I'm so old, I've blown it. I'm done.’ And he was probably 60. And he looked at me like, what? He said, ‘You are not.’ But I didn't believe him.

Believing it's over will just prolong what God has for you. He wants to heal you now. He wants to bring you closer to your true self now. It’s never over.

Listen to or watch the full conversation on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.

Thank you for being here,

Katharine

P.S. Eternal Echoes is free today. But if you’d like to partner with me in passing on faith and wisdom to future generations, I’d be so grateful if you consider supporting my work. I thank you truly, kindly and sincerely.

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