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===Alberta Report===
===Alberta Report===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/Gwen_Shamblin_Alberta_Report.htm |title=“How to feast on faith: Growing numbers of churches are devouring God-based weight control” |accessdate=2008-12-14 |publisher= [[Alberta Report]] |''The Report Canada’s Independent News Magazine'' }}</ref>The Weigh Down program teaches the differences between worshipping God and idolizing food, between true "stomach hunger" and false "head hunger," and on a practical level, between eating until satisfied and eating until everything on the plate has vanished. A workshop leader calls Weigh Down an answer to prayer. "I was drawn to the fridge, drawn to food. Now I turn to God instead of the fridge," she says, having lost 35 pounds in 10 months, with no inclination to put it back on.
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/Gwen_Shamblin_Alberta_Report.htm |title=“How to feast on faith: Growing numbers of churches are devouring God-based weight control” |accessdate=2008-12-14 |publisher= [[Alberta Report]] |''The Report Canada’s Independent News Magazine'' }}</ref>The Weigh Down program teaches the differences between worshipping God and idolizing food, between true "stomach hunger" and false "head hunger," and on a practical level, between eating until satisfied and eating until everything on the plate has vanished. A workshop leader calls Weigh Down an answer to prayer. "I was drawn to the fridge, drawn to food. Now I turn to God instead of the fridge," she says, having lost 35 pounds in 10 months, with no inclination to put it back on.

===AP Newswire===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/Gwen_Shamblin_Associated_Press.htm |title=“When diet programs didn’t work” |accessdate=12-14-2008 |publisher= AP Newswire}}</ref>On past programs, “I would pay the $40 membership fee, then I would have to pay $8 each week until I reached my goal,” she said. “That could end up being a lot of money.” With Weigh Down, customers pay $125 for a 12-week session that includes a manual and a package of 12 audiotapes containing 17 lessons. The second 12-week session is $55 and includes more audiotapes. After that, you go for free.

===Arkansas Catholic===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/Gwen_Shamblin_Arkansas_Catholic.htm |title=“Jesus helping Catholics become ‘losers’—Weight loss participants herald gains in life, over pounds lost” |accessdate=12-14-2008 |publisher= Arkansas Catholic}}</ref>Groups of Catholics in Little Rock and Russellville are leaving behind the diet pills, low-calorie shakes, and calorie counters and taste-free, fat-free foods. They have found that traditional ways of losing weight have allowed them to put control in someone else’s hands through the Weigh Down Workshop, founded by Gwen Shamblin. God should be the one in control, they say.

===Birmingham Alabama News===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/Gwen_Shamblin_Birmingham_Alabam_News.htm |title=“Weighty Prayers: Christians confronting issues of flesh as well as soul” |accessdate=12-14-2008 |publisher= Birmingham Alabama News}}</ref>Possibly where the archivist got her stats... A recent entry into this field is The Weigh Down Workshop, developed by Gwen Shamblin, with more than a quarter million participants and a book that sold 200,000 copies just in the first two months of its release.

===Christian Woman Magazine===
Article 1: <ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_todays_christian_woman.htm |title=“Weigh Down Workshop’s Gwen Shamblin dishes up a message that will satisfy your hunger for God” |accessdate=12-14-2008 |publisher= Christian Woman Magazine}}</ref>Shamblin, through her Weigh Down Workshop seminars, claims you can eat what you want when you want it-as long as you're genuinely hungry and you stop when you're full. But there's more to her approach than following behavioral cues, and that's what has piqued the attention of secular media as varied as the Washington Post, Woman's Day magazine, U.S. News and World Report, and television's A Current Affair, Hard Copy, and American Journal. ... I caught up with this dynamo at her home and discovered a woman who's passionate about motivating others to love God first and foremost.

Article 2: <ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/Gwen_Shamblin_Christian_Woman.htm |title=“The Lowdown on Weigh Down” |accessdate=12-14-2008 |publisher= Christian Woman Magazine}}</ref>It involves no food lists, conversion charts, or rules about when and what to eat. The main principle of the program is to wait until you're physically hungry and then eat what you most want until satisfied.

===Dallas Morning News===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/DMN.asp |title=“Fitter Bodies, Sated Souls” |accessdate=12-14-2008 |publisher= Dallas Morning News}}</ref>"People are falling in love with God and out of love with food," said Gwen Shamblin, a registered dietitian who founded the Weigh Down Workshop Inc. in 1986. "Getting skinny is just an added benefit."

===First For Women===
aRTICLE 1: <ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/FFWReginaSmith.asp |title=“How taking you faith to the next level can help you lose!” |accessdate=12-20-2008 |publisher= First For Women}}</ref>At 219 pounds, I weighed more than ever and felt hopeless about finding a permanent answer to my weight battle. Then the face of Gwen Shamblin, the founder of The Weigh Down Workshop, flashed across the screen. I listened as she spoke about faith-based weight loss. She said people could slim down by transferring all their energy from binge eating to God. It felt like someone had flipped on the lights in my life. I’ve turned to my faith when I’ve struggled with every other thing in my life, so why not with weight loss? I thought.

Article 2: <ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/FFWCandaceAnger.asp |title=“I stopped thinking about food and the fat fell off!” |accessdate=12-20-2008 |publisher= First For Women}}</ref>There has to be more to life than this, I told myself one truly miserable day. So I decided to do something I had never done before: attend a church service. Afterward, I heard women talking about a bible-based weight loss book called The Weigh Down Diet. Since I had tried every other weight loss approach, I figured one more couldn’t hurt.
Within six months I lost 55 pounds. Now when I wake up, I thank God for another beautiful day and start playing with my kids instead of planning out my feeding schedule. It’s a miracle- I’m actually at peace around food! And you know, brownies taste better when you are actually hungry for them.

Article 3: <ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_first_women_mag.htm |title=“My faith helped me lose 45 pounds” |accessdate=12-20-2008 |publisher= First For Women}}</ref>Within a year I’d lost 45 pounds. It’s been five years and I haven’t regained one pound! I weigh 125 pounds and I’ve never felt better! Today, I know that with God, food will never again rule my life.

===The Atlanta Journal Constitution ===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_Atlanta_Journal.htm |title=“Divine Dieting: Using the Bible as a weight loss guide, many overeaters find that turning to a higher power leads to fewer pounds” |accessdate=12-20-2008 |publisher= The Atlanta Journal Constitution}}</ref>Shamblin says she discovered the principle of eating according to hunger and fullness in college after adding 20 pounds. She asked a thin friend if she could watch her eat. The two went to McDonald’s together. “I had finished my Big Mac, my French fries, my milkshake, and was nursing a diet drink,” Shamblin recalls. “She was halfway through her Quarter Pounder with no fries and started wrapping up the rest of her hamburger.”

===Gannett News Service===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/Gwen_Shamblin_Gannet_News.htm |title=“Diet plan puts God before food” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= Gannett News Service}}</ref>The Weigh Down way is not about food deprivation, food substitutes, or exercise. In fact, no food is off-limits. Trying to limit the food, "or make it behave," as Shamblin is fond of saying, is just a way of blaming the food for our own lack of control and misplaced desire. Besides, she believes the body physiologically will always crave the real thing.

===Good Housekeeping===
Article 1: <ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/GH2007.asp |title=“Slim Down Secrets Rene Maxwell” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= Good Housekeeping}}</ref>The instructor insisted we reacquaint ourselves with the physical symptoms of hunger and fullness. That day, I listened to my stomach growl - a sound I hadn't heard in more than 10 years. I decided to stop working out temporarily because exercise had become a crutch, one that sucked up all my time and triggered my appetite. That first week, I ate fast food twice, didn't go to the gym, and still lost three pounds. Instead of my usually comfort food from McDonald's - a Big Mac combo meal - I ordered a plain hamburger and a Diet Coke, which, to my surprise, filled me up. If I had cravings at home, I'd put on music, then sing, dance, or clean to turn my mind away from food. Or I'd call a friend and ask her to take a walk with me.

Article 2: <ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_good_housekeeping.htm |title=“The Weight Loss Preacher – Spreading the Word: Gwen Shamblin gives the skinny” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= Good Housekeeping}}</ref>Before each meal, Gwen Shamblin, founder of The Weigh Down Workshop and author of The Weigh Down Diet, thanks the Lord for her daily bread – not to mention the ice cream, peanut-butter cups, and chocolate cake she treats herself to on a regular basis. The Nashville mother of two, who is married to a former campus minister, eats what she wants, when she wants, and never gains weight – something she attributes to a power far greater than her metabolism. “God made our bodies, and He created a signal within us to tell us when to eat and when to stop,” says Shamblin. “All a person has to do is listen to it.”

Article 3: <ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/slim-secrets-tedder-apr07?kw=ist |title=“Slim Down Secrets Carmen Tedder” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= Good Housekeeping}}</ref>HOW I KEEP WEIGHT OFF When I feel mopey and depressed, I turn to prayer--not food--for relief. I try to nip sad feelings in the bud by reminding myself how blessed I am to have a healthy family. If I have a desire for, say, fried chicken wings, I squelch it by telling myself the craving will pass. And it always does.

===La Campana===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/LaCampana1.asp |title=“Que por favor… me ayude a adelgazar” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= La Campana}}</ref>

===Ladies Home Journal===
Article 1: <ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/LHJ2007.asp |title=“Diet Help from On High?” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= Ladies Home Journal}}</ref>decided to try the Weigh Down Workshop, a Bible-based weight-loss program that offered a class at a local church. In three months she shed 53 pounds-without counting calories or carbs or exercising. Now 39, she has lost 150 pounds, wears a size 6 and is confident she'll never backslide into obesity again. "I replaced my wanting food with filling myself up with my relationship with God," she says. Millions of overweight individuals have taken the same path.

Article 2: <ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.lhj.com/lhj/slideshow/slideShow.jhtml?slideid=/templatedata/lhj/slideshow/data/1211987291600.xml&page=7&ordersrc=rafstory |title=“I Love the New Me: 5 Women's Incredible Weight-Loss Stories” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= Ladies Home Journal}}</ref>I never realized till then how much time I spent thinking about food. In the first week of the program we were asked to cut our food portions in half and to eat only when we were hungry. I'd serve myself that set amount, finish it and think, you know, that isn't enough. It was a struggle getting rid of all those old preconceptions of what I thought a meal should be. It took me almost two months to accept what a normal portion size looked like.

===Marie Claire===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/Gwen_Shamblin_Marie_Claire.htm |title=“Praying to Lose Weight” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= Marie Claire Health & Beauty Magazine}}</ref>The key message of the Weigh Down Workshop is moderation. “God didn’t put ice cream and chocolate on earth to torture us,” Shamblin explains. “God is himself a great chef; He loves food and wants us to enjoy it, too. But He only wants us to eat when we are truly hungry.”

===McCall's===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_mccalls_mag.htm |title=“Guidelines for Spiritual Weight Loss” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= McCall’s Magazine}}</ref>Tune in to real hunger. “We have ignored the natural mechanism in our bodies—hunger and fullness,” says Gwen Shamblin, the registered dietitian who founded the Weigh Down Workshop. Eat when your stomach tells you to (when it growls or feels hollow). Stop when you’re comfortably full.

===Northwest Indiana Times===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2005/07/04/get_healthy/health_focus/b79abeb97ece6ea0862570310056c558.txt |title=“Choosing God instead of food” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= Northwest Indiana Times}}</ref>While some may see the appearances, books, classes and videos and question Weigh Down as nothing more than a marketing and sales-heavy endeavor, Kathy Held, chief dietitian at St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Center, sees a place for the program in the weight-loss strata. "It does bother me when someone says 'this diet works' and they try to solicit and get everyone to jump on the bandwagon, because what might work for one person may not work for another," she said. "But this (program) would work for some people. I think if you're not a spiritual person, it's not going to work."

===Quick and Simple===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/QandS2006.asp |title=“God Answered My Weight-Loss Prayers” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= Quick and Simple}}</ref>The Tennessean - December 13, 2006 - HEATHER DONAHOE - Woman rises up with help from Weigh Down - Faith in God and program led Zanoni to shed pounds, enjoy healthier lifestyle - In the program, dieters are not required to shun any specific foods, take herbal supplements or keep a rigorous workout routine. They are asked, instead, to avoid eating until they feel "true physiological hunger" - the kind of hunger that is signaled by a growling stomach. Everything else, Zanoni says, is just "head hunger."

===The AP News===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/Gwen_Shamblin_AP_News_Religion.htm |title=“Religion Today” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= The AP News}}</ref>Her plan sounds simple, almost too simple: Eat when you are truly hungry, and eat just to feel full. The idea came to her after watching a thin friend eat, noticing that she finished half of a hamburger and then started to wrap it up. That’s what led Shamblin to practice what she now preaches.

===The Catholic Review===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_Catholic_Review.htm |title=“Weigh Down Yonder, Bible study program helps parishioners drop pounds” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= The Catholic Review}}</ref>The Weigh Down Workshop is based on biblical principles and a faith journey that consists of Bible study and following the philosophy that by building a relationship with God, a person can fill an emptiness they may feel that they have been trying to fill with food. "The basis of Weigh Down Workshop is true for any Christian faith," said one participant, "put God first-be submissive to his will."

===The Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_Colorado_Springs_Gazette.htm |title=“What’s in our hearts, not our stomachs, is what makes us fat” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= The Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph}}</ref>Dr. Jim Trent, director of eating disorders at Vanderbilt University's counseling center, welcomes Weigh Down's approach. "The goal of overall weight loss is to get people to realize when they are full to stop eating. If they can use spirituality to help them do that, then it can be a powerful thing," he said.: Colorado Springs Gazette (date?)

===The Huntsville Times===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_The_Huntsville_Times.htm
|title=“Church-based diets are fighting fruitcake flab” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= The Huntsville Times}}</ref>That law is this, as Shamblin explains it: Just as your body regulates its need for oxygen, taking in just the amount it needs, your body knows how much food it requires to work properly. Stop eating when your hunger is satisfied and your body will eventually return to its natural weight. And meanwhile, your relationship with God will flourish. Weigh Down focuses on the inner, not the outer self.

===The Miami Herald===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_The_National_Enquirer.htm
|title=“Lose weight the religious way—all you have to do is pray” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= The National Enquirer}}</ref>A Tennessee family practitioner lost 30 pounds in eight months. "I'm 5-foot-11, and I weighed 298 pounds when I found out about Weigh Down through my church. It works because it frees people from the bondage of thinking constantly about food. Instead we think about God-and He takes the problems off our shoulders," said the doctor.

===The NBC Today Show===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.weighdown.com/Today.htm |title=“The Today Show with Matt Lowery” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= NBC -The Today Show}}</ref> http://www.weighdown.com/Today.htm

===The Tennessean===
Article 1: <ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_Tennessean_top_business_award.htm|title=“Gwen Shamblin gets top business award” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= The Tennessean}}</ref>Top Business Award - "Lipscomb University has chosen Gwen Shamblin, founder and chief executive officer of Franklin-based Weigh Down Workshop, Inc., as Christian Business Leader of the Year for 1998. Calling Shamblin a 'remarkable lady,' Lipscomb President Stephen F. Flatt said choosing her for the honor was based on three criteria ."First, her life exemplifies a dedicated and consistent walk with Christ. Second, her business, the Weigh Down Workshop, is more ministry than industry. Third, the phenomenal success of the Weigh Down Workshop is attributable to the direct blessing of God and Gwen's prudent stewardship of the abilities and talents He has given her," Flatt said. "Her husband David is a 'five-talent' man in his own right. The entire Shamblin family is a wonderful model for Christian families everywhere," he added. A registered dietitian, Shamblin holds a master's degree in food and nutrition from the University of Tennessee. Mrs. Shamblin was an instructor in dietetics for the University of Memphis, then began a consulting practice in Memphis in 1980. Realizing that the knowledge of food and its contents did not hold the key to permanent weight control, Gwen Shamblin began counseling people toward a focus on God and away from food. The positive results led her to offer her program on a wider scale by establishing the Weigh Down Workshop, Inc. in 1986.

Article 2: <ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_Tennessean_Gods_Own_Image.htm |title=“In God’s Own Image: For members of Weigh Down Workshop, shedding pounds has become an endeavor of faith” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= The Tennessean}}</ref>Instead of rules for dieting, the program encourages people to enjoy any food they want, in moderation. Shamblin says, “God didn’t put fats and sweets on earth to torture us. He is the genius behind blue cheese dressing and pasta.” Eat just to the point of fullness, Shamblin teaches, putting God first and relying on divine support for success.

===US News and World Report===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_US_News_Godly_Approach.htm
|title=“A Godly Approach to Weight ” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= US News and World Report}}</ref>Christian diet programs are growing fast. Shamblin organized her first support group in 1986 in a Memphis strip mall; today there are thousands of Weigh Down workshops with a quarter of a million participants who meet in churches across the country.

===USA Weekend===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_USA_Weekend.htm
|title=“Drawing on Faith to Lose those Extra Pounds” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= USA Weekend}}</ref>Folks are turning to the Bible to lose weight, using its quotes and stories as inspirations to shed pounds. The Franklin, TN-based Weigh Down Workshop, founded by registered dietician Gwen Shamblin, has hosted about 26,000 Bible-based diet programs. A motivational morsel from a Weigh Down tape: “God will never let fat grams be our savior.”

===Woman's Day Magazine===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/Gwen_Shamblin_Womans_Day.htm
|title=“Divine Intervention: Can God Make You Thin” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= Woman‘s Day Magazine}}</ref>Gwen Shamblin developed the Weigh Down concept while working on her master’s degree in foods and nutrition. She’d become convinced that genetics, metabolism, and behavior modification alone couldn’t explain why some people were thin and others battled the bulge. While leading a weight-control seminar in a Memphis clothing store, she would tell the class, “If you’re not hungry, don’t eat.” She would pull out her Bible. “Chew on this for a while instead.”

===Woman’s Faith & Spirit===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/WFNSZanoniFamily.asp
|title=“AT LAST! THE DIET YOU CAN BELIEVE IN!” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= Woman‘s Faith & Spirit}}</ref>THIS IS NOT A DIET YOU WAIT UNTIL MONDAY TO BEGIN. This is a way of living and eating that you start the moment God puts the desire in your heart, believes Gwen Shamblim, founder of The Weigh Down Workshop. The Weigh Down Diet is based on the idea that God created food for our good pleasure, so no foods are off limits. Our bodies have built-in signals about when and how much to eat. To be healthy, and at the weight we were created to be, we need to listen to those signals.

===Woman Magazine===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/gwen_shamblin_Woman_Magazine.htm
|title=“We Prayed to Lose Weight... and IT WORKED”|accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= Woman Magazine}}</ref>Don't scoff....here's how it works...At Weigh Down, members are taught to: Examine the emotional or spiritual reasons why they tend to overeat. Distinguish false 'head hunger' from real 'stomach hunger' and only eat when physically hungry. Let their body select the food it wants. Eat their favorites first, as they're likely to abandon the rest when full up. Dish out smaller portions of food, on smaller plates. Above all, pray to avoid temptation.

===Woman's Touch Magazine===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/Gwen_Shamblin_Womans_Touch.htm
|title=“A different kind of weight loss program”|accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= Woman’s Touch Magazine}}</ref>The Weigh Down Workshop, developed by Gwen Shamblin, is a remarkably successful weight loss program gaining popularity in churches across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. What makes is so different? Weigh Down is not a diet. Members learn to change on the inside so they no longer lack godly control.

===World Magazine===
<ref> {{cite website |url=http://www.wdworkshop.com/Gwen_Shamblin_World_Magazine.htm
|title=“Nutrition vs. quackery: Books on how to raise personal health through self-control” |accessdate=12-21-2008 |publisher= World Magazine}}</ref>This book, based upon Shamblin's Weigh Down Workshop seminar, is a refreshing dose of reality in an industry submerged in the elixirs of hype and fantasy. You'll find no quick fixes here, no miracle cures, no magic wands, no incredible breakthroughs, no instant washboard abs, and no sudden beauty-queen transformations. But you will find wise counsel for a sustainable healthy lifestyle for you and your family.


==Criticism==
==Criticism==

Revision as of 03:24, 12 January 2009

Gwen Shamblin
File:Gwen Shamblin And Children.jpg
OccupationAuthor and Registered Dietician
GenreSelf-help, Non-fiction
Website
http://www.weighdown.com/

Gwen Shamblin is an American Christian non-fiction author and leader of the Remnant Fellowship Church. The most distinctive aspect of her writing is its combination of weight loss programs with Christianity. Shamblin is married and has two children.[1]

According to her website, Ms. Shamblin is a registered dietitian, consultant and was an instructor of nutrition at the University of Memphis.[2] Before she started writing, she earned a master’s degree in dietetics from University of Tennessee, in Knoxville.[3]

The Weigh Down Diet

Gwen Shamblin is the author of The Weigh Down Diet (ISBN 0-385-49324-X). First published in 1997, this diet advises using spirituality to avoid overeating and has sold more than 1.2 million copies.[4] Since that time she has written Rise Above (ISBN 0-7852-6876-6), a devotional book called Exodus (ISBN 1-892729-00-8) and most recently in 2007 The Legend to The Treasure (ISBN 1-892729-80-6).

Shamblin teaches that there are two very different needs in each person; a need for food and an emotional need. According to Ms. Shamblin, people should only eat when they feel real, physical hunger and stop when full; prayer and Bible reading will fill emotional needs instead of food. Overeating is equated with greed. A core principle of the Weigh Down Diet, when people feel an urge to snack but are not experiencing true physiological "hunger", Shamblin encourages participants to read the Bible instead.[5]

Remnant Fellowship Church

Gwen Shamblin is a leader in and a founder of the Remnant Fellowship Church. The church takes its name from the Book of Ezra 9:8-9, which mentions a "faithful remnant" of followers.[6] According to the church's website, it currently has over 120 locations worldwide.[7] The church was started in 1999 in Brentwood, Tennessee.

In a 2001 interview with The New Yorker, Shamblin stated that she felt called by God to start Remnant Fellowship after noticing that some users of the Weigh Down program were beginning to gain back their weight. This led her to theorize that the mainstream Protestant doctrine of "Eternal Security" leads some people to believe they have a license to sin.[8]

In the media

Shamblin has recently been featured on The Today Show,[9] DaySide,[10] and The Early Show.[11] Participants from the Weigh Down Workshop have been featured on the cover of Good Housekeeping,[12] in the Ladies' Home Journal,[13] First magazine,[14] Quick and Simple,[15] and in numerous newspaper articles. Most recently, The Tyra Banks Show[16] devoted an hour long program to Shamblin, the Weigh Down Workshop, the Fellowship and participants from Weigh Down programs.

Alberta Report

[17]The Weigh Down program teaches the differences between worshipping God and idolizing food, between true "stomach hunger" and false "head hunger," and on a practical level, between eating until satisfied and eating until everything on the plate has vanished. A workshop leader calls Weigh Down an answer to prayer. "I was drawn to the fridge, drawn to food. Now I turn to God instead of the fridge," she says, having lost 35 pounds in 10 months, with no inclination to put it back on.

AP Newswire

[18]On past programs, “I would pay the $40 membership fee, then I would have to pay $8 each week until I reached my goal,” she said. “That could end up being a lot of money.” With Weigh Down, customers pay $125 for a 12-week session that includes a manual and a package of 12 audiotapes containing 17 lessons. The second 12-week session is $55 and includes more audiotapes. After that, you go for free.

Arkansas Catholic

[19]Groups of Catholics in Little Rock and Russellville are leaving behind the diet pills, low-calorie shakes, and calorie counters and taste-free, fat-free foods. They have found that traditional ways of losing weight have allowed them to put control in someone else’s hands through the Weigh Down Workshop, founded by Gwen Shamblin. God should be the one in control, they say.

Birmingham Alabama News

[20]Possibly where the archivist got her stats... A recent entry into this field is The Weigh Down Workshop, developed by Gwen Shamblin, with more than a quarter million participants and a book that sold 200,000 copies just in the first two months of its release.

Christian Woman Magazine

Article 1: [21]Shamblin, through her Weigh Down Workshop seminars, claims you can eat what you want when you want it-as long as you're genuinely hungry and you stop when you're full. But there's more to her approach than following behavioral cues, and that's what has piqued the attention of secular media as varied as the Washington Post, Woman's Day magazine, U.S. News and World Report, and television's A Current Affair, Hard Copy, and American Journal. ... I caught up with this dynamo at her home and discovered a woman who's passionate about motivating others to love God first and foremost.

Article 2: [22]It involves no food lists, conversion charts, or rules about when and what to eat. The main principle of the program is to wait until you're physically hungry and then eat what you most want until satisfied.

Dallas Morning News

[23]"People are falling in love with God and out of love with food," said Gwen Shamblin, a registered dietitian who founded the Weigh Down Workshop Inc. in 1986. "Getting skinny is just an added benefit."

First For Women

aRTICLE 1: [24]At 219 pounds, I weighed more than ever and felt hopeless about finding a permanent answer to my weight battle. Then the face of Gwen Shamblin, the founder of The Weigh Down Workshop, flashed across the screen. I listened as she spoke about faith-based weight loss. She said people could slim down by transferring all their energy from binge eating to God. It felt like someone had flipped on the lights in my life. I’ve turned to my faith when I’ve struggled with every other thing in my life, so why not with weight loss? I thought.

Article 2: [25]There has to be more to life than this, I told myself one truly miserable day. So I decided to do something I had never done before: attend a church service. Afterward, I heard women talking about a bible-based weight loss book called The Weigh Down Diet. Since I had tried every other weight loss approach, I figured one more couldn’t hurt. Within six months I lost 55 pounds. Now when I wake up, I thank God for another beautiful day and start playing with my kids instead of planning out my feeding schedule. It’s a miracle- I’m actually at peace around food! And you know, brownies taste better when you are actually hungry for them.

Article 3: [26]Within a year I’d lost 45 pounds. It’s been five years and I haven’t regained one pound! I weigh 125 pounds and I’ve never felt better! Today, I know that with God, food will never again rule my life.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution

[27]Shamblin says she discovered the principle of eating according to hunger and fullness in college after adding 20 pounds. She asked a thin friend if she could watch her eat. The two went to McDonald’s together. “I had finished my Big Mac, my French fries, my milkshake, and was nursing a diet drink,” Shamblin recalls. “She was halfway through her Quarter Pounder with no fries and started wrapping up the rest of her hamburger.”

Gannett News Service

[28]The Weigh Down way is not about food deprivation, food substitutes, or exercise. In fact, no food is off-limits. Trying to limit the food, "or make it behave," as Shamblin is fond of saying, is just a way of blaming the food for our own lack of control and misplaced desire. Besides, she believes the body physiologically will always crave the real thing.

Good Housekeeping

Article 1: [29]The instructor insisted we reacquaint ourselves with the physical symptoms of hunger and fullness. That day, I listened to my stomach growl - a sound I hadn't heard in more than 10 years. I decided to stop working out temporarily because exercise had become a crutch, one that sucked up all my time and triggered my appetite. That first week, I ate fast food twice, didn't go to the gym, and still lost three pounds. Instead of my usually comfort food from McDonald's - a Big Mac combo meal - I ordered a plain hamburger and a Diet Coke, which, to my surprise, filled me up. If I had cravings at home, I'd put on music, then sing, dance, or clean to turn my mind away from food. Or I'd call a friend and ask her to take a walk with me.

Article 2: [30]Before each meal, Gwen Shamblin, founder of The Weigh Down Workshop and author of The Weigh Down Diet, thanks the Lord for her daily bread – not to mention the ice cream, peanut-butter cups, and chocolate cake she treats herself to on a regular basis. The Nashville mother of two, who is married to a former campus minister, eats what she wants, when she wants, and never gains weight – something she attributes to a power far greater than her metabolism. “God made our bodies, and He created a signal within us to tell us when to eat and when to stop,” says Shamblin. “All a person has to do is listen to it.”

Article 3: [31]HOW I KEEP WEIGHT OFF When I feel mopey and depressed, I turn to prayer--not food--for relief. I try to nip sad feelings in the bud by reminding myself how blessed I am to have a healthy family. If I have a desire for, say, fried chicken wings, I squelch it by telling myself the craving will pass. And it always does.

La Campana

[32]

Ladies Home Journal

Article 1: [33]decided to try the Weigh Down Workshop, a Bible-based weight-loss program that offered a class at a local church. In three months she shed 53 pounds-without counting calories or carbs or exercising. Now 39, she has lost 150 pounds, wears a size 6 and is confident she'll never backslide into obesity again. "I replaced my wanting food with filling myself up with my relationship with God," she says. Millions of overweight individuals have taken the same path.

Article 2: [34]I never realized till then how much time I spent thinking about food. In the first week of the program we were asked to cut our food portions in half and to eat only when we were hungry. I'd serve myself that set amount, finish it and think, you know, that isn't enough. It was a struggle getting rid of all those old preconceptions of what I thought a meal should be. It took me almost two months to accept what a normal portion size looked like.

Marie Claire

[35]The key message of the Weigh Down Workshop is moderation. “God didn’t put ice cream and chocolate on earth to torture us,” Shamblin explains. “God is himself a great chef; He loves food and wants us to enjoy it, too. But He only wants us to eat when we are truly hungry.”

McCall's

[36]Tune in to real hunger. “We have ignored the natural mechanism in our bodies—hunger and fullness,” says Gwen Shamblin, the registered dietitian who founded the Weigh Down Workshop. Eat when your stomach tells you to (when it growls or feels hollow). Stop when you’re comfortably full.

Northwest Indiana Times

[37]While some may see the appearances, books, classes and videos and question Weigh Down as nothing more than a marketing and sales-heavy endeavor, Kathy Held, chief dietitian at St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Center, sees a place for the program in the weight-loss strata. "It does bother me when someone says 'this diet works' and they try to solicit and get everyone to jump on the bandwagon, because what might work for one person may not work for another," she said. "But this (program) would work for some people. I think if you're not a spiritual person, it's not going to work."

Quick and Simple

[38]The Tennessean - December 13, 2006 - HEATHER DONAHOE - Woman rises up with help from Weigh Down - Faith in God and program led Zanoni to shed pounds, enjoy healthier lifestyle - In the program, dieters are not required to shun any specific foods, take herbal supplements or keep a rigorous workout routine. They are asked, instead, to avoid eating until they feel "true physiological hunger" - the kind of hunger that is signaled by a growling stomach. Everything else, Zanoni says, is just "head hunger."

The AP News

[39]Her plan sounds simple, almost too simple: Eat when you are truly hungry, and eat just to feel full. The idea came to her after watching a thin friend eat, noticing that she finished half of a hamburger and then started to wrap it up. That’s what led Shamblin to practice what she now preaches.

The Catholic Review

[40]The Weigh Down Workshop is based on biblical principles and a faith journey that consists of Bible study and following the philosophy that by building a relationship with God, a person can fill an emptiness they may feel that they have been trying to fill with food. "The basis of Weigh Down Workshop is true for any Christian faith," said one participant, "put God first-be submissive to his will."

The Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph

[41]Dr. Jim Trent, director of eating disorders at Vanderbilt University's counseling center, welcomes Weigh Down's approach. "The goal of overall weight loss is to get people to realize when they are full to stop eating. If they can use spirituality to help them do that, then it can be a powerful thing," he said.: Colorado Springs Gazette (date?)

The Huntsville Times

[42]That law is this, as Shamblin explains it: Just as your body regulates its need for oxygen, taking in just the amount it needs, your body knows how much food it requires to work properly. Stop eating when your hunger is satisfied and your body will eventually return to its natural weight. And meanwhile, your relationship with God will flourish. Weigh Down focuses on the inner, not the outer self.

The Miami Herald

[43]A Tennessee family practitioner lost 30 pounds in eight months. "I'm 5-foot-11, and I weighed 298 pounds when I found out about Weigh Down through my church. It works because it frees people from the bondage of thinking constantly about food. Instead we think about God-and He takes the problems off our shoulders," said the doctor.

The NBC Today Show

[44] http://www.weighdown.com/Today.htm

The Tennessean

Article 1: [45]Top Business Award - "Lipscomb University has chosen Gwen Shamblin, founder and chief executive officer of Franklin-based Weigh Down Workshop, Inc., as Christian Business Leader of the Year for 1998. Calling Shamblin a 'remarkable lady,' Lipscomb President Stephen F. Flatt said choosing her for the honor was based on three criteria ."First, her life exemplifies a dedicated and consistent walk with Christ. Second, her business, the Weigh Down Workshop, is more ministry than industry. Third, the phenomenal success of the Weigh Down Workshop is attributable to the direct blessing of God and Gwen's prudent stewardship of the abilities and talents He has given her," Flatt said. "Her husband David is a 'five-talent' man in his own right. The entire Shamblin family is a wonderful model for Christian families everywhere," he added. A registered dietitian, Shamblin holds a master's degree in food and nutrition from the University of Tennessee. Mrs. Shamblin was an instructor in dietetics for the University of Memphis, then began a consulting practice in Memphis in 1980. Realizing that the knowledge of food and its contents did not hold the key to permanent weight control, Gwen Shamblin began counseling people toward a focus on God and away from food. The positive results led her to offer her program on a wider scale by establishing the Weigh Down Workshop, Inc. in 1986.

Article 2: [46]Instead of rules for dieting, the program encourages people to enjoy any food they want, in moderation. Shamblin says, “God didn’t put fats and sweets on earth to torture us. He is the genius behind blue cheese dressing and pasta.” Eat just to the point of fullness, Shamblin teaches, putting God first and relying on divine support for success.

US News and World Report

[47]Christian diet programs are growing fast. Shamblin organized her first support group in 1986 in a Memphis strip mall; today there are thousands of Weigh Down workshops with a quarter of a million participants who meet in churches across the country.

USA Weekend

[48]Folks are turning to the Bible to lose weight, using its quotes and stories as inspirations to shed pounds. The Franklin, TN-based Weigh Down Workshop, founded by registered dietician Gwen Shamblin, has hosted about 26,000 Bible-based diet programs. A motivational morsel from a Weigh Down tape: “God will never let fat grams be our savior.”

Woman's Day Magazine

[49]Gwen Shamblin developed the Weigh Down concept while working on her master’s degree in foods and nutrition. She’d become convinced that genetics, metabolism, and behavior modification alone couldn’t explain why some people were thin and others battled the bulge. While leading a weight-control seminar in a Memphis clothing store, she would tell the class, “If you’re not hungry, don’t eat.” She would pull out her Bible. “Chew on this for a while instead.”

Woman’s Faith & Spirit

[50]THIS IS NOT A DIET YOU WAIT UNTIL MONDAY TO BEGIN. This is a way of living and eating that you start the moment God puts the desire in your heart, believes Gwen Shamblim, founder of The Weigh Down Workshop. The Weigh Down Diet is based on the idea that God created food for our good pleasure, so no foods are off limits. Our bodies have built-in signals about when and how much to eat. To be healthy, and at the weight we were created to be, we need to listen to those signals.

Woman Magazine

[51]Don't scoff....here's how it works...At Weigh Down, members are taught to: Examine the emotional or spiritual reasons why they tend to overeat. Distinguish false 'head hunger' from real 'stomach hunger' and only eat when physically hungry. Let their body select the food it wants. Eat their favorites first, as they're likely to abandon the rest when full up. Dish out smaller portions of food, on smaller plates. Above all, pray to avoid temptation.

Woman's Touch Magazine

[52]The Weigh Down Workshop, developed by Gwen Shamblin, is a remarkably successful weight loss program gaining popularity in churches across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. What makes is so different? Weigh Down is not a diet. Members learn to change on the inside so they no longer lack godly control.

World Magazine

[53]This book, based upon Shamblin's Weigh Down Workshop seminar, is a refreshing dose of reality in an industry submerged in the elixirs of hype and fantasy. You'll find no quick fixes here, no miracle cures, no magic wands, no incredible breakthroughs, no instant washboard abs, and no sudden beauty-queen transformations. But you will find wise counsel for a sustainable healthy lifestyle for you and your family.

Criticism

Diet Principles

Other dietitians have questioned the soundness of Shamblin's diet advice, which focuses on faith instead of healthy eating habits or exercise.[54][55] In the book Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity (ISBN 0520242408), author Marie Griffith, a Princeton associate professor of religion, examines the trend of religion-based dieting. Griffith credits Shamblin for the new wave of interest in creating "a more holy body", and substantial sections of the work examine Shamblin's movement.[56] Griffith notes "In Shamblin's world, people who don't lose weight often feel like failures. If they don't lose weight, it's a failure of discipline; it's a failure of obedience."[57] At the same time, Griffith's work places Shamblin's movement squarely within a historical tradition of perfecting one's body in order to be more Christ-like, or fasting and dieting in order to feel closer to God.

Religious Beliefs

Gwen Shamblin's weight loss programs were initially very well received within Christian churches. Tens of thousands of churches in many different denominations used her materials to teach her faith based weight loss program in the late 80s and early 90s. Controversy arose when she began to teach that the doctrine of the Trinity was not Biblical. Gwen Shamblin made it clear that she believes Jesus Christ is not God but rather God's son. This led Thomas Nelson Publishers to cancel the publication of Exodus, her next work. In a letter to her followers sent to clarify her position on the Trinity, Shamblin wrote: "The reason all of this is important is that if you do not understand that God is the clear authority and that Jesus was under God's authority, then you will not have a clear picture of what it means to be Christ like. Jesus suffered, obeyed, submitted, denied his will, and made it his food to do the will of the Father."[58]

Remnant Fellowship Church

Some people have said that Remnant Church members are encouraged to move to Tennessee to be closer to the church if possible; about 650 members are estimated to have moved. In an interview where Shamblin was asked if Remnant is encouraging families to move to the Nashville area from elsewhere, she replied "We had 80 members for a long time. We bought that land. And we were building the church at that time. It just grew little by little by little. Then inside the last year, when all of a sudden all these people wanted to move, well, I'm not going to tell them where to live. And I said, Are you sure God is asking you to sell your land? And they would say, We feel God calling us to move. And we want to move. Every time we come down to visit we don't want to leave because we have such a good time."[59]

Josef Smith Case and Shamblin on Child Discipline

Although the case (Georgia v. Smith), prompted authorities to raid the Weigh Down Workshop's Franklin headquarters in 2004, church officials were not charged with wrongdoing in the case. Police investigators who testified in court said they could not find any link between the boy's death and the church. Josef Smith's parents were sentenced to life in prison in February 2007. The Smiths were convicted of manslaughter. Remnant Fellowship Church funded the defense of the parents and continues to support for them via the internet. Supporters of the Smiths argue that the Smiths never stood a chance for a fair trial because the media had deemed them guilty for the 3 year time period between their sons death and their trial. According to WTVF NewsChannel 5 Nashville, "Even Remnant's most vocal critics insist they do not believe Ms. Shamblin or anyone ever intended for child abuse to occur."

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