Pastor uses holistic approach to help with weight loss

 

Growing up, Dr. Joseph Williams, author and pastor of Salem Bible Church in Atlanta and Lithonia, considered himself as a husky, but active child.

Williams was athletic, playing defensive tackle for his high school football team. He was set to play football at Morehouse College, but he suffered a herniated disc injury the summer before his freshman season. The injury ended his football career and because he was not as active, Williams began to gain weight.

Williams went from his playing-weight of 270 pounds to 330 pounds.

“I was eating a lot of food when I was playing football, but I was extremely active,” he said. “I had the same eating habits and when you become stationary, not moving, the pounds add up.”

Williams started having health issues due to his weight. He had acute acid reflux and high cholesterol, he was prehypertensive, “on the verge” of being prediabetic and he had various forms of arthritis. With all of these health issues, Williams knew that he had to not only lose weight, but change his lifestyle.

“I knew I was too young to have those types of issues, and I knew that if I didn’t do something then it would potentially compromise my life,” he said.

Williams, 36, went on a holistic journey to transform his mind, body and spirit, and in the process, he lost 120 pounds. His success led him to create “The Journey” in 2011. “The Journey” is a 40-day process designed to transform the mind, body and spirit.

Williams said “The Journey” is not a weight loss program, but weight loss is the “byproduct” of holistic living.

“One of the main principles we teach is how to have a healthy relationship with food — not just what you eat but how much you eat,” he said. “When you’re teaching people the proper foods to eat and the proper portion to eat along with the spiritual and emotional [aspects], if a person is doing what they’re supposed to do the weight loss will become a byproduct of it.”

“The Journey” has 1,392 graduates who have invested 6,624 hours and touched 5,896 lives during their transformation. Participants of “The Journey” are weighed three times — before the process begins, in the middle of the process and when it ends.

Participants also have weekly small group meetings, and they fill out an assessment when they enter and exit the program.
“We take all that information and log it to track all of our classes,” he said.

The spiritual aspect of the program is just as important as the physical aspect, Williams said.

“We try to let people know that no one facade is any more or less important than the other,” he said. “Spirituality is key.”

Williams added that spirituality and religion are not the same and “The Journey” is free and opened to all.

“We’ve had individuals who are Christians, Muslims, spiritual — and that’s important,” he said. “Meditation is clinically and scientifically been proven to calm the mind, increase focus, lower heart disease and more. It’s a very important part in everyone’s life.”
Although thousands have successfully completed the program, Williams said there were some who did not finish for various reasons.
“We never tell that it works for everyone, but it works for those who are willing to do what it takes,” he said.

Williams added the program is all about encouraging lifestyle.

“Diet is always temporary,” he said. “The diet that we formulate for them is a lifestyle-type of plan: something that a person can stick to for the rest of his or her life.”

Registration is now open for the next class, which begins Sept. 6.