Steve Willis - Winning the Food Fight: Victory in the Physical and Spiritual Battle for Good Food and a Healthy Lifestyle

PRAISE FOR Winning the Food Fight

The message of this book rings true with me because I, like Steve, believe we are expectedeven commandedto care of our bodies. Balance is key to healthy living, and this book provides a roadmap to success. I strongly urge anyone interested in living his or her life to the max to read and embrace the message of this book. It is a life-changer.

Singer/Songwriter

Winning the Food Fight asks you a simple question: What would Jesus do about our obesity epidemic? Read this book and join the fight to overcome the suffering of millions.

New York Times Bestselling Author, Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain
CEO, Visalus Sciences

Steve Willis is a local inspiration. In his work in our community and in the book Winning the Food Fight, he puts both his faith and energy on the frontlines of one of our nations toughest battlesunhealthy lifestylesand shows us a path to change.

Editor/Publisher, The Herald-Dispatch

Huntington, West Virginia

The Bible starts with a meal (Gods provision in the Garden of Eden) and ends with a meal (Gods celebration of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb). In between, our rebellion is cast often in terms of appetites, from Eves forbidden fruit to Jesus stones-to-bread temptation. For too long, Christians have pretended as though obesity and gluttony are matters to be ignored, if not joked about. Steve Willis calls our consciences to our responsibility to obey the Spirit of Christ, not the pull of our appetites.

Dean, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Louisville, Kentucky

Steve writes like he speaks and speaks like he lives, taking the reader on a ride through his life experiences and subsequent lessons. This is more of a confession than a sermon; more a voyage of discovery than a discourse. Steve Willis is to be commended for addressing this national issue in a holistic fashion, and offering no-nonsense directions anyone can follow.

Director, Great Commission Center

East Texas Baptist University

Marshall, Texas

2012 Steve Willis

Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com

Revell edition published 2014

ISBN 978-1-4412-2614-3

Previously published by Regal Books

Ebook edition originally created 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Other versions used are:

KJVKing James Version. Authorized King James Version.

NASBScripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

NETQuotations designated (NET) are from The NET Bible Copyright 2005 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. www.bible.org . All Rights Reserved. Scripture quoted by permission.

NKJVScripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

To my wife, Deanna,
who cared about our childrens health
long before I got it.

by Jamie Oliver

by Jamie Oliver

By Jamie Oliver

Pastor Steve and I share a common goal: He wants to inspire his community to be healthier and have a better relationship with food, and I want to inspire people around the world to question what they are eating and consider what their dietary choices are doing to their health.

The fact is that diet-related disease is killing Pastor Steves community. Because of that, hes put this brilliant book together. Its a patchwork quilt made up of many different stories from his community as well as his personal experiences of the Food Revolutiona process that weve only just begun.

We have both faced the day-to-day reality of the devastation caused by the obesity epidemic in the United Kingdom and the United States. Diet-related disease is the biggest killer in America and the costliest to the American health care system. One in three Americans is overweight or obese, and we now know that this will be the first generation where children are expected to live shorter lives than their parents. We live in a time when five-year-olds are having their teeth removed because of gum disease caused by a reliance on soda pop as their only source of hydration.

Its time to change the way we treat ourselves, the way we nourish our families and the way we buy food. We need to think about where that food comes from, how its made, what impact that has on the world around us, and the future choices of our childrens children. We need to reconnect with real food and start placing value on basic cooking skills so that people are properly equipped to feed themselves.

I spent the early part of 2011 carrying on the work of the Food Revolution in Los Angeles, and what I experienced there made me even prouder of the community in Huntington, West Virginia, and the Tri-state area where we first began our campaign. The community at large has carried on with the work we started and has achieved more than we ever imagined. Huntington has become a symbol of what is possible. I humbly salute them.

During a particularly rough patch, Pastor Steve advised me to stay strong and stick to my beliefs. Then he said something Ive never forgotten: Nobody changes until the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change itself. Never a truer word has been spoken. Just because some things are hard, slow and painful doesnt mean that you should stop doing what you know in your heart is right. The things that inspire me have nothing to do with the future; they are little bits of good information from the pastthe stuff your great-grandmother would have known, like how something youve cooked yourself will taste 100 times better than something that comes out of a box or on a fast-food tray.