It was the perfect match. When Robin Rhine McDonald heard about the upcoming Detox – Find Your Balance event in her area, the nutrition coach knew it was a good way for her to combine her passions for health and her Christian faith.
Robin is a certified integrative nutrition coach living in the Los Angeles area. She also holds a Master of Divinity degree from Azusa Pacific University in California and is completing the ordination process for becoming a pastor. And she loves coaching people to be healthy, including Christ-followers.
The Detox event, held this past fall at a corner tea shop, was a “lighter” version of the regular Detox outreach with fewer breakout sessions. During the program, Robin spoke about her spirituality and presented some meditation exercises for coping with life.
She and her husband, Ryan, host a website, Made Well Health, where they use a holistic approach to encourage people to adapt and sustain healthy lifestyles. “I like helping people to have more energy and vibrance,” she says, explaining that each person is an individual and needs to be coached in a holistic, personalized way that allows him or her to be successful.
For instance, food often ends up being a coping mechanism when relationships are breaking or are already broken, she notes. That including when relationships are weak between people – or people and God. There’s often a connection between physical health and a person’s perspective of God.
Robin tells of a conversation she had with one of her clients:
“She is a believer, and wrestled with consistency in her health journey. I noticed that every time I’d reach out to her to see how she was doing, the responses she gave were very sheepish and guilt-ridden. In one of our sessions I asked her, ‘In your relationship with God, do you carry a lot of shame and guilt?’ She responded, ‘Yes, definitely. I mean, it’s God. I want to do things well. I feel bad when I don’t.’
“And there it was. Her struggle to stay on track with her health was a symptom of her underlying lack of grace for herself and her incomplete picture of God’s love for her.”
This connection of physical health and spiritual health can go both ways. “In my experience, I have seen that health habits can reveal a lot about the state of someone’s soul,” Robin says. “Similarly, when I am able to support my clients in their journey with Jesus, they begin to not only experience God in a deeper way, but they also become dependent on the greatest resource we have for sustainable health – God’s grace.”