Erin Loechner: Whenever tech feels like it’s getting too murky or you’re being pulled in one direction that you don’t really fully align with, you can just pause, you can look up, you can look around, you can reassess, and you can ask yourselves, Okay, how did the generation before us do this? Is that possible? Can we sort of pull back a little bit and just slam on the brakes for just a minute and think deeply about, Is this where we want to go? 

Breaking Free From Habits That Hold Us Back: Erin Loechner & Dusty and Erin Stanczyk – Episode 414

Narrator: Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. Old habits can be hard to break, whether it’s the foods we eat, the media we consume, or any pattern that may not serve us in the way that gets us where we want to be. Our guests this week took a look at their lives and found that doing the hard work of change was key to breaking unhealthy patterns and through faith and prayer, they kept at it, which ultimately produced lasting and rewarding results. 

Our first guest, Erin Loechner, discusses how we can reverse engineer some of the ways that social media and technology hold our undivided attention and how she personally applied these principles to her own life and to the lives of her children, resulting in more connectivity with each other and the world around them. 

Later, we’ll hear from Dusty and Erin Stanczyk, of www.EatMoveRest.com, who discuss what it means to be more intentional in our approach to the foods that we eat, and how they overcame troubling health issues and found physical and spiritual healing.

Let’s begin with Erin Loechner’s story. 

Erin Loecher: I am Erin Loechner. I am a former social media influencer who has lived in front of the camera, behind the camera, very involved in the algorithm. And I now dedicate my work to giving kids what technology can’t. So I ran a global movement called the Opt-Out Family. And we’re really just about empowering families to reconsider the way that they use technology. I live a lot of my life figuring out how to live a low tech life, and really teach others how to do the same. 

Walking Away From Social Media

My time as a social media influencer was very accidental. I started blogging in early 2001, and I just fell into this world where I thought, Oh, there are so many ways to live. There are so many people that I don’t know about and themes and concepts that I don’t know about. The internet was very elementary, and it was a lot about introducing your work to the world, whether it’s your writing or your creativity or your art or your design. 

I was in Los Angeles, I was working as an art designer, working in graphic design, working for ad agencies, and was just exposed to this whole other way of creativity. And from there, I ended up meeting all sorts of artists, designers, magazine editors, and my career really grew from there. I made some wonderful contacts and relationships. 

From there, I hosted a www.HGTV.com show. I was an early influencer for HGTV and working on renovating for my audience. I think there was a lovely moment before social media when you could really take the internet at the pace that works for you. There was very much an open sign and a closed sign, and you weren’t expected to be around the clock. It was an interesting sort of concept to be living in a showroom. My house was my work, and my work was my home. It’s a lot to handle and a lot to manage. And I realized, I don’t know that this is a path that really, truly aligns with my values. 

When I think about my decision to leave that world behind, I think there were a few factors. One, I had my first child, and I really recognized if I continue down this path, knowing that the algorithm, you’re sort of at their mercy when you’re participating in these platforms and in these apps. And I knew that if I were to raise a family and still continue this work in the social media sector, I would be living with a phone in my hand more than not. And that’s not what I wanted. That’s not what I wanted for my kids. And so I wanted to know, Is there a way to continue doing the work that I love? Be it writing, whether it’s consulting with other parents and learning how to do this life well—is there a way to continue doing that without social media? 

And so we kind of made this very intentional decision that we as a family were going to be more engaging than the algorithm, and we were going to not only say no to devices, but we were going to say yes to something better. And if we were going to do that, we were going to need to model that for our kids.

“We kind of made this very intentional decision that we as a family were going to be more engaging than the algorithm, and we were going to not only say no to devices, but we were going to say yes to something better. And if we were going to do that, we were going to need to model that for our kids.” – Erin Loechner

Living a Low-Tech Life

I wanted to pick apart and really reverse engineer what this algorithm is doing because, again, the reason that it’s so engaging is because it works. There are so many elements built into these platforms and these apps that really do grip you and engage you and delight you and surprise you. And how can we bring them into the home so that we are carving our own path for the goals of our family? 

I looked really deeply into every platform. I interviewed over 250 sources both in and out of Silicon Valley. And I really tried to understand, Okay, what are all these mechanisms and strategies that Big Tech is using to get our attention? There’s an infinite scroll. There’s just this idea that something fun is right around the bend, something new is coming. And all of these platforms rely on this very basic childhood delight. And so I wanted to see, Okay, how can we put this into play in our own house, in our own household, with the people we love, with the people we know, and use them to build connection as a family, rather than to build connection with the Wi-Fi signal?

I started by just clearing the deck on my smartphone. I just deleted every app. I walked away from social media. I just turned on all the parental controls so I didn’t have access to apps, it didn’t have internet access, but I could always turn it back on if I was in an emergency. I took my phone background and my wallpaper, I made it black just to kind of figure out, Okay, well, what does it feel like when you take away the family photo and the cute beach scene that’s on your phone wallpaper? What does it feel like when it’s just a black screen? Is it as captivating? Is it enticing? Does it feel a little less like my phone and a little more like a phone? And yes, yes, it does. It kind of depersonalized the experience. I just wanted to know, Okay, well, what happens if I start from scratch? What if I just delete everything and then I kind of experience the world as someone that doesn’t have the luxury or the privilege of a smartphone? Can I do it? And I did, and in the beginning ran into some really interesting scenarios. 

We don’t have Alexa, we don’t have a lot of the robot smart features in our home, of course, but something we started really early on with our children was looking around and looking in our community and finding those natural influencers in our lives, and recognizing that they offer and hold deep experience that we might never encounter otherwise. 

“Something we started really early on with our children was looking around and looking in our community and finding those natural influencers in our lives, and recognizing that they offer and hold deep experience that we might never encounter otherwise.” – Erin Loechner 

Whenever tech feels like it’s getting too murky or you’re being pulled in one direction that you don’t really fully align with, you can just pause, you can look up, you can look around, you can reassess, and you can ask ourselves, Okay, how did the generation before us do this? Is that possible? Can we kind of learn from our elders? Can we sort of pull back a little bit and just slam on the brakes for just a minute and think deeply about, Is this where we want to go? And so just thinking about your family and your life and what do you actually believe in? What do you want for your kids? What do your kids want for themselves? And if social media isn’t going to add benefit to that, don’t engage. 

There are so many alternatives to screen time. I firmly believe in taking walks outside, going to the local park, going to the playground, keeping your kids out in nature as much as possible. But reading as a family, making time for conversation as a family, setting up the home environment in a way where there is a reason to engage and delight. 

I’m a firm believer in what’s called the Waldorf elements, it’s fire, water, air, and soil. And, it’s just this idea that nature has all of these components already built in that naturally delight us. Think of a child flying a kite or a child blowing bubbles. And in using the air and the wind and feeling the breeze on your hair. Just think of the fire pit and bonfires and s’mores or just how lovely it is to have a fire going in the winter. I mean, there are all of these natural elements that we can incorporate that do add that built-in delight with our children and with ourselves. It’s about the family unit and what is a way that we can kind of collectively impact our life to bring and invite peace into the home?

Everyone holds a story. Everyone holds so much knowledge and wisdom at their fingertips just through lived experience, and we are constantly pointing our kids to people in real life, rather than Google or Siri or Alexa. 

“Everyone holds a story. Everyone holds so much knowledge and wisdom at their fingertips just through lived experience, and we are constantly pointing our kids to people in real life, rather than Google or Siri or Alexa.” – Erin Loechner 

Engaging More in Life and Less with the Internet

I remember I was at the pond with my daughter, we were just boating and having a wonderful time. It was a very slow afternoon, and my daughter, who was maybe four or five at the time, came running and she said, “Mom, I saw this crazy animal. It was slimy, but kind of looked like a squirrel or a chipmunk, but then it had these scales and these things sticking out of it.” And I’m just thinking, I have no idea what you’re talking about. What is this? It sounds prehistoric, right? 

I thought maybe there’s a better way than going straight to Google here. And so I remembered that there’s a man across the pond who’s a science teacher, who has fished this pond for twenty years. He knows it like the back of his hand. So we call him and we say, “Hey, Dave, my daughter saw this thing. Can she explain it to you? Can you help point us in the right direction? What is this animal?” And she got maybe three sentences into her description and he said, “I know exactly what that is. It’s a muskrat. And those aren’t scales, those are cattails. It’s building a nest and making a habitat.” And “Hey, I’ve got a nest over here. Do you want to come see it on my side of the pond?” And so we all kind of walk over and we make this field trip out of it, just the most lovely afternoon of learning from a real person who had such captivating passion about this subject and who truly introduced my child to this animal and this habitat, this experience, that she wouldn’t have had just by looking at the phone. And it was such an early reminder that really shaped our family of let’s learn from the best. Let’s grow from the best. Let’s find those people in our lives that have things to share that will add value in a way that screens really can’t. 

“Let’s learn from the best. Let’s grow from the best. Let’s find those people in our lives that have things to share that will add value in a way that screens really can’t.” – Erin Loechner 

I firmly believe that we are making room for the spirit so we can hear it, so we can hear God, so we can speak with God, so that we can converse with Him and walk with Him and have a relationship with Him in a way that offers this dimension that is all encompassing.

I love Jesus Calling. I’m reading through Jesus Listens right now. And so I love that Jesus Calling invites us into this idea that we’re not in charge here. Why are we not surrendering to the bigger picture? And why are we not inviting this all powerful, all knowing being to teach us in a slow and steady way, exactly what we need to know at the moment we need to know it?

So this is from Jesus Listens, it is the May 13th entry. And I just love this prayer. It says: 

Cherished Jesus, 

I’m so thankful that You are committed to the renewing of my mind. 

I’ve learned that a renewed mind is Presence-focused. Please help me remember that You are always near—and train my mind to seek You in every moment, every situation. Sometimes I find reminders of Your Presence in my surroundings: a lilting birdsong, a loved one’s smile, golden sunlight. At other times, I draw inward to find You in my spirit, where Your Spirit dwells. I know the most important place to search for You is in Your Word. As I seek You and communicate with You, You renovate my mind—transforming me! 

In Your magnificent Name, 

Amen

Narrator: To learn more about the Opt-Out Family Movement, please visit www.optoutfamily.com, and be sure to check out Erin’s new book, The Opt-Out Family, available at your favorite retailer.

Stay tuned to Dusty and Erin Stanczyk’s story after a brief message.

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God Hears Your Prayers

In the days that are dark, where the news isn’t good, when we’re looking desperately for answers, or just looking to be heard, we just want someone to listen. Someone to hear our fervent prayers. More than ever, people need help. More than ever, people need hope. And more than ever, people need to know that they are heard. 

Jesus Listens is a 365-day prayer devotional with short, heartfelt prayers based on Scripture, written to deepen your relationship with God. Learn more about Jesus Listens and download a free sample at www.jesuscalling.com/jesuslistens.  

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Our next guests are www.EatMoveRest.com’s Dusty and Erin Stanczyk. At a certain point in their lives, Dusty and Erin were facing health challenges. As they searched for answers to their maladies, they discovered that they could use food as medicine, and saw their health change as they became more deliberate about what they were eating, how they were moving their bodies, and taking time to pray and rest.

Erin: We are Erin and Dusty Stanczyk, and we are health and lifestyle coaches, online influencers, and worldwide retreat hosts. Our online business is Eat Move Rest. We essentially share the three things that we all do every day that we could all be doing better.  

Dusty: Erin and I are both from Lincoln, Nebraska, born and raised. We will be married for eleven years this year.

Looking for Help in the Face of Health Issues

Erin: When I got to college, I was living on ramen noodles and beef jerky and whatever would fit in my tiny dorm room mini fridge. 

Dusty: Right. 

Erin: And then, of course, riding that roller coaster of going out Thursday, Friday, Saturday, sometimes Sunday nights, it was always just fast food or pizza and then trying to get back on track, clawing my way back out of the hole on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Feeling awful during the whole process. I felt like it really snowballed and all of a sudden hit me with, initially, feelings of anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. And then I began to experience just a handful of really disheartening physical symptoms, too. I was honestly losing sleep on almost a nightly basis, I would wake up in the middle of the night with intense pressure on my chest. And I couldn’t get a deep enough breath. I turned to doctor Google who never really gives you what you want to hear. But I was desperately searching my symptoms for a diagnosis.

My dad being a physician, as well as my uncles and my grandpa, even some cousins in the family, it was very easy for me to kind of just go in and get the bloodwork done. My dad lined me up with specialists. So there were MRIs and CT scans and the specialists were telling me, “You’re just fine. It’s just panic and anxiety disorder. Just go home and chill out,” essentially. But I still felt like there was just too much going on, that it had to be something more. I was definitely in a state of disease, even though they couldn’t diagnose me with a label. 

Dusty: I was similarly going through some health issues. I had indigestion, I was also being put on medication for acid reflux, and then too, my anxiety was out of control and I couldn’t figure it out. 

Erin: We actually started with physical activity because I think a lot of people are led to believe that joining a gym or getting out and going for a daily bike ride or a run is like the entry point into getting healthier. And that was definitely the case for us.

Dusty: Even though we had started exercising, we realized you can’t outrun a bad diet and we didn’t want to be on the pills. 

Erin: And my mom saw this interest in wellness popping up for us. And she’s like, “Hey, guys, there’s this series of health coaching conferences I would love to send you to if it’s something you’re interested in.” Because she could see that we were kind of lost but seeking and hopeful. So we did that. And it seemed like an overwhelming majority of the people who were presenting were physicians and scientists and research researchers touting the benefits of food as medicine. And that seemed so foreign to us, especially coming from the meat and potatoes Nebraska lifestyle.

Dusty: Right.

Getting Back to the Basics of Health

I do remember there was a very distinct moment after we had started getting back to the basics: eating, moving, and resting our best. We had been periodically meeting with Dusty’s pastor for lunch or breakfast here and there because I was really going through it, still trying to get past essentially just this fog and this weight and this almost like dense feeling and the panic attacks and the breathing issues. And there was a very distinct moment after we met with him one day and he prayed with us where that density just lifted.  

Dusty: It was almost like a deliverance. It really was.

Erin: Like, I no longer had this chest issue or this breathing issue. And slowly but surely after that, all of the other issues began to subside as well as we continued on our health and wellness journey. And, you know, all of the numbness and tingling and the brain fog lifted, like Dusty was saying, you just reach this level of clarity and like elevation almost. 

Dusty: Now we look back and we’re like, Wow, God actually put us in this state of disease for a reason, because He wanted us to do the digging. And He knew that maybe we could create something that would help others. 

Erin: The best way to describe our prior state of being was dense, and we had become light and through getting back to those basics of eating clean foods, moving regularly, we were sleeping better, and you gained this momentum. 

Dusty: The eat, move, rest locomotive.  

Erin: Right? So it’s really hard when you start out, you’re at a standstill. If you ever watch a train starting, it looks like a trudge, but eventually, once the train gets going, it’s almost unstoppable. 

Dusty: My acid reflux eventually went away. I came off the medication.

Erin: And I feel like how you’re fueling your body, every bite you take is an opportunity to ask yourself, “Is this helping me or is this hindering me?” And we’ve just found that through colorful and vibrant whole foods, a plant-based diet, we feel the most in alignment with our faith and spirituality because no harm done, essentially. We’re eating Jesus foods that come from the ground, and they’re just so alluring by their colors alone and their shapes and sizes and fragrances and tastes and textures. And so we emphasize a lot of fruits and vegetables. And I think that regardless of whether you are completely plant-based or not, I don’t think people can really argue with a benefit in eating more fruits and more vegetables.

Dusty: Erin was like, “I want to blog about colorful foods and how they’re healing us.” And it just took off. 

Erin: Rather than filling our medicine cabinet with orange vials, we started stocking up on new superfoods every time we’d come home from the grocery store and figuring out how we could implement them. And realizing every colored food has a different benefit. It was just really exciting for us.

“Rather than filling our medicine cabinet with orange vials, we started stocking up on new superfoods every time we’d come home from the grocery store and figuring out how we could implement them. And realizing every colored food has a different benefit. It was just really exciting for us.” – Erin Stanczyk

Dusty: Everything just kind of started coming together. We were getting back into our faith and learning more about food as medicine. And it really started to come full circle. And that’s when our brand started, and we were so excited to feel like we had a mission. 

eatmoverest.com A Journey of Transformation

We started cranking out these super simple, somewhat embarrassing, but apparently helpful videos about all things eat, move, rest. Erin would do a stretching or a yoga or a breath or prayer and meditation session alongside a recipe. 

Erin: I think the primary biblical reference that comes to mind is that our bodies are a temple and basically we only have one place to live. We only have one body. And God created us in His image, in His likeness. So why would we not do everything within our power to nurture it and nourish it? So eat, move, rest your best, essentially.  

“We only have one body. And God created us in His image, in His likeness. So why would we not do everything within our power to nurture it and nourish it? So eat, move, rest your best, essentially.“ – Erin Stanczyk  

Dusty: I should mention we both have had a little Jesus Calling devotional next to our bedside probably since we got together, or at least since we got married.  

Erin: And the Jesus Calling app too, when the app came around.  

Dusty: Oh yeah. I still use the app like every day.

Erin: So, you know, when we’re in a constant stressed out, fearful state, then it’s going to elevate our adrenaline and our cortisol and kind of ignite that fight or flight within us. And it just leaves us in this not very peaceful, restful state. Or you can really focus on slowing down, spending time resting, or just with loved ones in general. And that’s going to release the opposite hormones like oxytocin, the love chemical or the love drug, and endorphins, which are like the feel-good, happy hormones. And so I think that whenever I really do take the time to be intentional about prayer and meditation and family time, I really, truly just feel more connected to God and I’m more available. I feel like it just makes it easier to do the listening that needs to happen. 

Dusty: It’s been a really fun journey of transformation. And I just feel like Jesus has been here with us and had us on this mission for a reason. 

Erin: Jesus Listens, February 12th:

Glorious God, 

The Bible tells me You created me in Your own image.  Moreover, You made me a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned me with Glory. So please help me not to doubt my significance. 

Dusty:

You formed me with an amazing brain that can communicate with You, think rationally, create things, make decisions, and much more. Among all that You have created, only human beings are made in Your image. This is a wonderful privilege and responsibility—making every moment of my life meaningful. 

In Your awesome Name, Jesus, 

Amen 

Erin: Amen.

Narrator: To learn more about the Stanczyks, visit www.eatmoverest.com, and be sure to follow them on social media.

If you’d like to hear more stories about trusting God through a health crisis, check out our interview with Natalie Grant.

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Next week: Ricky Dickson

Next time on the Jesus Calling Podcast, we will hear from the recently retired CEO of the beloved ice cream maker Blue Bell Ice Cream, Ricky Dickson, who shares about his experiences leading this iconic company through good times and bad, and the source of his strength through it all.

Ricky Dickson: The peace of God that passes all understanding will just come over you in a way that gives you the strength to face another day, to take another step, to breathe another breath of air. And from there, the next step. And when you look back, you know that He was there all the time.