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Government statistics tell us that in 2018, 61% of adults in England are overweight. The encouragement to eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day has now grown to 10. And we’re bombarded with advice about how much alcohol, salt, sugar, meat to consume. And the advice can sometimes be contradictory, even overwhelming. A couple of years ago, I lost 21/2 stone in weight – and it was really very hard. I hadn’t had any idea how hard it would be changing my daily habits and attitudes. But a study published yesterday rang true with my experience that losing weight begins not so obviously in eating less and moving more – although that’s important – but it begins with our feelings and our imagination. Functional Imagery Training has been developed at the University of Plymouth. It’s a technique that emphasises the emotional content of our daily decisions to eat or drink. And imagining that life could be lived differently – and crucially how that might feel. In their latest study, participants who learned this technique lost up to 5 ½ times more weight than those who didn’t. Weight gain is often a cause of shame for an individual, more likely to prevent us from losing weight than it is to motivate us. And in a food culture where an obvious profit motive is in operation to persuade us to buy more food, unsurprising statistics reveal that people on low incomes are more likely to become overweight because cheaper food is often more sugary. Providing effective advice in losing weight involves understanding more deeply the complex relationship between the daily decisions of an individual person and an economy of food production that is highly competitive. The study from Plymouth suggests that two powerful tools in addressing this complexity are our imagination and emotion. “I kept imagining wearing the dress I had bought for my daughter’s graduation” said one participant “and on days I really didn’t feel like exercising, kept picturing how I’d feel”. (Daily Telegraph Monday 1 October 2018 p 7). Having faith in what we can’t see, and engaging our emotions with our imagination is a key aspect of religious practice that in turn cultivates hope of change. Jesus knew this power and encouraged those he taught to let our imaginations run riot. Imagining a just society where the very poorest in the world are fed well, and where shame is dissolved in a truly radical welcome for everyone at what he called the banquet of the kingdom of God. The roots of real change, such as losing weight, flourish in the soil of acceptance not shame, as all good religious practice knows. So imagining my life as I want it to be, and having faith that that is actually possible, is a creative and energizing place to start.