If you’ve googled anything diet-related recently, you’ve probably noticed that intermittent fasting is all the rage. Social media and YouTube and news reports are all touting this popular new way to eat. There are many different ways you can do it, but they all involve some sort of extended fasting, whether it’s 16 hours at a time or a block fast that lasts 3-5 days.
I’ll admit that, when I first heard about intermittent fasting, I dismissed it without a second thought. I’d already rejected the diet culture with all its fruitless, frustrating rules, and embraced a form of intuitive eating that was working very well for me. There was no way I was going to go back to starving myself again, only by calling it fasting. In my stubbornness, I wasn’t even willing to look into this new approach.
But it seems the Lord was ready to shake me out of my closed-mindedness.
He did so by placing a book in my hands. It was The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung. And in its pages, I read some pretty amazing science about the powerful things that happen when the body is in a fasted state. Drawing on examples, not just from scientific studies, but from the history of mankind, Dr. Fung helped me see that fasting has always been a very important part of various cultures, tribes, and religions. He soon had me rethinking my personal aversion to the practice.
Don’t get me wrong, all my life I’d fasted every month like my religious denomination encouraged me to. And I believed wholeheartedly in the spiritual power of that tradition. But I’d never applied any of that power to my personal battle with food. In my mind, fasting was just a religious practice, and had nothing to do with my body’s overall health.
But now, with Dr. Fung’s persuasive research swirling in my head, I began to look at fasting through the eyes of a gospel-centered health coach. I’d been working for some time to put together what I believed to be a faith-based way of eating, and suddenly, fasting seemed like more than a run-of-the-mill spiritual tradition—it seemed like the piece of the plan that I didn’t even know was missing.
The problem I struggled with was this: I knew way too much about the damage and disordered eating inflicted on so many of us by the decades-long rule of the dieting culture. And the thought of including fasting as a regular dietary practice actually gave me PTSD. Memories of the brutal, white-knuckle willpower it took to stay on all those restrictive diets now had me worried that the same misery would reappear the moment I tried intermittent fasting.
But the Lord gently reminded me that the practice would only be truly effective if it was done with a spiritual focus rather than a dietary focus. That way, He could infuse my efforts with a power that would transform, not just my health, but the deep-seated food issues that still clung doggedly to my mind and heart.
That realization changed everything for me. Now, after months of exploring the idea from many different angles, I see fasting through a much wider lens. I don’t even think the word “intermittent” has to be included in a faith-based approach. There are endless ways we can fast that will build our physical health while also strengthening our mental, emotional, and spiritual fitness as well.
Here’s more on that from my YouTube channel:
I truly believe that, once we approach intermittent fasting with a faith-based perspective, it will not only change our health—it will do a healing work within us that Isaiah captured beautifully with these hopeful words:
“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6).
Have you been locked in the bands of sugar addiction? Have you been oppressed by the relentless shame of yo-yo dieting? Have you been buried under the yoke of self-condemnation—a yoke that you’ve tried very hard to break, only to no avail?
Perhaps it’s time to add a little fasting to your personal health program. Remember, while a diet can change the way you look, fasting can change your very way of life.
