Latest / Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten / Fasting Like Jesus: How to Align Your Body and Spirit for God’s Glory

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Fasting Like Jesus: How to Align Your Body and Spirit for God’s Glory · Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Faithful Fitness Podcast. For My Dad. Coach
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  Speaker 1: Alex Van Houghten helps you get stronger and mind, body,
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  Speaker 1: and spirit. He believes that your body is a temple,
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  Speaker 1: so taking good care of it is an actual worship.
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  Speaker 1: I should know. I live with him every week. He
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  Speaker 1: brings truth from the Bible too, from science and stories
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  Speaker 1: that will set your heart on fire. May God bless
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  Speaker 1: you to become everything He made you to be, just
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: one percent better every single day.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Hey there, what's up Coach Alex fan Houten here Faithful
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  Speaker 2: Fitness Podcast. Is fasting a old religious practice or is
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  Speaker 2: it a new weight loss dieting fad? In this episode
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  Speaker 2: of the Faithful Fitness Podcast, we're going to be diving
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  Speaker 2: into the scriptural understanding of why we fast and how
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  Speaker 2: to fast, and we're also going to look at the
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  Speaker 2: science based benefits for our body and the practical application
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  Speaker 2: steps that you can start implementing today. Let's dive into it.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Hey there, we just had an amazing question from one
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: of our listeners and one of our members in the
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Better Daily community, and I wanted to share with you
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: the question and share with you the answer. It goes
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  Speaker 2: like this, Coach Alex, I've heard a lot about fasting.
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  Speaker 2: Why should we fast, how do we fast? And what
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  Speaker 2: good does it do for my physical and my spiritual wellbeing?
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: This is such an awesome question. I'm so glad you asked.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: And if you're listening to this and you have a question,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: please drop it in the comments. I'll do my best
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: to make sure we cover it over the coming weeks
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  Speaker 2: here on the Faithful Fitness Podcast. Now, in my last
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: twenty years as an exercise scientist and faith based health coach,
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  Speaker 2: fasting is regularly a normal subject that comes up in
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  Speaker 2: conversation with my clients, but also in conversations in my
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  Speaker 2: church and in my community, because fasting is a spiritual discipline,
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  Speaker 2: but it's a spiritual discipline that has profound physical benefits
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  Speaker 2: and I can't wait to talk you through that. And
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  Speaker 2: in our world today, there's actually some amazing research that
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  Speaker 2: helps us to understand more and more what powerful things
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  Speaker 2: fasting can do for us. But also there's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of misconceptions scripturally speaking about what it means to fast
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  Speaker 2: as a Christian, how to do it well, and what
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  Speaker 2: the proposed benefits might be for me from a spiritual perspective,
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  Speaker 2: and those are the things that science can't really tell us,
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  Speaker 2: and I can't wait to dive in with you here.
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  Speaker 2: So first, why do we fast from a spiritual perspective? Well,
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  Speaker 2: I guess this assumes that fasting is a good thing
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  Speaker 2: that we should be up to. Jesus said in Matthew
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  Speaker 2: chapter six. He tells us that when we fast, we
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  Speaker 2: should fast a certain way, not as the religious leaders
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  Speaker 2: of the time do. He doesn't say if you fast,
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  Speaker 2: he says when you fast it are In the Gospel,
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  Speaker 2: when the Pharisees are giving him and his disciples a
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  Speaker 2: hard time about their fasting practice, Jesus explains to the
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  Speaker 2: Pharisees that right now my disciples have me with them,
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  Speaker 2: they don't need to fast. But when I go away
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  Speaker 2: from them, there will be a time when they will
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  Speaker 2: fast regularly, and we are in that time. Because Jesus
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  Speaker 2: is in heaven. We have the Holy Spirit with us.
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  Speaker 2: And if you're following Christ, that's amazing. But he's not
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  Speaker 2: right here physically present with you. And that means that
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  Speaker 2: fasting as a discipline is an amazing way to bring
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  Speaker 2: you close to the heart of God. We have some
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  Speaker 2: great biblical examples of spiritual giants who fasted for one
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  Speaker 2: reason or another, like Moses or Daniel or even Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: That can teach us why we fast and how to
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  Speaker 2: fast in a way that brings us closer to the
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  Speaker 2: heart of God. Today we're going to talk about how
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  Speaker 2: that affects us spiritually, but we're also going to talk
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  Speaker 2: about how that affects us physically from a scientific perspective,
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  Speaker 2: and we're going to look at some pro tips. If
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  Speaker 2: you're new to fasting, or maybe you have some misconceptions
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  Speaker 2: about fasting, I want to make sure we dive into
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  Speaker 2: that together here, so make sure you stick around to
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  Speaker 2: the end. But the simple answer to the question about
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  Speaker 2: why we fast from a spiritual perspective is that fasting
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  Speaker 2: teach us to hunger for the right things. In the Beatitudes,
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  Speaker 2: Jesus teaches us, Blessed are those who hunger in thirst
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  Speaker 2: for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Fasting is an
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  Speaker 2: amazing practice that aligns our heart, our mind, and our
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  Speaker 2: body all in the same direction and teaches us how
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  Speaker 2: to hunger for the right things. There are some misconceptions
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  Speaker 2: about fasting, though that I want to address. Fasting is
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  Speaker 2: not a hunger strike against God. Fasting is not going
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  Speaker 2: to get God's attention anymore than anything else you do
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  Speaker 2: in your life. Fasting is about changing you as you
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  Speaker 2: approach the heart of the Father. Fasting is not a
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  Speaker 2: diet trend to be disguised from a spiritual perspective. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: I have taught my clients how to fast, and many
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  Speaker 2: of them have seen the physical benefits of things like
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  Speaker 2: weight loss or fat loss or immune function restoration as
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  Speaker 2: a byproduct of fasting. But we're not trying to say
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to fast so I can lose and there
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  Speaker 2: you know, there's some spiritual benefits too. I want your
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  Speaker 2: fasting practice to be a powerful discipline that helps your mind, body,
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  Speaker 2: and spirit get closer to God and be a better
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  Speaker 2: steward of the body God's given you. And fasting is
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  Speaker 2: not about earning some sort of holiness or scoring points
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  Speaker 2: with God. It's about using a spiritual discipline to get
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  Speaker 2: closer and closer to God's will in your life. Fasting
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  Speaker 2: can help you on a regular basis to make room
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  Speaker 2: for God and your body in your mind by emptying
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  Speaker 2: yourself of the things that are distracting you from Him.
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  Speaker 2: That's great from a spiritual perspective, but what about the
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  Speaker 2: physical perspective. This is the Faithful Fitness Podcast, and we
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  Speaker 2: always look at where the intersection of faith and fitness
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  Speaker 2: come together. So let's talk about what fasting does for
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  Speaker 2: our body. God made your body, and he made you
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  Speaker 2: with the ability to eat and metabolize food and get
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  Speaker 2: energy and nutrients from that food and build yourself new
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  Speaker 2: every single day. That's awesome, But he also made your
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  Speaker 2: body to deal with the time spins where there's no
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  Speaker 2: food available. Now. Fasting is not going hungry because of famine.
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  Speaker 2: Fasting is the conscious decision to go without sustenance on purpose.
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  Speaker 2: The more we study it, fasting has amazing benefits for
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  Speaker 2: the body God gave you. One of the things that
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  Speaker 2: fasting can do is it can improve your insolent sensitivity
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  Speaker 2: and metabolism. Insolent sensitivity is your ability to respond to
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  Speaker 2: carbohydrates without allowing sugar in your bloodstream to cause damage
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  Speaker 2: throughout the body. And we need the opportunity to fast
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  Speaker 2: to teach our body how to burn fat as a
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  Speaker 2: fuel source. When you don't have anything in your stomach
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  Speaker 2: or anything in your intestinal track, your body has no
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  Speaker 2: choice but to use the very natural metabolic pathways that
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  Speaker 2: metabolize the excess fats that our body stores on it.
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  Speaker 2: That's how God made it. Fasting also promotes something called autophagy.
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  Speaker 2: Autophagy is the body's ability to clear out damaged tissues
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  Speaker 2: that don't need to be a part of the system anymore.
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  Speaker 2: Research has also shown that fasting can improve mental clarity
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  Speaker 2: when you condition your body to burn fat walls of
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  Speaker 2: fuel source and when you transition from a fed to
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  Speaker 2: a fasted state. When you're fasted, there's actually some increase
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  Speaker 2: in brain function that can help you solve complex problems
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  Speaker 2: and access certain parts of your mind that might be
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  Speaker 2: cloudy when you're in a fed state. Research also shows
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  Speaker 2: that fasting can reduce inflammation almost immediately, and it can
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  Speaker 2: help to reprogram and to recover your immune system, especially
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  Speaker 2: if you have a particularly sensitive one that's had to
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  Speaker 2: respond to a lot of diseases, illnesses, or damage over time.
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  Speaker 2: And research is also showing that there's markers related to
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  Speaker 2: longevity that is a nice long life that fasting can
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  Speaker 2: help to improve as well. There's also some psychological benefits
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  Speaker 2: to fasting, one of those being agency over my body's drives,
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  Speaker 2: meaning that if I I learn that when my body
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  Speaker 2: tells me I'm hungry, that that's something I can evaluate.
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  Speaker 2: I don't have to be a slave to that need
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  Speaker 2: or that thought. I can actually think through No, I'm fine.
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  Speaker 2: I've got plenty of body fat on my body. I
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  Speaker 2: know that I can fast for eighteen or twenty four,
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  Speaker 2: thirty six hours, or however long you fasted in your practice,
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  Speaker 2: and you can be an agent rather than a subject
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  Speaker 2: to the cues of your body. In the Bible, we
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  Speaker 2: call this self control a powerful fruit of the spirit,
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  Speaker 2: and psychologically, it's also helpful to think of fasting as
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  Speaker 2: an important thing that stresses our body for adaptive resilience,
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  Speaker 2: like exercise. Exercise isn't fun all the time. However, when
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  Speaker 2: I lift weights or I do cardiovascular work, I'm stressing
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  Speaker 2: my system to create a positive and powerful adaptation, and
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  Speaker 2: physically speaking, fasting works much in the same way. It's
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  Speaker 2: a stress around the system that creates powerful and positive
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  Speaker 2: adaptations that help my immune function, that help my metabolism,
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  Speaker 2: help my digestive track in many other things. So when
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  Speaker 2: I'm fasting, it's important to have my mind right about
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  Speaker 2: how beneficial this is for me, both from a spiritual
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  Speaker 2: and from a physical perspective. God designed fasting not just
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  Speaker 2: as a spiritual exercise, but as a regular rhythm that
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  Speaker 2: can help to restore my body in the way He
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  Speaker 2: made it to function. So I've said the word fasting
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  Speaker 2: quite a bit in this video. I think before I
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  Speaker 2: give you some pro tips about how to go about
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  Speaker 2: it in your regular practice, we should probably define the
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  Speaker 2: term right. By definition, fasting is the conscious and intentional
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  Speaker 2: abstaining from food for a brief period of time. Now,
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  Speaker 2: in Scripture, fasting specifically relates to food, and I've heard
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  Speaker 2: it said in Christian circles that I've fasted from social
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  Speaker 2: media or I've fasted from sugar, for instance. Those aren't
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  Speaker 2: scriptural ideas. In Scripture, when we fast, we are saying
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  Speaker 2: that we are taking a break from food. Jesus did
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  Speaker 2: not fast for forty days in the wilderness from facebook.
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  Speaker 2: Jesus fasted from food for forty days before he began
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  Speaker 2: his ministry and was tempted by Satan, in which he
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  Speaker 2: responded with the spirit of the word. So if you're
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  Speaker 2: looking for benefits from fasting from a scriptural perspective, it's
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  Speaker 2: important we understand we're talking about not eating in our
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  Speaker 2: world today. The word fasting can mean a bunch of
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  Speaker 2: different things, So it's important that when you start to
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  Speaker 2: condition your body to fasting that you understand what you're practicing.
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  Speaker 2: Most of the time in the fitness world, when I
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  Speaker 2: mentioned fasting, individuals think that I'm talking about time restricted
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  Speaker 2: eating or intermitute fasting. These are two terms in the
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  Speaker 2: scientific community that are just used to describe a period
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  Speaker 2: of time in the day where and I don't eat
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  Speaker 2: food and a period of time in the day when
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  Speaker 2: I do eat food. And this is a great place
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  Speaker 2: for individuals to start in learning their fasting practice. So
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  Speaker 2: if I don't eat for twelve hours, or if I
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  Speaker 2: don't eat for fourteen hours, or if I don't eat
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  Speaker 2: for sixteen hours, that's a period of fasting. But something
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  Speaker 2: that's intensely important to understand is that twelve, fourteen, and
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  Speaker 2: even sixteen hours of fasting does not actually bring most
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  Speaker 2: individuals into what we call a fasted state. So if
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  Speaker 2: you're looking for some of the physical and spiritual benefits
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  Speaker 2: that I just talked about with regard to fasting, there
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  Speaker 2: is going to be a time in your fasting practice
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  Speaker 2: that you'll need to extend beyond that twelve fourteen or
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  Speaker 2: sixteen hour window. Why is that? Well, from a metabolic perspective,
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  Speaker 2: I am fed, I have food in my system, and
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  Speaker 2: my metabolism is running as if I have food in
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  Speaker 2: my system up until I've run out of energy in
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  Speaker 2: my digestive tract. So whatever I ate yesterday is still
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  Speaker 2: being digested right now. And when my muscles and my
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  Speaker 2: liver run out of something called glycogen, carbohydrates are stored
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  Speaker 2: in our body as glycogen in our muscles and our liver,
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  Speaker 2: there's small amounts in our bloodstream. And so when I
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  Speaker 2: run out of that fuel, that short term fuel, my
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  Speaker 2: body has no choice but to start tapping into my
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  Speaker 2: fats as a fuel source. When that happens, that transition
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  Speaker 2: brings me from a fed to a fasted state. Most
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  Speaker 2: time restricted eating plans or interminute fasting plans are not
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  Speaker 2: actually helping individuals go from a fed to a fasted state.
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  Speaker 2: So my goal for you, if you're incorporating fasting as
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  Speaker 2: a spiritual and physical discipline to improve your walk with
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  Speaker 2: God and to improve the stewardship of your body that
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  Speaker 2: He's given you, I want you to be able to
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  Speaker 2: work into a twenty four or even a thirty six
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  Speaker 2: or more fast, and these fasts are what the research
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  Speaker 2: calls extended fasts. After you've gone from being a beginner
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  Speaker 2: and fasting mean you can go twelve, fourteen, sixteen hours
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  Speaker 2: without consuming food, and you've got the mindset and you
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  Speaker 2: un understand that you're not going to starve to death,
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  Speaker 2: you're going to be okay, and you've started to learn
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  Speaker 2: how to plan fasting into your life, then it's time
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  Speaker 2: to try and extended fast. I love it when my
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  Speaker 2: clients first complete their first twenty four hour fast and
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  Speaker 2: they have the opportunity to dig into scripture, They have
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  Speaker 2: the opportunity to pray, They have the opportunity to see
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  Speaker 2: how much of their life actually does revolve around food,
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  Speaker 2: and what kind of bandwidth is unlocked and their mind
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  Speaker 2: and their spirit when they don't have to worry about it.
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  Speaker 2: It's such an amazing thing to do. But some of
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  Speaker 2: the benefits that we've studied with regard to fasting continue
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  Speaker 2: to accumulate even further after these twenty four or thirty
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  Speaker 2: six hour fasts. In fact, things like neurogenesis, the creation
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  Speaker 2: of new neurons, or the ramping up of autophogy, that
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  Speaker 2: process that I spoke about earlier. That clears out those
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  Speaker 2: those cells and tissues that you don't need, that are
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  Speaker 2: damaged and ready to be gone, or things like increased
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  Speaker 2: growth hormone. All of those actually can continue to build
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  Speaker 2: and climb and grow up until around the seventy two
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  Speaker 2: hour mark. Now, if you're new to fasting, you can't
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  Speaker 2: possibly imagine going seventy two hours without food and that
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  Speaker 2: being a positive and beneficial thing for you. Don't worry.
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  Speaker 2: It's not something I'm telling you you have to do.
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  Speaker 2: But I am telling you that there are amazing benefits
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  Speaker 2: to your faith journey and your fitness journey if you
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  Speaker 2: can learn to condition your body to be able to
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  Speaker 2: fast like that now and then, regardless of how long
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  Speaker 2: you practice fasting, whether you're conditioned to it or not.
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  Speaker 2: A mature disciple of Christ approaches fasting as a spiritual discipline,
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  Speaker 2: as a privilege of worship, not as punishment or some
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  Speaker 2: sort of weight loss fad. So I promise you some
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  Speaker 2: pro tips on how to fast well. And fasting is
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  Speaker 2: such an important discipline and has such profound impact on
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  Speaker 2: the body that in our devotional faithful fitness forty days
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  Speaker 2: of strength and stewardship. For Christians, four of those forty
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  Speaker 2: days are specific to fasting, and for many of my clients,
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  Speaker 2: when it comes to learning how to fast well for
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  Speaker 2: their body and how to do it in a way
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  Speaker 2: that works well in their family and works well in
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  Speaker 2: their community, and works well for their individual metabolism. It's
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  Speaker 2: a month's long process to condition yourself well and to
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  Speaker 2: do it healthfully. But I did promise you some pro tips,
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  Speaker 2: so let's dive into those now. First. If you're going
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  Speaker 2: to fast well, you need to prepare well, spend some
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  Speaker 2: time in prayer, and ask God to help you. Set
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  Speaker 2: an intention. What is the intention of the fast you're
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  Speaker 2: about to undertake. Some redeeming intentions might be, Hey, I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to start small and I'm just going to try fasting.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to get used to it and see how
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  Speaker 2: i can do that well for my body, for my mind,
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  Speaker 2: and in my own life. Your fasting intention might be
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  Speaker 2: to explore and to push boundaries and to understand how
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  Speaker 2: your body responds to these things so you can fast
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  Speaker 2: peacefully and with the proper intentions. You might also set
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  Speaker 2: the intention that you are seeking God specifically on something
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  Speaker 2: you need Him to speak into your life. It's been
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  Speaker 2: my experience that God is always present and always speaking,
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  Speaker 2: but just like Elijah found him in the still small voice,
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  Speaker 2: fasting teaches me to remove the distractions from my life
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  Speaker 2: so that I can hear him well, so that I
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  Speaker 2: can listen with my heart, and then I can follow
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  Speaker 2: him daily based on what He's spoken to me. You
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  Speaker 2: might also want to seek God for something you want
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  Speaker 2: to see happen in another individual's life. Maybe the Holy
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  Speaker 2: Spirit has laid a family member or a friend or
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  Speaker 2: a cause on your heart, and so what you want
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  Speaker 2: to do in this fast is you want to commit
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  Speaker 2: time and energy to praying over that thing, to meditating
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  Speaker 2: on scripture related to that thing, to journaling about what
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  Speaker 2: your responsibility that God might have for you to walk
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  Speaker 2: in this calling to change things or to serve somebody
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  Speaker 2: might be. And that's a great intention for fasting as well.
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  Speaker 2: Regardless of your intention, make sure you said it, because
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  Speaker 2: if you don't have a prayer full intent for your fast,
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  Speaker 2: all you're doing is going hungry, and that's no fun
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  Speaker 2: for anybody. Your second pro tip is I want you
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  Speaker 2: to start small. If you don't already have a fasting discipline,
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  Speaker 2: then I want you to start small. There's no rush
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  Speaker 2: to become some sort of master faster. Fasting is a
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  Speaker 2: discipline that can serve you for the rest of your life.
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  Speaker 2: There's no rush to get into it. I just need
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  Speaker 2: you to begin with consistent, small attempts at growing in
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  Speaker 2: your capacity to fast again. It's just like the adaptation
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: of exercise. If I want to deadlift four hundred pounds
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  Speaker 2: on that bar and I've never deadlifted before, then I'm
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: going to do more damage than good. If I start
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  Speaker 2: loading up a lot of weight on the bar, I
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  Speaker 2: do it with bad form. I crank through the reps
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  Speaker 2: because no pain, no gain.
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  Speaker 1: Ugh.
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  Speaker 2: That's a bad approach to exercise, and it's a bad
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  Speaker 2: approach to fasting. Pro Tip number three is hydrating well
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  Speaker 2: when you're fasting. Coffee, tea, and water are just fine
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  Speaker 2: for consumption. They won't kick you out of a fasted
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  Speaker 2: state into a fed state. But making sure that you
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: stay hydrated is going to keep you away from some
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  Speaker 2: of the negative symptoms related to fasting. One of those
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: symptoms might be something like muscle cramping or dizziness. And
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  Speaker 2: when I say hydrate, I don't just mean water, I
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: mean having some electrolytes with your water is extremely helpful,
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: especially if you're new to fasting. If you're old hat
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: and you've done this a while, then drinking a little
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: bit of water and not having to worry about your
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: salt and stuff, you're not going to get dizzy, you're
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: not going to faint. You're a pro at this, right,
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: But if you're new to this, some of the things
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: that deter people from fasting, things like headaches, things like dizziness,
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: things like fatigue or muscle cramping. These things can easily
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: be mediated by consuming enough water and electrolytes. Pro Tip
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: four is to find something to feast on that's not
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: food during your meal times. It's really helpful to open
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: scripture and to spend time chewing on the word a
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: lot of bread, there's a lot of meat, there's a
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: lot of milk in there that will feed your spirit.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: And also to teach you to align that hunger we
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: talked about earlier with seeking after righteousness. I also like,
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: if I'm praying about something specific, to make sure that
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: anytime i feel hunger or anytime I'm reminded that I'm
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: not eating today, that I'll bring that thing up in prayer.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Something like, Lord, please bless my son. He's really wrestling
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: with this stage of manhood right now, and I want
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: to be a good dad to him. That's a very
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: simple prayer. And every time I'm like, you know, I'm
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: kind of hungry, maybe I should grab a snack. Oh,
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: I'm fasting. Lord, please bless my son, help him in
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: this season of manhood and teach me to be a
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: good father to him right now. Do you see how
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: hunger during a fast can constantly bring your heart and
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: mind back fickle as though it can be sometimes back
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: to the thing that was your intention in the first place.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: I'm also not beyond feasting on a walk or some
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: time spent in worship or listening to music. Each of
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: these things can be really beneficial if you would normally eat.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: But right now it's lunchtime and you're not eating, So
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: what do you do? Find something to feast on? Pro
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Tip number five go ahead and proactively deal with things
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: like fatigue or irritability ahead of time. Yeah, you're human,
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: These things are going to come knocking your sin. Nature
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: is going to be at your door. But let's channel
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: this as an opportunity to grow in maturity, to grow
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: in our ability to do what we said we were
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: going to do and not be thrown about by our
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: emotions and our feelings all the time. I find that
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: if I'm irritable during my fast, it shows me opportunities
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: in my day where I have not been responding out
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: of love or intentionality, that my heart's not close to
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: the Father, and it's an opportunity to show me how
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: to do that, even though I haven't eaten today. Run
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: and rah and rah. If you deal with this proactively,
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: then it'll help you to take yourself out of the
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: woe is Me mentality and allow God to show you
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: how you're to respond as the man or woman that
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: he created you to be. My sixth pro tip here
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: is don't do your fasting alone unless you have cultivated
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: this ability over time. Fasting is very well done with
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: a group. Prayer and fasting as a group is a
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: very biblical idea, and oftentimes, if we're cultivating a new
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: spiritual discipline, whether it's daily scriptural reading or we're talking
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: about doing cardiovascular exercise on a regular basis, having a
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: group just makes it better. If I'm running beside somebody
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: at six am, then I know that that person came,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: and I won't skip out on my run, and I'll
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: change my run form, and I'll eat well, and I'll
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: recover well, and it'll just be a much more enjoyable
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: experience altogether. And the same thing goes for fasting with
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: our Christian brothers and sisters. Now, Jesus warns against putting
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: out your fasting beacon. I'm fasting right now. Everybody should
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: think I'm so holy awesome. Jesus warns against fasting for
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: the wrong reasons. But Jesus is not warning us against
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: fasting together. He's just warning us to do it with
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: the right heart. So if you want to cultivate a
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: powerful fasting practice, I would highly recommend not doing it alone.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Here at Faithful Fitness, we have an amazing app called
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Better Daily, and their believers gather to continue practicing their
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: day to day habits like fasting in a community, and
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: each year we do a few group fasts as a
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: community to help our newcomers understand how to integrate and
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: implement fasting in their daily life, and also as an
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: opportunity to give those of us who have cultivated fasting
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: as a practice the time and space to do that
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: as a group there's a link in the show notes.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: I would recommend that you join our community if you
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: need a group of people to fast with and have
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: questions about how to do it well. That would be
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: remiss if I didn't include pro tip number seven, and
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: that is please don't break your fast by binge eating.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: If you fasted for a long period of time, you
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: might feel really hungry, or, as the old Southerners say,
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: your eyeballs might be bigger than your stomach. But if
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: you do break your fast with a lot of food,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: what you're going to find is that you're going to
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: feel heavy. You're going to experience a lot of digestive discomfort.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: And I don't want you to have a bad taste
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: in your mouth or a bad feel in your stomach
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: about your awesome fast. My favorite way to break a
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: fast is one to two servings of scrambled eggs and blackberries,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: and after that's set well in my stomach for a
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: couple hours, then I'll break my fast with slightly heartier food.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: A slight safety note, there are three people who Fasting
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: is not for children, in adolescents, pregnant or breastfeeding women,
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: or individuals with medical conditions, especially those that require them
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: to consume food with their medications. Those should be done
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: under the supervision of a doctor. Well. Fasting can be
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: extremely beneficial for so many medical conditions. If you are
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: going to fast, make sure you do so with the
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: supervision of your doctor. I hope the answer to this
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: question has been really beneficial to you. I want to
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: pray over you and your fasting practice. And if you
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: have questions about how to implement fasting in your life,
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: or another question that you'd like me to feel here
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: on the Faithful Fitness podcast, you can drop those in
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: the YouTube comments, or I would highly recommend joining our
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Better Daily community where you can message me directly with
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: your individual concerns. So please bow your head and pray
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: with me. Father God, thank you so much for the
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: ability to fast. Lord, I pray that you would teach
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: us to be a people who follow close to Christ's heart,
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: and that when we abstain from food, when we step away,
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: that you would teach us how to hunger and thirst
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: for righteousness. I pray Lord that you would teach us
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: how to fast as Christ did, and how not to
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: make food lord of our life, but that we would
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: make you fully lord of our life. Close to your
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: heart and walking closely in your purpose. We love you, Lord,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: Bless my brothers and sisters, and bless this message in Jesus. Amen.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: Guys has been coach Houton on the Faithful Fitness Podcast.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: Until next time. You know what I'm about to say,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Train hard, pray harder.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Hey, if this episode helps you, jaret with someone who
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: needs to hear it, and don't forget to subscribe and
• 25:17
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• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Faithful Fitness. Oh and my dad's new devotional is almost
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: out now. You can grab a copy for yourself and
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: then join our free community at Better Daily by clicking
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: on the links in the show notes below. We all
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: have a cross to carry, but it's lighter when we
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: do it together, so check out both links in the
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: show notes. Don't be a big well Bob, just do it.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Until next time. Don't forget, Train hard and pray even harder.