Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Better Daily Life, where we are moving forward
blow toosa better every single day. Download the app and
super charge your journey at bedadaily dot life. Now it's
time the debt fats and get facts with your hosts
(00:24):
and my dad all it ben Healthy.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
What is Betterment? Family? This is Alex bin Houden in
Better Daily Live, Happy Thursday. It is Word Thursday, and
I'm Word Thursday. I share some meditations with the word
to help you on your one percent better journey. And
today is the word fasting. Take a little bit of
a different spin on this, and since I have covered
this word in the past and we are on day
(00:58):
thirty four of the faith Full forty challenge, and so
today we're going to talk about fasting with regard to
our challenge. Thank you guys for joining me this morning,
and I am going to also speak an apology. I'm
sorry I was not live with you on Tuesday or Wednesday.
I have regular bouts with laryn jitis. That's a fun,
(01:19):
fun byproduct of eelers dan los. The connective tissue that
makes up your vocal cords is the same as well
pretty close to the same as the connective tissue that
makes up your tendons and ligaments, and so they recover
at similar rates and stuff. And so I lost my
voice about late Monday night and Tuesday and Wednesday. You
(01:40):
wouldn't have want to hear from anyway. It sounded terrible.
I felt great, but it sounded terrible. That's the thing
about laryn jitis. So good morning, Robin, thanks for joining
me this morning. Good morning Scott, good to see your brother.
So fasting, fasting is a powerful practice. By definition, fasting
simply is to refrain from the consumption of something. That's
(02:01):
what it means to fast. Generally. When I speak about fasting,
I mean that you are not consuming food, specifically anything
that has calories in it that would give your body
energy from the outside. Right, So things like water or salt,
(02:22):
or coffee, those green tea, those sorts of things. Those
generally are allowed, so to speak, when I talk about fasting,
Although there are some individuals who in some traditions who
fast everything. Like when they say fast, they mean nothing
comes into your mouth at all. Right, So that's a
different sort of fasting, But that would be a complete
(02:45):
no water, no liquid fast. But fasting means to refrain
from the consumption of something, and there's a number of
reasons to do that. Here in the Faithful forty Challenge,
we are implementing a group fast. So if you forgot
about it and you intended to join us, it's okay.
It starts today, so Thursday, Friday, Saturday and breaking are
(03:06):
fast on Sunday. That's a nice period of time where
you can fast. And maybe maybe you have a fasting
practice or discipline from the past, and so fasting all
of those days completely with just water and coffee is
something that you're able to do. Great If so, please
(03:27):
join me on that. That'll be awesome. If not. If not,
then that's okay too. You can still join us in
the capacity that you are capable or willing to do.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
You might want to do a shorter series of fast
You might want to do an eighteen hour fast today
and break your fast at lunchtime, or maybe you want
to do a twenty four hour fast today and break
your fast at dinner time this evening. Or you can
be like Robin. And I'm not picking on you, man,
I'm just using you as an example. You can be
like Robin, be like, oh, Man, I forgot I was
(03:58):
fasting today, so he had, and so he's going to
fast with us following breakfast. And so if he was
going to do a twenty four hour fast, then what
he would do is he would have breakfast tomorrow. So
maybe you're going to do a few short fasts. Maybe
you're going to do some partial fasting. Perhaps you've never
fasted before, or maybe that you have medical reasons why
(04:19):
going without food for an extended period of time is
counterproductive for you. So maybe you're fasting something specific. Maybe
you could say, hey, it's been a while since I've
taken a break from caffeine, so I'm going to fast
from caffeine while our group is doing this. Or perhaps
you have a sweet tooth problem and you're going to
make a concerted effort over the next four days to
(04:42):
step away from sweets anything that has added sugars in it.
Maybe you'll step away from fruit. Even then, you're welcome
to do that as well. Whatever it is that you're
doing for your fast, whatever you're refraining from the consumption of,
we'd love to know about it. And I want to
preface that by saying, from a spiritual perspective, group fasts
(05:05):
are not generally a thing. Jesus said it very well
on the New Testament that when you fast, you should
you should put oil on your hair and a smile
on your face, and don't let anybody know any better.
Let your countenance shine forth, so that the reward for
your fast is between you and your father in heaven.
The reason I am implementing a group fast this time around,
(05:28):
and the reason I support doing that now and then,
is because it's really hard to learn how to fast
by yourself. You can, you can't do it. But in
today's world, being fasted instead of fed is not a
normal thing. Most people don't do that. Most people don't
skip meals on purpose, and so to be fasted is
(05:51):
kind of a strange thing. And I found in my
fasting practice when I started fasting was probably about seventeen
or eighteen years old. When when I started picking up
fasting as a discipline that I learned well in community,
it was helpful to have a buddy. It was helpful
to have somebody else who was also refraining from food
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for a specific period of time, so that the two
of us could support each other, so that the two
of us could pray for each other, so that we
could check on each other and see how things are going,
and also kind of muddle through some idiosyncrasies. My very first,
my very first long term fast was with a good
buddy of mine. His name's Nick. I hope he's doing well.
(06:33):
I think he might have an account in this group.
He's just not active anyway. He and I fasted together,
and I was working construction at the time, so you know,
he had his job. I had my job. My job
was very, very intensive, right, and so that said it.
You know, I couldn't go ten hours eleven hours in
a day without consuming some sort of nutrients without significant
(07:00):
affecting my ability to work or whatever, and so and
so what I did during that time is I'd get
a big jug of orange juice, and that's what I did.
I would fast for that forty eight hour period and
sip on orange juice the whole time. Now, if you're
somebody who's who's fasting and shifting your body in the
direction of fat burn is one of the goals that
(07:24):
you're doing or moving toward, or you're diabetic, then drinking
orange juice all day is a really bad idea. So
I'm not I'm not recommending that that type of fasting,
but to give you an idea of how how I
broke into that and how I made fasting something that
I could do in my life to be positive and productive.
And it was really good for my prayer life, and
(07:46):
it was helpful to be connected to Nick well. He
and I went through that together. We had we had
things we were praying for, and we also felt that
that seeking God in that way was very important to
both of us. And and so I've incorporated fasting in
my life and a bunch of different avenues of life,
and I've had a lot of different experiences helping clients
(08:09):
do the same. And so if during this fast questions
come up for you, So maybe this is the first
time you've gone without food for an extended period of time,
or maybe you have questions about things that you can
consume that would be helpful to you, then please reach out.
That's very important to me because we fast as a
group so that we can become stronger in our discipline
(08:33):
and so that in that process in practice, we can
learn something that will help us in the future. So,
as far as fasting is concerned, on Word Thursday, fasting
is the intentional putting down of or a lack of
consumption of something in particular for a period of time,
And why would you do that? Why would you do that? Well,
(08:56):
there are a number of reasons to do it merrily.
The reason that I fast is because I find that
being hungry physically speaking. Being hungry physically speaking teaches me
to hunger for other things and to be filled by
other things that are important to me. Your brain's a
(09:18):
little bit different when you're satisfied. Your brain's a little
bit different when you're fed and when you're not fed.
When your body is tapping into your fat stores as
a fuel source, when your body is using energy for
other things other than digesting your food, your mind and
your body are in a different place, and it's very
(09:41):
very powerful to help you see the world around you
in a different perspective. So there's this really interesting passage
in John four where Jesus just spent some time with
the Samaritan woman at the well and he reveals himself
to her as the Messiah, and she's running into the
city basically to tell everybody about it. And the disciples
(10:04):
are coming back out of Samaria, coming back out of
Samaria with some food. They went into the city to
get some food and provision and stuff, and so they
find Jesus and they're like, hey, you should eat something.
We got this food for you. And Jesus it doesn't
say this specifically, but I just picture him with a
big smile on his face, is shaking his head because
(10:27):
he's watching the Samaritan woman run into town and she's
going to tell everybody about him, That's what she says.
I'm going to tell everybody about you. And so she's
run into town. I pictured Jesus with a smile on
his face and he says to his disciples, I have
food that you don't know anything about. And his disciples
(10:49):
they're fed, you know, they just ate. Their mind is
not on the ethereal right now. Their mind is very
well grounded in the that in physical state. So they
don't understand what he's saying. They don't understand that he
just spent a miraculous moment with a Samaritan woman who,
(11:10):
you know, traditionally speaking, is not connected to the Jewish
way of things, or isn't necessarily that concerned with the
Jewish Jewish religious practice or anything like that. So a
miniature miracle just occurred, and he's watching it play out
right in front of him and and he's so happy
about that, and it's so meaningful to him that it
(11:32):
feels satisfying, just like having a big meal. And so
he says to the disciples, I have food you know
nothing about. And they're like, what does he have food
with him? You know, as Jesus got like loaves of
bread hidden under his cloak. And when they went into
the city, they're picturing him, you know, chowing on his
bread at the well. And he looks at them and
(11:53):
and he keeps shaking his head, and he says, my
food is to do the will of my father, who
sent me, and to complete his good work. This has echoed,
strangely also in the Lord's Prayer, where he says, after
our Father in heaven, hollowould be your name, your kingdom. Come,
(12:16):
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
He says, give us this day our daily bread. And
that's a really interesting phrase because in the same in
the same spirit, that daily bread is not just sustenance, Lord,
please feed me today. That's not just what he's saying,
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at least in the way that John uses the word
food with Jesus. He's also saying, help me be aware
of your good work today. Show me the things that
are sustaining, Show me the things that are meaningful, Show
me the things that you would have me do that
would be even more satisfying than sitting down to a
(13:02):
good meal. And please also give me the food and
energy I need to do those things. It's a wonderful,
wonderful line. And in my prayer for you during this fast,
whether you're fasting the entire time, or whether you're doing
a short fast or some partial fasting in between, here
my prayer for you is that the physical hunger that
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you experience and the change and shift in your perspective, mind, body,
and spirit, my prayer for you is that you start
to see the good work around you that you can
be up to. That you start to see the things
in your life that are sustaining and meaningful and that
are worthy of being pleasurable to you, just like the
(13:53):
food in front of our face. You might ask why
we call this phase the love phase of the Faithful
forty challenge. What does fasting have to do with love?
Do you know the number one way people use the
word love. It's not just with people. In fact, that's
number two. If you listen to somebody talking to day
(14:14):
researchers have actually done this how people use the word love.
People use the word love with regard to food more
than anything else. I love pizza, I love cheesecake, I
love I don't know eggs, I love sardines. Through that
in there, just for you, Pat. People use the word
(14:35):
love with regard to food so much. Why because it's satisfying,
because it's sustaining, because it's something we get to be
involved in and in relationship with every day, and because
it's so dang good. And so I pray for you that,
in this fast and this time together, that your love
for the things that are sustaining, your love for the
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things that are meaningful, your love for the things that
you have a regular relationship with but perhaps take for granted.
My prayer for you is that that love is made
new this week. So, guys, thank you so much for
joining me for word Thursday. I'm very excited to be
fasting with you, and I'm prayerful that it's productive and
(15:18):
meaningful to you. Until next time, guys, This has been
Alex vand Houghton in Better Daily Live. I promise you
I will make up my nutrition tip Tuesday in Wild
Wednesday soon, so stay tuned since I have my voice back.
But until next time, it's just one percent. You got this.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Thank you for Johnny Us for your one percent. Better
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Speaker 2 (16:22):
M hm