#277. How A 40-Day Faith-Fueled Fast Rebuilds Your Body, Mind, And Connection With God

Fasting is not about deprivation, starvation, giving something up. It's making room for God to do his work in us and bring new things into our life, body, mind, and spirit. So, there's physiology going on that we're gonna talk about, like the healing things that happen. But spiritually and mentally, like when you remove some of that stuff, food especially, Yeah. You make room for God to get to work, right?

Yeah, you do.

If you're tired of doing all the right things and still feeling exhausted, stuck in your body, and disconnected from God, this podcast is for you. I'm Dr. Tabatha, triple board-certified functional medicine physician, and I help women stop fighting their bodies and start healing them God's way. This isn't about another diet or quick fix. This is about restoring your energy, your confidence, and your faith through fasting, functional medicine, and biblical truth. Welcome to Fast to Faith, where you don't just lose weight and feel great, you step into who God created you to be. So let's get into it. Happy birthday to me! Oh my gosh, thank you for sharing my birthday. I'm so glad you're here with me and my girl Ashley. We are doing a double episode recording, so you're going to hear the other one in a few weeks, but today is important, so take the time to listen all the way through to this today. That's the beauty of the podcast, you can pause and come back, but this is a timely, um, subject, and so I really want you to listen to it this week. Hi, Ashley.

Hi, I'm so First off, happy birthday.

Thank you.

And I'm so excited for you ladies to hear this podcast today because this is what we are all about. We are all about Fast of Faith, and that is what it's gonna be about. But if you don't know this about me, one of my absolute— it is my absolute favorite holiday is Easter. It has and always will be. I love it. I have adult bonus children, and they still get Easter baskets. But it's not so much about that. It is about the season of Lent. Like, it is the one holiday that isn't about the gifting. Like, no one expects an Easter basket. No one expects anything out of it. I love the church, going to Easter Sunday, but I just, I love that you get 40 days every year and it's about Lent. It's beautiful. Like, I can't even, I'm like speechless right now 'cause I have chills. There's just so many powerful memories for me over Lent. And one of the things I remember doing, um, growing up was about what am I going to give up for Lent, right?

Right.

It's something that just kind of happens. And so it's something that I always did. And I think it's the one thing that when people think of Lent, they think about what am I going to lay down? So what are we going to lay down for Lent this year? Like, what are you being invited to lay down?

I'm over here laughing because I was raised Catholic and we wouldn't eat meat on Fridays.

We would eat fish.

And so I would always give up fish for Lent because I hated it.

Girl, that's terrible. I was not raised Catholic, but I still gave something up for Lent, but it was not fish.

Oh my gosh. Oh, that's awesome.

I love that. I know, but really— That was her rebel side back then. Like, you, yeah, you're gonna tell me what to give up.

Yeah, I wasn't actually giving anything up because I wasn't gonna eat it in the first place.

I love that.

Let's just be honest. But I don't want Lent to feel like something that is scary or— it is about suffering because—

Yeah.

At the end of the day, Jesus suffered for us and took that on for himself so that we didn't have to. And for us to suffer for 40 days a little bit, come on, we can do that. And the cool thing is it actually makes us a better person.

It does. Well, I just always think about like, the Sunday's coming. And our church does this awesome celebration where they set off these confetti cannons on Easter Sunday. And so, I literally just keep that at the forefront for those 40 days. And I just think about the celebration that's coming. So, I don't ever think about the negative aspect. I know it's so— and I've done a lot of the, like, the Friday events that you go to can be kind of dark, but I just keep those cannon celebrations.

Sunday's coming.

And just that, yeah, the Sunday's coming. 'Cause it is.

I love that. I mean, we, we are supposed to focus on and be grateful for and thank Jesus for that death, but the resurrection is the part that we should really be focused on. Like, he overcame it all for us. It's so powerful. Yeah, it is. So, yes, Sunday's coming.

I love it.

And truly, I believe that we are called to fast for 40 days. It might look different for different people, but that story that Matthew tells about Jesus fasting for 40 days isn't in the Bible for no reason. There is a real spiritual warfare going on. The enemy is trying to get to us. Food is one of the biggest things that he tempts us with. It's been happening since the beginning of time. It was what Eve was tempted with.

Yep.

Food, right?

Yeah.

I'm inviting you guys, Ashley and I are inviting you to fast with us for Lent. It is the most powerful thing I have ever done, and it continues to be powerful every year for Lent.

Yep.

Isn't it crazy?

It is crazy. And I, I want to make sure that it's really clear right now because I don't want you to stop listening because you heard fast for 40 days. You are going to eat. You are going to nourish your body. It is just going to look different. But I promise you, gonna come out of these 40 days and you're no longer gonna feel deprived or dependent on food. And I think that is the most amazing thing. I remember when you launched this, it's been 3 years ago now, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, 3 Lents ago. And you launched this and we did it. And I have always been a faster and I thought I knew what I was doing. And then we did this program and it really wasn't anything about the food. food. For me, it was the Lectio Divina, which we're going to talk about. But it's so powerful, and it drastically changed not only my path of my life but also my relationship with Jesus. And so I'm excited for women to understand what Fast of Faith is and what we do for 40 days, during those 40 days.

Yeah, so important. And I wouldn't— I would just ask that you have an open heart and an open mind for the next 20 minutes because we think that we know something and that we understand something, and there is always another layer, or there is a misunderstanding, or we just have this perception bias because of what we have experienced as individuals. And so, you have one idea when you hear the word fast, and another woman has a completely different idea.

Yeah.

And this was like, really laid on my heart out in California recently. I was with an incredible group of, like, Christian-loving, Jesus-living-for women. Like, their entire lives, their businesses are around Jesus, and they were still afraid of the word fast and fasting.

Hmm.

And I was like, okay, God, what are we doing with this? And he really laid it on my heart that we have to explain that fasting is not about deprivation, starvation, giving something up. It's making room For God to do his work in us and bring new things into our life, body, mind, and spirit. So, there's physiology going on that we're gonna talk about, like, the healing things that happen. But spiritually and mentally, like, when you remove some of that stuff, food especially, you make room for God to get to work, right?

Yeah, you do. And something super powerful that you said to us when we did that test group 3 years ago was, you said, no matter where you are in your journey, I want you to start at day 1 and pretend like you don't know anything.

Yes.

And that was a game changer for me. And one of our coaches, Bridget, I remember when she— before we rolled this out to the public, one of the things that she has said was, well, I don't need to do this because I fast. And I said, here's what Tabatha told us in the test group. And so, she did it, and she did it from day 1, and she's now a certified coach, and she's helping other women do this. And her story is so powerful because if she wouldn't have, done day one like you recommended, written out how it was done, she probably wouldn't be a coach today. So it's such a powerful testimony to just understand that sometimes you have to just start at the beginning, even if you think you know what you're doing.

Yeah, 100%. So when God really downloaded this entire thing to me, I was running a fasting program as a physician, as a functional medicine provider. I was teaching women the physical benefits of fasting to balance your hormones, to heal your gut, to calm down your adrenals, and just activate deeper healing and autophagy. And what he started to show me was these baby steps that women, in particular, need to do. We are not little men. We cannot fast the same way as men. Men can be— just go off and do a 5-day water fast and feel amazing and, like, climb a mountain. Like, that's not us. That's not how God created us.

You're not climbing mountains? What?

We are, but we're doing it differently. We are baby stepping. And unfortunately, the majority of us living in the United States— I know some of you are in other countries listening to this, and so I'm not sure what your diet looks like, but we are on a sugar roller coaster in this country. We are literally taught by the American Diabetes Association and doctors to graze, to eat every couple hours to maintain your blood sugar. Ladies, that's a straight-up lie from the pit of hell.

Yeah.

That will create diabetes. It will cause insulin resistance and metabolic disease. Please do not, you know, fall for that lie. And what I hear is, well, I have hypoglycemia, or my blood sugar drops if I don't eat. That is a sign that you don't have metabolic flexibility, that you are stuck in sugar-burning mode, from the standard American diet and our way of living. And so, we need to break up with some lies today and start to understand how God actually created our body. Because I love history. I love looking at, like, how did we exist for thousands of years without grocery stores on every corner?

Yeah.

Doctors on every corner? Like, how is it that we went from 2 people to billions of people and we're still existing? It's because God actually created our bodies to go times without food and then to feast. We should be in feast-famine cycles. Carb cycling is key for women. I think we should talk about all of that because I know, as the Academy Director, you're like, women don't understand what's happening inside the program. No, they don't. So I think let's break it all down, but understand that You're tackling all aspects of yourself by joining us for Lent and doing this. You're going to heal physically. Your mind is going to be renewed. We need to talk about Lectio Divina. It's so powerful. And spiritually, you are going to get reconnected to your Creator. Like, that's just what happens because the lines open up.

And as a bonus, you're going to lose some weight. I mean, that's really what it is, but you're not going to realize—

And inflammation.

Yeah, and you're not going to realize that you're losing that weight and inflammation it's not gonna be as hard. Like, I guess that's what I wanna say. It's not gonna be as hard to lose it because you're getting just better in touch with yourself and with our Creator.

It's just a side benefit. Like, the weight loss happens when you tackle the root cause issue of why you can't lose the weight. Weight is a symptom. It's not the problem.

But it's also weight that you're gonna lose that's going to stay off. So there's so many women, I just saw 3, I can literally, I can picture them, their before and afters, that our coaches are starting to share their photos from last year when they did the Lent program and they lost 25 to 35 pounds each, and that weight is still gone. Like, that's what's powerful, because so many times women do programs and they lose 20, 30 pounds, but they had to work really hard to do it, and within 6 months, it's 40 or 50 pounds have gained back. Like, it's worse than where they started.

Mm-hmm.

And that's not That's not what we do. That's not what this is.

Yeah, and that is what we talked about in our in-person event this past Saturday, which my heart is still bursting. It's so full because it was such an incredible event. Like, when you really start to see the lies that are perpetuating and driving your decisions and your choices and your habits, and you break up with those lies and start to live into the truth, who God says you are, Like, yeah, you are going to have sustainable results. You're becoming a better version of you.

Well, it goes back to community, and that's what we have.

So you—

we had that event on Saturday, and not everyone obviously can be in person with us all the time. We live in Michigan. I don't know where you live, but, um, we— having that community around us. And so that is what we do that's so vastly different. Like, not only do you get a one-on-one coach, but you get a community. We meet every Monday. So we are gonna be reminding you of overcoming these limiting beliefs every single Monday. We're gonna be in your living room or kitchen or wherever you're watching us, or maybe you're at your desk at work or you're watching the replay, it doesn't matter. You're getting those reminders. And that's, I, it's just wildly different than anything else. It's not just like, here's a meal plan, good luck, I hope you lose 30 pounds. That's not what this is.

And the sisterhood community is It's so fulfilling and rewarding that people actually show up from Mexico and Australia or wherever on vacation. Like, they're in their bathing suit or they're, you know, taking a break from their husband. They're like, I know we're on vacation, but I need to talk to my sisters for an hour. Like, it's so powerful.

It is. I love when the ladies who have like random Mondays off and they can join us and they're so freaking pumped up because they've watched— they had to watch the recording and then they can come. And we just had that experience last week. Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

It's cool to see.

That is one of my favorite things about Fast to Faith is just the sisterhood. But when we do these calls on Monday, we talk about everything. Can I just tell the women who are not in the group, like, we're talking about hormones and gut and your immune system or your Hashimoto's, but sometimes we're talking about like vaginal health and intimacy with your partner, or we're talking about Trauma from your childhood or your estranged child that you're not talking to and working through that. Like, we literally have got you body, mind, and spirit. We are, we are helping you as a whole woman, every aspect. And that is where true healing comes from.

Yeah, it does. Okay, so why don't we dive in and let's talk a little bit about some of these medical type things that we talk about on Monday. And one of the biggest things is blood sugar and insulin sensitivity. So let's Let's start with what most women care about, which is belly fat, weight, cravings, the energy. What's happening physiologically with that?

Yeah, so this is one of the main factors that Fast to Faith addresses. When you are stuck in sugar-burning mode and you're not burning off your own fat for fuel, you can't lose the weight. The fat cells are staying fat. They actually have to get active and burn off to shrink. I know it's a weird thought, But at the cellular level, there are reasons your fat cells are staying fat. And so we really dive into this in the program so that you can start to understand what your body is doing and what it needs. And as we alluded to, we baby step you from being a sugar burner to becoming a fat burner. And then when we take away the food, we do a shorter fast, your body starts burning your own fat for fuel.

Mm-hmm.

There's this transition into ketosis and then into fasting. And this is what we talk a lot about in the group as well, is your body is always trying to find your baseline and get back into homeostasis. It likes to be in balance. So if you do the same thing every day, you'll get the same result, right? And so we have to shake things up. That is why we're supposed to change the foods we eat with the seasons. We need that diversity. We also need to change our eating window. You cannot eat an 8-hour eating window and expect to lose weight. That is not how it works. And so the program was designed in 4 phases. The sunrise phase is really just helping you break up with sugar, get rid of snacking, and eat the meal that is going to start to initiate fat burning. So the macros get adjusted and Then we go into phase two and we start playing around with the eating window. Phase three scares a little bit women a little bit of the time because there is a three-day water fast for deeper healing. We're getting into autophagy. We're getting into that cellular repair where your your own body goes around like Pac-Man and eats up the bad cells, the bad DNA, the damaged proteins so that you don't grow cancer. It's essential, but there's a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. And I would be remiss if I didn't address this lie out there that if I have adrenal issues or Hashimoto's, I can't fast. That's not true. You just need to do it in these phases in this way to prevent the keto flu or side effects. I've had Hashimoto's since I was 17. I have the worst genetics you can imagine, and I have figured out how to do this in a way that has kept my 30 pounds off for a decade, and I have thrived. My Hashimoto antibodies went from like over 900 to single digits. They're like 3 and 5. So you can do it. You should do it. It's part of how God created us to heal, but you have to do it the right way. That's why starting day 1 with Fast to Faith is essential, and getting through all 4 phases. And then we get into the maintenance How do we make this a lifestyle? What does that look like long-term so that it's sustainable, enjoyable, that you can continue to feed your family and yourself and it's not going to break the bank? Like, that is all really important stuff. But what I would say to women is just trust the process and start with us on day 1, right?

I love that. I'm going to address a couple things. One, people are like macros and they're wondering about all of that. We are We are going to have an episode in a few weeks with our nutritionist, Morgan. She is going to come into the studio and we're gonna break all of that down for you. So we're gonna get in a little bit deeper with the macro and the nutrition side of stuff in a couple weeks.

And she has a master's in functional nutrition. She's not— yeah, she is highly educated.

Yes, she's amazing. And she just redid all of the recipes. So they are super— we have taken a ton of feedback from women and we have made this a very family-friendly, plan. So you will hear from most of our women in our Community that they're not making 2 meals. We are all busy moms. So we, everything that we need to make work for our life, we've done for you ladies. So we just continue to change. And so that's why Lent, these are all new recipes that Morgan curated herself. So we are super excited about that. So we'll dive into that a little bit deeper. And the other thing that I wanted to address was, You get a one-on-one coach. So you, you get— Tabatha has certified almost 40 coaches now. So you get a certified Fast to Faith coach who will walk you through this. So not only will you get to join us on Monday, ask Tabatha herself questions, but you will also get a certified Fast to Faith coach who has been trained and continuously each week gets trained by Tabatha. So your questions will get answered and your plan will be individualized, which is what is so unique about this program where it— we have the 40-day plan, but we have it for different lifestyles. And that's really important to acknowledge because not everyone is on this journey for weight loss. Some women come to us because they just are struggling. They're depleted, their hormones are a mess, their adrenals, but they don't have weight to lose, but they get something still out of this program. So we have a plan for you if you are a woman. We have a plan for you.

100%.

And your husband too, just saying.

I know the husbands get so excited when they start seeing their wives' results and they're like, can I do it? Absolutely. Um, but you touched on this earlier, Lectio Divina. This is the differentiator. When you fast with God, the results are supernatural.

Like, they are.

You open up this line of communication and you start hearing from him in a way that you never have before. Because you're no longer living in your flesh, trying to satisfy your flesh, and feel in your flesh. You're feeling in the spirit. What does your spirit need?

Yes.

And this is what I keep hearing from women. I heard it probably 4 times at the brunch this weekend. I feel a peace I have never felt, ever, in my entire life.

So powerful, that peace and the joy that you get. So good. We are going to show you guys a testimonial from Saturday, who's a woman who is currently in our 40-day program. She really had no idea why she joined the 40-day program, and we would love to have you hear what she got out of the 40-day program.

I heard you on a podcast and investigated you for a little bit, and stuff kept popping up, and I was like reading— I kept reading it. I was like, yeah, that'd be good. Probably. And I ended up joining the Fast to Faith program. And then I realized after, like, I got the videos and I watched, like, some of the introductory stuff, and I was like, wait, we have to journal in this? I was like, I literally, if I had known there was journaling, I would have been like, that's not the program for me. I'm— I am not— I don't like journaling. It makes me very uncomfortable. I feel like I have to write everything perfectly and Grammar has to be right and punctuation, and I judge it, and I go back with a red pen and mark it all up, you know. And so I was like, I can't, I don't, I don't have time for that. But I was like, well, shoot, I'm already paid, I'm in, so I'm gonna listen to her and just try it out. And I think it was like the 3rd or 4th Lectio Divina that was— I'm doing the fast, the 40-day Fast of Faith, and it is Jeremiah 17 about being a Like a tree planted by water. And in— I mean, God literally, like, turned my life in one 10-minute session of sitting there and listening. And he spoke so clearly to me, you don't have to do to be. I don't have to do a million things and pretend I'm super busy to be loved, to be seen, to be cared for, to be known, because I have— I went to chiropractic school, had 2 kids while I was in school, got out, and then became a stay-at-home mom, which I thought I would never do. And I didn't really look very highly on stay-at-home moms. I was like— and then I felt like, oh, this is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. But I fought it the whole way through, and I just thought, I've got to do something. I've got to contribute to the family, even though I'm like running the household and our businesses and our finances and the And I just thought nothing is ever enough, you know, because I don't make a paycheck. And so I, I have scrambled my whole life feeling like I've got to do a million things. My brain's been just utter chaos because all this input comes in. And so I've never lived at peace. I've always told everybody how busy I was, and that's like the savior complex of—

Too bad, Jovanna.

Yeah, it is. Like, I, I'm super busy. That's how I I continue to claim that I'm important instead of actually believing. You're always busy. I'm super busy. Even hilariously, when I started this program, I was pretty sick. I had just come out of bronchitis and then got the flu, but I hadn't been sleeping in months. I just felt like trash. I hadn't been eating well, all the things. But I even like got onto like the text thread, you know, like, yeah. Yeah, and I'm the girl that posted like, I've been so sick. These are all the million things I have to do. And we are in tax prep season, and like there's stuff coming at me all day. And so, and I like even writing that, like I can look back and it makes me laugh now. Like, oh, that's hilarious. I was just perpetuating that belief that like I gotta let everybody know. And some people were even nice enough to like say nice things, even though it was like super obnoxious. People are most people were like, okay. But we've all been there.

I know, yeah. We've all been in that space.

And so, I mean, just knowing that, yeah, that God brought me to this place to let me know that I can slow down. And I have completely slowed down. My mind has, like, come to a place of, like, utter contentment. And what I thought was going to be, like, a diet program, you know, like, OK, that'll help me, like, you know, get back on track and get things rolling, figure a few things out. It was not at all what God had planned for me. And so I'm just super grateful. Thank you for what you're doing.

Because it's better, right?

It's way better. And I feel like everybody in the whole world has to know. How do we tell everybody that this is the way to do it? You have so many friends that are just struggling along, and you can see it. And like, you know now that there's a better way. And so the Lectio Divinas, which Which I was honestly— I mean, I love reading scripture, and I just thought, well, I'll read it, and maybe do a word study on it or something, because I don't want to journal about it. But the being forced to stop—

I love that.

I will do everything but what I'm supposed to do.

Yeah, like, let me look up the Hebrew meaning or something. And it was just— God said, no, just sit and listen. And he totally, completely changed my life.

That—

I mean, thank God. That is the power of our Lord and his word on our lives. It, it can be in a quick moment like that. It can be that crazy. Yeah, so that is one of the testimonials I'm referring to. It is so powerful when you just ask God, you invite him into this health journey walk. Women, We've been like brainwashed to think God doesn't care about our physical body because it's not spiritual enough or whatever it is, it's superficial. That is not true. God would not have taken the time to create such intricate bodies and given them to us for this experience if he didn't actually care about them. And so we just need to shift how we're thinking about all of this. Trust that God has a plan. He's making a way, and he actually cares about how much you weigh, how much pain you have, how much inflammation you have, your chronic headaches. Like, he cares about all of it, and he wants to free you from all of it.

Yeah, he does. And there's, um, I think when you fast strategically and you're nourished when you eat, you stabilize your appetites. And so your hormones, you reduce that dopamine roller coaster. Your cravings start to quiet down. So do you want to talk a little bit about the cravings and the different, like, food noise that we quiet down?

Yeah, because that is why we can't hear from God. That's why we can't go out and live into our purpose, because we're so distracted by our pain, by our hunger, by our loneliness, our anger, whatever the feelings are in the physical body. And if If you haven't watched the episode with Dr. Russ Irwin, please go back and watch that because he talks about you might have a feeling that's physically real. You have chemical responses happening, dopamine, serotonin, all the different chemicals. That doesn't make it true. It could be just a memory. It could be a lie that is creating chemicals. And so we have to take every thought captive. That's what we're told to do, and we really have. to ask ourselves, why am I reaching for this food? Why do I continue to feel hungry despite the fact that I just ate? Why do I feel addicted to sugar? For me, I was exhausted. I wasn't sleeping. I was trying to have energy. My poor body was like running on fumes. It's like that last few— one mile in your car with no gas, like, you know? Yeah. I just didn't realize because this busy world lies to us and it tells us busyness is a badge. You just need to push through and try harder, and that's really not what we're called to do. So if you join Fast to Faith, please join. Like, it is the best gift you'll give yourself this year. It is the best gift you'll give Jesus because I'm sorry, but What he suffered and did for us, like, we cannot even begin to repay him. But you can at least acknowledge it with your own 40 days of trying to honor him.

Yeah, I love that. It's a great way. And I think one of our coaches, Kendra, on Saturday said it perfectly, like, we're not actually busy, we're just full. And we need to look at it in a different way, in a different perspective. And it's such a blessing to be full. So I think that was so powerful that she said that.

Right. And like I said at the opening of this, if your containers are full, if there's no capacity for God to even do anything in your life because you've filled it up with so much crap, like, he's not going to give you stuff.

Yeah, that's so true. Like, you need to write down, like, what, what is making you busy, and are those things even necessary anymore? So sometimes we just, we do things because we've always done it, but maybe that thing that you've been doing forever, whatever it is, doesn't bring you joy. So, I mean, I can just think about just like the small things that you do in a day that you don't even realize that you're doing, like especially at home, if you're going around picking up behind your kids, like maybe you don't actually need to do that all the time. Like your house doesn't need to look like a Pinterest page all the time. It's just not normal. And so, we're living in our homes. And so, I think sometimes you just have to let those things go, but it's hard. And that's why having the community and the support and the accountability makes a difference in that. Someone to remind you like, girlfriend, it's okay that your house is a mess. Like, you can still host that dinner. Like, it's all right.

Right. We really have to let go of this idea of perfection and control. I would say that's the majority of the problem for over 90% of women is, It scares you to death to be out of control, and I get it. But I promise you, the peace that you get when you surrender and let God be in control and guide you and direct you—it's just it's profound. I wouldn't give it back for anything in the world. Like I do whatever it takes to keep that going, and that looks like. doing Lectio Divina every morning with my Fast to Faith Sisterhood. And you might be going, what the heck is this Lectio Divina? I didn't know what it was either. I never heard of it. God literally brought it into my life 3 years ago. And all you're doing is you're meditating on one scripture in the Bible.

Just one.

And it's so powerful, especially if you were like me and you were afraid to read the Bible because you didn't understand it or you didn't think it applied to you. But when you do the method that we teach you, All of a sudden, you realize God is talking to you. The Bible is living and active. It says it right there, and you get to start to experience that. So, I'm excited for you. You need to join today. And what else we got?

Yeah, so, a couple other things we're going to talk about and address is the inflammation, and then the gut repair that comes from this program as well. 'Cause most of you who are listening to this are probably in perimenopause or on your way into perimenopause. And so you're probably wondering like, how is this going to benefit me? My main problem right now is my hormones are a mess or I'm bloated when I eat. And so can you talk about how this program addresses those things?

Yeah, and I know you could talk about it too. You see it all the time with our clients, you know?

Yeah.

Women don't think they have gut issues, you know, because they're quote unquote having regular bowel movements or they're not having stomach pain or things like that. But I promise you, the gut is the gateway to the rest of your body. It is how things from the outside world get inside of us, and that can be good or bad. So we can put stuff in that nourishes us, but we're also getting stuff inside of us that is causing inflammation and destruction. Our food is so toxic. I call them Frankenfoods if you've read my book. They're full of pesticides. These These forever chemicals, these organophosphates, the plastics that are everywhere now, they get into our body and our body doesn't know what to do with them. And so fasting, the, the coolest thing it does is it starts to heal our gut lining within the first 24 hours. So even a shorter fast— That's so fast. Like a dinner-to-dinner fast can have a profound impact on sealing up leaky gut, AKA intestinal permeability. That's the medical term. And when that happens, stuff that isn't supposed to get into your body can't get into your body. And so it's a protection.

Mm-hmm.

You're, you're sealing up the doors and the gateways that are supposed to keep things out. And it's really incredible to see how that translates into decreased inflammation, because all of a sudden your entire body doesn't have to like fight this stuff that it's not supposed to be seeing. And women are like, oh my gosh, it's only been 6 days. Could it really be that that's why I'm less puffy and that's why I'm sleeping better? Absolutely. 100%.

100%. I always say ditch the scale, get a pair of pants that are too tight, and take a picture of your face because that's where you're going to notice it. You're going to put those pants on, you're going to be like, oh crap, these fit today. And then you're going to notice it in your face because that is one of the first places that you notice it. It's really cool to see. And that's because we do everything virtually. That's what we see is women's faces. And you can start to see it go away in their face and just the joy that comes back into their life. And I was just actually talking about this with a client this week. When you can actually start to feel joy, when you are in a room and you're like, I don't have to fake that this is fun. And I don't have to fake, like, you know that this is supposed to be enjoying, but you can't, you literally can't muster the joy. And when you get in that room and you feel that joy and it goes, it's just there naturally. It's such a healing thing. Like, I can't even describe it.

Right. And maybe none of your external circumstances have changed. Maybe you still hate your job and you're still in a broken marriage, but all of a sudden you feel empowered and you feel capable.

You start to change.

You change and you can handle it. Like, it is so incredible.

It really is. So the energy too that women start to get when they become the medical metabolically flexible like they are. I think that something that's super important that we talk about though is the time-restricted feeding. If you want to just give us like a high-level overview of what that looks like and why it's beneficial.

Yeah, so we're, we're a chemistry experiment. Our cells, our trillions of cells, have these little chemical reactions going on all of the time. We have little factories inside of ourselves called mitochondria. These make ATP. ATP, adenosine triphosphate, that is the chemical term for energy. That is how we get up and we function and we move. And when you see things like chronic fatigue and different illnesses where there's no energy, a lot of times it's because those mitochondria are not functioning properly. And so we need to help those factories get back online to make ATP. And sometimes they just need ingredients, right? You just need healthy supplementation. We talked about that recently. But sometimes we need to go and bulldoze those factories and rebuild new ones. And that is where fasting comes in. Fasting does that autophagy, that repair. And it's like, okay, that mitochondrial factory is a hot mess. Let's tear it down. Let's get rid of those broken proteins and build new.

I love the Pac-Man when you use that.

Yes, exactly. I know, us '80s kids, '70s and '80s. But the truth of it is, like, we have these processes happening all of the time, and it's a balance of inflammation and destruction versus repair and restoration. Which one is winning? Are we more destruction or are we more repair? Because it's constantly happening. We are dynamic processes. It never stops until we die, and that's actually the definition of death: is the that ATP no longer moves through the cells. The electrical activity stops, and our spirit says, "Okay, that body's done. Peace out." And so, if you can just base boil it down to those two things, which one am I feeding? Am I feeding destruction and inflammation, or am I feeding healing and repairing? And it really does go deeper. We talk about this, that your mind creates thoughts, those thoughts create feelings, those feelings come from chemicals, and they talk to every cell in your body. And that determines which side of the scale you're on. And so, if you can get on the reparative scale with us at Fast to Faith, everything will shift.

Yeah, I love that. I— it's It's so it's mind-blowing that the body works the way that it does. So I I think it's important to hear from women who have done the program, and these two women we're going to share two stories with you today. And the first one is going to be Melody, and I'm looking forward to you hearing Melody's story because she was another woman who came into our community and really didn't know what she was looking for, but. Got so much out of it. So let's listen to her testimonial. I'm going to play it because I know you haven't heard it.

Fast of Faith— I realized that it's not a diet, it is a lifestyle change. And I love that part of the program because I have completely shifted the way that I think when it comes to food. Before joining Fast of Faith, I was up and down, all over the place. I have always struggled with my weight as far as maintaining and being healthy. Growing up, my journey began with my mom, who also is overweight, and she struggled with food, and food was our dependence, our emotional stability. I tried every diet on the market, but the difference is that I would gain it all back because I wasn't addressing the root issue of what really needed to be addressed. When it came to a food dependency on things, so I started in January of 2025. They give me a meal plan that I can do. It's not a program that I buy as far as I have to eat this bar, and I have to have so many calories, and I have to only have this. The program of food was like, wow! I can eat like fat, and I didn't feel guilty. And you always heard of like no carbs, no sugar, and although obviously Dr. Tavla's program is getting rid of those. It didn't just say, get rid of them. It gave you the why behind it. And so I realized, wait a minute, nothing with her comes in a box. Like, this is all fresh food. I was feeling so much better on the food. And then when I really started implementing the Lectio Divina and the future gazing, that's when things started to change about 6 months later. Not only did I get freedom from food, I found this newfound freedom in going to God when I needed to relook at the way why I was eating the way I was doing it. Morgan is my coach. She is amazing. Having my first couple sessions with her, I realized, wow, when you speak to somebody about what you're going through, it really is different than just journaling it. Having a coach is like having somebody walk alongside with you rather than you being by yourself. Morgan has really helped me see how important it is to rely on the successes and not focus on the failures. I did immediately lose 15 pounds, like boom, like off the bat in the first 40 days. I sleep better. I started adding supplements, the supplements provided by Dr. Tabatha, and I saw a change in my energy as well through those. I also saw an increase in my mobility. I am healthier now, I think, than I have been in my entire life. And so I know that working through this program and seeing the spiritual aspect of the program— unless you do something about it, then nothing's going to change. Try it out. It's worth giving it 40 days. It's a program that transforms your thinking, your heart, the way that you look at things, because it goes to the root causes and the issues of things rather than just give you a plan or a checklist to say, oh, I've done it and I've lost weight, but it doesn't transform you.

I'm so glad that Melody addressed the fact that Even though we're removing things, it doesn't feel like deprivation because we're actually replacing it with better things that are healing and nourishing. And that's a pivotal thing to understand why you're doing something, because if you're just told to do something, you probably won't do it for very long. You'll be like, well, whatever. But if you understand why and you feel the difference pretty much right away, within days, You will continue to do it.

Yeah, and I think she brought up a really good point of like, she went through the 40-day program, but then there we have making this a lifestyle. So it's an opportunity to continue to work with your coach or stay in the Community and learn how to make this a lifestyle. So this is not just 40 days and like, you're out there on your own again. We are here for you every single week, and so is your coach, and that's what's powerful about it. The next testimonial we're gonna hear from is Sally, and Sally is near and dear to us 'cause she is local. We actually met her at a local event, And so this is going to be a really powerful testimonial for you to hear. And it also shows the power of showing up and being in community, because that's what she did during a Fast to Faith book study.

If you're hesitant on joining this Fast to Faith program, I would say that there's so many reasons to do this, and it's so different than maybe what you've experienced before, that you are worth it. And this is something I started early last year. It's been over a year. I'm continuing to follow it. I'm continuing to Be in Community with some of the folks from that program. And so I just think that it's not like any diet program. It truly is something that will foster a way of life for you and that will help you meet those goals like nothing else ever has. Nothing else worked for me before this, and I'm a true testament to the fact that it works. If you follow it and you use the Community, it does work. Hi, I'm Sally Churchill, and I am from Twin Lake, Michigan. Before Fast to Faith, I had struggled a lot with different diet programs. It was always a diet. It was go on it, and then eventually I would get tired of it and I would go off it and go right back to old habits. I'm 58 years old, and that journey went on for as long as I can remember. One of the things that I really found with Fast to Faith is that it included the faith part of it, and I think bringing the faith part of this program into the health part of it, it was new for me. It was a way to really look to God for that help and motivation versus trying to do it all myself. And using some of the daily scripture and the calls that we had just continued to sort of reemphasize for me that the body is the temple that God gave us, and I'm honoring God by taking care of it. So I think that really was the first time in all my years that I brought those 2 things together. When I followed the first 40-day program, I saw results. It made it that much easier to keep going with it because you do see results fairly quickly with the weight loss, which, as much as we say, let's not make it all about the weight loss, it certainly does help. And that's part of why I did it. I wanted to feel better about myself and feel better health-wise. My coach was Kristen Wurst, and she really helped me with all of the crazy questions that I had. I tend to be very sort of Detail-oriented. I'm very OCD about if this is the program I'm following, I'm gonna put it log everything in the app, and I'm gonna want to hit those macros exact. And I think she really helped me with answering some of those questions, with helping me understand that we also have a life to live, and so it was okay if I didn't do things exactly on program. And so I was texting her constantly, just saying, "What about this? What about?" That can I eat this? Can I eat that? So she was great at responding. God wants us to be happy and healthy, and there's so much in the Bible that He's given us that you don't think about. So He's given us tools. He's given us the ways that we can do some of that, and He's told us over and over again how He wants us to treat our bodies. I never had thought of that before. So I think just realizing that you can bring God into your life every day—it doesn't just have to be this. Solemn prayer with big words and organized church. It can be every morning going, wow, I'm struggling with this and I really want to feel better. Help me. Since completing the Fast Faith program, my results have been in several areas. So first and foremost, I did lose weight. So I lost about 45 pounds, which also resulted in going from— I was pushing into getting tight with size 16s. Now I'm in a 4 to a 6, more towards a 4 these days. Way more energetic. Sleeping has been fantastic. I would say another big one for me is my relationship with alcohol. How I'm experiencing life, not doing it under an influence of alcohol or feeling like I have to do that every time I go somewhere. That's changed quite a bit. I did use the Fasting Face supplements during this journey. I still use them. The ones that I use most often, I use the Hormone Tame, which is a multivitamin. I do omega, which is just good, healthy fats and healthy oils. I take magnesium before I go to bed for sleep. And I think those supplements that I use from Fast to Faith really helped me to stay on track with some of that as well. I think it's going to sound crazy, but my favorite part of the 40-day journey was actually the 3-day fast. I don't know what the right word is. It was just very kind of powerful. To be able to say, I don't have to think about food. My body can survive without food for 3 days. That incredible sense of control over my body and over not letting food have that control over me. The Community was really, it's almost a bit of a lifeline. I had so many questions about what kinds of supplements or food or how to hit macros. And I think the Community, being able to ask those questions Get lots of different inputs and ideas, and just have the general support that says, "Hey, we've been there. We've done this. We know you can do it. We know it works. Keep on going." And that support was really a huge piece of it. I think the Monday calls just continued to reiterate what the community was and what the book tells you, but it reiterates the real-world struggles that people are dealing with. And a lot of times there would be a question that would come up that I. Had been thinking about. I didn't ask it, and it seems it was always like, oh yeah, that I need to know about that too. And we go into details, and Dr. Tabatha would really help explain in plain English in a way that we could all understand. She would explain a little bit of the science behind some of it, as well as just the God part of it that helped you pull it all together.

Oh my gosh, I love Sally's testimony, but I love seeing her before and after. It is like right in your face. It's so obvious, the difference. And that is Fast to Faith. Like, you're gonna see it, you're gonna feel it, other people are gonna see it and feel it. We get testimonials from husbands like, thank you so much, I love my wife again, she loves me again.

Mm-hmm.

Because here's the truth of it. When you are struggling physically and mentally, it impacts your relationships. It changes how you show up for your partner, for your coworkers, for your children, for your friends. It just, it does. When you are struggling, you're, you might not be very nice or you might be short-tempered or whatever it is. So maybe you're not even feeling ready to do this before for yourself, or you're not feeling worthy, or you just don't think it's going to work because you've done every other program and it wasn't sustainable, it didn't work— do this for the people you love. You will not regret it. It will change your life. Like, I, I'll give you your money back if it doesn't. That is how much I believe in this. Like, time and time again, women's lives are changed.

Yeah, they are. And I think something that we should address right here, you said it beautifully, is like, why do women succeed in Vast of Faith when they've failed at so many other things?

Because God is in control.

Right, right.

Yeah.

We are asking God to heal us, and he gives us the resources, he gives us the information, but until you give him permission to actually Heal you. You have free will, ladies. He's waiting for that invitation. He wants to be a part of this, but he is not going to bulldoze you. He—that's that's the magic and the beauty of faith. But he will show up and get to work if you invite him in.

Yeah, and I think that there are six pillars that you talk about, and those six pillars will clearly show why this fascinating. Faith program works and when so many other things have failed. And the very first one is that we fast as women, and this isn't a copy-paste from some male-written program, and that's what makes us different.

100%. Yeah, I mean, that is pivotal. That is going to balance your hormones. And like you mentioned, we have different types of the 40-day program based on where you are at. So Fasting, when you're trying to have a baby, looks different than fasting in a menopausal state versus fasting as an athlete training for a triathlon versus someone who is carnivore. And some, maybe they're doing that to heal the microbiome in the gut, or that's just their preference. And so we address all of this, and it's, it's so cool that we have all these different programs.

Yeah, and then we also cycle with fasting and feasting.

Yeah, which is key. You have got to eat after you fast or your thyroid will think you are starving it to death. It will downregulate your metabolism. It will hold on to your fat harder. We know from the studies and from watching The Biggest Loser, chronic calorie deprivation does not keep that weight off. You might lose it initially. It's going to come back with a vengeance. So the feasting part is just as important as the fast. And that is what we teach in the program.

Yeah, because we don't want our metabolism to adapt and stall. So that's what's key about this. And then we also focus on nourishment, and that's that protein, fat, fiber.

Yeah, that is really essential. We, we teach you how, how healthy fats are essential for your hormone production, for your cell receptor production and function, and that is why We have a functional nutritionist on the team. It's like imperative that we're actually eating faith foods, the foods that God created for our bodies to thrive.

Yes, and these next 2 go together. We regulate the nervous system, and then we also renew the mind. And it all goes back to scripture, which is Romans 12:2 that you talk about so much.

Yeah, you do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That is absolutely essential if you want to show up differently in life. If you want to break up with your bad habits, if you want to quit sleeping in and hitting the snooze button, if you want to quit reaching for the Snickers bar or the afternoon Starbucks, some reprogramming has to happen. And that piece is essential. And as a physician, as a scientist, as a surgeon, I understand the neurochemistry and the plasticity that has to happen. And we use scripture as our foundation to do all that scientific reprogramming. Yeah.

And so the last one is we do it in a sisterhood. And I feel like we've talked about this throughout the whole episode. And I think it's just because it's so important to you and I, like community is really important. And these women have helped us in our own lives. And so in showing up as a messy Christian, It is okay. Like, we are not perfect women in this group. And I think that's what is so powerful about this sisterhood is we're open and we're honest and you share all the time. I mean, you just went through the keto flu last week yourself, right? And you shared, like, you were pumping them up on Monday and by Tuesday she had the keto flu, you guys. And so it was one of those things where like, we are real and things happen.

Thanks for calling me out.

Yeah, you're welcome. She does it to me enough, right, ladies?

I know. No, honestly, I need to share this. This because I say this all the time. It's from one of my mentors, JJ Virgin. You cannot see the picture when you're in the frame. So even me, I am a trained expert in fasting. I live a fasting lifestyle for a decade now. I teach it. I teach my coaches. I literally was giving the advice on Monday about going into the 3-day water fast prepared. Make sure you've gone through the the two phases that come before. Make sure you are fat adapted and you are not in sugar burning mode. Make sure that you have your electrolytes replenished and on board so that you don't struggle when you take away the food. Having said that, I went into a three-day water fast without doing that advice because my ego thought I've been doing this for a decade. My body knows how to do it. I'll just like. And I'm like, in full transparency, I was in California with my kids for a week eating garbage. We ate nonstop fast food, sugar. I was trying all the Hailey Bieber smoothies and all the garbage.

You were living your vacation life, and that's okay.

I was living a 15-year-old vacation life.

Yeah, and that's okay.

But my body just did not go into ketosis.

But I think you went through that, though, because you needed it. to help women and have this reminder. I think it was so powerful. Yeah, it sucked on all levels. Like, it affected me, but you know what I mean? It did. Like, and it sucked for you, and you're still recovering. And so it's one of those things where, like, it happened, but it happened for a reason, and you're using that instead of making it an excuse and hiding about it in shame. So I think it's so powerful.

And the truth of it is, that is why I— women say to us all the time, I love you, Dr. Tabatha, because you're real, because you're honest, because you're messy. You're not trying to be perfect.

No.

I'm like, let me use my mistakes to teach you guys, you know? And I truly believe God was just reminding me, you gotta live out what you're speaking out every single day. You are teaching women, you are guiding You have to be living by example, and I wasn't living by example in that moment. And I take full ownership of that. And man, did I suffer consequences! So if you've ever tried to do a longer fast and you got shaky, hangry, jittery, migraine, raging headache, feeling like you have a fever, like you can't regulate your temperature, you're hot, you're cold, you got the nausea. Like I tried to drink some electrolytes and I threw them up. I was so nauseous. That is a sign that you have not gotten into ketosis, that you are continuing to have a low blood sugar and you can't get out of it. So don't let that steer you away from fasting. It's a just— it's just telling you that you need to do it in a specific way. So please don't be afraid of it. It's the most powerful tool that God has given us. I call it Like, it's a supernatural tool, and I, I just want you to experience it the right way with us.

Yeah. So if Lent has you feeling like something you should do, um, but you're hungry for real transformation, I invite you to join us for Fast to Faith for Lent. We start on 2/18. If you're listening to this podcast after 2/18, there is still time to join us. It is not too late. And so we would love to see you in Absolutely.

Don't make an excuse that it already started, or like— those are lies from the enemy. Just make a decision. I'm gonna do this. Sign up and start. I'm gonna do this for me. Just sign up and begin. We meet women who come in every day. Like, we don't always start as one group, so don't let that deter you. We want to see you in there. We want to pour into you. We want to pray over you as a group, and we want to educate you on the truth about your body and why You've stayed stuck and throw you a ladder in that pit and get you out.

Yes, ladies. I hope to see you on Monday. Yay! Yay! Oh my gosh!

I can't wait. Love you guys. Bye.