Dr. Tabatha Barber, a Christian physician, argues that fasting deepens your connection to God while improving health. She describes breaking a severe sugar addiction by eating whole fruit instead, and recommends progressive intermittent fasting tailored for women's bodies.
All throughout the Bible, anytime somebody wanted to be closer to God and really hear from him, they fasted. That opens up the channels, the lines of communication. Because you're no longer living according to your fleshly desires, you get to hear from God. And so Jesus went off into the wilderness and fasted for 40 days. And here's the crazy thing. The first time the devil came to him and tempted him, it was with food. He said, if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become burned bread. So I'm telling you, food is our temptation. Food gets us back in our flesh and away from our Creator. So when you can conquer and overcome that, then you will thrive. Before I get into the benefits of fasting, I just want to introduce myself. I'm Dr. Tabitha, your Christian physician. I'm a triple board certified OB GYN turned functional medicine women's health expert. My passion lies in helping women women reclaim their health by nourishing their soul and reconnecting their body, mind and spirit. Fasting is my favorite way to do that. And so thank you for being with me. What I've realized through studying functional medicine, coming from the conventional medicine space, is that our food is making us sick. Our food is not the food that God gave us. We lived for thousands of years on amazing food from animals and plants that helped us be healthy and thrive. And now we're living on this stuff sad diet of boxes and bagged food. I call them Franken foods. They really do not belong in our body. They're full of chemicals and dyes that make us sick. We used to eat one pound of sugar per year as an individual in the 1800s. And now we eat 60 pounds a year as Standard American. These Franken foods are destroying your health. They're destroying your mental health, your physical health, and that's impacting your relationships and your and your job and everything in between. So I urge you to take a look at how you're nourishing your body. I promise, we are not supposed to be eating this way. I get it. I was more addicted to sugar than anyone I know. The donuts used to talk to me from the break room. I couldn't walk by the nurse's station without grabbing a handful of M&M's or licorice. That was my diet. I lived on sugar. It gave me energy. It helped sustain me in the OR and delivering babies all night. But here's the thing. I was in chronic pain. I had so much back pain I could barely walk away from the OR table after surgery. It was Killing me. You know what I did? I swapped out sugar for fruit. And fruit didn't feel very sugary to me at the beginning. But I kept eating it. I ate so many blueberries, I thought it was going to turn blue. But it really helped me to break up with sugar when I just focused on the food that God created and provided for us. And about six weeks later, that fruit actually tasted sweet again. Because my taste buds were no longer hyper palatable from all of that sugar. They were functioning the way they were supposed to again. And that is how I broke up with sugar. And I promise you can too. It changed everything for me. I no longer have back pain. I no longer fall asleep at my desk during the day. I feel amazing at 50, way better than I did at 30. You may think you are here just living this physical life, but you're actually a spirit having a physical experience. There is a fight for your soul. And whose side are you on? I'm on God's side. But for a long time, I was on the enemy's side. I was agreeing with whatever he told me in my mind. That I wasn't good enough, that I wasn't strong enough, that I couldn't break my sugar addiction, that I couldn't give up gluten. He told me all kinds of lies in my head, and I believed them. It wasn't until I started reading scripture and really realizing the power and the authority that God gives us over our body. He gave us a physical body because he wants us to use it as part of this spiritual journey. He wants us to view it as a temple and to respect it and to nurture it and use it as a way to honor him. I would encourage you. Who are you siding with? What lies are you listening to? What truth are you listening to? When you believe that you are worthy, you don't reach for the sugar. You go out and you take a walk. You work out and you prepare your food and you take the time for rest. So it's really important for you to figure out who you're aligned with. And when you align with God, you become unstoppable. And I would argue fasting is the quickest way to get you there. Fasting will reconnect you with God. Because when you're not listening to your body and your fleshly desires are, all of a sudden, the channels open up and you hear from him because all that food noise is gone. There are so many health benefits of intermittent fasting. It improves your metabolism, it heals your gut. But here's the cooler thing, fasting has more than just health benefits. It has spiritual benefits too. It really does purify your body, mind and soul. And you find joy in the Lord, not in your food. Fasting will deepen your relationship with God and really give you the strength reclaim your health. The word fasting can be super scary. So many people are afraid that they're going to die if they don't eat. There's no way I can go without food. What are you talking about? I know, I was there. I was eating from dusk until dawn just to survive. But that's really not how we're supposed to thrive. You've lost your metabolic flexibility. You need to tap back into your fat burning ability. And the way to do that is to fast. But here's the secret. And this is why my 40 day fasting program is so much powerful. Because it's a progressive fasting program. You can't dive into the deep end the first time and expect to swim and be okay. That is what people try and do. They fast the wrong way or they calorie restrict when they fast, so all they do is eat low calorie, less food, less amounts, less carbohydrates, and then they get depleted. Their thyroid thinks they're struggling and it turns down their metabolism, so so their weight loss plateaus or they even start to regain and get inflamed. The key is you have to do a feast famine, carb cycle. That is the key. Especially for women. Fasting needs to be done in the right way. It's not that you can't fast or that you shouldn't fast. It's just that you probably haven't done it the way that helps your body thrive and feel amazing. So don't count it out, don't discount it. Try it again. I promise you it's all in how you feel fast. So if you want to learn how to do it in a way that your body loves, download my free intermittent Fasting guide. It will walk you through, step by step, the first things that you need to start with. And that's going to set you up for success. Because if you get a quick win and you feel good with a little bit of progressive fasting, you're going to want more. Jesus fasted for 40 days and not just for spiritual strength, but for something much deeper. What if this practice could transform your health too?
