The difference between Fasting and Not Eating

  On a recent coaching call, I explained the difference between Fasting and Not Eating.  There is a big difference.  In both cases there is underlying thinking under the behavior but when you don’t eat, you are not aware or even interested in the underlying thinking, even though it may sabotage your efforts. It might look like this:

Every time you think about eating you tell yourself you are not eating because____????___ (here there are conscious and unconscious answers) Conscious- I am not eating because I need to lose weight. I need to lose weight because I want to fit my clothes. I want to fit my clothes because when I don’t I feel fat. Unconscious- When I feel fat, I feel like a loser. When I feel like a loser, I feel bad about myself. I feel bad because I shouldn’t be fat. I shouldn’t be fat because fat people are lazy and undisciplined. If I’m fat so I must be lazy and undisciplined. If, I am lazy and undisciplined. I might as well eat a doughnut.

 The Sacred and Fit program includes a Fast in the fifth week. The purpose of the preceding four weeks is to prepare for the fasting week. Although there is a lot of preparation for the gradual fast (buying a juicer and a blender, planning the weeks’ menus of raw foods etc.) the REAL preparation is for the Intention for a Breakthrough. This is what differentiates a fast from “not eating.”  Each participant brings a different Intention to the Fasting Week.  The intentions are generated by participating in the contemplative practice of Lexio Divina. This practice teaches how to focus and discipline the mind, so that during the fasting week there is a foundation for obtaining a breakthrough.

What kind of breakthrough? Well, as I’ve said many times, a weight issue is really a thinking issue. Food is meant for nourishment, but people eat for many other reasons. The REASONS for those behaviors is the actual problem behind the weight. During the first four weeks of Sacred and Fit, through journaling and other introspective practices you slowly uncover unconscious, unspoken beliefs that are “feeding” the behavior of overeating.  A breakthrough is a change in those beliefs.

So, do you believe that it is God’s will for you is to be healthy?

It is God's will for you to live a peaceful life?

It is God's will for you to have joy and fulfillment?

If you are overweight, stressed out, unhappy and unfulfilled, then there is a part of you that is not acting on that belief. Somewhere deep down, you don’t believe that it is God’s will for you to be healthy, peaceful, joyful and fulfilled.

Fasting will help you change the belief.

Simply, Not Eating won’t.

For more information on S&F program, including the gradual fast, go to our website www.sacredandfit.com.