Eat, Fast, Feast

Heal Your Body While Feeding Your Soul - A Christian Guide to Fasting

By: Jay W. Richards

Narrated by: Derek Shetterly

Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

The New York Times best-selling author and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute blends science and religion in this thoughtful guide that teaches modern believes how to use the leading wellness trend today - intermittent fasting - as a means of spiritual awakening, adopting the traditions our Christians ancestors practiced for centuries into daily life.

Wellness minded people today are increasingly turning to intermittent fasting to bolster their health. But we aren’t the first people to abstain from eating for a purpose. This routine was a common part of our spiritual ancestors’ lives for 1,500 years.

Jay Richards argues that Christians should recover the fasting lifestyle, not only to improve our bodies, but to bolster our spiritual health as well. In Eat, Fast, Feast, he combines forgotten spiritual wisdom on fasting and feasting with the burgeoning literature on ketogenic diets and fasting for improved physical and mental health. Based on his popular series "Fasting, Body and Soul" in The Stream, Eat, Fast, Feast explores what it means to substitute our hunger for God for our hunger for food, and what both modern science and the ancient monastics can teach us about this practice.

Richards argues that our modern diet - heavy in sugar and refined carbohydrates - locks us into a metabolic trap that makes fasting unfruitful and our feasts devoid of meaning. The good news, he reveals, is that we are beginning to resist the tyranny of processed foods, with millions of people pursuing low carb, ketogenic, paleo, and primal diets. This growing body of experts argue that eating natural fat and fasting is not only safe, but far better than how we eat today.

Richards provides a 40-day plan which combines a long-term "nutritional ketosis" with spiritual disciplines. The plan can be used any time of the year or be adapted to a penitential season on the Christian calendar, such as Advent or Lent.

Synthesizing recent science with ancient wisdom, Eat, Fast, Feast brings together the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits of intermittent fasting to help Christians improve their lives and their health, and bring them closer to God.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Jay W. Richards (P)2020 HarperAudio

very informational

good explanation of what a ketogenic diet is. I like the Christian explanation for the reasoning for fasting

Excellent

Best book I have read on food consumption ever… I will reread and follow the principles there in. God bless you, Jay Richards and thank you for a clear reading Derek Shetterly.

Great spiritual, and health reading

The author does his namesake “Richard‘s“ justice. This book is the only good health recommendation for the body, but also for the soul. Did I mention it was a great education as well.

I learned a lot

Narration was easy to listen to. I learned about fasting and my faith. I would recommend this book to any Christian.

Keto + Fasting + Prayer = Healthy

The timing of this book is great, as intermittent fasting has become all the rage on the trendy diet scene and many continue to succeed to loose and maintain healthy body weights with a low carb, lifestyle (fashionably called the Keto diet = what Dr. Atkins *actually* prescribed in his book 20 years ago, but few actually read the book).

Jay makes his well organized case for both the Keto diet and intermittent fasting based on solid scientific and historic information, Jay adds his personal story and real experiences along his journey to keep things genuine and interesting. There are 2 really important observations that Jay makes: 1) A well formed and scientific case for combining the Keto diet with intermittent fasting, and 2) The spiritual/prayer dimension of fasting.

Jay points out how Keto and intermittent fasting compliment each other by making fasting safe and effective when you body is trained to do so, This was key for me because I tried calorie restricted fasting diet plan several years ago which resulted in me feeling sick and actually gaining weight! I had written off fasting as a bad Idea, but Jay persuaded me to try the Keto + fasting and it's working great - 7lbs in my first 10 days of Keto and my first 1/23 fast on Ash Wednesday. I'm not claiming total victory here as I have a long way to go, but this is clearly very different from my last fasting experience.

Then, Jay brings prayer into it! I know.., Why did he have to go and do that? :-) Honestly, I sort of had that feeling and I go the church every Sunday + teach religious Ed to 9th & 10th graders. However, the spiritual element turns out to be key in implementing this approach and achieving real benefits. The key spiritual hack I applied for fasting is to say a quick prayer (I'm guessing that brief meditation might work if that's your jam) whenever little pangs of hunger begin to surface. It works great for me! I also aligned my adoption of the principles with lent 2020 calendar, preparing my body with a 25 carb Keto diet the week before lent (I am already am carb conscious, so you may need more time than that to enter Ketosis) and using the 1:23 fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays during lent. YES, I know lent just started, but Ash Wednesday went really well and for the first time I'm actually optimistic I can do this.

So, I'm not much of a book reviewer - you probably figure that out by now. However, this is a great book for me and I wanted to share my early experience in applying the principles. Jay's sincerity and passion come from his personal success with Keto, fasting and prayer.

Thank you Jay for writing this book!

** Update ** Week 3 of Lent. Still on track with 1:23 fasts on Wednesdays and Friday. So far I have lost 12.5 pounds.

It Works!

I have already lost 52lbs through intermittent fasting at age 54 when all other diets had failed and this book has reinforced my resolve. Solid information on IF and although I have read the same things in other books Jay's way of explaining it is superb and easy to listen to. This book also covers many facets of fasting overlooked by all other books I have read and that is the "Feeding your Soul". I actually ordered the hardcover book to have for my collection and will read and listen again. A great reminder that God cares about our total health: body, soul, and spirit. Highly recommend!

Pretty good

I enjoyed this dive into fasting from a Christian POV. It was pretty heavy on promoting keto, which I wasn’t a huge fan of, but I was able to glean many principles of fasting that I can apply to my own fasting lifestyle.

Very interesting!

So much to absorb! Taking notes will help, he gives examples of foods to eat but would like a follow up book on actual recipes. Excited to start fasting😇. Thank you for writing this book!

Fasting and Praying made simple

This is an excellent short version of the Obesity Code. What makes this so great is the fact that it also includes praying to go along with your fasting which for me is a big plus. I’ve always wondered how to fast and pray & the effects that it has in the body. This book lays it out for you in such a way that even a novice can understand. I highly recommend following his steps for achieving a rich prayer life while fasting. A real game changer.

Great book

Regardless of if you are Christian or not this is a very helpful book to increase all aspects of health.
Thank you!