August 29, 2023 // Diocese

Catholic Coach Extolls Spiritual, Physical Benefits of Fasting

Lisa Kochanowski

Assistant Editor/Reporter

St. Augustine said: “Fasting purifies the soul. It lifts up the mind, and it brings the body into subjection to the spirit. It makes the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of desire, puts out the flames of lust, and enkindles the true light of chastity.”

Reaching these depths of enlightenment requires physical and spiritual guidance – opportunities available with Beth Bubik, known as the Catholic Fasting Coach. She is the founder and CEO of this unique and fast-growing Catholic business that helps people lose weight and deepen their relationship with God through the Blessed Mother by teaching people how to spiritually fast. In her 12-week program, The Delay and Pray Group Coaching Experience, participants learn to delay food, or certain foods, for a period of time with a spiritual purpose. Bubik and her team are on a mission to bring one million Catholics back to the Catholic faith through spiritual fasting.

“The Blessed Mother is always pointing us to Jesus, and Jesus has a mission for me,” said Bubik, who has worked with devout Catholics and fallen away Catholics looking for a way to deepen their faith. “So many Catholic women want to lose weight and also want to spiritually fast, but they never thought of combining the two. This is the way that works.”

Provided by Beth Bubik
Beth Bubik, known as the Catholic Fasting Coach, is the founder and CEO of a unique and fast-growing business that helps people lose weight and deepen their relationship with God through the Blessed Mother by teaching people how to spiritually fast. In her 12-week signature program, The Delay and Pray Group Coaching Experience, participants learn to delay food, or certain foods, for a period of time with a spiritual purpose.

Bubik said the difference between dieting (obsessing with the exterior self) and spiritual fasting is the focus on interior self-improvement, transformation, and closeness with God as the exterior changes with time. This is all done by utilizing our agency under the power of the Holy Spirit. The program focuses on delaying sugar, flour, and alcohol until Sundays while offering up the fast as a sacrifice for the intention of others and loving ourselves as God loves us while eating on an “eat, fast, feast cycle” every week. The key is Catholic coaching and becoming metabolically flexible over time.

“My clients find out it’s Catholic coaching, and they are intrigued,” Bubik said. “Catholic coaching is still quite new and is the key to delaying what we desire, paired with sacramental attendance. It is challenging, and guidance is needed, but when they start listening to the podcast and reading the blogs and start realizing that there is a way with God, they sign up and get started. With God’s help, we can do anything. It’s really about getting away from self-reliance, asking God into the struggle, and offering up your discomfort for others. It’s also about getting away from the diet mentality of being centered on just me and my bodily appearance. Instead, it’s a transformation of inviting the Lord into the weight struggle and literally embracing it as a weakness that the Lord can transform from the inside out. Scripture tells us that we are strong in our weaknesses because this is where we must rely on God. This is where He can show His power,” Bubik said. “Not only do my clients lose weight and deepen their faith through the sacraments, but they start to learn to redirect their thoughts outward toward helping others.”

Within the program, Bubik teaches clients that high consumption of processed food, sugar, and white flour drives insulin levels up, causing hormone imbalance that leaves us experiencing a heightened desire for food and leads to overeating. This process is biological, neurological, and theological, affecting both body and soul.

“Why soul? Because sugar and flour drive gluttony and sloth, making it hard to physically or spiritually fast when stuck in this cycle of vice,” Bubik said.

Grace through the sacraments is imperative to finding success in the program, Bubik said.

“I encourage one or two daily Masses a week, weekly adoration, and monthly confession to start. Every year, we add a daily Mass along with 30 minutes of prayer every morning and night. I teach them about the body-soul composite and how our body and soul are integrated at every level. God wants us to be healthy in both body and soul. This is the way we can live out His mission with strength and endurance to finish the race.”

Bubik said she has come to realize that weight struggles are “a gift from God.” She added: “We can use all the suffering with weight loss to grow closer to God, grow in virtue, and help others. This is about permanent weight loss through spiritual fasting, offering up this heart-wrenching struggle to God. … This is about thought-work, which is where Catholic coaching comes in. I teach my clients about setting two goals that are basically the inspiration and motivation, or the ‘why that makes you cry.’ This is ultra-important to remember, because these goals will drive your desire to stay committed while you are going through this suffering in the first place,” said Bubik. “The first goal is a weight goal, while the second is a spiritual goal usually involving praying children or husbands back to Mass, unity in families, interceding for an immoral culture, and so much more. The goal of the course is to give Catholics inspiration to set impossible goals that seem impossible at first but when dreamed with God can be realized through grace from the sacraments and lots of hard work. Praying and fasting do indeed cast out demons. And this can be done in your own life, the life of our families, the Church, and the nation.”

As a practicing Catholic, Bubik said she has been elated at creating a business that allows her to build the Catholic economy with an ethical business for the people.

Bubik has a podcast called “Delay and Pray” and was a 2022 finalist in the Our Sunday Visitor Innovation Challenge, where she finished 11 out of 1,300 entries. Bubik has been featured on Danielle Bean’s “Girlfriends Podcast,” Lisa Canning’s “Possibility Mom Show, The Catholic CEO,” and on Matt and Erin Ingold’s “The Catholic Coaching Podcast,” and many others.

“We have an event coming up in September called ‘Hungry for God.’ It is a virtual dinner party with guests who are experts at fasting and reaching for their dreams amongst struggles. I want people to dream with God again and to recognize that their weaknesses can work for them and not against them. I want them to get excited about being Catholic. We’re in a very difficult time right now in our Catholic Church. We’re in a difficult time in our nation, and in our economy, and I want people to not lose hope and get discouraged but to get excited about following the wishes of the Blessed Mother, who is always asking us to fast. We actually change the world for the better if we fast. There are other saints to follow, too, like Esther and Joan of Arc. We were born for a time like this, and we can learn to spiritually fast together as a community. I can teach you how to do that. Then we can go out into the world, and we can stand up for our faith in small but mighty ways,” Bubik said.

Bubik is writing a book that she hopes will be released this November. She will also continue growing her outreach efforts with events and church workshops as well as developing an app to stay connected to a wider audience.

To learn more about Bubik’s Catholic fasting program, visit thecatholicfastingcoach.com, listen to the podcast “Delay and Pray,” or visit @thecatholicfastingcoach on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.