Can losing weight bring you closer to God?
In this episode of The Catholic Talk Show, Ryan Scheel chats with Fr. Sam Medley, SOLT about his incredible journey losing 100 pounds in just 11 months—and how he combined faith and fitness to do it.
Here are three powerful lessons Fr. Sam learned that changed his life!
1. Physical health impacts your spiritual health.
Prioritizing his physical health became a way of serving his vocation more fully. Fr. Sam shares that a fellow priest believes he “added 30 years onto your life, not only caring for your priesthood, but indirectly caring for souls by taking care of your own health.” By aligning his body and spirit, he discovered a new capacity to serve God and others.
2. Virtue is built on consistency
Losing weight wasn’t just about dieting for Fr. Sam—it was about cultivating virtue through repeated acts of self-discipline. “Repeated decision-making is a virtue, and repeated poor decision-making is a vice,” he explains. Whether it’s choosing healthier meals, taking daily walks or committing to prayer, every small act of virtue leads to long-term results.
3. Fasting restores your body and soul.
Fasting reshapes both our physical and spiritual appetites, opening space for God to fill us with His Grace. “Fasting is going through a tunnel of discomfort so that you can have self-control. It is denying your will to a good for the sake of a higher good,” Fr. Sam says. By embracing fasting with balance—allowing himself to enjoy simple, nutritious meals on feast days—he discovered how this traditional Catholic practice restores body and soul by reorienting desires.
The guys say that health and holiness begins with ordinary, consistent choices rooted in virtue!
Watch this incredible episode and learn more about how you can do it too in 2025 👇
“Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – Saint Francis of Assisi 🙏
Credit: George Ryan via ChurchPOP
