Each time you fast, even if it is only one day, you allow your body to go through a partial detox, and each time it becomes easier and more comfortable than the last time.  The body learns how to fast.  Each time you fast it, your body slips into a cleansing mode more quickly, and each time you fast you lighten the load of stored toxins.  Perhaps you have already eliminated the caffeine your body had stored, which frequently causes severe headaches on withdrawal, not to mention fatigue.  It certainly helps to have this behind you before you go on to the elimination of other irritating substances.  Many people have gone through alcohol or tobacco withdrawal, and understand that it is very unpleasant, and also that it must be done in the pursuit of health.  Why not withdraw from the rest of the irritating and debilitating substances we take into our system on an ongoing basis, and why not grit your way through the eliminative process, withdraw, from food addictions such as sugar or salt, and from foods that you may be allergic to like wheat, dairy products or eggs.

It is very wise to invest in your own insurance plan by systematically detoxifying while you are still healthy.  Plan it into your life, when it is convenient, such as once a week on Sunday, or even once a month on a quiet day.  Take a few days of vacation, go to a warm, beautiful place and devote part or all of it to cleansing.  Treat yourself by taking an annual trip to Hawaii, fasting at a hotel on the beach—­do whatever it takes to motivate yourself.  And consider this:  vacations are enormously cheaper when you stay out of restaurants.

If you have accustomed your body to 24 hour fasts, then you can work on 48 hour fasts, and over time work up to 72 hour fasts, all on a continuum.  You may find it becoming increasingly comfortable, perhaps even pleasant, something you look forward to.  Fasting a relatively detoxified body feels good, and people eventually really get into the clean, light, clear headed, perhaps spiritually aware state that goes along with it.

By contrast, fasting when you are sick is much more difficult because your vitality or vital force is very low, you already have no energy, and probably have unpleasant symptoms that must be dealt with at the same time.  There may be the added stress of being forced into a cleanse because you are too nauseous to eat.  Most people let their health go until they are forced into dealing with it; they are too busy living, so why bother.

The truth is that our body does age, and over time becomes less able to deal with insults; the accumulated effect of insults and aging eventually leads most of us to some serious degenerative illness.  Normally this begins happening around age 50 if not sooner.  Some of us that were gifted with good genes or what I call “a good start” may have reached the age of 60 or 75 or even 90 without serious illness, but those people are few and far between.  Why not tip the scales in your favor by preventing or staving off health problems with systematic detoxification at your own convenience.