Do a Five Day Fast in 72 Hours -Roger Mason

Fasting is the most powerful healing method known to man. Nothing is more effective to cure you than a water fast. Hopefully, everyone who reads this newsletter is fasting one day a week, from dinner to dinner, on a given day. You simply skip breakfast and lunch on any chosen day and just drink water for 24 hours. If you are only eating two meals a

day you'll only skip one meal. This will improve your health and lengthen your life, as well as give you more time and save money. You'll eat fewer calories every week, and lose weight as well. Pretty soon you'll actually look forward to fasting one day a week. It also strengthens you mentally, emotionally and spiritually. In Herman Hesse's book Siddhartha (on the life of the Buddha as a young man), one of his three secrets was the ability to fast.  
 
Some of you join us every month for the two day Young Again International Fast (please see Will You Fast With Me? in our free library for a schedule.) Two days may sound like a long time, but you can work up to it. After you get used to a 24 hour fast, go for 30 hours, 36 hours, and finally two days will be easy. This will become a natural part of your lifestyle. For one week fasts go to a natural health center. 
 
The idea of long fasts quite honestly just doesn't appeal to a lot of people. Your author fasts almost two months every year (40 one day fasts, 12 two day fasts, and two four day fasts). How can you do a five day fast in 72 hours? Just do your two day fast at home and go to a nice hotel for three days. You can do this over a weekend and only take one day off work for personal time. Once you get out of your house and go to your hotel, you won't be near a refrigerator or pantry. You will know you're committed to this fast. Even if you walk by fast food restaurants and grocery stores, you really won't be tempted to eat. Every year I drive down to Myrtle Beach, SC and stay at the only four star hotel, at cheap off season rates, and finish my fast. It's a great time to read books you haven't read, catch up on work you haven't done, relax, take long walks, work out, write letters, meditate, or do whatever it is you want to do.  
 
My first long fast entailed a flight to Ft. Lauderdale, $1,400 for one week at a health spa, a second rate room at $200 a day, no meals of course, no real support for the fast, and no one else was fasting! All the other people were eating salads and going to the swimming pool. This didn't seem like a very good deal. It became obvious that going to a nice hotel closer to home with off season rates would be a much better bargain- and it is.  
 
What's it like to go for 5-7 days without food? After two days you're really not hungry. Some people do get headaches, some do feel sick, and some actually go thru a health crisis, because their bodies are full of toxins built up over the years. The more side effects you have, the more health problems you have. You may think about food, but, surprisingly, you're just not hungry. Seriously, you're just not hungry after two days. You'll lose a lot of weight temporarily. I lose 7 pounds on the five day fast and 11 pounds on the one week fasts. Most of this comes back in two weeks however. Your mind can become very clear, and you'll have insight into things you didn't have before. This can be very meditational. After the fast, you just won't feel such strong desires for junk food, alcohol, coffee, nicotine, or recreational drugs. The bottom line is that it's just not a big deal to go without food for a week. That's right; it just isn't a big deal at all. At the end you're happy to enjoy a simple bowl of good hot soup to break the fast. Mine always end with hot, savory soups. No, you won't want prime rib or bacon cheese-burgers. We're just too emotionally attached to eating to fill that void in our lives with food, so we see fasting as frightening and threatening.  
 
Americans eat twice the calories they need, twice the protein they need, 42% fat calories (instead of 10-20%), and 160 pounds of various sugars they don't need at all. We are overfed and undernourished, and have the highest disease rates in the world overall.  
 
What could be more important than your health and welfare? Instead of wasting money on a third rate health insurance policy, please consider a five day fast. Just fast two days at home and go to a nice hotel for the weekend and take one day off work. Fasting is the most powerful healing method known to man. Nearly every American over the age of 50 has some serious health condition. Diet, proven supplements, natural hormones, exercise, no prescription drugs, limited or not bad habits, and fasting are what natural health is really about. Fasting will change your life.