Many people are intimidated by the very word "Fast". The most common comments I get are "Do you mean I can't eat anything for the whole day?", "Is this a bread and water fast?", "I can't fast because I need to take medicines and I have to eat to take them."
Firstly I would like to point out that a fast can take many formats. The most obvious one is of course fasting from food, or taking only bread and water instead of your meal for that day, but this is only one form of fast, and not necessarily the most effective for you personally. It may well be that you cannot give up food for one day, I can't. But there are a whole lot of other things you can give up.
Tea, Coffee, Cigarettes, Television, Video or Computer Games, Coca Cola, any form of caffeine, many of the things which we do every day without even thinking, and which we have become so addicted to that we don't even realise we are doing them half the time. How about golf (That would really be a penance for some people). The point really is this, for some people giving up their cups of tea or coffee for a day would be more of a sacrifice for them, than going on a bread and water fast for a whole week might be for someone else.
The important thing is to do what you can do. Don't try something too hard, and then be disillusioned if you fail, try something you know to be within your capacity, and if you think that is too easy for you after a while, add to it, or try something else.
