Re: Difficulty fasting
Sure, you are not alone, we all have gone through this. If you feel that you cannot go beyond one day of fasting, then be intuned with yourself and see what are probable reasons. If your body tells you to quit and you do, that is fine. It is best to fast when you are ready. If food is a replacement for other emotions then you need to work on that. You can find some of my old posts for that.
Meanwhile, you can try juicing. If that does not help, then just eat raw organic plant based food. If you eat raw food for a month you will be able to fast easily.
Motivation......
You are lucky to already have two factors of motivation. One is intrinsic and another extrinsic. When you say I want to fast for healing and cleansing, that is intrinsic. When you say it makes me feel good then it is extrinsic.
I remember in my early fasts when strangers would ask me about my skin after my fast, it really helped my reward center, it stayed with me, because I knew that my skin looked great because of fasting. Same way if some one mentioned about my weight loss, I would be thrilled. So write down how you feel in detail and look at it daily. You may write, my knees felt great after the fast. Or Aunt Sue really gave me a good comment about my skin, etc.
I can tell you that you have chosen a great path for healing your body and mind, whiich is fasting vs. choosing meds. You also have good goals of healing, cleansing and eating right and quitting smoking.
Lastly, light exercise also helps you being motivated.
Archus