I didn’t get off to a good start with it – having to spend most of day 1 in the hospital with my 3 year old really put me on edge, but today there was a last-straw kind of thing that just put me over the edge. I know some of you were super excited to see how this turned out for me. Sadly, it’s not going to this time around.

If you have an interest in doing the Master Cleanse I highly suggest you read any of the great books on the topic, prepare yourself and go for it. It is not easy. They say day 3 is the worst… guess that’s true.

Sorry to disappoint…

Day 1 on the Lemonade Diet

Yesterday was Day 1 on the Master Cleanse and things went quite smoothly… the salt water flush worked very effectively and quickly. I started drinking the litre of salt water at 6am on the nose, finished it about 6:20 (I’m aiming for quicker – hoping to get it down within 10 minutes in future), it kicked in about 6:35 and it was all over by about 6:55. A lovely one hour process.

I have to say it was not pleasant, but there was nothing uncomfortable about it.

At 7am I had my first glass of the lemonade. It’s made with 2tbsp of fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 1 organic lemon), 2tbsp of organic grade 3 dark maple syrup, 1/8th tsp cayenne pepper and 80z of water. It doesn’t taste like lemonade… in fact I found it worse tasting than a bottle of salt water. It’s okay, though, I’m sure within days I’ll be craving it.

Some time that morning I developed a splitting headache. It may be from caffeine withdrawal, but it seems to be related to tension in my shoulders. I can’t seem to relax… that might be a result of being pretty cold for the last week or so. I’m usually cold, but when I cleanse I’m FREEZING. So I think being cold has caused me to hunch my shoulders thereby causing the headache.

Anyway… I went on about my day: took mini-man to daycare, came back had a 2nd glass of lemonade at 9am, went to drop my car off for servicing, and came home and decided to lay down for a nap – it was about 10:15am. My phone rang about 10:35 and I ignored it, but then it rang two more times in succession and I knew something was up. It was the daycare – mini-man had fallen and split his head open on the floor.

We gathered up his factor (he’s a hemophiliac and we happened to have some at home that we had been given to take to Mexico when we went in January), grabbed him from the daycare and headed to Children’s Hospital. Over five hours, 2000 units of factor, 2 popsicles, loads of stickers and snacks and 3 staples in his head later we were on our way. Unfortunately for me I didn’t get a chance to make any lemonade to go, so I went from 9am to 5pm with nothing but water. I was most definitely not feeling well when I arrived home.

So when we got home I immediately mixed up two drinks and drank them as fast as I could. I then mixed up another two about 6pm knowing I needed to drink at least 6 of them in a day. The second mixture I didn’t finish until about 8pm. In that time, the cayenne pepper had a chance to steep a little and despite my not enjoying spicy foods, I think I enjoy the maple syrup less. The more peppery flavour seemed to mask the syrup a little, so it is actually more palateble hotter. Ideally, though, you drink it within 10 minutes of making it because the lemon enzymes are still alive.

Day 2 – so much to learn

Well I had been tired last night, but when I got up this morning things went downhill. I woke up feeling dehydrated. I obviously didn’t drink enough yesterday – I had 6 cups of lemonade and 4 bottles of water.

This morning, I thought I would use that thirst to help me get the salt water down. I worried that if I pounded a bottle of water I might be too full to get the flush down, besides, I can’t help but think if you drink more water with it it will ruin the effects. The point is you’re supposed to have the water saltier than your body so it can’t be absorbed. If it’s not salty enough, it’s like soup and you’ll just absorb it. I REALLY didn’t want to consider absorbing a litre of salt water, so I opted to just drink it when I was already thirsty. Wow.

Let’s just say things went slower this morning. The flushing began before I even touched the salt water, and then I couldn’t finish the whole thing. I left about 2-3 oz in the bottom of the bottle but felt sufficiently cleaned out. I kept laying down waiting for more movement. In that time I was getting more and more tired.

I really should have watched the clock to make sure I had a lemonade one hour after the flush.

Instead I ended up snoozing all morning in a narcoleptic-like state, completely unable to respond – so tired. As if I had a flu, I could not open my eyes for anything. I finally dragged myself up just before 9am and guzzled a lemonade and a bottle of water.

I felt instantly better.

I need to plan things really well for tomorrow morning because I’m back to work tomorrow.

I did indulge in a Grande Americano from Starbucks on the road and it was very enjoyable. I also attended a party last night and ate a bunch of appetizers and had a couple of Full Throttles with Tequila and man did my stomach hate me later that night. I felt like I might explode by the time I got home.

Lesson learned. I can’t eat junk food without feeling like… well, junk. Actually, I was okay with most of the food, but as soon as I added any sugar – I ate two pieces of fudge that we’d brought back from our visit to Hell’s Gate and a single small truffle – the nuclear reactions began.

The week of Re-Cleanse was a great success, though. I lost about 8 lbs and my skin is much clearer than it was at the beginning of the week. My sugar cravings are gone, I took only 3 sugar packets in my Americano yesterday as compared with the 5-6 I would have had before the cleanse and it tasted plenty sweet.

Master Cleanse Ease-In Day: Orange Juice

Today I am consuming only fresh squeezed orange juice to prepare for the Master Cleanse lemonade diet starting tomorrow. Most people would want to have 2-3 ease-in days to move from fruits & veggies only to veggie juice to fruit juice and then start, but because I did the week on Re-Cleanse I think that will suffice. You can just launch into the Master Cleanse without an ease-in if you want, but I can’t imagine it will be all that comfortable. I think it’s best to give your body the best fighting chance of success that you can.

So in total today I will consume the juice from 20 small navel oranges… maybe a few more. Each 10 oranges makes about 2 cups of juice. I’ve mixed 2 cups of juice with 500ml water and have just started my 2nd litre of this mixture at 3pm. I’ve also had one 500ml bottle of water that I downed first thing upon getting out of bed.

Also of note, I haven’t had a headache today from the missing caffeine

And, I actually just got my first hunger pang of the day, so that gives me hope I won’t starve on the Master Cleanse either. Other than orange juice today the only other thing I’ll consume is a cup of Senna Tea late this evening. That’s an herbal laxative in case you were wondering.

I’m really nervous about the salt water flush. Really. Nervous.

Each day I have to drink 1L of water with 2tsp-1tbsp of sea salt. That acts as a top-down enema. Yeah, good times. There’s a reason I booked tomorrow and Tuesday off work. I need to get my head wrapped around this. Apparently the salt water is roughly the same salinity (or higher) than your body and, thus, your body won’t absorb it. It will just go straight through. That’s the theory, anyway.

I won’t let you know how it goes. I mean, I will, but I won’t.

The Emotional Response

On the way home from shopping and church this afternoon I was thinking how much I’d like to eat a slice of cheesecake. It’s not that I’m craving it, because I actually can’t imagine the flavour of it right now. The Re-Cleanse does that to me – totally unaffected by food commercials and such. But it’s just that my body remembers something about how I feel when I sit down to enjoy my favourite treats – and cheesecake is most certainly one of those things.

In the same way I was mourning coffee last week, I sort of had a moment of mourning favourite foods. My first thought was, “I’ll just have a slice once I’m off the Master Cleanse and have eased back in to normal food.” Then I remembered how I felt last night after putting party food into a freshly cleansed body. Not so good.

I really hope this experience gets me to a place where food doesn’t have the same kind of associations it has had for me until now. But it’s strange, for now, the emotions that are cropping up about not indulging.

Photo: ms.Tea on Flickr

So I’ve embarked on a journey of sorts… a journey to improve my health and mindset.

I’ve been a fan of regular cleansing for some years now, but have only been inclined to do a very gentle one-week cleanse, during which you still get to eat food. I’ve never fasted more than 24 hours either, but I’ve decided to dive into the Master Cleanse.

The Master Cleanse, also known as the Lemon Cleanse and the Maple Syrup Diet, is a dieting program created by Stanley Burroughs in 1941 and made popular by Peter Glickman through his book Lose Weight, Have More Energy and Be Happier in 10 Days, which promotes Burroughs’ regimen to a modern audience. Burroughs states that it is a detoxification program that aids in the removal of harmful toxins from within the body, as well as a reducing diet for loss of weight, and a cure for ulcers and “every kind of disease,” resulting in “the correction of all disorders [wikipedia]

I’ve had stomach problems for years now and have never been able to get to the root of the problem, nor put a name to my symptoms and discomfort. So my own analysis? I’ve just done damage by years of poor nutrition.

I’ve decided to start the Master Cleanse on Monday, May 4th.

Leading up to that time, I’m doing the gentler Re-Cleanse for one week. On the Re-Cleanse regimen, I eat a very simple diet and, ultimately, the same thing every day. This isn’t necessary, but it makes it easier for many reasons:

1. I only have to cook twice during the week
2. It prepares my head for going days and days without eating anything at all
3. It reminds me how blessed I am to have a variety of foods to eat every day

So my meal plan on the Re-Cleanse program consists of the following:

• Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal with a few chopped up pecans and a chopped banana
• Snack: 1 apple
• Lunch: mixture of 1/2 cup brown rice, 1/2 cup lentils, veggies with a hard boiled egg
• Snack: cuccumber, tomato, pecans & a couple of prunes
• Dinner: same as lunch

I also have to drink a minimum 10 cups of water per day – but I’ve been averaging about 12-13 plus 2-4 cups of herbal tea.

Today is day 5.

So far, in 4 days I’ve lost about 5 lbs and my moods are very stable from the lack of sugar and the associated ups and downs. I love the feeling – it’s almost like being sedated, but with mental clarity. Last night I was really tired before dinner, though… but as soon as I ate dinner I perked back up.

It’s sort of shocking to realize the extent of the emotions we tie to food or drinks. The biggest one for me, so far, has been coffee. I’ve written before about my coffee addiction and this experience has brought to light just how much it has come to mean to me.

On the Re-Cleanse you can still have coffee, but only one cup a day and no sugar or cream… so black it is. But, because I’m starting the Master Cleanse next week and can’t consume any coffee at all during that time, I’ve decided to just wean myself this week so that I can (hopefully) avoid the awful caffeine withdrawal headaches. Yesterday I poured less than a full cup of coffee and it actually made me sad. It’s like I was mourning my coffee.

… now if only I can get so excited about downing a litre of salt water each morning, I’ll be all set.

This weekend will be a transition period – my Re-Cleanse ends Saturday and I am going to a party that evening and will end it beforehand so I can enjoy a little bit of food and drink. Sunday will be an ease-in day to the Master Cleanse – I’ll only be consuming orange juice while I try and get my head around a purely liquid diet for 2 weeks.

I’m excited to see how my body and mind cope with the Master Cleanse. I’ve planned to take Monday and Tuesday off work just to ease myself into this. While I am going to try and do 14 days, I won’t limit myself to that if it’s going well. Then again, I may not make it through day 1. We’ll have to see.

If you’re interested in trying this, you should pick up either Peter Glickman’s book Lose Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days or Tom Woloshyn’s book The Complete Master Cleanse: a step-by-step guide to maximizing the benefits of the Lemonade Diet (this is the one I have, only  because Glickman’s book wasn’t available at Indigo when I went).