So as I wrote before, I completed a week of Re-Cleanse last week as a lead up to the Master Cleanse. I ended up basically finishing the cleanse Friday night, because yesterday was a bit of a free for all… I still ate really scarcely in the morning and mid day, but we decided to hit the road for a day trip, so severe limitations were not on the agenda.

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.