Master Cleanse: The End

Ok, since I'm being honest, here's how it ended: On Day 7, around 3 pm, I cracked. I was so bored and hungry at work, so I started eating Kashi. Yeah, great way to break the detox! You're supposed to go easy on your stomach and just have soup.

But my stomach loved the solid food-it was making a lot of noise, but I didn't throw up or feel ill. My heart started beating really fast though! I had tons of energy.

It was funny eating the cereal. It tasted so amazing and I never wanted to stop.

Anyway, 7 days of not eating is quite enough for me! I'm back on solid food now, and doing totally fine. Although, I'm eating less than normal, because my stomach is smaller. I also think my metabolism might have increased, because I'm hungry all the time.

Here's what I've eaten since breaking the detox; this is Friday night and all of Saturday

-Beer
-FINally had the latte I'd been craving
-Cucumbers with fat-free ranch dressing
-A small bowl of cooked Spinach, tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese and cayenne pepper
-Half a plain bagel with plain cream cheese
-A handful of peanut M&Ms, heheh
-Snacked on rice/soy crackers and a few slices of fat-free American cheese (yeah, I know, it's bad for me-whatever).

Master Cleanse Day 7: The End is Near

It's -15 Fahrenheit with the wind chill here. Dreadful weather. I am having regular juice today, along with the Spicy Lemonade. I'd really like to try some soup, too, but I'm afraid of how my stomach will respond.

Last night, I tried to have a few sips of wine, which resulted in shooting stomach pain. Having a beer or a latte or even going back to regular food is not going to be as easy as I imagined!

I feel detoxed. My tongue is pink. I'm still, uh, using the bathroom twice a day, but I'm soooooo ready to be done. I can't imagine doing this for longer than 8 days, unless I was desperate to lose weight.

Master Cleanse Day 6: Almost Done!

I'm really looking forward to eating again. I really don't have energy on this detox yet-although people say that's what happens.

Anyway, after I start drinking Naked juice and probably V8, I'll incorporate some vegetables and eat only those for several days. That way, I'm still detoxing, only with substance (I've done detoxes with only vegetables/cabbage soup and/or naked juice).

I need to continue detoxing because the salt water flush and Poop Tea still cause me to run to the bathroom. I must've had a lot of icky stuff in my body.

However, I am going to drink a latte and a beer, probably on Saturday!

Still at 123 pounds.

Master Cleanse Day 5: Crabby and Stressed

Yes, I am totally in an irritable mood and I'm stressed, and I can't do anything I would normally do to alleviate it-like go home and have a beer or rrrrrrrrrrrrrr, chew something!

Ok, I confess, I am gnawing on a piece of sugarless gum right now. I haven't had any since Friday.

I don't know if this is from the detox or if it's because I really need to go on a long hard run. Running relives my stress and anxiety, which I why I love it so much. I mean, things are a little stressful in my life right now . . . (I'll possible write more on that later).

A Face to the Blog

Thought I'd post some pictures of myself-that always helps when you're reading a blog (I think so, at least). These are all fairly recent pictures (well, the swinging one is from Sept 05). I'm the third one from the left in the Halloween Picture (I was Fraulein Sally Bowles, from Cabaret). I'm posing with my lately-MIA roommates.

Master Cleanse Day 5: Length of Detox in Question

I read some support forums regarding the Master Cleanse and now I'm conflicted about ending on Day 8. Many people said that's when the benefits start kicking in: mental clarity, energy, more weight loss.

What I might do, since I'm dying for some variety, is gradually switch to Naked Juice and V8 on Friday night and Saturday and continue with the juice for a couple days. I'll try eating on Saturday night-maybe a very small amount of tomato sauce and spinach and then continue with juice and vegetables for a couple more days. I'm not going to run out and binge on pizza, french fries and beer.

By the way, I'm at 123 pounds as of this morning. I started the diet at 127 pounds (overeating from the holidays). From what I understand, the first four pounds is weight that was all the nasty stuff in your body-not fat. Then, your weight fluctuates as you continue the detox, which is true. I weighed 125 pounds last night.

Also, with the combination of salt water (bleh!), herbal tea (I've been drinking at least 6 cups of green tea, chamomile, mint, and Good Earth), poop tea, regular water and 64 ounces of the Spicy Lemonade, my liquid intake must be around 180 ounces a day-about one and half gallons. Crazy.

Master Cleanse Night 4 (Cont.): The Tip of the Tongue

So, the stuff on my tongue-I found an interesting tidbit about that here:

http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=770&i=51



To the left is a diagram of the portions of your tongue that reflect each organ. I'm not sure I buy it, but it is interesting.




MORE INFORMATION FROM THE SAME SITE:
Fasting slows down the metabolism, this is a fact of life and the body was created to do this. This is one of the reasons that any kind of fast is not the best way to lose weight over a long period of time.

However, fasting does cleanse the system allowing it to function better and assimilate more nutrients from less food. It just isn't a diet, its a tool to make a correct diet more efficient.

When you fast it gives your digestive system a break and the body will try to repair itself and use the extra energy to do what it needs to do the most first.

http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=806004#i

Master Cleanse Night 4: Ups and Downs

Tuesday (Jan 9)

I want to eat! No, I don't. Yes, I do, I really do. Here's my four-day experience in one-word summaries so far:

Day One: Hungover
Day Two: Fine
Day Three: Sick
Day Four: Dizzy

I worked out today, but not nearly as hard as I would if I were eating. All of my roommates are still gone and it sucks! I'm home alone and lonely.

My tongue is covered with a whitish-yellow coating and my throat is full of mucus (delicious, I know, but I'm being honest.) I read that when your tongue goes back to its normal color, you're done detoxing.

Please turn pink, tongue! Turn pink soon! Because I'm starting Naked Juice on Friday-I need some variety in my diet or I'm going to go crazy with boredom.

Master Cleanse Day 4: Arghghgh

I knew it'd be hard at work, sitting at a desk all day, with nothing to do but work at my computer! If I had to be on the phone, it might be different. But I don't.

The peanut M&Ms in the free candy machine looked so tantalizing. And I can hear people eating around me! I want to yelp at them, "stop eating!" Forget what I said yesterday-I'm having these massive desires to chew something solid.

And I have a box of Kashi in my cabinet that I would really love to munch on right now.

5.75 hours until I can go home. All of my roommates are gone (which kinda sucks!) but there are lots of active things I do at home that don't make me want food (exercise, watch movies, play on the Internet, play piano, read something interesting). When I'm sitting at my desk at the office, I want food!

I'm not running to the bathroom at least. But I am a little lightheaded . . .

Master Cleanse Day 4: Sigh.

I feel much better today than I did all day yesterday. So that's a relief.
My friend Joy, who was going to to the detox, quit on the morning of the first day. I guess it's not for everyone.

Ok, weight check: Between 122 and 123 pounds.

I've been meaning to buy measuring tape, to measure my waistline and everything, but it is cold here and it takes a lot for me to go outside!

Work is going to be exceedingly difficult without some meals and/or snacks to break up the day. Sigh. Food has some serious entertainment value, huh?

Master Cleanse Day 3 (cont.): I'll Tell You What I Want

A latte. What I really want is a double-shot espresso skim latte from Dunn Brothers or Caribou. Although I shudder to think what would happen to my stomach were I to drink it.

Other food/drink items I've been craving (although, the cravings aren't too bad. The hunger is, the cravings, not so much):

Naked Juice, those thick, delicious, all-natural juice/smoothies that come in all sorts of mouth-watering flavors, like mango, blueberry, strawberry. I will probably break my fast with Naked Juice on Friday night or Saturday morning.

The meal I eat about once a day: It's kind of a soup with tomato sauce, tomatoes, onions, broccoli, spinach, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, Parmesan cheese, cayenne pepper and chili powder. I want that.

Any kind of soup would be good right now. For some reason, I'm not craving solid food. And I'm not craving the kind of food I crave when I'm eating my regular meals.

Usually, I crave cheddar chex mix but I haven't thought about that at all. I also haven't craved alcohol.
Sometimes I crave chocolate, but I can't imagine eating that now. I also crave cookies regularly, but I haven't thought about those either. Mussels would be good though.

I crave french fries and pizza, too, but not on this detox. It's weird. Not chewing anything must do something to your head that makes you not want solid food.

I'm still feeling nauseous as the demons leave my body. How is it possible to go to the bathroom this much?

I did a weight check again, at 5 pm: 123 pounds. So, this morning it was 124 pounds and yesterday morning it was 127 pounds.

But remember, this is only water weight. On the other hand, at least my stomach is shrinking.

Master Cleanse Day 3: Gut Rumbles, Water Weight Loss and Spicy Lemonade Cravings

Monday (Jan 8th)

This morning was pretty similar to last night. I woke with a headache, drank the salt water and the tea and hung out in the bathroom for a little bit.

I emailed my office to say I wouldn't be there today, which is for the best. I'm still nauseous every couple hours, so I'd rather be at home.

I think this might be the worst of it. Tomorrow should be much better.

Apparently, this detox makes everything in your body run, because my nose hasn't stopped running since I started it.

Ok, now for the weight loss report. I weighed myself at the same time and with no clothes.

And be aware, this is all water weight. Although my stomach is very flat right now . . .

Sunday morning: 127 pounds
Monday morning: 124 pounds

Your weight tends to fluctuate a few pounds every day anyway. We'll see what happens . . .

I am absolutely loving the Spicy Lemonade. It's so delicious! I'm craving it. But, I've also been craving some other things . . . I'll cover those in my next blog entry

Master Cleanse Night 2: I Suffer Sharp Hunger Pangs/Pains and Nausea as Toxins Leave My Body and I Convince Someone Else to Try the Detox

My friend Joy is going to do the detox too! We mixed the juice, drank the Poop Tea (she found a delicious chocolate-flavored version of the tea) and watched Desperate Housewives. I'm so sick of Mike and Susan.

Also, my sis, Arwen, started a blog, about mindful eating (as opposed to mindless eating): http://thesecretconfessionsofafoodaddict.blogspot.com/

I'll be honest, tonight's been rough. This morning I was worried because the salt water and Poop Tea didn't seem to be doing what they were supposed to. My entire system was coming to a halt!

Fast forward 10 hours later-uh, something's definitely happening. I have awful nausea that is usually followed by some quality time in the bathroom. And sharp hunger pangs-or is it pains? Eh, it's both.

Fast forward five minutes later: all that stuff you read about this diet sending you to the bathroom-yeah, it's true. Wow. That explains the awful nausea-it was all those nasty toxins leaving my body.

Oh, I feel so cleansed. So fresh and clean. Clean.

Anyway . . . I don't know if this nausea will continue, but I might not make it to work tomorrow . . . resting for a day sounds good.

Also, I've had a few cups of Chamomile tea-I wonder if that's ok.

Master Cleanse Day 2 (cont.):

I think I'm going to work out, at least lightly. I need to move around and sweat. Also, I had another cup of Poop Tea-it's actually pretty good. And painted my nails black.

A friend sent me a link to another blogger who started the Master Cleanse but ended at Day 2. http://www.breakingthetape.com/runnersusan/

Reading her blog, or rather, the comments on her blog, was discouraging. People kept saying how crazy it sounded and why not just eat healthy and drink more water instead, and the Master Cleanse has been debunked many times anyway, etc.

I did a Google search and didn't find anything 'debunking' the Master Cleanse. Because there's nothing to debunk, really. It's not claiming to cure cancer or anything. It's just a simple detox.

The point is to take a break from food for awhile, to give your body a rest from constantly digesting solids all the time. Fasting is very common, although many Americans are so addicted to food that they think extreme hunger pains are detrimental to their health or something.

My goals with this detox are to take a break from food so I don't spend so much time, energy and money on eating, thinking about what I will eat and preparing what I will eat.

I was feeling addicted to food and I'm hoping this will help me get over it. Also, I wanted to stop taking benedryl at night and quit drinking as much. And, I figured shrinking my stomach a little but can't hurt.

I really could care less about detoxing caffeine. I don't think caffeine is an evil drug; I rather like drinking it and I will probably continue to drink green tea during this detox.

I'm more concerned about detoxing from alcohol, processed and unhealthy foods, random OTC drugs and the occasional cigarette.

Master Cleanse Day 2: Salt Water Woes

Sunday morning (Jan 7th)

I wasn't sure I'd be able to sleep last night, because I've been taking benedryl for sleeping for a loooooong time (I'm a dreadful sleeper), so I'm probably addicted to it. Another reason I'm detoxing.

But I fell asleep around 1 am and woke around 8:30. No waking in the middle of the night and staying that way for hours (I did wake once but fell back asleep right away).

It was sound, restful sleep. But I have a headache this morning! Whatever-I didn't drink anything, so what's with that?

Now I'm drinking this salt water solution: it's 32 ounces of lukewarm water with two level teaspoons of uniodized sea salt (whatever, I used Kosher salt). You are supposed to drink the entire amount. The purpose of this is to, well, here's the info from

http://www.falconblanco.com/health/cleansing/lemoncleanse.htm:
"This oral enema will flush out your entire digestive tract and colon from top to bottom, usually within an hour, prompting you to eliminate several times, clearing out the plaque and debris from the walls, and the parasites that have been living there."

The problem is, I can't drink this! It's disgusting. Salty water, yuck! I'm to the 24 ounce mark on my Nalgene right now. I wince with every swallow.

Oh-but my headache is gone. Must've been a groggy sleep headache. And I managed to finish the water, but just barely.