I know many people were, lets just go with hesitant, about my taking part in the Master Cleanse. I appreciate the support even though you didn’t think I should be doing it.
I have to say, I really liked it. I did. I don’t know if what I wanted to have happen actually happened. I can’t see inside my body and check to see if my bits and pieces are all shinny. But, I feel good. I am happy to have done it and I am now ready for my next step, which will hopefully be the diet I am on for the rest of my life.

I started in on Tosca Reno’s The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged (already reading the Eat-Clean Diet) and I’m pretty pumped about the possibilities. I talked with Norm a bit about this this morning and I have talked with Jessica about it in the past, as a mom, you are “in control” of so many things… the kids, schedules, the house, but you actually _have_ control of just about nothing. Very often even when you make workouts a priority, something comes up that you can’t ignore (i.e. kids).
But what you put in your mouth, the food that you choose to eat, that is 100% in your control. I believe that. I can control that and no one else is to blame but myself. That is one of the things I like about Tosca’s book, she gives tip after tip on how to take control and keep it. And that is what I hope to do.

As far as numbers go, from the Master Cleanse, I can give you what my scale tells me. I don’t think it means much since more than likely it was water loss, but you can have it anyway. On Monday morning I was 129.8lbs, 21.2%BF, Tummy 31.8″, Bellybutton 30.4″ and Hips 37.5″.
This morning I was 126lbs, 21.4%BF, T 31.5″, BB 29.8″, H 37.5″.
(and Lorri, my BF scale is anywhere from 2-4% lower than my actual, or when I get dunked.)

More than hoping I can keep off the weight, I hope this cleanse, physically but also mentally, will give me a clean start. By that I mean, physically I hope my body has no cravings inside (for sweet type things) and no pre-formed habit that it must eat snacks in the afternoon, etc.
Mentally, I hope I realize what my body is capable of. After my dinner Sunday night, I ate nothing until 4:30pm on Thursday. I drank a lemonade concoction, and I felt good. Energetic, happy, capable. If nothing else, I hope what I just did shows myself, that I can… whatever it is… I can.

What am I doing now? I’m not so sure.
Last night wasn’t so great. We went to bed early but I had trouble falling asleep as my tummy was growling. Like full tiger growling. I didn’t “feel” hungry, but I sure heard my stomach asking for something and I could tell it was empty. Once I fell asleep I was fine and I didn’t wake up starving or anything like that.

I made the decision not to do the salt water flush anymore but I’m half considering doing it one more time or at least starting to drink the herbal laxative tea at night like they say. The first two days, immediately following the salt water I went to the bathroom numerous times, but each day, I didn’t go any more in the afternoon or evening.
Yesterday, I don’t think I went at all. I mean, I have to pee all the time, but… no waste is coming out.
Isn’t the purpose to clean out all the (literally) crap? Norm said, if, in fact it is like flushing out pipes, there is a finite amount of stuff that is in there. Theoretically, once it is cleaned out, if no more solid junk is going in it should be good.
So I’m wondering, am I good? Did I clean myself out? That is why I’m thinking of doing one more flush, just to check out what comes out. (gross I know)

As for right now I’m chugging along like usual. AJ woke up just after 6am so I started early.
Drink #1 at 6:15am.
Drink #2 at 7:30am.
Drink #3 at 9am.
Drink #4 at 10:05am.

Drink #5 at 11:10am. Food Food Food. That is all I can think about and that is why I made my drink and walked out of Ty and AJ sitting in the kitchen eating lunch. I was fine, felt fine, and then I started making the boys lunch. Standing in front of the refrigerator while Tyler is checking out “what me wants” I see the leftover homemade pizza, the cut up watermelon and clean grapes, even the pasta with homemade sauce looks good in there. Sauteed Veggies. String Cheese. Oh my gosh I want food.
After less than a minute in front of the refrigerator Ty decided he wanted “your noodle and vegetables from the cold one.” Which is my Yakisoba noodle bowl and I figured that was perfect because AJ likes that too.
But it smelled so good. Cutting it up and dishing it into their bowls….
I really don’t want to quit because I’m hungry in the middle of making food for the kids. It just seems, well, like the wrong reason. I said it the first day, making and being around food while trying to do something like this is self torture.

Sitting here at the computer, my stomach feels fine again. Not that I don’t want food if I start thinking about it, but I don’t feel like I need food anymore. Just have to stay out of the kitchen!

Drink #6 at 12:30. Ty was down for his nap and AJ and I were hanging in the family room and I’ve mostly decided I would be stopping today or tomorrow but I made my drink anyway.
Drink #7 at 2:10 just before going to pick up Jaxon.

Okay, its official, I’m tapering off. I was on the phone with Jessica chatting about this whole “thing” I’ve gotten myself into and basically decided that I was done. We talked about how the book describes for you to eat once you’ve finished. (which is pretty crazy actually because it calls for OJ for 2 days after and then on the 3rd day OJ in the morning followed by fruit and salad for lunch and dinner and THEN you are ready to eat again.)
Maybe its because I haven’t even been on it for a full 4 days, but I feel completely normal, like I could eat anything. Having said that, I’m not really sure if my insides feel that way, so I figure I’ll ease into it.
I went to get myself a cup of OJ, but instead found the leftover watermelon. I couldn’t help it. Its mostly water anyway right
At about 4:30, I ate the watermelon. YUM.

Now, I think I will have that cup of OJ and maybe a salad or something tonight and then start my clean eating tomorrow!

I didn’t do the Sea Salt Flush this morning because Marcus came for our workouts and I wanted my stomach to be on track.
I made drink #1 at 6:40am just before my workout.
I made drink #2 at 8:20 after my workout.

Its now 9:40 and I feel really good, not hungry at all, but I’m gonna go make another drink just to try and keep up and on schedule.
Drink #3 at 10am.

AJ didn’t go down for a morning nap like I thought so we decided to head out for a quick trip to the store. When I bought stuff for this I only got one jar of the maple syrup and on my last drink I finished it so if I wanted to keep going I needed more.
We just got home and I made drink #4 at 11:30 and when I am done with it I will put the boys down for a nap and hopefully I will take one too.

Boys went down and then I did and got a nap from 12:20 until 1:30 when my someone picking up the neighbor kids sat outside on the driveway and honked over and over. Then yelled. The nap was done at that point
Drink #5 at 1:30.

I don’t feel hungry yet. So far I still feel good. This is better than yesterday, so we’ll see if the hunger pains come in the afternoon.

I made drink #6 before I left to pick up Jaxon (at 2:25). We headed off to do errands and didn’t return home until after 4:30.
What I have noticed today, has not been hunger pains like yesterday, but instead a very dull head ache. It came and went a few times between 3pm and 5pmand my guess was it was a “food headache”.

I made drink #7 while I started cooking dinner and didn’t end up finishing it until 5:30.
Making the food I didn’t feel starving, but I did want to eat. It smelled good and I could tell I was hungry even though I wasn’t having hunger pains. I made myself drink #8 when we all sat down for dinner at 6:15. Pasta, salad, bread, watermelon and caprese salad, for everyone else, and a lemonade drink for me! My choice I know.
I finished the drink and almost immediately made myself drink #9.

The kids went down, I’ve been on the computer and now, at 8:25pm I made my final drink of the day, drink #10 and I’m taking the drink and my book and going to bed.

I feel good and I’m happy about that. I sure hope what I want to be happening actually is, it will make it all worth it.

Low and behold, there is a day three to this madness. Yesterday I really wasn’t sure if I was going to continue or not. I got hungry more often than I was happy about. The drinks helped, but sometimes as soon as 30 minutes after I had finished the drink I felt hungry again. My effort to drink more drinks went pretty well. I got to 9 drinks which is, of course, significantly better than a 4, but still not the goal amount. Maybe I need to be better about making a drink as soon as I get hungry no matter how quickly after the last one it is.
In my hungered state, I questioned what I was doing. I have read the informational booklet on The Master Cleanse and there are a lot of things in there that I really like. There are also a ton of things in there that I think are crap. I told Norm, one of the problems when you don’t believe in everything, is that it can make you wonder about what you do believe in. (I’m not gonna take that to the next level of conversation but keep it right here about the detox) How do I know that they stuff they say, the stuff that I like, is real? How do I know that it is doing what I want it to be doing?
Tony sent me a great article from a “Dr. Andrew Weil. He is a harvard MD and the granfather basically of the integrative medicine program which is a combination of western and holistic medicine.” Tony was a tad concerned about the Sea Salt Flush that I was doing so just wanted me to read something from a “legit” doctor.

*smile*

It was very informative actually and I liked everything he said. One of the things that stuck out in this article for both Norm and I is “In evaluating claims for flushes and other cleansing regimes, be aware that the body does a pretty good job of cleansing and purifying itself. If you focus on good nutrition, regular exercise, and other healthy habits, you won’t feel the need to do this sort of thing.”
I believe this. In fact, this is what I am counting on. Live a healthy lifestyle and everything else will fall into place.

My purpose with this cleanse, is essentially a starting block. No, its even before the starting block, its my eraser in an attempt to make a clean slate.
I am an emotional eater. You can tell if I am having a rough day with the kids based on what I am eating. I am a bored eater. If there is nothing better to do I find food and eat. What I wonder is if I have trained myself, my body, to “need” food around that 3pm time when all I want to do is snack. If all the refined sugar that I have been eating has been making me crave more…. I want to wipe that away. This cleanse, what I want it to do for me, is wash out physically and mentally those habits, toxins, whatever, so that I can start a healthy clean eating lifestyle.

Thats what I want. What I don’t really know, is if this Master Cleanse will even do that.
Yesterday when I told Norm I was hungry and I didn’t know what to do, he asked how I was feeling besides that.
Truth is, I feel great. Lots of energy, I’ve never felt lethargic or emotional or anything that you may think could be a side effect. And of course I’m hungry…. I’m not eating. I love food and so the drink over and over gets a little boring. Maybe that is why I don’t jump to make it.
I don’t know if what I am doing is working towards the purposes that I want, but I feel confident that I am not doing any damage to myself either.
I don’t want to quit just because I am hungry. This morning I did a full workout with Marcus. We did boxing and some weights. I felt good. I still feel good. I did my Sculpt Yoga class Monday night. I felt good then too. I don’t mind quitting if there are negative side effects or I stop feeling good, in fact, I will quit in those cases, but I don’t want to stop just because. I’d like to play this thing out and see if, by chance, it does do what it says it will. What I hope it will.

So…. lets start with Day 3!

I made an effort to start everything a little earlier today in an effort to get in more drinks.
I drank my quart of salt water about 7:30 and before 8am I was in the bathroom. Having never done this before, I’m not sure how it progresses and what to look for in terms of it “working” and “being successful”, but I would say that based on yesterday versus today, something is going well. (More detail than that gets pretty specific and gross so I’m gonna leave it at that)

I was drinking my first drink around 8:15 because I was thirsty and feeling a bit parched (probably from the salt water as Norm has explained it to me) and this time I didn’t sip. I drank. Not guzzled, but… its only 10 ounces, so I drank it… normal (for me). It took me all of 5 minutes to drink it.
Drink #2 @ 9:30. Again, not sipping, but drinking.

Its 10am right now and I feel good. Full energy, not hungry and no stomach issues. Lets hope I can maintain the feeling.
Around 10:30 I tell I was getting hungry. But AJ was asleep and I was on the computer and wanted to get a few more things done before he woke up so I didn’t respond to my tummy.
Just before 11 I made Tyler lunch and at that time I made myself my 3rd lemonade drink.

I definitely feel more hungry today. Its only 11:30 and I’ve wanted food a few times where yesterday it happened twice all day. The book says to make yourself the drink whenever you are hungry and it does help. I feel fine now but wonder how long before I feel hungry again. I wonder if the pepper has anything to do with hunger. My insides feel a bit hot, all down my throat and into my stomach and its a good distraction actually.

I made Drink #4 at 1pm and drank it by 1:06.
I had to go and pick up Jaxon and we left at 2:20 so just before I left I made Drink #5. I took it with me and drank it over the course of the next 40 minutes, drinking my last sip just before 3pm.
Its now only 3:15pm and I am hungry. I just told Norm, I dont’ feel tired or lathargic… but I’m hungry today and I wasn’t yesterday. I don’t really know what to do. They say if you are hungry make another drink… so I’ll try that.

Drink #6 at 3:30. More guzzled than drank. Its 4pm and I don’t feel hungry right now.
We got in the pool about 4:15 and by 4:30 my tummy was hungry again. Boo. We kept swimming until 5pm when I got out to make dinner (homemade pizza) for the boys. I made myself a lemonade and had drink #7 at 5:15pm. I’ll tell you, making food when you are hungry… good food, is rough. It took all my will power to not pop little pieces of cheese and when the pizza was done and I was cutting it up, oh man. Drink 7 took me a long time to drink as I was rolling out dough and such so I didn’t finish it until about 6pm. Now the whole family is eating and I came over here to complain (and to not smell the pizza). I’ll make another drink I guess.

Drink #8 at 6:15pm. We put the kids down for bed just after 7pm and I made myself Drink #9 and went into the family room, plopped on the couch to watch my Monday night taped shows. I was going to make another drink at 8pm but I didn’t really want one so I just watched the second show and we went to bed at 9.

Let’s see if there is a day 3.

The recommendation for this cleanse is 10 days but we’ll see how many I actually do. You make yourself a drink that has water, lemon juice, (Grade A Dark) Maple Syrup and some cayenne pepper. They would like you to drink this concoction 12 times during the day. Each drink has about 110 calories (so if you are doing what they say you get just over 1300 calories a day). In addition, to help aid detoxification of your body, you can take an herbal laxative tea in the night and morning and the first thing you do when you wake up is drink a quart (YES a quart!) of water mixed with uniodized sea salt. (I’ll get to that in a minute)
The purpose is to eliminate the waste and toxins in you body.

I bought the book (pamphlet really) years ago but never did it because, well, its a bit intense. Now I’ve decided I’m going to give it a go. Norm and I have talked about it and the negatives and what we need to watch out for and, with his blessing, I am proceeding with caution.

DAY 1 - 8/30/2010:

I woke up and decided today was the day to start. It was around 8am when I made my quart of salt water and started drinking. Oh my yuck! That is really all I can say. This, by far, is the worst part. By the time I got to the end of the glass I was afraid I was gonna puke. My stomach was not happy. It didn’t take long for it to start “working” and over the next 2 hours I went to the bathroom 5 times. My stomach settled pretty quickly after I didn’t need to go anymore and I started with my first “lemonade” at 11am.
I have to say, its not bad. I mean, I wouldn’t order it at a restaurant, but its fine. The pepper is not my because it is this sweet drink and then you get all that spicy. Plus if you aren’t constantly stirring it, the pepper goes to the bottom so your last few swigs are heavy with cayenne pepper.
I didn’t drink it fast, I more sipped so didn’t finish the glass for about 30 minutes. Then we had stuff to do and I even tried to nap while the kids were napping (which didn’t work because they woke up) so I didn’t drink another drink until 1:45pm.
We left our house for errands just before 3pm and I should have made another drink then, but I didn’t feel thirsty or hungry so I didn’t. While we were out there was a time in the car when I could feel my tummy growling, but it passed faster than I expected.
We got home around 5pm and I made myself another drink right then while I made dinner.
I left the house for yoga at 6:20 and I didn’t have another drink until I got home at 8:15.

So, I only got in 4 drinks the whole day. I’m not happy about that. That is under 500 calories and I know 1)its not healthy and 2)I can’t sustain that for any length of time. If the yuckiest part is the salt water, I think the hardest part will be getting in all the drinks.
Besides the time in the car when my stomach was growling, I had a hard time while making the boys lunch. As I made sandwiches and cleaned grapes, I soooooo wanted to eat them. Ty’s PB&J looked super yummy to me! It was healthy food and I battled a bit inside…. “come on, its good for you food, you can eat that,” “just grapes… fruit is natural sugars and blah blah blah”. But I didn’t. I really want to give this thing a go and see how I feel and if there are physical and/or mental effects.

Last night I got home from yoga and felt great. And while I almost always feel great after yoga, I was happy to see that my energy levels were high, my stomach was happy, and I felt….. normal, and good. I decided not to drink the herbal laxative tea because, based on what happened this morning with the salt water, I didn’t really think I needed to “loosen” things up any more.
My goal for Day 2 is to drink more “lemonades.”

7-30-2010
Jaxon playing cards on the floor. “Mom look, its me versus nobody. I’m probably winning.”

7/7/2010
Sitting at lunch Jaxon starts telling Tyler about how great he’s eating, “Tyler, you are doing a great job on that sandwich. Its gonna help you grow big and strong.”
Jaxon looks down to eat his own lunch, meanwhile Tyler is looking at Jaxon holding up his hand. Jaxon didn’t turn back fast enough and Tyler says, “Hey Jax, you gonna give me five or what?”

4-23-2010

Jaxon reading one of his books.  He tries to guess the words based on the picture rather than reading them. Norm tells Jaxon that he needs to look at the letters and sound them out.  Jax replies, “Stop.  You’re making me lose my mind.”

2-14-2010

Jaxon and Norm are discussing the onions in the garden.  Norm tells Jax that he has no idea how to know when onions are ready to be picked and that they’ll have to ask Lola because she’s a good gardner.  Jaxon responds that he knows someone who’s an even better gardner than Lola.  Norm asks who and Jaxon says, “I’ll give you a hint, he created me. It’s Jesus! He’s the best gardner.”

Tonight, Jaxon said family prayer, part of his prayer: “And make sure that me, Jaxon, the one that’s saying the prayer, get’s his owie better.  And make sure he sleeps well so that he doesn’t get six.  I mean sick.”

2-4-2010

(A.M) Jaxon: Mom, I love Baby AJ a lot. I want to get him a really special cake for his birthday. What does he like? Mom, I’ll just pick for him, and then I’ll help him eat it.

(P.M) Jaxon was given a new game from Eryn. Norm read him the card and said they could open it and play. Jaxon was so excited he said, “Oh boy, I sure hope this game comes with ingredients.”
(He meant instructions for those of you who couldn’t figure that out)

<2-3-2010>

Tyler was trying unsuccessfully to open a nutri-grain bar, so Norm asked him if he needed help.

Tyler: No fanks.  Me good.

<Mid October 2009>

Jaxon has been sick and had a fever and during breakfast Norm told him about the white blood cells in his body and how they fight inside him to beat the sickness and the fever is a good thing because it tells us that “his guys” are fighting. Jaxon asked how many guys he had fighting and Norm told him there were lots and lots and we had to help them by drinking lots of liquids and resting.  (I only caught the tail end of this conversation).

That afternoon Jaxon was coughing and he turned to me and said, “Mom, I think my guys are losing.”

<9-12-2009> (approximately)

I got Tyler up out of his crib after we had the AC on over night and he tried to describe cotton mouth to me.

Tyler, pointing at his mouth: Yuck.  I ate yadybug.

<7-26-2009>

Jaxon:  Did you know that there’s something under God?

Norm: Really?

Jaxon:  Yeah.  And it’s invisible!

Norm:  Is it one nation?

Jaxon:  How did you know?

(Apparently, they are learning the pledge of allegiance in school.)

<Updated 7-20-2009 approx>

Norm and Teri, in Toys R Us, discuss the new set of X-Men toys which include the Blob.  Jaxon asks which one is ‘The Blob’ and when we point him out, says, “That Chunky Monkey’s name is the Blob?!?”

<Updated 7-11-2009>

Jaxon noticing his mother’s post delivery tummy: Momma, why is your belly still flumpy?

Jaxon explaining his days actions to his father:  I wasn’t a very good boy today, but let me tell you why.

<Updated 6-14-2009>

Jaxon (while going to the bathroom before getting in bed): Can I play one video game?

Norm: Not right now.

Jaxon: Oh, man.  You just ruined my whole day.

Norm: Excuse me?

Jaxon: At least, you didn’t ruin my whole life.

<Updated 5-30-2009>

Jaxon explaining to Adam how some numbers look similar: ‘5 is just like 2.  Except its 5.’

<Updated 5-26-2009>

We’re going to keep this post alive for a while, updating it and changing the date when we add to it.  These will be brief moments in our lives, little things that Jax or Tyler do and say that make us laugh.  And yesterday, we got two from Jaxon.

When I was putting him in the car before we drove up to Uncle Karl’s, Jax leaned into my arm and kissed it and said, ‘I love you more than I can count.  And I can count to like 25.’

On the way home from Uncle Karl’s, Jaxon asked me, ‘What comes before 7?’  ‘6,’ I told him.  ‘Ok.  What comes after 7?’ ‘8′ ‘Ok.  I’m thinking of a number between 6 and 8. Can you guess it?’  This had teri and I in stitches for about 10 minutes.

<Some earlier gems that we don’t remember the date>

Norm was talking to Jaxon about breakfast and Norm put his plate in front of the wrong chair.  Jaxon said, ‘Not there, stupid.’  Norm replied, a little surprised, ‘Excuse me?’  Jaxon responded, “It’s spanish for ‘No, Thank you.’”