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Posts Tagged ‘detox’

RESET Cleanse

By: hamson on March 1, 2013

3/1/2013:
Last weekend I did a search on juice cleanses because they are all the rage right now. I found way too much stuff so I narrowed it down to “juice cleanse san diego” this was much easier to work with and I found Ritual Wellness which had good reviews and locations all over for me to pick up the juices (save on shipping costs).
I spent all of 15 minutes on the web site before deciding “yep I’m doing this.”
All I needed to know from the company in specific was the quality of their product and it’s all fruit, veggies, organic, vegan, raw… blah blah blah.
Good enough for me. As I told my friend, I’m not a big proponent of “cleanses” and “detoxes” for the body really, I’m of the general opinion that the body is pretty awesome and takes care of that stuff on its own. Though I do see merit in a cleanse helping the overall health of the body. My main goal with this is as much mental as physical. Attempting to get over the “psychological need to always eat” and for 3 days not have to worry at all about when and what I am eating. So I ordered the cleanse and let’s begin!

Day 1:

Day 1 went well. I had my first drink just after 8am. I was pleasantly surprised by the taste. The first sip was…. different and I perceived it as no good…. but by the third sip, it is as if my taste buds adapted and it was rather refreshing. I even liked it! I drink the bottles relatively slow. Its 16oz of juice and I take about 20-30 minutes to finish. I felt good about how it was starting.
About the time when my stomach started feeling slightly hungry , I noticed it was 10am and time for my next juice.
The bulk of the juices are green and consist of: spinach, kale, romaine, celery, cucumber and a green apple(thank goodness for that!).
Juice 1 of the day also adds lemon to that. But Juice 2 and 5 are just the plain green. So I drank my juice, this time being less fearful of the taste, no problem.
This morning plans led me to a hike at Torrey Pines. We didn’t go fast but did 45 minutes up the hill and down the trail to the beach. It was no problem.
Again, no sooner than my stomach started piping up, I noticed 2 hours had passed and it was 12:10 and time for the 3rd drink. By now I’m actually kind of liking this stuff. However drink #3 is that green juice, but has ginger in it. Ginger is super strong and not my favorite (which is weird because I thought I liked it) I feel very healthy drinking all this green and I am peeing so often its getting in the way!
I grabbed Drink #4 as I was leaving the house to pick up the kids. My first “different” drink of the cleanse. Strangely enough, this drink isn’t new to me. This is the “lemonade” drink basically the exact same as another detox: The Master Cleanse (which I tried long ago but didn’t complete). This drink consists of alkaline & ionized water, lemon, cayenne and raw agave. There was LOTS of cayenne and I wondered if I would be able to finish it. Its really important to shake this drink or you’re left with a big pile of the spice on the bottom of the bottle (not a good gulp!)
Now comes the time of day when I do my snacking! I have the boys home from school, they need their snacks and I am a huge fan of apples and pb or cheese, crackers and cheese and all the kid stuff like cheeze its and fishies! I wanted to eat their snacks as I was serving it to them (about 3:15) but I didn’t. I wanted to eat their snacks as I was clearing dishes and cups. But I didn’t.
It occurred to me, I wasn’t hungry. Not even a little bit. I just wanted to eat what they had. so we went outside. But here’s the thing… I wanted to eat. I just kept thinking of what I wanted to eat. BUT I WASN’T HUNGRY!!! It was the weirdest feeling/realization. At 4pm i wondered why the heck I was doing this juice thing and thought about eating, but, how lame is that. Not only did I want to finish the cleanse that I started and paid for, but this mental need/want to eat was the EXACT thing I am trying to overcome!!! So I went in and grabbed bottle number 5. Back to basic greens, nothing added.
It was strange to me how comforting the juice felt. After wanting so badly to eat and not knowing if I could stick with it… I took a sip, and just felt better. Yes. I could do it. I wanted to do it. And I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t tired. So far I feel unaffected by the cleanse (except for the number of trips to pee).
Dinner time for the family I decided to do something very easy… frozen lasagna. Its italian sausage lasagna which I don’t like even a little bit. But let me tell you, this lasagna smelled like it came right out of an Italian restaurant oven! I felt like I was trying to inhale it. After making plates, I let Norm take over and I left the kitchen. I was about to start my last bottle.
Bottle #6: way different from anything that I have ever had. Its important to note that the texture of my food/drink really makes a different for me. There are foods that I think have an okay flavor but I don’t like that they are too chewy or grainy or whatever….
This drink they call “mylk” and it consists of raw cashews, alkaline & ionized water, cinnamon, nutmeg, raw agave, and vanilla. The flavor was actually very sweet, almost like a desert (the smell of warm bread pudding kept coming to mind). It should have been great, but the texture. Oh man, I couldn’t get over it. I had to force it down to the very last sip! It was the cashews. They were all ground up but you could feel them. I tried to imagine that I had crunched and chewed them up by myself but I didn’t, and they felt pre-chewed! Ick. Flavor, good. Texture, horrid! I’m kind of dreading it for tonight.

I ended the evening with a BodyRock 12 minute workout and basic pilates routine. After the workout it was steam and shower and bedtime. Never did I feel hungry.

DAY 2:

I woke up today a tad hungry but I don’t think much more than I do on other days. I didn’t feel different.
I was expecting a tough day and, thankfully, that just didn’t happen to me. I felt no negative effects (though I wouldn’t say I’m over flowing with positive effects either) from this cleanse. The day was even a bit easier because I knew what to expect out of the drinks. I knew what tastes were coming and I had more trust that the company knew what it was doing after my first day :-) I kept on the same schedule starting at 8am. AJ wasn’t in school today so we organized toys and played outside and somewhere in there I drank bottle #2. But by 11:30 I was going to put AJ down for a nap and join him. We watched part of a show and then went to bed and I woke up and I didn’t get out of bed until 1:45. At 2pm I realized I had only had 2 bottles and grabbed #3. I didn’t feel hungry and was doing good on any cravings to eat. I felt good and rested. But that did put me a tad ‘behind’ the rest of the day. I had bottle number 4 at 3:30, not because I was starving yet, but because after making the kids snacks I did kind of want to eat them. Plus I didn’t want to be super late on the last bottle of the day. I started making the kids dinner at 5pm and felt a bit of hunger set in with the smells of Tyler’s enchilada reheating. I made them their dinner and then sat down with them at the table with bottle number 5. Once I was drinking my bottle, it didn’t feel hard sitting with them while they were eating… though when I cleared AJs plate there was some bean and cheese burrito left and it did take a lot for me not to take any bites!!! Norm came home and I told him he was on his own as I didn’t think I could cook food and so he made himself dinner. He sauteed onions and Oh My Gosh did they smell SO good. Like mouth watering. I left the kitchen. We put the kids to bed and wanted to do a workout but I hadn’t had my last drink and didn’t want to be super late with it so we postponed the workout for about 20 minutes while we finished a basketball game on TV while folding laundry. The cashew mylk was still a bit hard for me to drink. It tasted better, but still didn’t care for the texture. Less than 30 minutes later I was done and we started our workout. I made it through the same workout from Day 1, BodyRock 12 minute and then pilates. We got in the steam, showered and off to bed. I was tired by the end of the night but not overly and I never felt hungry which was good.

DAY 3:

Day 3 has been interesting. I started the morning with my glass of lemon water and then had a workout with my trainer. It was a much harder workout than I have done in some time but I got through it and felt really wonderful when it was over. My workout was from 7 to 8am and then it was get the kids to school so I didn’t actually start my first juice until after 8:30am, and then I was working on the computer so it took me until 10am to finish it. From here, I’ve been taking 180 degree turns. My feeling after Juice #1 was that I wished I had done a longer cleanse. I felt good and happy could see progress in my mental struggles with eating so I wanted to have more time to overcome them. Just before 11am, I started getting a head ache. Not horrible, just minor throbbing, right around the temples. So I grabbed juice number two and got out of the house. Drinking the juice did help and I did some errands and picked up AJ and the head ache kind of became off and on. One of my errands was getting food for Post-Cleanse. I did some web searches on what to eat and Ritual Wellness also sent me an email about it. There seems to be a consensus…ease in to foods. I got stuff for fruit for breakfasts, broth based soups, and veggies. All sounded so good.
At this point I’m not feeling hunger or anything else other than the headache. I had juice number 3 and went back to doing finances. It was around 2pm when I noticed I had a tiny bit left of juice number 2 and I wasn’t hungry… but I also wasn’t satisfied. I wanted to go in the kitchen and look for something. I didn’t. I picked up the kids and (when I gave my two youngest their school reward of 1 gummy worm and 2 gummy bears, I realized that I didn’t want to eat the candy at all. Well, that wasn’t true. I did want to chew on the gummy bears, but I didn’t WANT gummy bears. That is kind of big for me. I wonder if all these days I’ve just popped a few because they were there. We got home 2:50pm and my head ache had turned from minor throbbing to full head ache. Was it the workout this morning? Calories? Water? I’m not sure but all I knew was I wanted to be done with the juices and find something that would stop my head from pounding. I wanted food. I did. Not just to chew, but I felt hungry. I wanted to eat. To make matters worse the kids wanted a snack. I cut up apples and cheese and put cheeze its on their plates and all I wanted was the apples and cheese. (I really had no interest in the crackers.) I wanted that apple. How bad could an apple be? Its in my juices anyway… I stood in the kitchen and contemplated what I should do, what I could eat. I grabbed juice number 4 – the spicy lemonade and drank a few huge gulps. Took the bottle out of the kitchen and finished it in about 10 minutes.
By 4pm my headache was still there but I was not hungry, I didn’t feel a need to eat and I was SO glad that I stuck with my final day.
We were having dinner at a friends house so at 4:30pm I packed up my two final bottles in a little cooler and we headed out. I still had a bit of a head ache when we arrived at the house just before 5pm. We started playing and chatting and I grabbed my drink at 5:15. More playing, talking, hanging out. The group ordered In and Out which smelled DELICIOUS but I was surprisingly fine with the fact that I wasn’t eating it. Even when Jessica brought out frozen chocolate chip cookies for the kids for dessert my first second instinct was… I want a cookie, and then, I decided I was fine without it. I drank my final bottle of the cleans at 7:20pm and it was the easiest time I had drinking the drink. I noticed the texture, and I still didn’t like it, but it wasn’t grossing me out anymore and I didn’t have to consciously gulp it down. At 8:45pm I realized I don’t have a head ache at all and I can’t remember having one since I arrived at our friends house at 5pm. Now I’m turning in for the night and feel really great about completing this cleanse.


Done with the Master Cleanse

By: teri on September 3, 2010

I’m done. Last night, before we went to Back to School Night I had a cup of orange juice. When we got home, I made myself a salad with romaine lettuce, leftover chicken and Light Cheese Fantastico Dressing and I also I finished off the tiny bit of caprese salad that we had in the fridge.
In addition to that, I found a leftover chocolate bar from my nutrisystem food and I ate that. It was so yummy.

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.


Master Cleanse – Day 4

By: teri on September 2, 2010

Day 4 – 9/2/2010:

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!


Master Cleanse – Day 3

By: teri on September 1, 2010

Day 3 – 9/1/2010:

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.


Master Cleanse Thoughts

By: teri on September 1, 2010

Morning Thoughts on Day 3- 9/1/2010:

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!


Master Cleanse – Day 2

By: teri on August 31, 2010

DAY 2- 8/31/2010:

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 Master Cleanse

By: teri on August 31, 2010

I’m doing it. Day 1 was actually yesterday.
After much reading, talking and thinking about a detox cleanse I chose The Master Cleanse by Stanley Burroughs. Its slang name is The Lemonade Diet, but that is the last time you will hear me call it that because I don’t think it should be used that way and that is certainly not my focus. My cousin does some detox cleanses, liquid fasts, etc from a box where you take pills and follow instructions, but for my own reasons, I was looking for something without pills.
My goal is to clean out my insides and start fresh with healthy living and clean eating.

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.”