The Master Cleanse

In my efforts to lose weight and get healthy, I have attempted many things and of course failed (as I am still overweight).  It's hard to find the motivation to get up and workout.  Especially when it's already 90 degrees by 8am.  And anyone who has tried to diet will know how hard it is to stay on the diet and still feel satisfied with the foods they eat.


Over the last few years, Ed and I have made some healthy changes in our diet.  One, I am now a vegetarian (going on three years).  Now that decision was not only for the hopeful healthy gains, but just a just I made.  Animals are too cute to eat.  In addition, we have, for the most part, stopped eating out.  We will occasionally go out, even more so when traveling, but for the most part, we eat from our own kitchen.  It's made us feel better and we KNOW what's going into our food.  Which gives us piece of mind.  Recently we started cutting back on processed foods. We are trying to eat less packaged foods, canned foods, etc.


After those few changes, I have still not seen any change in my weight.  I however do FEEL much better, which is a good start.  I mean, I understand, calories in and calories out, etc., but when counting my calories, more goes out than in, so I'm getting more and more frustrated.  I then made the decision to cut out sugar (as some of you may know).  That went well (for about two weeks) until I went home to Mississippi for my sisters wedding.  There was no way I could pass up wedding cake.


After returning home, I decided that I needed to do something else.  So  did some research bought this book, and prepared for The Master Cleanse.  I knew when starting that this was not a quick fix, nor was it a way to actually lose weight.  In my mind, this was a way to jump start my mind and body and get me back on track for a healthy lifestyle.


What is The Master Cleanse? you might ask.  Well in short, it's the lemonade diet.  You drink 6-12 glasses of "lemonade" a day, for 10 days.  And that's it.  Nothing else.  The lemonade consists of two tablespoons (or the juice from half a lemon) of freshly squeezed lemon juice, two tablespoons Grade B (very important) Maple Syrup, 8oz. water, and 1/10 tsp of cayenne pepper.  Sounds tasty right??? haha, no, it's not.  But you get use to it.  Throughout the 10 days, you should try to make an "elimination" 3-4 times a day.  And that's the gist of it.


Now some of you might be wondering why in the hell anyone would want to do this.  You might also be thinking that you couldn't do it because you would feel like utter crap while doing it.  I felt great.  Of course there were times when i missed solid food and wanted to really sink my teeth into something.  But the longer I did The Master Cleanse, the better I felt.  I felt lighter, I thought clearer, I was happier.  It did pretty good for me.  I would almost say I enjoyed doing it.  But I won't got that far.  


The purpose of The Master Cleanse is to rid your body of built up toxins that you normally don't eliminate, as well as the sludge that has built up in your intestines.  After completing the 10 day Cleanse, I feel lighter and cleaner.  I feel like much (but maybe not all) of the sludge is out.  I also noticed an improvement in my skin, hair and nails.  I have never had such long thick fingernails before.  It's kind of amazing to me.  I also lost 15 pounds in the 10 days on The Master Cleanse.  And I know that some of that will come back simply because I am adding food to my body again, but it sure does feel like a good start.


Something else that came up was, "What do I do when I'm done?"  "Won't I just put back in all the nasty stuff that I just got out?"  So I had to make a plan for what to do next.  But I will save that for another post.


The Master Cleanse is not for everyone and I didn't even begin to mention the benefits, but if you are interested, do some research and try it out for yourself.  It's only 10 days (or longer if you choose).  The foods that you normally eat will still be there when you're done. So give it a try!