Master Cleanse Forum - Master Cleanser Lemonade Diet

Hello friends!

It took me a few days to get into the grove of the MC, but I'm happy to report that I'm in gear and feeling good. When I first start out on the MC, sometimes my brain insists that I have bites of this or that food, usually veggies that I might have around like carrots or bell peppers -- which is why I basically need to clear out the fridge and cupboards when I embark on the cleanse. Once I get over that hump, doing the MC feels good emotionally and physically. I feel lighter and it's gratifying to know that I'm doing something that is healing for my body -- and my mind.

I haven't weighed myself this week -- perhaps TMI: it's my time of the month and I didn't want any temporary bloating/water-weight gain to sway my hard-fought determination -- but I don't need the scale to know that I'm moving in the right direction. My face is slimmer, my eyes look bigger and brighter and my clothes continue to feel more loose. While I typically rely on good results on the scale to keep me motivated, I can see how not weighing yourself can lead to a deeper sense of purpose for the cleanse. What's keeping me going right now is that I feel good -- and that seems like a more solid and sustainable reason to keep going than a number on a scale. I haven't felt physically good for far too long prior to starting this MC journey a few months ago, and I want to feel good in my body. I want to literally feel comfortable in my own skin, and it's been years since I truly felt that -- and while I find that sad, at least now I'm doing something about it and it's working. I think that periodically I will still need to weigh myself just to have some so-called evidence of progress, but I'm going to try not to weigh myself every day.

Another piece of motivation: This week I had a couple of social events where I saw some friends I hadn't seen in a few months. Each of them individually said that I look great -- from looking refreshed, healthy, rested, and they could tell that I've lost weight. Again, I know I'm focusing on the physical, but I think the changes that are going on for me emotionally -- getting rid of baggage, doing something good for myself, and taking better care of my health -- transpose to the physical level.

All of this is not to say that the MC isn't hard, it is, but I'm focusing on the positive and taking it day by day, sometimes hour by hour, and reminding myself why I'm doing this and that it feels good to do it. When I get to the end of the day, as I am now, and I've stuck to the plan, it reinforces for me that I'm one day closer to achieving my goal.

My plan is to do the MC for two more weeks, until Thanksgiving, when I will take a break for the holiday weekend. I'll be keeping it vegetarian, and mostly vegan as well, and thankfully a few other vegetarians in the family means that we'll have some lovely meals. Then I'll be back on until Christmas, when I'll take another short break, and hopefully in January I'll be fairly close to my goal and ready for the final push.

Cheers to everyone on this journey, I hope you're doing well!

I am!

Are you also NewBeginnings?

Yay, Abbey Lee -- so great to see you posting here!

I'm starting in earnest tomorrow, Jan. 2. I'd love to take this journey with you again!

I hope you're well, and Happy New Year!

My Tipping Point and Digging Deep

I know the thing to do at the new year is to be enthusiastic about one’s goals, and for so many it’s about losing weight, but if I’m honest I’m not feeling great and I don’t really want to fake it. The MC works for me if I work it (that sounds like a 12-step line, no?) and I really want to do it, but it’s taking everything I have to get back into it.

Not to be a Debby Downer, but the last few months have been difficult. If you’ve been reading along, my plan was to ease off the cleanse for Thanksgiving, cleanse again for a few weeks until Christmas and New Year’s, and then start back up for the final push to my goal weight, thinking I’d be pretty close by then. But life had other plans—a breakup, the loss of my job, and then the sudden death of a close member of my extended family—the last one of course, being the hardest. As an emotional eater, the accumulated events didn’t bode well for me reaching my weight-loss goals. Throw the holidays in there, and I feel like I’ve come out the wringer that the end of 2018 was for me looking and feeling terrible.

I had aimed to get a head start on the new year by beginning the MC a few days after Christmas, but I failed. I bought my lemons and didn’t use them. I kept looking over at this book I have on the spiritual approach to weight loss that I know would help motivate me and not opening it. But I feel like I’m at a tipping point and I need to dig deep to make a change: Over the past few days I’ve felt physically awful—I have a cold that’s still getting worse before it gets better, it’s my time of the month, and I haven’t been sleeping well, so my energy is really low. And it hasn’t escaped me that as the past couple of months have played out, I’m not looking well either: my face is puffier, my winter coat, which despite being so big (thanks to my weight loss) I hadn’t gotten around to replacing, was not quite as oversized as it once was. But all of that hadn’t been enough to get me back on the MC yet.

And I woke up this morning feeling so congested that I entertained thoughts of putting the MC off again so I could have chicken noodle soup all day (and inevitably, I’d convince myself to go to the store later for some other form of comfort food that I’d justify the need to get). Then I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror and thought, hell no. This is on. I look truly awful—and I know a big part of it is the cold—but I also miss my bright eyes and clear skin and slimmer face that was getting slimmer by the day.

So I resolved to take the final step to lock it in for today: I got on the scale. I had thought about not using the scale for this leg of my MC journey because when I did that for a while last time around it felt like I could get to a deeper sense of why I was doing the cleanse, but right now feeling and looking awful wasn’t enough to get me to commit. And sometimes I just need facts to motivate me—facts I was avoiding, of course. Did I really want to know how much weight I put back on? No. But yes. And it got me. I gained a mortifying 19 lbs. since my last weigh-in in early November. I hate that I took that many steps backward, but I also worried that I might have gained even more. So good news, it wasn’t as bad as I thought?

So here I am, digging as deep as I’m capable of today, and doing this. I’m not exactly happy about it, one could say I’m even grumpy about it, and I’m not sure if I’ll actually make it through the day, but I hope that I will.

I’m telling myself that the Vitamin C of the lemons as well as the cayenne would probably help at least as much as chicken noodle soup to make me feel better as this cold works its way through my system. And that even if I don’t feel like doing this, and even though I know it will be hard, doing the MC will make me feel better. It always does.

And that’s what I really want: to feel good.

So accountability:
Original starting weight: 249.8
Early November weigh-in: 197.6
Today’s weight: 216
Goal weight: 135

Best wishes to everyone out there and feel free to post on this thread if you’d like!

I'm so so sorry for your loss NewB! That is wretched. The last human I had die on me, was 90 years old and he was like a Grandfather to me. It threw me into a deep sadness the like of which … I hadn't seen in years. And he wasn't exactly Family, but we were so close. I saw him every week for 20 years. For at least an hour. And I loved him so much. So even though I knew he was going, it didn't make it any better. It's been a bit over a year now that I think if it. He was a joy of a human being. *sigh*

So sorry about your job too. That sucks the suck of suck.

Regardless, the cold will get better faster on Master Cleanse versus food of any kind. True! Crazy. But true.

I'm grumpy also. Ha! Let's be super grumpy together. Day 1. Of course we're both grumpy.

Like you my tipping point has been a long time coming. I had some crazy thing happen at the beginning of December where one of my lymph nodes (assumable) decided to swell up like it had two grapes in it. Under my arm, but not in my underarm. So I came up with … I have cat scratch fever. (I have five cats and one had just scratched me across the right breasticle) …. I had just cleaned the basement of mucho rat poo. And so I thought also I maybe had the black plague. LOL!!! (See, I am less grumpy already just … saying this out loud … to a near stranger on an abandoned Master Cleanse support site …)

Then I figured I must have that resistant staph bacteria.

I had flu like symptoms and I finally gave in and took a 5 day course of antibiotics. And it healed. After it … burst and gross blood and pus came flowing outta the side of my body. I should have warned you this is graphic in nature NC!7.

And was this enough to get me to cleanse?

no.

I knew it would get better faster. But I didn't have it In me. I just kept planning to do it, and not doing it.


But now we can ride the great big diet fitness wave that is Worldwide for a time and it will be …. (get ready) Easier.

Yeah. I just said that.

I have about 120 pounds of freshly picked grapefruit and a whole slew of limes. I have a fresh batch of 90K Cayenne …. and I have my favorite dark maple syrup. And I am ready as I can be. I made 12 drinks this morning and I go very very heavy on the concoction til I get snuggled deep into the fast. I never skimp early on as that is the road to being waist deep in accidentally vegan foods … with a thicker waist.

I ordered a really nice small pair of Moschino Jeans off poshmark that I have been obsessed with. It will be helpful for my motivation as I swear to Gog I will not reward myself with them (and I doubt I could squeeze in there now TBH) unless I get to Day 10. And I need to get to Day 10. Cause I feel like Crap on A Cracker. My feet hurt again (what even *is* that!?) … and I am not sleeping well. I'm googling crap like "Miracle Cure for Depression" … and it's just stupid to keep pretending it will go away on its own. It won't. It's gunna be a big push. But I HAVE to.

It helps to make the citrus and syrup in the morning portioned with no water and cayenne …. it keeps me lively. I shall avoid the kitchen. I hate throwing out food. But I feel like … I need chemo … I feel that bad, physically. And people in my life would give me much more support if I needed chemo, versus this Master Cleanse! *shakes fist at the sky!* I don't get no respect!!

I have that continuous Russian Heart Prayer … "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on me." Playing in the background. Like I'm Franny in Franny and Zooey.

And I have a new mantra which I got from a completely forgettable Netflix movie I saw recently. Seriously I couldn't pick it outta a line up.

But the main character says that her Father had her say every day growing up, "I am the Luckiest Girl in the World. And Today is the Best Day of my Life."

So it is my mantra, and amuses me, and lightens the load.

We can do it! I swear. One day at a time. I mean just knowing that it actually DOES work, is a huge key to our mutual success!

Hi. I just wanted to add a few words of encouragement. I did my first cleanse in 2014, and I used posting on this forum as a form of support. In the end I lasted 16 days (from a goal of 21 days) and the journaling and communication with others was a big help to me. and so I would like to pass that along.

Its a tough thing to do. and its harder when life throws things at you like the loss of a job and breakups and death. nevertheless - and its easy to say from the side - those are the situations that test our true mettle. Its easy to feel great when the external world shines its grace upon us. there is no skill in that, its an empty victory to claim "I am happy" because its not your fault. instead it is the other: to hold your peace during the storm. to hold it, and continue to hold it, and then hold some more. and then on the other side of the storm when you remain standing you can look back and say "I did that". it brings an earned pride, an awareness of ones strength and a self confidence about an ability to use it. To be the master of your house.

and so. onwards. the forum might not be very active. nonetheless, onward.

Thanks so much, Abbey Lee and Steve! I really appreciate the support from both of you!

Abbey Lee—thank you for your kind words—and you’ve had quite a journey yourself the past few months! I’m glad your health issues resolved, but wow, that sounded challenging.

I’m similar to you in that in the morning I juice my lemons and add it to the maple syrup and water and then I just add the cayenne when I drink each glass of the MC mix. It’s good to feel prepared for the day, especially in the early going when we’re still getting our feet on solid ground with the cleanse.

And I love your mantras and sayings—and your designer jeans—whatever it takes to get through each day is what we have to do, because the cleanse really does work!

Steve—thank you so much for your heartfelt words. I especially appreciate the sentiment to “hold your peace.” Thank you—I’m working on it! Are you doing another cleanse now, or just checking in? Either way, I welcome your feedback anytime!

I’ll give a quick update on my progress—quick because my bad cold seems to have morphed into the flu, or maybe it always was the flu, but today I’m feeling much worse physically—congested, body aches, low-grade fever, the works. I have very little appetite so I’ve only had two 10 oz. glasses of the MC mix, but I know I need to get at least a few more down today.

I debated whether or not I wanted to get on the scale when I woke up—I was curious to know whether the illness or the fact that I barely slept last night would negatively impact things (I’ve noticed in the past that when I don’t sleep well the weight doesn’t come off in the typical increments). And while I know it’s probably mostly water weight, I’m down a little over 5 lbs. from yesterday, to 210.8. That lifted my spirits and confirmed what we’ve all been saying, that the cleanse works. And even though it’s hard and takes a lot of discipline, we’re improving our health and overall wellbeing, so here’s to all of us sticking to it to the best of our abilities!

Accountability:
Day 1: 216
Day 2: 210.8

From yesterday! Day 2?

I'm the wrong color. So white, so pale. (and I smell)


I spend so much time in the kitchen every day, but today was rough. Everything is calling to me. But I won't. I want what is at the end of the cleanse more than I want the stuff that will suck anyhow. It is a terrible feeling to eat disappointing food. Which is what pretty much everything was shortly before I fell over the edge of being on a MC.

I am swinging between feeling like I can do this, and feeling such extreme exhaustion. I have one thing left to do today to survive. Maybe 20 minutes. A bit of work and then I can get in the bed and watch Netflix and zone out. Hopefully Hubs can take care of the Poodle tonight. Last night I left it to him and poor Henry Poodle peed on the floor cause he didn't get let out in time.

I'm sore all over. I can barely stand up straight in fact due to the soreness of my joints. I feel like the Hunchback of Pasadena. And I do get very tired of pretending that everything is OK in the early days of the MC, because I never ever tell anyone what I am doing.

I had big plans for today, that fell flat because my body just … won't. Not on Day 2.

I managed 8 drinks yesterday and 10 today.

The people who say that hunger vanishes are so so crazy,

I keep seeing people in Life, my life, who I haven't seen in months or years and I keep getting shocked by how much their age shows, or their weight has skyrocketed. It is shocking. SO of course, I must have changed also. The whole Many Master Cleanses way of life is hopefully staying some of the tide for me, but who knows? Regardless, as I said to my cousin lately, I will fight this aging-weight-gain-disease train with every fiber of my being.

New Beginnings!

I am so so sorry that the flu has entered the MC for you. Been there. I mean. I guess if you're gunna have a flu and a MC, do them together cause both are misery? Sunny side?

It will be ok though, hopefully you feel a bit better today. Sending you tons of love!

See now I feel fantastic. I mean like crazy good. It's kinda Day 4 for me, The first I was cleansing, but I ate some food, very very little, but so maybe that makes it Day 3.5. Whatever!

I just cleaned off the roof of the garage. Seriously. A job that I needed a 12.5 foot ladder for that had a very long instruction manual that was filled with threats. Against my thumbs, fingers, and warnings of broken limbs and fatal falls. (they need some help re-writing that …)

Then I cleaned the rain gutters up there, and cleared out the down spout. Then I ripped out a bunch of ivy. Pulled it off the 15 foot tall wall of the garage. It was climbing on the roof, that lousy tramo!

Trying to clear the way for a big storm and stop the leaking that is happening in the garage, At this moment I feel like I could re-roof the garage. Alone. Seriously someone get me some hot tar. (there's a sentence no one expected me to ever say ….) Cause that is how the MC works. Crazy high energy at times. Good to remember. I know the bottom will drop out again, but for now, it's better energy than when I am eating. Which is ridiculous. Seriously that is just stupid.

I was able to fix some jeans this morning, licked split cause they are the softest most worn in jeans I thrifted for $1. I was able to figure out a new way to achieve this perfect fit because my brain is actually working again. And being comfy while on MC … it cannot be over estimated how good it is to be in comfy clothes and warm enough. Silk long undies are amazing under everything, cause they roll with the sudden body temp changes. Highly reccomend!

Great energy. Perfect! Now that I think of it …. I did spend six solid weeks clearing out the very messed up garage the last time I cleansed. In October. And the difference in the energy of when I was on MC and when I was eating? Huge difference.

I'm off like a prom dress to make more of the concoction. Hope you are doing well New Beginnings.

Steve I loved what you contributed and I agree! I also was able to go back to your original thread in 2014 and read about your experiences. Made me laugh a lot, so thanks! (My fav part was probably the part about looking at the tongues of young children at the playground … which was a joke … and hilarious … ) … I love me some dark humor..

Check in when you can Dear New Beginnings!

I’m more than halfway through Day 3 and I’m hanging in there…

Abbey Lee, I hope you start to feel better soon—your exhaustion and sore joints sound awful. I’m sending you a big hug! And I know what you mean about some foods being disappointing. Although I stumbled a bit over the last couple of months, part of me remained dedicated to getting healthy, and getting to a healthy weight—so when I wasn’t making the best food choices, too often I would notice that the food I indulged in wasn’t really that satisfying. It was a good reminder that sometimes the things we think we want don’t really achieve what we want them to. My weakness is salty snacks, and I also indulged in restaurant meals when we were dealing with my relative’s death and getting home late with no energy to cook. I thought I would feel better if I let myself have the food I wanted but as I was consuming it, much of it didn’t taste that good to me and it didn’t comfort me. So even though I fell off the wagon with the MC, that goal of getting healthy was still with me and I was learning something through my bad choices.

Last January, when I began this quest to get healthy, I started with The Clean Program—if you don’t know it, it’s a book but they also have a website with tons of recipes. Basically the idea is you eliminate foods that are common allergens and after 21 days, you can slowly reintroduce things to see what you might have a reaction to. It is an elimination diet of sorts, but it’s also all about having an anti-inflammatory diet, which is what drew me to it. A lot of the recipes are time consuming to make, and I like to cook—but I was amazed at how much better everything tasted. This is maybe a silly example, but prior to this, typically I would buy frozen veggie burgers. Then I made a batch from a Clean Program recipe and it was a million times better than anything I had bought in a store, or had at a good vegetarian restaurant for that matter. It’s kind of a no-brainer, but it was just reinforcing for me to know that when I buy great ingredients and make things myself, eating is so much more satisfying—and knowing that it’s healthy is an amazing bonus. I should probably stop thinking about food because I’m starting to mentally go through all the other great recipes I tried, but when I finish the cleanse, I plan to resume following that program because I want to feel satisfied and really enjoy what I eat—and it can be healthy as well!

And I’m with you regarding having the confidence or will power or whatever it is to stick with this. We know it’s really hard. I often think of something you said, I believe, which is just to take it hour by hour if we need to—just get through the next hour sticking with it and then check in with yourself. That really helps me. (And think about your aging/weight-gain train you’re trying to avoid!) Right now I really want to cook some chicken noodle soup because I have everything I’d need to make it and I know it would feel really good on my very sore throat. But right now, in this hour, I’m going to stick to the MC with extra cayenne and visualize the hot pepper and lemon forcing this flu out of my body.

(And while I think the flu was in progress before I started the MC, in some ways it is good to have it and be cleansing, like you said, because my brain is so foggy and my body is so lethargic that I don’t have the energy to do much of anything else but the MC—so yes, sunny side!)

So as for my progress, and to answer your question about how much I lost, yes, I was down 5.2 lbs. after the first day, and after the second day (this morning’s weigh in) I was down another 2.4 lbs., for a very happy two-day loss of 7.6 lbs.

Accountability:
Day 1: 216
Day 3: 208.4

Keep going—we can do this!

Abbey Lee, somehow your latest entry wasn't there when I just posted but right after I did, it showed up.

I'm so glad your energy and body have shifted and you're able to do so much—fantastic news—take advantage of it and trust that the good feelings will continue! xoxo

Day 4 must be the magic day -- while I'm not full of energy like Abbey Lee, I finally slept more than a couple of hours last night and I woke up feeling a little bit better today, so I'll take it!

And the weigh in was good, too, I'm down again -- which honestly surprises me since I've barely left my bed in a few days -- but again, I'll take that as well!

Day 1: 216
Day 4: 206

Ten pounds!!! Yayyyyyy!! New Beginnings that is fabulous! I'm positive that being on the Master Cleanser while also having the flu, was the correct decision! *thumps you on the back psychically!*

Well done you!

Yes the disappointment of food can be so so profound and most people really never realize that. So that is excellent that we both know how much of a let down some food is. It can be a bummer. All that emotional eating never ever works. It's so reinforced though. By our culture, by our Family, by the ads. To realize that I want the food that doesn't even exist … was profound.

I want the Magic Food that fixes everything. That regenerates cell. That kills pain. That fixes the 100% unfixable. I want the food that brings people back from the dead. So. Zombie food, I guess! Haha Human Brains. Yeah that doesn't sound good right now. I mean basically I am looking for The Holy Ghost. For communion. You know. Catholic Body of Christ style. And food, can't do that. Not really. ESP the food that is "craved."

The energy drops off as fast as it ramps up for me. Never predictable. But I do like what you said Sweetheart about expecting it to stay nice and high and good. I love the optimism. Riding the ride of the Master Cleanser is like surfing the Big Waves with a Helicopter as back up. You know you'll be yanked out right before you drown, but the fear is real as the 25 foot wave charges at you/

I made some of the best master cleanse juice ever yesterday! I'm fully stocked up. And that is good cause I have this … feeling … that this is gunna take awhile. *rolls eyes! omgwtfbbq how many of these am I gunna do? says the Inner Whiner!* Truth is, my health has not been solid since I was a teenager. And so I will be MC-ing for the rest of my life on the regular.

Today I finished Project Stop the Garage Leak. I went back on the roof 15 feet up .....and blew it all clean, swept it, pulled the most stubborn Ivy off. All very scary cause the ladder is terrifying. SO annoying how many effing warning labels are on the flimsy stupid ladder. Then I scooped up the six trash cans of dirt that I threw off the top of the garage yesterday. And then I pulled out the rest of the Ivy that didn't want to leave off the bottom of the down pipe. I had to unearth the bottom to the tune of 2.5 feet like I was digging an Egyptian Tomb. The Ivy is filthy, and I sneezed 200 times.

And now I am inside, waiting for the storm … the most reliable weather station now tell me that we have a 20% chance of rain. hahaha So I will be mad … if I don't get to test out my clean new roof system.

Funny how angry I am right now. There's def a feeling of detachment from these rather extreme emotions. Must be the Liver ANgry.

I was mad that I had to take another deep shower cause I was covered in dirt. I am mad I have to clean my boots, cause they got filthy. I am mad I had to do it alone, even though I definitely didn't want any help/ Haha I want the person who doesn't exist to help me clean the roof. Or say, someone who would be great at it to come help me. I do not want the Hubs to help me. Oh God.


It's also just …. that I didn't sleep well cause my cats decided to Have a Pussy Party last night. Chasing one another, fighting, jumping on my head.

So a nap is in order!

I will … carry on. Hope the good energy returns, as it is early to be feeling best in a warm bed.

OK so carry on … Nuthin to see here! I do feel better. Even though I currently feel worse. Those two sentences should encapsulate most Master Cleanse journals.

WE CAN DO IT!!!