Day 33It’s the morning of Day 33. It’s a Sunday so I plan on taking it easy today and relaxing, watching some Grey’s Anatomy (I’m almost on season 14 so I’m not sure what I’ll do once I’ve watched them all up to date!!
), going for a walk (if it stops raining) and not an awful lot more.
I had quite a busy day yesterday and was very pleased with myself because I started de-cluttering/organising the room I use to dump stuff I don’t want to deal with right at that moment. The rest of my house is always kept immaculate, but my “Monica Room” (for all of you friends fans out there, you’ll know what I mean) needs some tlc. I didn’t get anywhere near to finishing it, but I made a start and I’m proud of myself for that!
I had a bit of a lay-in this morning and got up at 8am. I’ve just done the swf and have made my lemonade for the day and will have my hot water and lemon in about 30 mins.
I wanted to mention today the types of detox symptoms I’ve had up to now.
• Headaches: I always get quite severe headaches in the first few days of going on a cleanse, and this one was no different. Even on my two pre-cleanse days I was feeling bad and this continued for two days on the actual MC. It’s no wonder given all the terrible food I’d been eating solidly for the months and months prior! However, I don’t drink coffee or tea so I can’t imagine how awful the caffeine withdrawal must be on top of this. Hats off to anyone who has this double whammy!
• Hunger: Day 1 and 2 of the MC I was really hungry and missed the feeling of food in my tummy. I found the emptiness an unsettling feeling, but this passed and on Day 3 I was getting used to the lemonade. By the end of day 4 I was in a little routine and it was at this point that I knew I could continue.
• No energy: The first week on the MC left me feeling quite tired and lacking in energy. I slept A LOT which my body obviously needed. I still got in my steps every day, but I didn’t do any cleaning or tasks that required too much from me. In my second week I was full of beans and felt energetic and great. This has continued since.
• Wanting to give up: Everytime I start the Master Cleanse I have to tell myself that if I can get through the first 4 days on it, then I’ll be fine after that point. The same thing happened with this cleanse. Seriously, every five minutes I’d change my mind and decide that I should just give in as what was the point, if I was going to be miserable I might as well be miserable and stuffing my face with all my favourite treats!! Then the next five minutes I’d be trying my hardest to complete the day. As if by magic, once I’m on Day 5 I start to feel like I can do 10 days, then when I get to 10 days, I can do 20 etc etc and here I am on day 33 and hoping to get beyond 40 day. I think it’s also a case of I know I can give up at any time in the first few days and I won’t have any adverse reactions, but once I’ve just been having liquids for 4 straight days, if I was just to give up and go on a binge I’d be ill and feel terrible. So there’s definitely something in the number 4 for me. It’s my make or break.
• Migraines: I have suffered from migraines since I was 11. Sometimes I think I know exactly what I need to do to keep them at bay, and just when I think I’ve got everything covered I get another one! It’s something I’ve had to learn to live with. When things are really bad, I have been known to get 2 a week! But since the MC I’ve only had 2, so I’m pleased with that.
• Boredom/wanting to eat: As I mentioned above, the first couple of days I do experience actual hunger. But after that I don’t get the hunger sensation, I just get the “desire” to eat. It’s purely a boredom thing when I’m desperate to chew and taste delicious good. But I tell myself that all the foods I love will not be going anywhere, and when I’ve finished a full transition to eating sufficient calories and nutritious food, I can add these foods in the same way any healthy balanced adult has treats occasionally If I was to tell myself that I can never eat these foods again then I’d want them even more and would’ve given up by now!
• Vivid dreams: Every night on the MC I have very vivid dreams, even to the point that in the beginning I was actually looking forward to going to sleep just so that I would see what I would dream about that night. Ha! Sometimes I’d dream that I was eating (well, actually a lot of the time) and I’d wake up in a bit of a panic that I’d fallen off the wagon! It felt like I could actually taste the food! Other times I dreamt of people who were very important to me and are no longer around. Again, I enjoyed this as it was almost like being with them again. The dreams continue, but I’ve sort of got used to them now.
• Food cravings: The strangest thing about the food I crave is that it’s almost like I’m replaying my binge eating but in reverse. So everything bad that I’ve stuffed my body with over the months prior to this cleanse are now being replayed through my cravings. I’ve read many times that when your body releases the toxins from these foods, that’s when you experience the cravings the most. I totally agree with this!!! I’m hopeful that as the cleanse goes on and the fewer toxins I have left in my body, the less cravings I’ll experience.
• Eczema: This is a funny one, because in general I don’t suffer with eczema. My sister and niece suffer terribly with it and have all of their lives, but I’ve been lucky enough not to have this. I have dry skin but not a skin condition. But EVERY time I do the MC a little patch of eczema appears (a different place every time), it stays around for about a week and then it starts to heal and disappear. This happened to me in the last few days. A patch appeared on my calf and it was super itchy and a bit weepy for a few days, and then it started healing and is on its way out. It’s so strange.
• Tongue: Within a day of being on the MC my tongue gets a lovely white thick coating on it! It’s pretty revolting and does make me conscious when speaking to people too closely. The oil pulling (see previous post) does help, as does the tongue scraping and I also find that my breath starts to smell fresher after about a week on the MC. At present, about a third of my tongue is a pinky colour and the rest has the white coating. I’m hoping more and more will clear over the next few weeks and I’ll have a lovely pink tongue by the end of the cleanse. We’ll see.
Just as an aside, I weighed myself this morning and I have officially lost 2 stone (28lbs) since I started on 4 February! Yay!
Start Weight: 12 stone (168 lbs)
Current Weight: 10 stone (140 lbs)
Bye for now x