Hola fellow MCers! Today is day 6 of my 3rd MC. I found this forum a few days ago and have found some great posts. In gratitude and reciprocity, I thought I would share some lessons I've learned along the way during my 3 MCs and how my health has transformed in great part due to the MC. This is my very first post.
1) PURPOSE
It seems a lot of people want to try the MC to lose weight. Nothing wrong with that and the MC is a great way to do it. However, I find that learning about the benefits of the MC and doing it as a CLEANSE and not a DIET get so much more out of it. The MC seems like a heavy price to pay simply to lose a few lbs and if done without full understanding, the weight could be put back on as quickly as it was lost. The MC is a process of ridding your body of all the crap you've been feeding it since you were born (assuming you've never done a cleanse) and provides significantly higher value and meaning to your health than simply shedding pounds. I strongly suggest you read a book (try Tom Woloshin's) or two on the MC to better understand it in the bigger context of nutrition and health. Doing so will enable you to better understand what's happening during the detoxing process which will reduce likelihood that you'll quit half way through and prepare you to change your nutritional diet after the cleanse which will help you not only achieve and maintain better health after the cleanse but also keep the weight off.
2) ATTITUDE AND DETERMINATION
I find this is the key to life and in a micro sense, the key to a successful MC. This is particularly important if you're on your first MC as it's also the toughest. I have done the cleanse with three different friends. It was the first time for all of them. I have done it three times myself and one of my friends has also done it three times. The first cleanse is by far the toughest and your experience with the MC is in direct proportion to your level of health and toxicity. Most of us are under the misconception that we're relatively healthy. The truth comes out with the MC during the healing crisis process, the intensity of which seems to take people by surprise and either quit, try to modify the cleanse (which is a no-no if you want results) or have a very tough time. If you educate yourself about the MC and do it for the right purpose (cleansing, not loosing weight) you are likely to have a much better understanding of what your body is going through during the detox process and therefore have a much better attitude toward healing crises. They are after all a very good gauge of how bad your health was and a good measure of what you're clearing out of your body so you can be healthy. The friends that I did this with didn't understand this because they didn't fully educate themselves before starting the cleanse. One of them quit. The other is doing it with me as we speak and she has threatened to quit twice already. The other took a lot of support to carry through to the end. I myself felt like quitting when I was in the fetal position with stomach cramps during my first cleanse. You need determination and to have determination you need a big WHY...bigger than simply wanting a slimmer body. To me, ridding myself of toxic waste inside my body to allow me to live a younger, more vibrant and disease-free life is much more compelling. Weight loss is a byproduct of living that way anyway.
3) LIFESTYLE:
The cleanse is not the be all and end all. It's just the beginning. For those of us who want optimal health, we have to first educate ourselves on how to attain it. Cleansing is a good start by clearing the way for better nutrition. It's also a good routine. Kind of like taking a shower. You don't just do it once. I've decided to do it every six months for the rest of my life and its only one aspect of my health maintenance regiment. Watching what I eat and exercising regularly are equally important. I don't simply mean eat less fast food or eat less processed food or less salt. I mean educate yourself about what foods provide the best source of energy and nutrition and which foods are dead and toxic. Eating a thin crust, whole wheat pizza or a veggie burger sounds healthy but is not going to make you more healthy. These foods may be better than a pizza from Pizza Hut or a burger from MacDonald's but they are not optimal sources of vitamins, minerals and aminos. Bottom line, educate yourself about nutrition and do the cleanse as part of your regular regiment and you'll see results that will amaze you. You will loose weight, have much higher levels of energy, have much better mental clarity etc. etc. I highly recommend Brendan Brazier's The Thrive Diet.
My personal journey:
I've been vegetarian since I was six and grew up in a very health conscious family. I haven't always been healthy or athletic though. From 2005-2009 I worked 70 hour weeks so I stopped working out and started eating out a lot (by default, not good nutrition). I gained weight and my energy levels slowly went south. In 2009, work started slowing down so I stared paying more attention to health and exercise again. A friend approached me and suggested we do the MC together after New Years 2010. I had done cleanses before but had never heard of the MC. We looked up some info on the net and started it. We both had a tough time with it but the results were outstanding. Over the next few months, one of my friends was diagnosed with cancer, another had a heart attack and another was put on Lipitor. My 38th b-day was in April and I made it my resolution to get into the shape of a 25 y/o athlete before my 40th b-day.
I have read several books on the MC and nutrition and have a much cleaner and healthier diet now. I also run 10km 2x/week and do weights 2x/week. Since the first cleanse I have lost 20lbs and will likely be loosing another 5. I look about 5-7 years younger than my age (also a result of the MC and better diet). I've put on a lot of lean muscle and I'm fairly athletic now. I should have Brad Pitt abs by my 39th b-day.
Best of all, while my first MC was marked by dizziness, low energy, horrible stomach cramps, flu-like symptoms etc. My third MC is going fantastic! I have only experienced positive changes. I have much more energy, I feel more alert, I have even gone for 10km runs three times (I'm on day 6) and have zero food cravings (I've found myself at restaurants twice now where food smelled great and had no desires for it). I'm loosing a lot less weight this time because I'm in much better shape and probably getting near single digit fat %. I also have a generally much more positive outlook on life. I'm a very optimistic guy by nature but there is a new level of optimism and sense of purpose that I can, at the very least in part, attribute to this new focus on health. Next steps for me are to start with a 70% raw, vegan diet as soon as I finish the cleanse. I found some weightlifters and marathoners who are raw vegans and take no supplements and I was amazed at how young they all look relative to their age and their level of athleticism on a raw vegan diet. This is without a doubt one of the most exciting periods of my life!
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Just curious what were your results then? Are you done and how long did you last? That is all