Master Cleanse Forum - Master Cleanser Lemonade Diet

first post. technically, i haven't even started the diet yet, but plan to before the end of this month. i figured i may as well go ahead and start my own thread to try and keep something of a log of my progress (or lack thereof).

the challenge i'm up against in this is that, i live alone here in osaka, japan and i'm not japanese. that means i neither speak nor read japanese (extremely limited amount). so finding the products necessary for the cleanse here have been challenging. i had plans to do this cleanse in the summer, but certain obligations wouldn't allow the time i would need to commit to it.

either way, i've had most of the products i need since then. i found maple syrup (canadian grade 2... which i believe is the equivalent to American grade B). finding an herbal laxative tea here in japan was next to impossible. as a matter of fact, i didn't find one. i had my family send me a box of smooth move from the states. i did find a laxative in the drug stores here (can't read the name), but it's in pill form. dissolves in water, and i think i remember being told it was herbal, so i'm considering using that one as a backup or replacement for the smooth move. if there's anyone else in japan whose done this with any tips for finding a well-reputed laxative, let me know.

i think i'll be able to deal with the cravings to eat. truthfully, i'm not much of an eater, and sometimes unintentionally neglect to eat. my challenge will probably be that 1) it's cold, and i'm generally irritable and miserable in the winter and 2) i'm doing this alone, not much of a support system here for me.

to prepare myself for my upcoming trial, i got a taste for the drinks yesterday. i made a glass of the lemonade. at first, the cayenne threw me off... but i didn't mind it at all. the drink actually tasted really good. not sure if its 10-days, day-in-day-out good, but i think on that front i'll be ok. as for the saltwater flush... mmm... that's going to be a challenge. i made a liter of it last night and tested whether i'd be able to stomach it or not. i had been reading on the forums before about the different reactions people have had to it. whereas before i used to have a cast-iron stomach, this year i seemed to develop a bit of a more sensitive stomach. earlier this i vomited twice (for the first time since i was 4). doctors here couldn't help much. so it was my own deductions that led me to realize onions (which i love so much) suddenly have the effect of making me nauseous hours after eating them.

so while i was aiming to do the cleanse before this condition appeared, now that it has it's given me even more incentive now to try and clean out whatever toxins are slowly and insidiously killing me from the inside.

i don't know how much mental discipline i have with regards to food, or how much i genuinely care about my health now as a mid-20s male, but i figure this will give me an idea. i've known of the diet for years. everyone in my family back in the states has done it at various points years ago, but i never got around to it because of the time commitments it requires in the morning. but now push has come to shove so to speak. it has to be done. so i'm hoping for success and looking forward to some of the great moral support of others that i've seen going around on these boards. i hope that this thread rightfully earns its spot in the "Success Stories" subforum soon enough.

with that said, let the trials begin. (i'm a sucker for dramatic effect!)

my first question of pre-trial is about the saltwater flush. can i get some others methods and things others have done to somewhat adjust the swf to make it more bearable for them. i've read a variety of things from using the laxative both night and morning (not the most recommended way) to breaking up the swf into 2 parts (8 oz saltwater followed by 24 oz fresh water). i've read the 'think happy thoughts' and pretend its soup suggestions, which i tried last night (i warmed it up, put it in a bowl, and sipped it just the same way i sip miso soup here).

one thing i realized for me is that, yeh, if i think 'miso soup' or what have you as i drink, it will go down without much resistance. the problem comes in when 1) it's lukewarm (blecch!) and 2) if its drank from a narrow opening (like a bottle neck). so i'm curious as to just how warm 'warm' can be. i'm figuring, i could've made it hotter than i did last night, since i think the aim is to get it to about the same temp as our body.

problem 3) after its in my stomach, i can't help thinking about all that liquid in there and which end it will come out first, and that seems to make me just slightly nauseous. lol. (no offense, but somehow reading this bored during while drinking the swf made things worse... so i had to close the window to continue).

as a result, i wasn't able to drink all the swf last night. as i had had a mcdonalds meal (please don't flame) and my trial glass of the lemonade hours earlier, i think they were still in my system somewhere, so only about half the swf went in, and none made its way out. curious as to what happened to the saltwater. i guess the mcdonalds food absorbed it. :S what this tells me is that maybe i should try and eliminate as much waste from my system as possible before i start my actual 10 days. any suggestions as an effective way to get this process started beforehand (without the early morning runs)?

Day 0 - Wednesday 12/19/2007

i originally planned on starting friday night/saturday morning, but i decided to start my lemonade diet 2 days early. i'm in need of a meaningful challenge lately. started with the smooth move tea about midnight before going to bed.

Day 1 - Thursday 12/20/2007

set my alarm for 5:15am (decided to wake up 2 hours early... wasn't sure how long the saltwater would take to take effect). turns out it was almost exactly an hour before the first elimination. 30 minutes till it was all out of my system.

at work. my stomach is surprisingly stable. but it seems i smell food more than usual today. i smell everything and want to eat everything. i've held off on taking my first cup of lemonade (i have 1 class to teach first period and don't really know what to expect after the first cup... so waiting till after class).

class done. everything going smooth so far. lol. squeezing lemons in the staff room- i think the other teachers think i'm crazy.

well, made it through day one. even played tennis for several hours. there were some moments of physical weakness and hunger (i could smell all sorts of foods cooking from miles away). i just wanted to eat everything. but i made it through with my cajun lemonade. midnight smooth move again.

Day 2 - Friday 12/21/2007

i set my alarm for 5:15am again, but ended up waking up 30 mins. before it (cramps from the tea). oh well, just means the process gets off to an earlier start. by the way, for my saltwater flush i've been splitting the saltwater and fresh water mixtures (300 mL saltwater; 700 mL fresh water). it turns out it does indeed have the same effect... and while the saltwater may be saltier in taste, its less in amount, and therefore, much more bearable to me. i can hardly imagine forcing down a whole liter of saltwater.

made it through the day again. played tennis again for several hours. smooth move's aftertaste is getting worse (i hate licorice) and is leaving my mouth quite dry.

Day 3 - Saturday 12/22/2007

this time i set my alarm for 7am. still didn't need it. the smooth move laxative tea has become my alarm. woke up about 30 mins. before my alarm again. this time, there wasn't much cramping from the tea. but it seems to work through my system within 5 hours (even though the box says 8 to 12 hours). laxative forced me to the bathroom while i was in the middle of drinking my saltwater. saltwater flush was a little bit harder to swallow this morning than usual. not sure why. but i got it down anyway.

today i decided to stay in and give my body any rest it may need. rested most of the day. watched tv. played psp. drank my lemonade. drank my tea. off to bed around 2am.

ran out of time to keep reading but...

I drink the salt in 1/2 glass of water and follow immediately with the rest of the water w/out salt. I can not get it down if I try to drink 32 oz of salt water!

Also, I find it easier with Epsom salt than sea salt

Day 4 - Sunday 12/23/2007

set my alarm for 10am... woke up at 7am. yup. it seems to be 5 hrs for the tea. once again, cramps weren't too bad. had a somewhat acidic elimination before i took the saltwater. makes me wonder if i really need to do saltwater still even though the laxative has emptied me. oh well, i think so since they serve similar, but different purposes. laxative loosens; saltwater flushes. so i went back to sleep. woke up at 10 by my alarm. took the saltwater. i didn't have much difficulty getting it down this morning thankfully. i think that also has something to do with the position of my head. if i'm looking down, it seems easier for the water to come back up. but if i hold my head high while drinking, it seems to go down fine.

Day 5 - Monday 12/24/2007

smooth move woke me up around 4:40am... went back to sleep after, and woke up at about 7:30. got through the day mostly okay. tired of the lemonade taste. actually, it's probably not so much the lemonade as the fuzzy tongue and taste in my mouth. i want some flavor to kill it, and the lemonade is only doing the job for as long as it's in my mouth. yuck! i think that's been the worst part of the diet for me- the saltwater flush wasn't as bad as i imagined it would be, haven't had headaches or colds toxins affect me, been lightheaded and weak a few times, but that's from my own under-drinking at times. the taste in my mouth and whitish yellow fuzzy tongue are the worst! ughh... i really hope its gone by day 10. day 5's been the worst day so far. my stomach was bothering me a bit this evening. and it helped to kill my appetite for the lemonade too.

Thanks for your posts! I wish you all the best. Wow, teaching in Japan, sounds awesome. You can do this. I've had similar issues with the swf, it's makes me want to gag, it's all in my head, but the aroma of the swf gets to me. I promise never to flame on you about McD's, at least you are honest. Just another hurdle. I'm starting again tomorrow, so, wish me luck! Merry Christmas!

"Dance as if no one is watching"

hey mariposa, thanks for the reply/encouragement. and all the best with your cleanse too!

Day 6 - Tuesday 12/25/2007

yay! day 6. less than 140 hours to go before i start OJ. hmm... i wonder how that's gonna work. finding organic food and juice in japan is harder than one might think. and my lemons (and therefore my lemonade) taste funny today. played a little tennis in the morning at work, then came home early. still no appetite for lemonade. not sure if i'll make it through the entire 2 liters today.

for some reason, i think today was my roughest day.

Day 7 - Wednesday 12/26/2007

interesting. this time i kept the smooth move tea in my system for the entire time that i slept until my alarm woke me up (7:30am). good timing on the tea! afterwards, i did the saltwater flush. for some reason the saltwater was harder to get down this morning than usual. 5, 6, and 7 so far have been the most unpleasant days of this cleanse so far. the yucky taste of nothing is still in my mouth. but at least today was a beautiful day. seemed almost like spring. played tennis for a couple hours in the morning. praise jah, only 3 more days of lemonade, saltwater, and laxative tea!

Day 8 - Thursday 12/27/2007

woke up several times to make trips to the bathroom before 5:30am. went back to sleep and woke up at 7:30am. saltwater flush was no problem this morning. actually, the past few days were bad. and it was mostly because of the taste left over in my mouth. i decided starting today, i would eliminate the plastic bottles i had been using to drink my lemonade/cayenne mixture on the go from use. i think the acid of the lemons and cayenne were doing something to alter the plastic. yuck! i wonder what toxins that introduced to my system. but now that i've switched to glass and paper cups only, the taste in my mouth on Day 8 is a big improvement over yesterday. i hope i'm wrong though and that the taste wasn't the result of chemically altered lemonade. but i guess i'll never know. 2 days to go till OJ! btw, i couldn't find organic orange juice here in osaka... or if i did, i couldn't read it. so i found this nice market yesterday that sells produce items in bulk and bought 2 bags of orange. so i'll make my own fresh-squeezed juice on sunday, and will probably have enough oranges left over to last me well past my post-cleanse phase.

Day 9 - Friday 12/28/2007

today was one of the unpleasant days. woke up by my alarm again this morning (7:30am). i think i've found the correlation between how long you sleep and how strong your smooth move tea is before you go to sleep. the past two nights i've been careful not to let it steep too long (less than three minutes). the weaker the tea, the smoother the move it seems.

today i opted not to go to work. it was cold and rainy outside (students are on winter holidays and i have to ride a bicycle to work rain or shine). since i stayed home and rested, i thought it would give the lemonade and materials more opportunity to do some good healing. but i felt not too good throughout the day. couldn't even finish my 2 liters of lemonade. it seems that the less active i am on a given lemonade day, the more difficult it is to get through it... and the worst the taste in my mouth by the end of the day.

oh well, there went my final cup of smooth move. day 9 complete.

Day 10 - Saturday 12/29/2007

i did it! 10 days of saltwater flushes and smooth move teas behind me! and i was right. i figured since it was my final night that i should try the tea at full(er) strength, so i let it steep a little longer the night before. and whadda ya know! it woke me up at 5 in the morning. as a matter of fact, i was in the middle of dreaming that i was at some assembly or something with an audience of thousands of members and a speaker on a stage, and that i had the worst stomachache ever that just wouldn't go away. and it was kinda impossible to get up from the crowd and make my way to the bathroom. but i eventually did. and then i woke up and followed suit in real life. i honestly won't miss that stuff (the tea i mean).

day 10 complete... although, i don't think i made it through even half my bottle of lemonade.

Day 11 - Sunday 12/30/2007

woke this morning... barely had energy to squeeze 3 oranges. i just felt too weak. it's my fault though- between staying up really late at night and not drinking all my lemonade, it's a wonder i didn't pass out. but i made it. i even went over to a friend's house this evening (who happened to be cooking my favorite japanese dish-- okonomiyaki)... but i didn't have one bite. i even cooked part of the time! my mother used to cook for us all the time while she was on the lemonade diet many years ago... and it always amazed me, her willpower. nice to know i inherited her ironclad will.

earlier in the day, i went to the supermarket and bought veggies for my soup on monday... and my orange juice for the day. i was a little worried storebought OJ would cause my system distress... but it seems perfectly fine.

as for the probiotics, mine are in pill form. and i was a little worried about taking that solid while still technically on the diet (day 10), so i crushed it up and mixed it in water. definitely not made to tantalize your tastebuds. but i drank that and had no problems tummy wise. and then this morning i took another pill/tablet, un-crushed, and had no problems digesting.

well, i seem to have made it through day 11 as well. i think tomorrow i'll make the miso soup mixes i bought and nibble some of the vegetables that i plan to add to it.

Wow, it's been 6 years since I last posted (and last lemonade dieted)!

Well, just posting to say I successfully completed another 10 days of this diet. This time I didn't keep a running diary of the ins and outs. But I got through it without too much struggle.

It's strange, I did this on a whim more than a need or strong desire. My maple syrup is set to expire April 12, so I figured- "why let it go to waste?" So I started last Monday (March 31, 2014), actually only intending to do 3 or 5 days. But once I started, I couldn't convince myself in the point of stopping. So I decided to do the whole 10.

I'm currently on orange juice day, and for my own record, I want to make note of what was difficult this time around and what was good. To start off with something good, for one, living in Japan, we have certain amenities like washlets (toilet seats that spray you) and that made the frequent bathroom trips much better than I remember them being last time. Also, this time, instead of making my lemonade for the entire day in the morning, I instead made a mix of the water and maple syrup in a 2-liter bottle that I could bring with me to work, along with a kit of a couple lemons, measuring spoons, hand juicer and cayenne pepper. During lunch time I would usually go to the break room or to my car to cut and juice lemons. It was a bit tedious to be honest. And because of this setup, I couldn't just take a sip immediately when I was feeling hungry. But the benefit was that the lemonade was always fresh.

I remember last time around days 5, 6 and 7 I didn't feel so great and remember having this terrible bitter, nothing taste in my mouth. I was pretty sure the lemon juice was interacting with the plastic container I had kept my daily reserve in. This time, because there was no lemon juice mixing with plastic and I drank only from a glass, there were no particularly bitter, chemical tastes. The disgusting taste of nothing still came, but that's just part of the package and what happens when you haven't eaten food for days.

The Smooth Move laxative tea is still terrible tasting. I don't understand it! The tea itself doesn't taste bad when it's in your mouth, it's just when it leaves your mouth and there is this sweetly disgusting after-taste. It's the worst! But interestingly, I found this time that there were no cramps this time at all. It actually (finally) lived up to it's name!

The saltwater flush was also still unpleasant, but I didn't have any troubles getting or keeping it down this time. I guess it's because I figured out the trick early on last time: concentrated salt water mix followed by fresh water chasers; same effect. What I would do is have two glasses of equal size, one filled with water, one filled with saltwater. And I would go back and forth sipping each one. After that I would drink one more glass of fresh water to make 1 liter. It worked. Although, I kinda didn't think about whether to use tapwater or distilled water for the flush. I used tapwater for the first 7 days or so, since it was just passing through. I think that it was okay, but on day 8 or so I decided to use bottled water, just in case. But there were no noticeable differences.

Now I'm on orange juice day, and I don't remember the wait for solid food being this long and grueling. I bought a bag of oranges last week. But I remember last time, I barely had the strength to squeeze oranges for orange juice on day 11. So this time I decided I would buy some store bought juice just in case (I wasn't able to find anywhere in the book where it said the orange juice should be self-made; I think this was just a tradition in my family). I went to the supermarket yesterday and unbelievably couldn't find any non-cheap orange juice without added flavoring at either of the 2 supermarkets I went to. So I went home, and squeezed the pulpiest, thickest glass of orange juice I've ever made and put it in the fridge for the morning. I drank it this morning, and while the thick pulp didn't cause my stomach any distress, I could still feel reactions going on down there. Nothing major, just signs that the systems were being reactivated. But after spending all that time squeezing juice for one glass of OJ, I decided I was going to rely on store bought. Fortunately today at lunchtime at work, I was able to find a good 100% juice hand-squeezed with no added flavoring. I'm drinking and enjoying that now as I write. Still, I can't wait to be able to enjoy the sensation of solid food again! Sunday can't get here soon enough!

Ironically, while I started with the intent to use all the maple syrup I had, I actually cut back on the maple syrup, and in the end, I'm still left with a jug that's still probably 80% full...

Currently, my weight is 71.5 kg (down from about 75 or so). But since I didn't actually do this primarily to lose weight, I'm pretty sure that weight is gonna come back. I just hope it's not right away.