Master Cleanse Forum - Master Cleanser Lemonade Diet

Note: SKIP to page 13 for the most recent cleanse - this is an all-in-one blog for multiple Master Cleanses I have done

Alllrighty, I've decided to blog my first experience on the MC (or any for that matter) and I'll describe a few reasons why I have chosen to undertake this. Hopefully I keep this short and sweet, but sadly it usually ends up as a fairly long essay

First and foremost for the record, going to record my heigh/weight just so I have something to compare to in the end.

Height: 5'4
Weight: 155.5
Age: 23

Reasons why I am doing this:

Reason 1: To cleanse!

Yep - that's right, not doing it primarily for weight loss, although that is a nice side effect! It was not until I saw a picture of me during last year christmas time that I realised just how fast I was starting to let myself go... Coming from a steady 5 years of being at 112 pounds, 36,26,36 measurements without ever having tried and still eating junk food - to still eating the same but the body now being in the 20's and gaaaining the weight and having funny shapes and curves!

After soo many years of energy drinks, and fast food, I am no longer 'regular' am sick more often and gained weight on top of all that. I'm sure there is gunk inside of me that is making me ill as often as I am. After picking up soo many bad habits and eating pracitices, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a fair amount of toxicity that is bringing my energy down amongst other things.
Needless to say, once I noticed that the double chin had sneaked itself onto my face and I was muffin topping in my jeans, I knew it was time to change. I joined a gym, would go 3-5 times a week to swim/run. Did this for a few months and within 2 months dropped 15 pds, not bad. At this time I had joined diet.com's new years challenge, where you set goals and such.. ended up in 2nd place for their challenge (for amount of goals achieved, amount lost, participation on message boards etc)... That was kind of neat!

Then I ended up with an injury that put me out for a few months and I could hardly walk without limping, even while sitting - the pain was there, dull, and sharp at other times. After a few weeks of this going on I went to my doctor who sent me to a physiotherapist, again, first time for me! This physiotherapist was amazing! She explained why I was experiencing the knee pain, shin pain, etc, and it was all referred pain (that means the pain is caused by something somewhere else in the body) because one side of my body was tigher/toner than the other...for whatever reason...

Last month, the man and I had to head to BC (we live in canada) for a wedding, I tried an emergency cabbage soup diet to lose 5 pds before the wedding to get into a dress, boy, let me tell you, that diet gets bland very very.. VERY fast! Since our return I haven't done anything except buy health conscious foods and have yet to hit the gym/workout.

Also I forgot to mention - In Jan I quit smoking as well, cold turkey for 2 months, where, after, a few alch. beverages had me holding the nic stick... shame on me! Also I do enjoy my alcohol slightly more than most and would admit that probably has something to do with my gain to begin with - as such I have been cutting down as well...

So needless to say - That was not the only issue with me health wise (the knee/shin injury), very recently I have become more suseptable to being sick, developed an allergy, and it always seems like there is something ~wrong~ all the time, if it's not one thing it's another... at least thats what my man believes hehe. After reading a tonne on the digestive tract and what certain chemicals and whatnot do to the body, processed foods vs whole/organic, and soo on I have to say this year has been an amazing learning opportunity for me and I have become extremely conscious about my health...

That being said - Detoxing is my first priority and reason for embarking on my first detox/fast - ever. I know I may be considered by many to be young, but I would rather be proactive now, and take care of the only vehicle I have in this life

Reason 2: Mental/emotional/spiritual grounding.

Mentally, I used to be as sharp as a whistle, but for whatever reason I now have a hard time concentrating on anything, nevermind remembering....and to me, I find it a little alarming. Now whether that normal aging creeping up on me or I killed a few braincells, or who knows. Anyway, if it has come to the point where my man calls my memory that of a goldfish, I know SOMETHING is up. Thus, I have read blog upon blog of people whom have found some mental clarity during this process and as such I would like to observe my thoughts and emotions and see if I can deal with old things still plaguing me and come at peace with body/mind/emotions... to learn to calm, and just 'be' again.

Spiritually, I would not call myself an athiest, but I sense that there is something (not saying it's sooomeoneee) going on that the eye can not see, that is intangible, and wish to explore that more as well. I used to be buddhist growing up - for 7 years - .. Yep the only little white girl in a buddhist temple haha, don't ask.. anyway, since then I have left that temple but am always open to new ideas, enjoy reading/researching about other beliefs, but never pursuing one... The human mind, spirit and all its other denominations have alllways fascinated me and as such I think I owe it tomyself to cross the old legs and maybe meditate and - relax

Oh, and I have never really given myself a 'challenge' per se to really prooove to myself that I can master, mind over matter anything. This will be my first real challenge to embark!


Reason 3: Weight loss/Health

Yep, the weight loss, above I have written in length my own physical history - I used to cross country run while in school, then I started smoking, discovered partying when I turned 18, and well before then discovered fast food.

Having always had a tiny frame I thought I could get away with it - aparantly not. Now, I am not obese, but according to the BMI and how I feeeel, this does not feel right for me, and I am just a bit over weight. I have noticed I have become more ill more often, more aches and pains, more pimples and whatnot that will just NOT go away, little things do add up! Now I may not go back to my svelt 112, but that was when I was still in the teens ... I'd be happy with a 130 (ideal to me)...

Back in January I taught myself about nutrition, sugar addiction, how to read labels, how some sugars are different than others... As such - I made many changes and became more aware of what i was putting in my mouth. So after this cleanse is done, I will embark on a healthier lifestyle! I like to think by doing this I am throwing a small sort of reset switch on the body I have even thought of going to get a colon cleanse done professionally, but thought to try this instead! Yep, I am no longer regular and I think it has something to do with all the junk i've eatten and drank in the past 5 years.. I can feel my body isn't digesting/passing/moving things along at a satisfactory rate.

Anyway... I am rambling aren't I

I tried a 'taste test' last night of the MC mixture and although I do adore..and I mean love, my spices, the cayenne for whatever reason doesn't sit well with me in this mixture.... I think I will be going to find empty pill caplets and just putting the cayenne in there and taking the proper amount per day - just in pill form. Of course - still drinking pleeenty of the water/maple/lemon accordingly..

Secondly, I will be picking up epsom salts for baths. I have heard of people using this as another detox method, and as such, if I'm not going to have a traditional 'meal' I might as well use one of those for a bath...

Next, I will be looking for uniodized sea salt... found the iodized one at my major grocery store but nothing uniodized I need to do a flush!

Today being day one, I really need to get going and make some MC mixture, find some caplettes so I can stuff cayenne into it, never thought I would have issues with cayenne, I loooove spices, love hot sauce, chili spiciness, asian hot sauces, hot sauce was the first thing in our fridge when we bought our first home a few months ago hehe. Anyway, I happen to be having issues with cayenne, worst case I just add it last before drinking it.

ANYWAY - rambling!

I have also noticed I maaaay have developed ADD... if it is not apparant in my writing, it will be at some point. My mind seems to be going a million miles an hour sometimes and I do not feel it at that precise moment... at least not until I re-read my essays



Alllriiight time to get dressed and pick up the goods - Helloooo day 1!

Congratz on starting the journey to a better you! It seems like you have a pretty well defined idea of what the MC really is... a detox. Weight loss is really just a happy side effect, IMHO. Best of luck with your cleanse! Remember that the rough spot will pass and just stay the course. You'll be glad you did.

I would offer one suggestion... I can't really stand the Cayenne in the LA mix either... it's just really nasty. What I do is fix myself a drink and then pour a small bit into a shot glass and add the cayenne to that. Down the shot then just enjoy the rest of the LA.

Ohh, thats a mighty fine idea! The shot glass!!

I did find capsules at the store that have the cayenne powder IN them with nothing else added (organic etc), but it has been advised to take the powder without a capsule so I will try the original method!


Also it is my understanding that the more cayenne you can put back the better correct? If that's the case I could put back those capsules but again I will try to stick to powder without the capsules hehe...

Well I'm back, it was HELLA hard for me to get a hold of non iodized sea salt... I stood there waiting for my phone to bring up google so I could search one sea salt grinder I found that didn't mention iodine on it... and sure enough non-iodized WOOHOO!

Then I headed over to another store near me for the epsome(spelling) salts...boy, they sell that stuff on the large scale hey?

Picked up some food for my significant other, told him to tell hismother not to prep me any food whenever we go over haha... and he asks 'Why do you punish yourself like this!!!' as he eats his ham and cheese sub I picked up... Him of course fit as a fiddle and of good bmi... lucky

I wonder if people get used to this concoction's taste... jsut like anything else I'm sure it just takes getting used to?

SWF and Epsom salt bath!

I decided to down the SWF, I have found rather than chugging it all down I can easily put it down in 2-3 attempts... Really no problem at all!

Also, I haven't had any issues drinking the mixture today... Yes, silly me made this mixture last night so the cayenne had time to fester haha...but really - maybe the lemon has dulled the taste or something but I'll see how a fresh fresh mix is tomorrow


The bath... was quite lovely, just as any bath is... for those whom have never taken an epsom salt bath, the salt dissolves nicely and won't carry any color (not that I noticed anyway) and try to stay in it for at least 20 minutes to give time to slowly pull toxins out

After a half hour I looked down (was reading a magazine) and noticed the water was a few shades darker than ealier... no joke! I called to my man to take a look and he confirmed it did look a little darker than normal... From my angle though, it looked much darker hah. I even thought to myself if I had done anything to explain the 'extra dirty' water...but nothing I have done today has come to mind...interesting?

Now that I'm all relaxed from the bath, bloated from the SWF and downing more concoction I noticed I feel slightly spacey (dont want to turn head too fast) and it feels like a headache miiiight be coming on but it dissapears lol.

THat's my update

Day 2:

Weight: 153 (-2 pounds)
BM: None as of yet? I am not regular to begin with - I had 2 salt water mixes last night, and even 2 senna type pills to help you 'go' last night, and a salt water this morning - and still no movements.... odd???


Yesterday was interesting, after the epsom bath I fell asleep before we went to the inlaws place who gave me scrunched up faces 'well it's not healthy to eat..nooo thats baaad' and I responded - 'I have all that I need in here to keep me going, don't worry about me!'.. ah well, The halibut did smell good but I didn't touch anything but my mix


last night I was sure to roll lemons against the counter to get the jucies flowing and put them in a strainer on the counter that rested on top of the cutting board so that I could easily get to making the mix today... Made the mix and made a salt water mix and off we went...

Got to work and lo and behold... a break in, major one @ our office.. I happen to be the only I.T. person here and as I saw the cop car on the walk up my heart hit my stomach... YAY nothing stolen except for a few things...

So I forgot to have my SWF solution for a bit as I was running around our building to take a look at things... Needless to say I COMPLETELY forgot about a meeting I had and gulped down a VERY concentrated SWF mix...

Within 2 minutes I had unbarable pain in my stomach... really, never felt that before...ever. I went to the bathroom and nearly got sick, passed some gas and I was ok lol... Off to the meeting I went.

All good now, actually I have plowed through most of my lemon mix and it's not even lunch yet uh oh! hehe, lots of water for me today!

I still can not believe I didn't eat anything yesterday...it's a weird thought... I know during my mini nap yesterday afternoon I drempt about food, but that's normal since all you're thinking is 'I CAN NOT HAVE FOOD ON THIS' lol... so it is only natural that the day time thoughts invade dreams

I DID have a rough time getting to sleep last night, not sure why..just couldn't get comfortable, but within 15 mins I was out!

Today: Despite the early stressful activities of this morning I am FULL of energy...maybe its the maple syrup? No idea, but my mind is clear and I speak as if I am wired haha...

I made 2L's of the solution this morning and I'm almost out...maybe I need to make more?

More updates later!

FIRST BM!!!
About a half hour after the last post I sat on the toilet to take... another.. pee but felt that I should perhaps 'push' and see if anythign will come out of the derrier... sure enough, a little bit of food from a few days past came out, so that makes me feel a lot better...


During 'lunch' I went to the health food store near my work and I asked the kind clerk to point me out to the teas that help you 'go'. I told her I was performing my first detox/cleanse and she immediately said 'OHhhh are you doing the master cleanse???' and pointed me to the box that all the MC'ers that come pick up the box I did.


My man is very respectful that i am trying to become more healthy and supports me in all that I do but he is a little concerned because I had an issue with this morning's SWF ... But I promised him if anything became too much I would stop. Everyone is stuck on this 'but you're not EATING' deal, and I get that, I understand that completely! But, I'm not dead, could stand to lose a few pounds of toxic waste, and young, I might as well do this and see if I can push my mind, spirit and body =)

Co-workers are interested in how my progress will be, so not only am I holding myself accountable online with a blog - but - with co-workers as well

Can't wait to try this tea at home!

Howdy C007! Haha I'm glad someone is able to decipher my posts that are written from someone who has the attention span of a goldfish
Good luck to you and feel free to post a blog, I will be sure to follow it as well Stay mentally tough and you can do it! I found that personally, sure, there will be temptations (smell, sight, touch), but the mere though that I am doing this for the overall wellbeing of my body and knowing how much i would beat myself up if I cheated on it, has pulled me through thus far. I sincerely hope you find the 'mind over matter zone' during this cleanse =) You do learn more about yourself within the first efw days and what you can overcome (especially since eating [for most] is a powerful habit to break for a while). Woohoo to brain powa!


Last night - I took a quick run on the treadmill and hit the bike, just to get some sweat going... it is my understanding by sweating -it helps to release toxins... As such, I was a pretty shade of pink, with a layer of sweat...sexy, but I did feel great ,and energized as one usually does after working out.

Note: After day 1's light headedness/weakness I was afraid of how my body would handle cardio... surprisingly no problem on day 2, I intend to hit the mill again today. I am not pushing myself as I normally do, but enough to get a sweat going

Shortly after the work out I took an Epsom salt bath, needless to say, wonderful colors were showing up in the bath in addition to the muscle relaxation from the salts, hurray for expunging of the toxins!

This may be tougher for most but I have managed to walk in food courts, go to our local grocery store (superstore) and even put together meals that smell tantalizing without giving in! The man however kept teasing me alll night last night to have a bit of something... I believe he was doing that partially to test my willpower, and because he is concerned about the 'not eating' part, especially since he said 'everything thinks you're crazy' ... Which I will admit did put me out but snapped myself out of feeling like a 'weirdo' and put the mentally strong cap on


THEN - last night I tried the tea out.. having had the tea before I steped it just as long as I do normally... BIG MISTAKE (why do I have to learn the hard way!)

I was sitting at the computer after the bath (had tea while in bath), and I slowly felt cramping occuring from the top down, right to the pit of my stomach... To the point, again, where I laid down on the couch and focused on breathing. I'd say it took roughly 10 minutes for the pain to pass... The whole time I was cursing myself for forgetting just how strong this tea is and stepeing it for 10 minutes in a small mug is the stupidest thing ever when you have no solid foods to be digested....silly...silly me.

Note: It was only a matter of a few minutes before the tea started to kick in to clean the innards... Let me tell you, when you have no solid foods in your system, teas and salt water REALLY do take effect quite...promptly.

@ 3:00am in the morning I did end up waking up from cramping, went to the bathroom and all was well!

Lesson: The tea..works extereemely well of course, but if you've used a dietary tea before, be sure to reduce the steping(spelling?) time significantly the first time until you get used to the tea. Remember - if you haven't eaten in a few days...take it easy on the first time tea ingestion on the MC!


But, I will hold strong, still have not identified just how long I will be doing this for, but it is an experience in mental gymnastics!


Day 3:

Weight: 151.5 (-4ish pds from 3 days ago)
BM: This morning @ work, and this morning @ 3 am (drank too much tea!)

While I was getting ready in the morning the man put his hands on my waist 'hey, ooh! I can feel your curves!!'.. That made me smile, I am a rather curvy young woman, been told it's hourglassish but it has been slowly hiding behind the fat that has been accumilating hehe...

Did the SWF (warm this time! Dont want the cramps that come with the cold SWF) this morning. Went to the bathroom again this morning (went last night at 3am as well, too much tea, silly me!)... It hit me suddenly! Sure you can feel the stomach and innards bubbling and loosening things up..but it was unexpected. I had to briskly walk to the bathroom, passing by several people who wondered what mission I was on and hurrah - more expunging of concentrated evil!

Still the whoooole day to go =) Will post later

Hey thanks katie! I look forward to reading your posts as well. - I am sure we will overlap if I decide to continue past Saturday good luck and have fun!

Evening update: for whatever towards the end of work and all the way to home I had excruciating burning pains in my stomach/just above it area... I figure it may be because I tried a bunch of cayenne suppliments all at once and that set the innarrds on fire... I've experimented with them while on this (still taking cayenne in the beverage of course... was looking to sneak in more cayenne via the supps as I heard the more cayenne the better) and I really think they cause digestive pains if taking more than 2 at a time..... here I go again learning the hard way ....

Needless to say as soon as we arrived home, I stripped, nabbed jamies and crashed on the couch for 2 hours.. woke up just fine.... just hungry...didn't help I smelled chicken for a few minutes (my man got peckish) but I downed more juice and off I went prepping his dinner hehe...yep hands in the cooked chicken and pita bred...and other ingrdients and I didn't have too bad an urge to mow on anything I decided to take a tiny piece of unwanted pita bread ans just let it sit on the tip of my tongue for a minute to see how powerful the taste would be....WOOOOOWIE it sure was strong tasting.... took an hour to get the taste out of the mouth but still didn't eat it... I was curious how taste buds would react to what I would normally eat hah!

I've had some tea this evening and no pains which is nice! I hope I took enough tea to get things moving!

Developing a hand cramp typing this on my phone on the couch! ttyl folks

Day 4:
SW: 155.5
CW: 151 (-.5 from yesterday) Knew I should have worked out last night!


WOW I made it three whole days soo far without eating hurrah!!! I've had some odd cravings but have managed to will myself into not eating them… woohoo! It seems easier because I tell myself 'wow, x amount of days, why undo all that work!'

Last night I made myself an extra bit of tea after a few hours of feeling nothing last night (I really didn’t steppe it for too long at all) and went to bed. Sure enough at 3:30 in the morning my dream woke me up (had dreamt about having a BM hah…figures), and I half feared that I might have soiled myself in my sleep. NOPE! Did the panic dance to the bathroom and I let go… AHHhhhhh.. mucho better! Since there was some cramping from the tea (think I had too much…again…), but not too bad of cramping, while I sit on the throne I decided to massage the belly / intestinal region for a few minutes as I found it pushed gas and juices around and I felt MUCH better

Got up this morning, another run to the bathroom, not much coming out last nigh and this morning, but then again, there is nothing solid going IN, so I don’t expect to see much coming OUT compared to ‘normal’ movements hehe.

If I may comment about the BM consistency (or lack there of?): Lots of juice, won’t deny that, and just the odd dime-sized flat pieces of fecal matter… that’s about it! This morning though I did notice a uh.. stronger odor to say the least , but nothing special beyond that!

So now that I have an idea of how long to steppe my tea for I should be ok from here on in (hopefully!)… Not that I mind getting up in the wea hours in the morning to purge (as, over time one may gain a perversion and enjoy the ritual...especially since you know toxins are coming OUT!).


I did find something interesting… I picked up a nutritional guide for dummies (canadian edition) and have been reading it while at home or on the train back home/to work. Learning about calories, empty calories, the digestive system, blab la blab la, enzymes, blab la BUT I did read something interesting – a formula that can tell you based on your weight and age/sex , what calories your body burns while resting… Resting Energy Expenditure (REE)… When I plugged my numbers in, I was sitting just over 1000cals a day that the body uses to REST (breathing, muscle contractions, digesting, etc) But I will have to post that later today or this evening if I have the time… work calls!

Downing the morning SWF as I type, then time for a busy work day!

Ta ta for now

Two things have come to mind...

One - I had another BM earlier.. Having previous experience with 'the tea' I know not to trust a fart..good thing I didn't today... felt the rumblings, held out for a while and went to the bathroom... @$$ juice, a few semi-solids but nothing, it's all good!


Two - I find that in loo of eating with my mouth I find I am eating via touch and sight and smell lol. I have been prepping my man's dinners and such myself, bbq chicken, taziki (spelling), pita bread, lettuce, tomatos..i'll stop there to spare people whom are on the cleanse lol... Needless to say, YES I do enjoy the smell, YES i do enjoy the ACT of cutting, touching and stuffing or w/e things together lol. And apaaaarantly thats ok for me.

Sure I sit at work and chat to my man and ask him what he wants for dinner, and then i proceed to look up new recipes so I can make him a healthy dinner - but I don't find myself craving something soo strong that i'll break this cleanse and cheat. Weird huh?

For example I am going to attempt my first chef's salad today and he's my guinea pig - read up for an hour on all types of styles of the salad and doesn't effect me past the 'hmm that sounds tasty!' point...

BUT I did find that when making his chicken pita's (first timer) the past few days, that I was able to make a delicious meal by judging how a) foods smell, b)their texture and c)their site and then putting it altogether in a harmonious (not too much of anything) manor.... without having a single taste of it...or making it before.....

Is that weird?!?!

Ah well, I found it interesting anyway lol

Morning of Day 5:

Morning! Still alive - yep!

Haven't dropped any weight over night, but I did get up @ 630am to purge, then purged again after I had been standing around making my mix... I find the tea, sure, makes you go, but the gargling and bubbling sounds occur as you change from a laying down position to a standing... which of course....makes sense, sloshing things around horizontally then vertically...

I did work out last night and sweated plenty so I thought I would at least see a .5 pound difference this morning but no dice... I DID enjoy the epsom bath again though...soo good, and oh my, was that EVER dirty water lol...


Anyway I was concerned that maybe I have been taking too much SWF (been doing it every morning religiously), or not enough water... But I posted those questions in the GEneral Questions topic


So instead this morning, I am going to steppe some tea, for only a few minutes, and use that instead of SWF for today....


Also, the man noted that I have more energy than usual.. As of recent I usually dont stop to sit down until 2-3 hours after we're home from work... I make him dinner, prep lunch for him [yeah he's a lucky man :p ], clean up a bit, etc... by the time that's done its roughly 7something pm, and I tell myself I have to work out before I get too comfy lol. 'You're such a work horse recently...you don't stop!' ... whereas I call it quits after an hour of cleaning or household stuff... Oh well


While working out, Both times that I have gone to the gym in our building, 2 different ladies had walked into the room, saw that I was watching the food network 'OH MY GOD I LOOOOVE FOOD NETWORK..WHAT"S ON? I'VE NEVER SEEN THSI SHOW'... I found it intreguing, two totally different people, coming to work out, just love and adore the channel... just thought that was funny timing =)


Nothing new to report, just a good day at work

ttyl!

Update - almost home time here, and let me tell you - my neck is a mess! It is very tight on the bottom portion of it.. not sure why, I woke up with no neck or back aches and pains (normally I do), it is extremely stiff and I was tempted to take an advil or an equivalent for it but staying true - haven't touched anything but my mix and water

I noticed at one point when i stood up and went for a quick walk to an office that I may have experienced a low blood pressure type symptom? Where you can hear/feel your heart beat in your ears? It affected my hearing...imagine if you will the sound of when cars are rushing by, that woosh woosh sound...

Anyone care to confirm my suspicions?

Also, having found out I have not been drinking anywhere near the amount of water that I should be I've downed 4 cups of water soo far and put the mix on standby until further this evening... I will be drinking more water today there is no doubt... WATER, PEOPLE, MORE WATER!!

The local bookstore may or may not have the master cleanse books i am looking for but we are visiting the store tonight. I have 'The China Study' on hold, a must purchase and hiiiiighly hiiighly rated/advised book written by one of the top nutritional experts in north america (will post more).

Worst case, my man will go and order the MC books off of amazon =)