Cleanse Days 9-15

Life has a way of turning you on your head when you least expect it. That just happened to take place at the end of the cleanse.

Days 9-11 were very good days. I wasn't hungry all the time. On day 10 I started phase 2 which included one grain dish per day. I moved on to phase 3, which includes proteins, on day 13 or 14.

Unexpectedly, I found that after day 9 I witnessed a huge shift within myself. I needed to speak and live truthfully.

Normally I consider myself a truthful person, but if someone causally asks me how I'm doing I don't always come out with the whole truth. Most of the time they really don't want to know anyway, they are just making conversation. My standard answer to "how are you doing" is "good". Well on day 9 that changed. Truth starting spilling out and it didn't stop. I made a BIG fucking mess. Even 2 weeks later it's still a big fucking mess.

But it's been a long time coming. At least it's all out there in the open. There is a lightness that comes with speaking the truth.

This cleanse was WAY more than I had anticipated on so many levels. Decisions need to be made, and will be in the coming week.

"With every mistake we must surely be learning" - right?

Cleanse Days 7 and 8

Day 7 was by far my worst day so far. I felt like shit. Exhausted, hungry, dizzy, angry. After talking with someone who has been cleansing many times a year for many years I figured out a few things. 1. I need to be eating MORE food, especially vegetables. 2. I wasn't taking any cleansing herbs because I thought that it would be easier on my system but that it was backfiring because the toxins where hanging around in my body longer. 3. I might need to move the next part of the cleanse before next Sunday depending on how things go.

I ate a handful of cashews and that helped with the irritability. In addition to eating more food I've started drinking the dandelion root tincture 3-4 x per day. I think I've eaten my weight in guacamole over the last two days.

Day 8 I felt the best that I have since I started. Although I feel low on energy the other detox symtoms have gone away. Last night I made an amazing Sweet Potato and Kale soup from the book If the Buddha Came to Dinner. It was amazing!

Oh, and I found the damn tape measure. I fell like I've already lost the inches that are going to come off but it will be interesting to see if there's any change at the end.

Bust: 32

Waist: 28

Hip: 36

An interesting side note is that the past 3 nights I've dreamt. Vivid dreams. It's been a long time since that's happened. Maybe even before I had kids.

Cleanse Day 6

Strange thing happened this morning. I woke up early with hives on my head. That's usually the first sign that I've eaten something that contains dairy. There's no way I've had any dairy. I can only guess that my body was reacting to the veggie broth, but it seems so unlikely that I could be allergic to any of those vegetables. I'm going to keep an eye on it.

Hurray for food! This morning I started out with the Master Cleanse lemonade for breakfast. I was concerned that my stomach might not handle food so well after 5 days on a liquid diet. But all is well. Today I enjoyed:

veggie broth from last night

kale chips

banana

strawberries

carrots with guacamole!!

For dinner I overdid it a bit with a baked potato with garlic, onions and guacamole. I ate it too fast. I've been so hungry.

Cleanse Day 5

Today was another difficult day. I was tired, very hungry, and cranky for most of the day. Emotionally this has been the toughest day yet. I've been feeling very insecure and unsure of myself. Somethings just not right, so tonight I decided that I would move on to phase 2 now instead of sticking it out until Thursday. I've gained what I wanted from a liquid diet. I'm excited about cooking and eating again. I was feeling burnt out before I started.

Phase 2 lasts about a week. I'll be eating only fruits and veggies as well as taking some herbs that detox the liver, kidneys, etc.

Since I've been on a liquid diet for 5 days I can't go right into eating food again without a transition. Tonight I made a vegetable broth from kale, celery, radish greens (maybe turnip greens, I can't ever remember which is which), bok choy, and parsley from my garden. I was worried that it might taste bitter but I must say that it was very delicious. It makes me wonder why I've never drank veggie broth before as a drink. I'm starting to think of it as vegetable tea.

Tomorrow I want to start eating real food, like food that you chew(!), but I'll have to see how it goes. One of the main focuses during this phase is to pay attention to how my body reacts to each food.

That's all for now.

Cleanse Days 3 and 4

Yesterday (day 3) was rough. I felt nauseous most of the day, but realized by night that I could curb it by drinking more water. Still felt hungry.

Today I was tired but most likely because I woke up for 3 + hours last night and couldn't fall back asleep. It was also a day of great temptation. Having to constantly prepare, touch and clean up food is driving me crazy! I also took the girls to Chuy's for lunch. What was I thinking?! I would kill for those beans and rice right now. But I resisted. I made the mistake of saying that I was feeling hungry out loud and Zoe kept trying to feed me all afternoon.

Right now I don't feel like I can make it another 6 days before eating again. I'm soooo hungry!! The last time I was only hungry for the first day and then it was gone. Arg!

Cleanse Day 2

Today I started feeling the effects of the toxins that are being released into my system. Bhalllllll. I feel tired, cranky, hungry. Not terribly, but I feel like I'm in the beginning stages of getting a cold. Feeding my kids has been a challenge. I realize that through out the day I eat bites of their food. I feel like there is food everywhere.

Today I find some organic lemons! They taste better than the limes to me.

On to day 3...

Cleanse Day 1

So excited to finally start my cleanse today! My plan was to start last Friday but my stomach has been feeling off so I held out until today. I'm starting with the Master Cleanse for 10 days followed by a 3 week food cleanse outlined in the book If the Buddha Came to Dinner. If all goes as planned I'll break this 31 day cleanse on Nov 4th which just happens to be the same day I'm fly into NYC for a 3 day vacation BY MYSELF!

So far so good. I ate a breakfast taco this morning since I couldn't find any organic lemons last night. Then I made the cleanse drink with limes from about noon on.

Today I've felt hungry. Not cravings, just hungry (a salad would have hit the spot), but nothing major.

Physically I'm feeling a bit run down and tired.

I can't find my measuring tape, but when I do I'm going to post my measurements to see how much I lose during the coming weeks.

Day 2 - Final Day

I woke up this morning at 7 with terrible stomach cramps. They got worse and worse. The only thing that helped was being in a hot bath. It lasted for about 2 hours. Then I was nauseous for another 2 hours.

This is thanks to the laxative tea I drank the night before. It's called Smooth Move and it's said to be more gentle then pure Senna tea. Because I had cramps on the first day I made last night's tea weaker. The cramps this morning was twice as bad as the morning before. The laxative tea is an integral part of the Master Cleanse, but it doesn't seem to agree with my body.

After sitting in the bath for over an hour I decided that this isn't going to work. I'm going to do some more research and find another detox program that doesn't involve laxatives.

It's too bad because the hunger problem I had yesterday had gone away. In fact I didn't want to eat anything. For lunch I made the vegetable soup that I have been thinking about all day yesterday. I almost vomited when I cut up the onion. It must have been the smell. I put a bunch of veggies in water and let them simmer. The soup was good.

Even though I only did the cleanse for 40 hours or so I feel like I have a lot more energy. It might have something to do with not eating dairy, so I'm going to avoid dairy products for the next couple of weeks.

Day 1

I woke up this morning around 8. Since Skip and Zoe were out I thought I would stay in bed for awhile. That didn't work out so well. The Senna tea I drank the night before was causing my stomach to cramp. After going to the bathroom I felt much better.

Then I moved on to the business of drinking 32 oz of salt water. I was surprised that the taste wasn't all that objectionable. However, by the time I drank 16 oz I couldn't stomach anymore. I was feeling very nauseous. In the book, he calls this step the rinse cycle. It didn't work. I must need to drink more next time.

This morning I kept thinking what am I going to eat for breakfast and had to constantly remind myself that I'm going to eat anything. Same thing happened around lunch time. Then about 2pm hunger set in. It was bad. My stomach growled in protest. I wanted bread, pasta, crackers especially. Then it moved on to almost any food out there. I imaged someone handing me a head of cabbage. I could devour it raw right now and it would be the best meal I've had in months. I'm fantasizing about the vegetable soup I'm going to make to break the cleanse. It's going to be soooooo yummy. I'm going to have faith the food cravings will decrease in the next couple of days. If not, I don't think I can make it the full 2 weeks.

The lemonaid drink was also surprising good. I would drink it even if I wasn't cleansing. Today I drank 8 10-oz servings (about 2.5 lbs of lemons) and my lemon juicer broke...ha.

It's almost midnight. I feel completely exhausted. I'm going to drink my tea and go to bed.

Master Cleanse - The Night Before

I officially start the Master Cleanse tomorrow. I'm very excited about starting the cleanse. After being pregnant and breastfeeding, I feel like I need to give my body a chance to recuperate. And I'm sure eating as much dairy as I do with a milk allergy doesn't help my general state of health. I've gained some inches over the winter and many of my new skinny clothes are tight. I'm hoping that they will fit again once I'm done cleansing.

We went to Veggie Garden for dinner tonight. That will be my last solid meal for at least the next 10 days. I'm a bit worried to see what it's going to look like on it's way out tomorrow morning.

My first cup of laxative tea is steeping. This is the first step. Should be ready to drink in about 5 minutes. I've never taken a laxative of any kind before. Tomorrow morning I drink 32 oz of salt water to "flush out" everything. This should be interesting.

I'm planning to do the cleanse for 14 or 15 days. I'll do my best to post everyday, but beware, from what I've read it's not going to be pretty, at least at first.