Master Cleanse: Coming Off the Fast

OK, so this should be a quick post. To come off the fast, you need to ease yourself back into food. If you sat down at Outback to an Awesome Blossom and a Prime Rib immediately after fasting, you'd probably die... or wish you had. Instead, you have to ease yourself back in with raw fruits and veggies, and plain rice.

So on Saturday I bought a bunch of stuff: orange juice, vegetable broth, brown rice, a broccoli/carrot/pea mix intended for stir fry. First, I did another salt flush, which although I did get some slight results, there didn't seem to be a lot that still needed clearing out. Next time I'll do one more often, and see if I can get it to come out clear. =P

Actually, I should mention that on Friday night I tried a glass of this Lemon Ginger Echinacea lemonade I'd gotten from Trader Joe's. I thought it was close enough to the lemonade to not be a problem, and I was only half right. I'd had a slight dizzy spell, and I was worried about my blood sugar. I hadn't made any lemonade and didn't really want to since I didn't expect I'd drink it all by the time I was off the fast. Anyways, it didn't sit too well with me, as it kinda shot right through me, if you know what I mean. I don't know why it did that, but lesson learned that it wasn't a good thing to inject in there.

So, to come off the fast, I started with a glass of OJ. So far so good. I then had basically 32 oz of vegetable broth, at an astounding 240 calories total. Haha. That was good, too. So I had more OJ, and then ate the bag of broccoli/carrots/peas, even using a bit of this Annie's Sesame Ginger Vinagrette. It all went fine. So I finished the OJ, and by the end had probably had 1000 calories. And I was definitely full. I'm still kind of full this morning, but I'm going to make some rice using the other box of veggie broth I bought, and have some more OJ. Coming off the fast was just really easy for me... no problems yesterday or over night. I'm going to Brook's SuperBowl party today (GO BEARS!!!), so I might even eat some nasty food there. And tomorrow I'm in training, so I may be able to eat without worrying about how my body will react as early as tomorrow. That'd be pretty sweet. But I'll stay away from alcohol for the week, just to be safe.

Good times!!

Master Cleanse: Day 4

So... Weds night was officially my 4th full day of the Master Cleanse. I still feel just fine, though there are a few things worthy of note. First, I shat on Tues night, and again last night. Where's it coming from?! I haven't eaten since Sat! Last night was just a little amount, but Tuesday's was a healthy size. I guess that was all just backed up in the ol' colon... so it's likely a good sign that it's been jettisoned.

I'm still kinda hungry here and there... supposedly that goes away around day 3, but it hasn't yet. It's not an overpowering hunger, but if I wasn't fasting I'd want to go grab something to eat, like lunch. I kind of wonder if it's not just psychological though. The pangs were strongest when people were eating near me, like on Tues when I was with Kelly and Jake at a bar watching the Illini trounce (albeit crappily) Michigan State. And at lunch yesterday, and every time I see Emil and Vishal eating Taco Bell here at work. When I'm not around food I don't really think about it. So I think it might just be a habitual trigger or somesuch.

It's also really weird to me that everyone's going to grab food. Food is such a dominating influence in our lives (understandably so), and people really structure their time and expenditures around it. But I do have more free time and more money since I'm not eating... which is pretty sweet.

One other thing I've noticed the last day or 2 is how cold I've been. I've just felt cold all day... and my right hand specifically has been cold to the touch. I'm guessing the room I work in at the client site is a little on the chilly side, but still I'm colder than I should be. I'm guessing my body is trying to conserve energy by slowing itself down, which is slightly counterproductive to the whole point of the fast. This might be why they actually advocate exercise while fasting... exercise should help keep the core temperature up. I should probly sneak off from my desk and do some jumping jacks in an empty conference room or something. =P

I think I look a little leaner, but I'm not sure I'm not just imagining that. I'll ask Kelly tonight what she thinks. Though I surely must have burned a couple pounds of fat so far... otherwise I'd be dead, right? =P

Fasting: Master Cleanse, the recipe!

I forgot to post the recipe for the spicy lemonade before....

8 oz water
2 Tbsp lemon juice (fresh squeezed!)
1-2 Tbsp Grade B (or better?) maple syrup; the more syrup the less weight loss
1/10 tspn cayenne pepper, or to taste (I use more)

That's it! Easy as pie! If nothing else, it's a phenomenal lemonade. I might try mixing in some blueberry and mint some time in the future when I'm not fasting... I think that would be uber.

Fasting: Master Cleanse

So yeah, you heard me right, I'm fasting. I'm doing what's called the "Master Cleanse," and I'm going to keep it up for ~10 days. Basically, I've stopped eating, and the only two things I consume are: water, and spicy lemonade. I drink about 10 cups of the lemonade a day, which consists of water, fresh-squeezed lemons, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. The syrup helps keep blood sugar up so I don't lose energy, and it's the primary source of calories (roughly 1000/day). The cayenne pepper stimulates metabolism. And the lemon juice helps with peristalsis, particularly in the colon.

The idea with the fast is that by limiting caloric intake you trigger the body to enter a super-healing mode. The body does not actually cannibalize healthy tissue until somewhere in day 10-40 of the fast; during a fast, in order to get its needed proteins, fats, etc, the body consumes waste already in the body. So that includes dead and dying cells, fat cells (woohoo!), and various other miscellaneous "toxins", as the crazies like to call them. The body also works to expel all toxins from the body. During the fast most people gain a bit of energy, and tend to feel fantastic. Some people experience symptoms of cold or flu, which are temporary. Almost everyone experiences coated tongues and heinous feces, but by the end of the fast all "toxins" are purged, tongues are uncoated, and feces is basically just mucous. [Ew!] Overall the body slims down, heals itself, and purges itself of waste and toxins.

So why on god's green earth would I do this, you ask? Good question. I'm not entirely sure I've got it figured out myself, although it feels like the right thing to do. Hehehe. No, there's more to it than that. I've actually known a number of people through the years who swear by it, my friend Tiffany included. But the impetus for me doing it now was a lunch conversation I had on Friday with Dana and Peter at work. We talked about all sorts of work-inappropriate things, but colon health was one of them, and the Master Cleanse came up. When I mentioned it during Book Club the next day at Tiffany's, she pulled out several big-ass books about cleansing bodily symptoms, including one with colon pics. That one sold me. I mean, I love my colon, and that picture of a sagging and ill colon scared me straight (so to speak).

So what am I trying to get out of this?

1. Clean and healthy colon. It's not called the Master Cleanse for nothing.
2. Test of my self-discipline. I love food, for god's sake!!!!!
3. Resetting of my cravings and tastes. Tho this is more out of intellectual curiosity.
4. Kick-start on weight loss (I need to drop maybe 20 lbs total to be my ideal leanness). I expect this'll drop 5-10 of those lbs. Though everyone says not to do it for the weight loss component!

What freakish side-effects am I expecting?

1. Weird toxin expulsions in my mouth (coated tongue, bad breath).
2. Acne flare-up, though this was already in progress (woohoo for being 30 with zits!).
3. Horrid monstrosities in the toilet. [The sign of a cleansed colon!]
4. Lots and lots and lots of peeing.

I started on Saturday afternoon at Tiffany's, at about 4pm. I made my first pitcher of lemonade around 6pm same day, and haven't looked back since (it's midnight Monday). I'll do an update in the next post.