The Master Cleanse/Lemonaid Diet part III (Instructions!)

I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice.
If you're considering any sort of change in diet, fast or cleanse it's important you speak to your doctor first.
This is only a summary of what *I* did.


I specifically put off writing this part of my blog because I really think that anyone considering this fast/cleanse needs to do their research first. I believe this for 2 reasons.

A) You need to know that what you are doing is OK. Fasting(including water fasting-where you only have WATER((no calories what-so-ever)) has been around since biblical times. It's not a new idea cooked up by some freaky guy trying to get rich/famous. True-there are variations that are cooked up by freaky guys, but that's why you need to do your own research!

B) IF you tell anyone that you're thinking of doing or already doing the master cleanse you have to be prepared to back up your decision and even defend it! Some folks just won't understand it and will even criticize you for it.  If you've done your research and decide to do the cleanse then that SHOULD mean you understand where you're getting your nutrition/vitamins/minerals/calories from so that when people say 'You are starving yourself!' you an say. 'Actually, if you weren't such an ignorant idiot you'd realize I'm not.' Note-I strongly advise rephrasing that sentence before actually saying it out loud! Adapt it to suit your needs. I myself LIKE that version, but I do NOT like getting punched so I never got to actually use it myself.

Anyway-basically know what you're doing and why you're doing it. It's more about cleaning out, healing your digestive system by letting it take time off from the hard work it does all the time (remember digestion uses about 25% of your energy apparently! That's a lot of hard work!) and you most likely will lose weight as a result of your efforts but think of that as more of a gift with purchase (purchase being the detox).

Here's what I think you  need to know.  I'll probably forget something and will have to come back in the future and edit but for now here goes.

On the morning of the first day you need to make sure you can stay home and near the loo for quite a while.  You need to start your cleanse off with what's called a Salt Water Flush(or SWF)
You need
1)An empty stomach
2)2 TEASPOONS! (This is important-you don't want to do tablespoons cause that will taste horrific!) of Sea Salt-not iodized. Unlike regular table salt, Sea salt has

Chloride (Cl-)	55.03
Sodium (Na+)	30.59
Sulfate (SO42-)	7.68
Magnesium (Mg2+)	3.68
Calcium (Ca2+)	1.18
Potassium (K+)	1.11
Bicarbonate (HCO3-)	0.41
Bromide (Br-)	0.19
Borate (BO33-)	0.08
Strontium (Sr2+)	0.04
Miscellaneous constituents	0.01 (Thanks wikipedia!

)  I've actually switched to using sea salt for everything now that I know this.

3).32oz of water(1tsp for every 16oz)
Mix together and drink ALL of this in 10-15 minutes (no longer if you can help it, but also don't chug it or you'll soon see it come back up again.)

 *I did it as 32 oz and 2tsp salt the first day and found it pretty difficult to get down. I used the Master Cleanse Facebook Page (here's a link) https://www.facebook.com/TheMasterCleanse to bounce some ideas off people and also to see how everyone else copes with this.  Here are  a couple tricks I learned that you can try if you can't do it as 1tsp/16oz.
1. Mix up the temperature-some like it hot so that it tastes like a broth. I did not!
2. Have a lemon to suck on(like after a shot) after each 'drink'. This did help me a lot
3. Put all of the salt in 16oz and then have a separate 16oz of fresh water to alternate between. I've read that this isn't recommended, but for me it was a case of this or nothing at all. I can't tell you what to do, I can only say what I did.
In the end I found that I could manage 1 16 oz glass of salt water, 1 16 oz glass of fresh water and 1 lemon to suck on between each drink.  It's pretty gross no matter what you do, but these things helped.
 
Couple things you need to know:
1) You do not need to do the swf every day. Most suggest doing it on day 1, day 3 and day 7.  Folks who eat a lot of dairy or meat will find they need to do it more often to 'get things moving'. Once you have a day where it works just see how it goes.  I did it for the first 3 days before it started to 'work', and there's no doubt about whether or not it's working. If you're not sure-then no, it's not working. YOU WILL KNOW!

2) Regarding Salt water retention/dehydration
http://themastercleanse.org/salt-water-flush/ is a very helpful website and here's what it says about water retention and the salt water flush...

Will the Salt Water Flush dehydrate me?

NO. This is because the solution is indigestible.You may have heard that, if you are stranded at sea, drinking sea water will only dehydrate you more. This is why. It just comes right out of you because the mixture has the same gravity as your blood and is not absorbed.

Some folks do retain the salt water but this is normally because they did something wrong.

3) NOW.  If it works the first day you will know pretty quick. Like within an hour or so.  One of the most important things I read in one of the books is this: 'After drinking the salt water flush you may feel like you need to ''pass gas'' but do NOT do it! Folks-there's no nice way to say this... It's NOT gas and you need to get to the loo ASAP! Oh, and congrats-it must have worked! :D 
Once it starts working it normally finishes up within an hour. So for one hour don't plan going anywhere there isn't a bathroom very close by!

The Lemonade recipe and what you need to know about it.
*Start drinking this after the salt water flush starts or-in case it doesn't even work the first day-about an hour or so after you've had your salt water. 
for 1 dose/serving/portion((use whatever word you like))

2 TABLESPOONS Fresh Squeezed Lemon juice. Fresh as in done in the last 10 minutes! After that you start to lose a lot of the essentials of the juice that you need!
Most books say use organic, and that's great if you can get them, but I can't.
It must be LEMONS-not a hybrid of any sort

2 TABLESPOONS Grade B(Note-I did say earlier that you want grade a if possible but I think there's a difference between Canadian grade a and American grade a. You want the DARKEST REAL maple syrup(make sure there's no additives!) you can get! I used Grade A here-couldn't even find grade B. But I DID buy Organic when I could. 

8oz FRESH SPRING WATER! Or bottled spring water, or if you can't get that-filtered water. Anything BUT city water which has chlorine and fluoride in it! You don't want that and you also don't want carbonated water(sparkling).

1/10th TEASPOON Cayenne Pepper. I started with less than this in my first bottle of water because I was worried it'd be super hot but it wasn't. HOWEVER! If you mix it up and let it sit for a few minutes the pepper quickly GETS HOT! You can add as much as you like, I had between 1/10th tsp and 1/8th tsp depending on how I was feeling at the time.

THIS IS YOUR MEAL! This is your breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, supper, afternoon tea etc!
Have it whenever you START to feel hungry-don't wait until you have hunger pains-this isn't about starvation folks! You physically NEED to get at least 6 'doses' of this a day to get sufficient calories. You can have as many as 12(or even more! if you're exercising or feel you need it) a day. 
I did read that you can reduce the amount of maple syrup if you're trying to lose weight but I myself would NOT do this-not enough calories=starvation. NOT what we're going for here folks. You will still lose weight by having 2TBSP in each glass of water.

**Do not mix up in advance. You will lose a lot of the benefits of the lemon and also the cayenne pepper will get hotter with each passing minute. If you  need to mix up a batch to take to work here's what you do.
Mix up your fresh squeezed lemon and maple syrup in a container. Take your cayenne pepper powder ((do not use capsules!)) with you to work/school or wherever you're going that day.
Take your measuring spoons.  Add 4!tablespoons of the mixture(2 for the lemon, 2 for the maple syrup=4 total) per 8 oz water.
Drink immediately.  The maple syrup will help to act as a preservative for the lemons. It's not ideal, but it does help.

You need to drink water throughout the day! A good rule of thumb is 1 part lemonade to 1 part water. In other words-have 8oz water for every lemonade you drink a day.(at least 6 remember!)


Evenings...
Have a glass of Organic Smooth Move Herbal Senna Tea which can be found in most grocery stores in the tea/coffee section.
PLEASE READ INSTRUCTIONS! You need to let this brew for at least 10 minutes-up to 15 if possible.

If you absolutely can not stand the SWF this tea is your alternative. Have a big mug every evening no matter what, but in the mornings you can have a mug of this instead of the SWF. It won't work as well, but it's better than nothing at all.

There is a whole process to coming off the cleanse! You start with fresh squeezed orange juice, then add broths, then soups etc. Read up about it.

Folks there is so much more I could say! I'm going to leave it at this-if you have questions email me or ask them here or on my facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/bethcartwrightpiggott
 I don't know everything about this, but I will help you find the answers if I don't know them myself!
USE the links to websites I've listed. They are powerful tools!
http://themastercleanse.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?9-The-Master-Cleanse-Board is an invaluable tool! There is a faq section, a section about medications, detox symptoms((Like the DISGUSTING WHITE TONGUE COATING YOU'LL GET!) and all sorts of things! You don't have to be a member to read, so read and read and read! It's really a great tool.

I'm not officially on the cleanse now myself but I still supplement meals with the lemonade occasionally and I'm still losing weight. Once I started eating normally again I put on 2lbs of the 8.5 I'd lost, but I've lost that again already just by doing weight watchers.

UGH. Too much to say.
If you have questions just ask! :D

The Master Cleanse Part II-No coffee! WHAT.

I had read in Tom Woloshyn's book The Complete Master Cleanse about cutting back on caffeine on the days leading up to your cleanse. This in itself was a motivation for me. I like caffeine! I like to have an extra shot of espresso IN my espresso! Gimme Gimme Gimme! Every once in a while I know I have to take a complete break from it though, back right off and reintroduce it slowly.  Normally I have a little headache for a day or so-nothing a handful of tylenol can't fix.  Anyway I read to cut back on caffeine by 25% a day for the 4 days leading up to your cleanse.
Now, maybe it's cause I'm an Aries, or maybe it's just cause I'm me-but I'm impatient! Once I decide I'm going to do something I NEED to do it right then before I loose my momentum. So instead of the normal 4 days of weening myself off, I cut my caffeine in half the first day and cut it out altogether the 2nd day(starting my cleanse then on the 3rd day).  Add that to the normal detoxing side effects that your body goes through and I was a wreck!  I had a headache that wouldn't quit! My HEADACHE had a headache! And there were only two ways to fix it. A) a bucket of coffee or B) tylenol. But wait-on the master cleanse the whole point is to NOT eat anything that can reactivate your digestion and detract from the healing that you want to occur.  This means No PILLS, no gum, no candy, no tasting dinner as you cook it for your family, no nothing but your lemonade, salt water flush, Smooth Move tea or occasionally peppermint tea.
Well by day 2 I was close to non functioning, that's how bad it was.  I tried all the things you're supposed to do-increase your water in case it's from dehydration (no, it's not! but I increased water anyway) tried to go to a 'happy place' in my mind but it turns out my happy place is starbucks so that backfired in a big way, tried meditation-that took me back to starbucks as well.  In the end I took 2 tylenol. And I slept! And it was good. The next morning I was fine until about 9 (aka 2nd cup of coffee time). Then the headache started brewing (see the coffee reference there-not a coincidence!) So I did take 1 more tylenol to catch the headache before it got so bad this time. I have to say by that afternoon I was feeling pretty good!
Here's a brief breakdown of how the days went for me-just in case you're wondering how to plan your cleanse around your schedule.
Day 1-I worked thinking that by keeping busy I wouldn't notice that I was not eating 'food', just drinking it. By that afternoon the headache was already kickin my butt and I had a major fuzzy head! (I later read this is a common symptom at the beginning of the detoxing process)
Did salt water flush with NO results...
SM Herbal Tea in the evening.
Day 2 I was pretty much non functional, spent a lot of time resting and trying to get rid of my headache. I want to say that I had not yet had HUNGER pains! The drink was surprisingly satisfying and you can pretty much have as much as you want.  If you're trying to actually lose weight you can reduce your maple syrup intake but I kept mine at the recommended level for just detoxing as I didn't want to cut out too many calories.  I was still getting a good amount!
Did salt water flush AGAIN with no results...
 SM Herbal Tea in the evening.
Day 3 'Its a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life....and I'm feeling good! No kidding! I felt fine!
Referencing the books/websites I'd read in preparation for the cleanse, I was aware that there would be food 'cravings'. This is not to be confused with hunger pains.  This is more of a 'I HAVE to eat a WHOLE chocolate cake right now!' sort of craving. Not healthy, and apparently part of the detoxing process-when your body screams out for all the bad crap it's been so used to having.  My craving was actually for sweet and sour chicken and I had it BAD. I was tempted to chuck the whole thing in, thinking surely 3 days was better than nothing((which is NOT true, by the way)) and just having the chicken.  I'd already lost about 5.5 lbs at this point, I KNEW most of it was water but heck, this is sweet and sour chicken we're talking about. But no-I stayed strong and made it through and the chicken lived another day.
Did the salt water flush and learned why it's called FLUSH. Worked in a big time way! Wahoo.
 SM Herbal Tea in the evening.

Day 4 Going Strong! I actually worked out! Just the treadmill for about 30 minutes-less than I'd normally do but I was cautious about overdoing it. Still, felt fine! Was hungry after so had a lemonade drink-I was actually starting to look forward to them!
As it took so long to start working, I did another salt water flush(with positive results again).
 SM Herbal Tea in the evening.
Day 5 Fuzzy head is completely gone, have plenty of energy((not an exceptionally HIGH level, but I felt fine considering I was on such a limited diet AND I hadn't had caffeine in 5 days! I spent a lot of time this day trolling the master cleanse message forum boards reading other peoples stories and getting tips on things.
No SWF but did have SM Herbal Tea. It's important that you have this every day!

Day 6 I ventured out for the day. Had my first lemonade drink in the morning after my SWF. Then I mixed up my lemon juice and maple syrup. NOTE-when mixing it up in advance it's important you only mix up what you're about to drink in the next 10 minutes. The lemons start to loose their nutritional benefits after that amount of time.  If you HAVE to mix it to take it with just mix it with the maple syrup((which will act as a preservative)) and add water and cayenne pepper right before you drink. This is important for another reason. If you add the cayenne pepper too early it starts to get hot...fast! Not pleasant! So I mixed up enough solution to take with me, packed up my cayenne pepper, measuring spoon and bottles of water and went out.  Around lunch time I realized I'd packed everything BUT my mixture! OH CRAP! So I drank my bottles of water-having remembered that some folks actually do a water cleanse for a few days anyway-and made it home at about 6pm where I promptly downed 2 big glasses of lemonade.  Unfortunately I did have hunger pains at this point, my own fault for forgetting my solution. This eventually resulted in the early demise of my 10 day plan.(10 days is the recommended minimum for the cleanse, some people go weeks or even months!)
 SM Herbal Tea in the evening.
Day 7 still having hunger pains, broke down and had a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice in the evening, was heart broken! It'd been going so well. Lost 8.5 lbs and was feeling good up until the day I forgot my 'food'.
SM Herbal Tea in the evening.

Day 8 a day of juices, lemonade and eventually soup-coming off the cleanse.
1 last SWF and still having the herbal tea at night.

Day 9 The same to eat again-still trying to focus mainly on the lemonade but also had juice, soup and crackers.
No SWF, instead it's time to start putting back the GOOD bacteria now by introducing prebiotics 2x a day(or whatever your particular brand suggests)

Now I'm back to a 'normal' diet, but really I'm not! I'm using this weight loss/cleanse as a launching pad for my next weight watchers trip! I worked out that one glass of lemonade is 1 point for me(old system, not points plus system) and so I supplement that in when I am getting hungry. It fills me up and gets me through til the next meal time where I can enjoy proper healthy food.

Right folks-I'm super tired right now from a long day, will write more asap. Just know that IF you are considering doing this cleanse there is more you need to know! If you want to start before I finish my blog entries I'd say get a couple books on it from the library. Heck-you should do that anyway-for your own piece of mind.  Some of the books can be read on google books.com also there are a LOT of websites about the master cleanse-a lot of them have forums where you can read/ask questions and that helps a lot too.
Good night folks!

The Master Cleanse...(insert menacing music here!)

Ok. Right about now I'd like to state for the record that I have not lost my mind.  I'm sure on any given day one or two people question my sanity in general but this is about to push that statistic WAY up.  Just trust me. I'm not crazy! I'm not a fool! I have no emails from Mr. T saying 'I pity you, Beth.' I AM open minded and willing to try new things....

Well...Not totally open minded. In fact I'd heard about the Master Cleanse before and was pretty sure it was for crazy loons! Everything pointed to success when you read about how well this 'diet/cleanse' worked, but it seemed to have a bit of 'eating disorder' thrown in for good measure.  I've tried a lot of things in an attempt to get/stay healthy and lose weight.  Lately I've fallen victim to the torturous Jillian Michaels.  Don't get me wrong, she's great in that whole 'Do 100 push ups right now or I will activate a tracking device in this dvd, hunt you down and gut you like a wimpy fish!' sort of way.  Some people don't like it but for me it works. Sometimes I even do an EXTRA push up just in case she's using one of those devices from 'Enemy of the State' and watching me.  Ya, she's pretty scary.

I've also inherited a treadmill. I've done 4-5 miles every morning for the past 2 weeks or so.  Today is my FIRST day off and it's only because the shin splints I've had since day 3 of 'uphill treadmill mode' have finally conquered me.  I have been very determined but as of yesterday my shinsplints say 'You and your measly 800mg of tylenol are no match for me and my excruciating powers of shooting pain!' so I am taking a day off for rest.  Probably... Unless I finish everything I need to do before work and have time to squeeze in a quick 30 minutes. NO! I can't do it! Ugh. This is awful. I need to work out but I need to rest(but I NEED to work out!).

The thing is, I've been hovering at this weight I'm at (I won't tell you what it is, but I will say my BMI is 25 which is RIGHT on the line between ok and overweight) for too long now.  Nothing, not even Jillian, helps to shift the weight. I am toned up, sure, but still feeling blah.  I know how to lose weight, I've done it before. Weight watchers helped me shift a wonder 25lbs once. Now even that doesn't help.

THEN... I saw a post on facebook from my old buddy Kristen! All it said was 'Day 4 of the cleanse, down 5 lbs already' or something to that effect.  STOP THE PRESS! Kristen is doing the master cleanse? But she's not an anorexic loon! Shes a perfectly normal-if not exceptional-person! She's one of those friends who-if she said to said 'Stop wearing socks to prevent global warming.' I'd seriously consider switching to flip flops and want to hear all about her theory!  In other words-I trust her judgement.  AND-she's lost 5lbs. What's not to like! :D

So I've talked about it with her a little bit, read TONS on the internet(and we all know everything on the internet is true-just like everything on tv) and I've read Tom Woloshyn's The Complete Master Cleanse.  Guess what folks, I'm willing to give it a try.  Here's why!

First off because it's NOT about losing weight! It really isn't. Sure you lose weight but it's not a starvation diet sort of thing like you might be thinking.  Apparently you go to the bathroom a lot! (a lot lot lot lot lot!) as part of the whole cleanse thing. It's kind of (but not entirely) like a fast. The whole idea is to let your body(which used 25% of its energy digesting food) have a break. That way the body can divert most or all of that energy to repairing itself.  Kind of like when you have a bad stomach flu and your gut does NOT want you to eat anything! It just wants to work on healing itself before you bombard it with more food.
When we're sick-even with a cold-what do you eat? Chicken soup! Or better-chicken broth! Easily digestible liquids.  That way your body can focus on what needs to be done. 

But what about vitamins and nutrients? How do you get all your vitamins and nutrients from those 4 measly ingredients? (which by the way-incase you've never heard of this master cleanse before-all you have to eat/drink is:
Fresh squeezed lemons(which provide high levels of potassium, calcium and magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, zinc, copper, selenium and iron, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid(vitamin b-5) and vitamin b6.
Cayenne Pepper(high in vitamin A and vitamin C, also contains Vitamin B, Potassium and calcium. It's a stimulant that increases metabolism, increases circulation and helps with digestive disorders) The function of the pepper is to break down and loosen mucus in the body-benefiting sinuses, bronchial tubes, and lungs.
Water-well water or spring water is best, but at least do your best to avoid chlorinated water or fluoridated water.
Maple Syrup-(You can ALSO use raw cane syrup or freshly pressed cane juice if available-NOT HONEY) Maple syrup contains a number of minerals and vitamins in trace amounts depending on where it was collected. Examples are: potassium, calcium, magnesium. maganese, phosphorus, sodium, iron, zinc, copper, tin, sulfur, silicon, Vitamins A, B-1, B-2, B-5, B-6, boitin and folic acid are present as well.

It's recommended that you use ALL ORGANIC products, and apparently the flavor is worth the extra cost. Also GRADE A Maple Syrup is the most appropriate as it's normally highest in those essential vitamins and minerals you need. Grade B can be used, but keep your eye out for Grade A if possible. ALSO! Make sure there are no additives! You'd be surprised. Honestly-look for the organic grade A if possible.
Do NOT use Meyers Lemons(cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange) for the cleanse! They are less acidic(which-by the way in case you're worrying about the acidity of lemons keep in mind that they have a more alkaline property when being digested-meyers lemons have less acidity and slightly different properties. 

I'm gonna wrap this blog up here and start a new entry about more specific details and the lovely SWF (Salt Water Flush-It's not called 'FLUSH' for nothin folks!)