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