Goodbye To Food!
That was the feeling of the first day. I actually forgot what its like to go without solid food. It’s definitely a shock of sorts. It’s something I’ve done before for other cleanses or 1 day fasts. Even so, its still quite an adjustment. Millions of thoughts ran through my head. Thoughts of cereal, brownies, muffins, general baked goods, cooked vegetables, spices, sauces. I had thoughts of all of my normal diet constituents as well as the junk that I hardly ever or never eat. This was somewhat unusual, but I have to admit that food is one of my great joys and cooking has become a loved past time over the last few weeks especially. So perhaps this just brought to my attention how often I do think of food in a given day.
Drinking The Lemonade
Overall, the day went well. When I’m not cleansing, I normally drink at least 32 oz of fruit smoothie every morning. That works out to be around 4 servings of the lemonade. In “The Complete Master Cleanse” and also on the instructions on the cleansing lemonade mix that I’m using, 6-8 servings of lemonade per day were suggested. This now seems like far far less than I need. Yesterday I had 11 servings, and I didn’t really do any physical activity. Normally I would be practicing my gung fu forms or training in some other capacity. My own ‘exertion’ yesterday was ‘The 8 Pieces of Brocade’ hei gong that I did in the morning. It is a light round of exercise, very smooth and flowing. Granted I did get a good workout at gung fu class the night before. My theory is two fold. First off, I think my metabolism may be higher than those who require only 6-8 servings of the lemonade. Second, I think that because I made the lemonade in large 32 oz batches in the morning I was much more likely to drink the whole quantity just because it was there. So today I will try smaller batches.
Herbal Laxative Tea
Last night I discovered the upper limit of how much senna tea to drink. On my previous two ‘calibrating’ nights I had 1 cup with 1 bag of tea the first night followed by 1 cup with 2 bags of tea. On the second morning I did feel a little light cramping in the morning, but nothing substantial. So I thought that perhaps I needed to continue increasing the dose. Wrong! Perhaps it was because on those calibrating days I had eaten solid food during the day. Yesterday, being the first day on the cleanse, I had no new solid food. But I had not reflected on these points before tea time at 8:30pm. I drank 2 cups of senna tea. The first made with one bag. The second made with a new bag and the bag from the first cup of tea. So I guess you could say I drank 2 cups with 2.5 bags of senna. Too much. Last night around 2am and 5am I awoke with abdominal cramping. Not fun, but survivable. Tonight I will go back to 1 cup of tea with 1 bag.
Yesterday’s Mood
My emotions yesterday ranged from excited through bored to content and happy into restlessness and impatience. By evening I was feeling irritable. I think this was a combination of factors, one of which being hunger. Now the book does say not to let yourself get too hungry. However, I had already drank 10 glasses of lemonade that day. I felt I should just have my two cups of tea and call it a day. So much for plans. I got so hungry just waiting for the tea to cool. After finishing the first cup I really needed to make another glass of lemonade to tide me over until I could drink the second cup. I immediately felt much better upon drinking the lemonade. My hunger dissipated, and my mood improved slightly.
Totals
- 32 oz salt water flush
- 11 glasses of lemonade
- 1 pint plain water
- 2 cups tea
This seemed to be barely enough to get me through the first day. Today, I will not restrict the number of glasses I drink, especially since I will be exercising extensively tonight.
