Gee, Think.

It is late on the night of my 3rd day on the Master Cleanse.  What a wonderful cleanse!

With each passing day I feel more and more “in the groove”.  This cleanse is really a wonderful way to clear out the body.  Just today, I was listening to an episode of Gary Null’s podcast in which he interviewed a woman who had been sick with cancer.  She journeyed deep into the Amazon to be healed by a shaman practicing their ancient healing arts.  She wrote a book called “Black Smoke” and after being healed from her cancer, has lived to tell us about her healing experiences.  Believe it or not, cleansing is central to the South American indigenous healing practices.  Something so foreign to western culture seems to have been employed in many other cultures in order to heal the body of numerous ailments.

Going Raw

Tonight Kitty and I ventured to Shop Rite to pick up lemons, and then on to Whole Foods to buy maple syrup and organic cayenne pepper.  What a treat!  I made my first 2 glasses of natural lemonade tonight.  What a refreshing difference as compared to the “Vibrant Cleanse” mix.  Initially I thought that it would be too time consuming or complicated to actually make the mix myself.  Turns out that thought was completely wrong!  It doesn’t take more than 5 minutes to make up a batch of lemonade roughly 22 oz in size.  You can really taste the fresh lemon juice, and I am looking forward to putting some of the lemon pulp into the glass as well.  What a treat after having nothing but freeze dried mix for a couple days.

Although, I have to give some credit to the makers of Vibrant Cleanse.  They got me started, and I’m sure they provide the best alternative to fresh that’s available.  However I did email them to inquire as to the enzymatic activity in their mix.  They did not respond.

There is something I can’t quite describe about the fresh lemon and maple syrup.  It just has a greater smoothness to it.  It tastes slightly thicker and more sustaining than the mix.  I’m not sure that this difference could be noticed to someone that hasn’t been drinking either the fresh lemonade or the mix for days on end.  When you suddenly throw even a slightly different taste in there the contrast is obvious.

Mood

No real irritability at all today.  I feel great!  I felt great all day.  The only out of the ordinary annoyance is a sense of dry mouth itchiness that sometimes sets in later in the day.  I also find myself wanting to brush my teeth multiple times throughout the day.  I can feel the sweet syrup collecting on my teeth as the day goes on.  But those two items are trivial concern.  What’s truly amazing to me is that I’m able to subsist on such a restrictive liquid diet.  It’s truly amazing.  The cleansing process has so far been a great opportunity for reflection on my relationship and enjoyment of food.  By taking some time away from food, I have realized how deep my love for it is.  That may sound funny, but I do truly love all the tastes, flavors and textures of food.  With each meal time that passes I find myself thinking of a recent batch of leftovers, or of the food at a local restaurant, or cooking with my wife.  This is not the same as craving because I feel satisfied in terms of appetite and nutrition.  I do not have the urge to eat, but rather an appreciation for the quality and variety of food that I am exposed to each day.

Totals for today

• 32 oz salt water flush
• 15 glasses of lemonade (900 calories)
• 1 cup of tea

Review of Day 2

Yesterday was a good day!  It went much much more smoothly than the first day.  I think the key here was my departure from the belief that I had to restrict myself to the recommended 6-8 servings of lemonade.  On Day 1I had consumed the 8 servings by 2 pm or so.  I made the last three servings last for the rest of the night.  Needless to say, I was famished at night.  That also made me feel restless and irritable.  My loving wife pointed out that in “The Complete Master Cleanse” Tom Woloshyn mentions specifically that he knew a trialthelete who drank 24 servings per day for 12 days.  I had read that, but it wasn’t in the front of my mind.  I think I was also worried about running out of the mix that I’m using, which comes in bottles of 24 servings.  Just embracing the fact that I need to drink more lemonade made the day much much easier.

Totals

• 32 oz salt water flush
• 22 glasses of lemonade (x 60 Calories per glass = 1320 calories)
• 16 oz hot water
• 1 cup senna tea

Nutritional Impact

It seems amazing to me that I can subsist on such a diet.  The totals above COMPLETELY account for my total intake yesterday.  Adding up all the liquids, it comes out to 234 fluid ounces!  That’s equivalent to 1.83 gallons or 6.92 liters.  That’s a lot of fluid!  The total calories is probably less than half of my daily intake on any given day.  I attribute my high daily caloric intake to both my love for food and my active exercise schedule.  I manage to eat and eat without gaining weight.  I think that I am absorbing the nutrients, but because my diet is +90% vegan,  the calories don’t add up to fat.  I’m still hoping to lose only fat while on this diet.  We’ll have to see what my perception of that is at the end.

Another thought and concern I had yesterday was “what about my blood sugar levels?”  From what I know of glycemic index, a mixture of water, maple syrup, and lemon juice should have a high glycemic index.  This means that the sugars, even if they are natural and unrefined, will enter the bloodstream quite quickly upon drinking.  I do feel energetic while on the cleanse, which could be due to the amount of sugars.  At the same time, I notice a very even level of energy throughout the day.  This could mean that I am maintaining a high blood sugar level.  It’s hard for me to say just by “feeling”.  I definitely do not feel the waning energy that traditionally comes after eating solid foods.  I don’t have the ‘food coma’ that so many people experience after eating either large, heavy, or large and heavy meals.  I also don’t feel the drop in energy levels that normally comes just before a meal.

Raw?

My primary concern at this point is that the mix I’m using, called Vibrant Cleanse by Vibrant Health.  The product is fully certified in all ingredients to be organic.  I just wish that it also said “Raw” on the packaging.  I think one of the critical aspects of the lemonade diet is that you are taking in all the live and active enzymes from the lemons.  The enzymes are very supportive to the immune system, and probably beneficial in ways that we don’t yet fully comprehend.  The packaging doesn’t state whether or not the powder is created in a way that maintains the integrity of the lemon enzymes.  I do, however, need the conveinence of the mix in order to drink the lemonade all day.  At least I’ve felt that way up to this point.  Now I am considering going to fresh lemons, and making the concentrate which can be mixed to full dilution as needed through out the day.

Senna Tea

Last night I had just one cup of senna tea and nothing but sweet dreams and sound sleep.  I actually slept 5.5 hours straight, which is actually uncommon for me.  I usually wake up once in the night, after around 3 hours.

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.