But Who is counting...

9 days of no solid food, 9 days of only drinking lemonade, water, and hot tea (and sometimes salt water...bluck!) 9 days later and I feel amazing. 9 days later and I have more energy. 9 days later and eating feels about as foreign to me as the thought of not eating felt 9 days ago. But the master cleanse recommends 10 days.

Why I cut it short…
At day 6 the cayenne pepper started affecting my sinuses in such an unpleasant way that I didn’t want to drink it and only had a glass or two that day. On day 7 I had one glass and heartburn, so on day 8 and 9 I just drank water. Oh, and on Day 9 I sat with my friend and 3 of her children as they ate dinner. Between the 3 of them they were eating 2 of my favorite junk foods, macaroni & cheese and pizza. I was really good as I finished my 2nd class of water and heard my stomach growl for the first time in 9 days. I concluded that my time on the master cleanse had come to an end.

Benefits of cleansing and fasting:

Cooler than before…
I no longer have night sweats. I always thought they were because I sleep under a down comforter and get hot at night. It seems this isn’t so. When they stopped on day 3 I did bit of research and discovered that one way the body detoxifies is through the skin (well I knew that part) and during the night is the only time our digestive systems get a bit of a rest and our body is able to focus it’s attention on detoxification. So my night sweats was actually my body doing it’s very best to try to detoxify me nightly. I’m going to be careful to reduce the need for this nightly ritual in the future.



Just happy mendy…
I’ve always called myself a “shiny happy person” (**REM song queues up in the background**) Most of my pictures have a huge white square on my forehead. (for proof just look->) For now my oily skin has dried up. I actually had to put extra moisture on my face this morning. Never in my life would I do that for fear of breaking out. We shall see what happens…


14 pounds lighter…
Yes, I lost 14 pounds in 9 days…and you can too! Sounds like I’m pedaling the latest weigh loss gimmick. Not really. It will come back when I start eating solid food again, but maybe not all of it. Feeding my body what it needs not just what it wants is a very good thing. Last night I made homemade vegetable soup with organic vegetables from Wild Oats in the crock pot. It was so good I actually surprised myself for two reasons (1) healthy taste good and (2) I can cook.

I’m a purist…
I think water is the way to go. It’s harder, but your system goes into detox quicker and you don’t have extra stuff to mix, keep fresh or buy. All the benefits that the cleanse claims are the same you get when fasting and essentially the master cleanse is a juice fast. After reaping the health benefits I think water fasting is something I’ll add to my routine at least 3-4 times a year.