The 10 Day Master Cleanse – Part 1 | Part 2
The saga continues. Earlier this week I brought you days 1-5 of my 10 day Master Cleanse. You read the joys of purging (literal and figurative) and now read on to see how the remaning 5 days went. Note, as you read my lack of coherence. You can only imagine why and for that I ask a little leeway.
Day 6: Tuesday – This morning I slept in and took the saltwater again and had great results and felt really cleansed afterwards. I tired quicker and napped during the day. At night I had to work and my legs are still fatigued. It’s even tough to walk and I’m starting to get a little concerned for what this is. I noticed my tongue is getting back to normal slowly and my mouth is feeling less chalky.
I took my laxative again. (Ugh)
Wednesday through Saturday and final thoughts after the jump.
Day 7: Wednesday – I had a good morning with a great saltwater cleanse and my knee is getting better. I feel encouraged to keep going. I had thoughts of pulling out early and calling it at seven days but I can’t be this close to the “top” and miss the “view”. I still feel a little sluggish but I’m getting used to it.
Today my jeans that have always been tight are all the sudden loose and I weighed myself and realized I’ve lost 10 lbs so far! I notice the loss mostly in my stomach, legs and arms. I am also colder than everyone else. I’m wearing jeans and a hoodie and others are in shorts. A number of times when I stood up and got light-headed very quickly. Interesting.
Lax it up.
Day 8: Thursday – Wow. I think I floated out of bed today. I feel fantastic: acute, aware, sharp, and light. My hunger cravings were still there but they were curtailed totally by the drink. I worked in the a.m. and felt back to 100% making jokes and not feeling tired at all.
One thing I am looking forward to is actually tasting my food again. At work I see people craming food in their mouth and talking on the phone or having a business lunch or just eating in a hurry and going to a movie. They don’t even taste the flavors. I too was like that. Eating to live rather than living to eat.
I left and came home to work on some stuff and went to hang with friends who, without prompting, told me I looked like I had lost weight. They were right, I’ve lost 12 lbs so far.
30-minutes of Food Network and my laxative.
Day 9: Friday –
I am very excited to be almost done. I miss food still and feel great to know that I am not eating because I choose this and that I will have food in my pantry when I am done. It’s healthy to remember that not everyone has this choice.
I felt physically weaker. I see a substantial loss in muscle mass in my arms and legs and am curious if I’ll get that back. I helped a friend move furniture and I noticed I was considerably weaker than normal. Someone told me today that their mom did this cleanse and after resetting her system she discovered she was allergic to dairy and wheat. I sincerly HOPE that is not the case. I really… really hope that doesn’t happen to me.
Though I feel lighter and my energy is normal my cravings have come back to wanting not only food in general but the variety of flavor, temperature and texture of the experience of eating.
Another night living with my Smooth Move laxative
Day 10: Saturday –
Normaly routine of my saltwater and I’m not really even bothered by it&emdash;probably because it was the last one! Interestingly enough, after 10 days without food, the cleanse still removes… ahem… stuff.
This cleanse is so intense there is a food plan for 3 days to readjust your body to typical eating again. Day one is only fresh squeezed orange juice. Day two is the OJ and vege soup where one consumes the broth and a few veggies. Day three is OJ, soup and fresh fruit, salad, nuts and raw veggies. So like a fan getting ready for opening day, I went to the Fresh and Easy (similar to a Whole Foods or Fresh Market) and bought my fresh-squeezed OJ and am very excited. I feel great today&emdash;partly the excitement of completing this goal and partly because my body is cleansed.
After work, I returned home and drank my last sip of my Lemonade&emdash;my friend and comrade on this 10-day journey. I raised my empty Nalgene container and marched triumphantly around my apartment.
Final Thoughts
The end of my fast was complete. Overall, this was a tough few days, but things became progressively easier following and my body responded very well to the cleansing process. I would advise you to do your research. Check out the plan and the cleanse. You can go online and read countless articles and even watch YouTube video blogs about it. Due to the fairly extreme nature of the cleanse, I recommend consulting with a physician first. Your body undergoes pretty substantial changes in a short amount of time and responds differently (Note: my blood pressure dropped dramatically which explained the light-headedness and feeling colder).
I recommend this fast for a number of reasons: cleansing your body, giving your digestive tract a much needed break, becoming aware of what we actually eat, thankfulness for food at all and simply the challenge of accomplishing a goal&emdash;also loosing a few lbs ain’t bad. (Ed: We owe Bradley a 32 oz. Porterhouse for his work on this feature. Okay, maybe a V8 first.)
Good luck gents. E-mail me if you’ve got questions thoughts or comments.
