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One of the week’s nicest surprises was the addition of video to Flickr – everyone with me now:  woo hoo!

However, this great news certainly did not trump the excitement of completing our Master Cleanse – 12 days of a strict lemonade fast, a mighty mighty challenge.  We came out on the other side very well – much lighter in body and more present in spirit.  Completely 100% worth it – and not just because I can now fit into the beautiful black velvet dress I bought for Dr. Sketchy next week.

If you are interested in doing the Master Cleanse prepare yourself for the following:

1. Detox is an unpleasant thing – When going through the first couple of days on your Cleanse you’re going to feel blah.  Some people experience detox symptoms more than others, but I was hit pretty hard with a migraine, fatigue and just all around yuckiness Day 1 and 2.  Here’s a great article on the physical effects of detoxing, just to get the point across.

   Solution:  Start on the weekend and be ready for a nice couple of days at home to relax.  No social events, no weekend guests, just chill.  And seriously, don’t be a wuss and quit if you start feeling rotten as what you’ve put in your body is the cause of all this.  Suck it up, be good to yourself for once and move onward.  It’s all temporary you big sissy.

2. Drinking lemonade for 12 days is boring – I was rarely ever actually hungry while on the cleanse (the one time I was starving was when I hadn’t had a glass of lemonade in a while), but the boredom really gets to you especially if you love to cook and love a variety of foods. 

   Solution:  This may seem weird, but the fact that we still were cooking for the short person (19 months is obviously not an age to start Master Cleansing ) and were in regular contact with food was a huge help.  Washing, prepping, cooking and smelling really good food made me feel less deprived.  Plus an empty refrigerator really depresses me.

3. Let’s talk about coatings – I’ve heard about getting your tongue and teeth coated during fasts when reading some things about Muslims fasting during Ramadan.  Apparently in some cultures, having a tongue coated in white (yah, it’s gross) means you’re not cheating so it’s like a badge of honor. 

   While I never exactly displayed this badge publicly, it was interesting to see my tongue go from white-white coating to nearly perfectly healthy pink by the end of my fast.  I’m not sure, but I think this coating has something to do with your colon cleaning out.  Gross but great, but then again I am a mommy now so very little can possibly disgust me that much.

   Solution:  Brush your teeth and your tongue regularly – but stick to a nice natural toothpaste if for some reason you’re still using Colgate or whatever other foul chemically gross brand your grocery store has suckered you into.  Have you ever read those ingredients?  Shameful.  I like Tom’s of Maine natural whitening toothpaste and Ella uses one of their kids gel toothpastes too.  In fact, she likes it so much she tries to eat it every night, but that’s another story.

4. Not everybody is going to ‘get’ what you’re doing – If you’re like me, there are few people that ever ‘get’ anything that I do so this wasn’t really a problem.  But it is something to think about.  It takes some hardcore willpower to fast for almost 2 weeks and if your environment isn’t supportive of your decision you have a whole new set of challenges.

   Solution:  If you can, fast with a buddy or (better yet) your significant other or roommate or family member.  You’ll need the support and it is incredibly nice to have someone to commiserate with.  PLUS!  it’s nice being able to take turns making lemonade during a busy day or being able to split store runs for maple syrup, etc.

   As with many other things, knowledge really is power.  If your Uncle Job-Bob (you know, the relative who thinks that dinner without an 80% meat content really isn’t a meal?) is getting freaky on you because he thinks you’re turning into an anorexic tree hugger, know about the mechanics of what it is that you’re doing. 

   Be able to explain why you are ingesting the specific lemonade ingredients, what they specifically do for your body and what your overall goal is for the fast.  You probably won’t convince him to join you, but hopefully he’ll back off – even if it’s because you had to mention your colon a few more times than he was comfortable with

I had a great experience with the Master Cleanse.  It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve done in a long time as most of it really is a mental thing.  My goal is to fast this way at least once a year, maybe twice a year if I get a better hang of it.  Juggling personal and work events/meals is tricky — and sometimes just planning each day’s lemonade rations gets a little challenging early in the morning.  But this can all be overcome.

Honestly, I thought I would drop more weight than I did (I think I lost a total of 9 pounds, a number of which will come back quite soon as it was water weight) but I’m not bummed at all as that wasn’t really the point.   In fact, I am positive I would have lost more weight had I stuck with the nightly salt water flushes (worth a blog post in themselves, ugh), but I was weak on this point and stuck with my senna tea instead.

So as of today, we have transitioned back into eating ‘real’ foods again.  I feel good and much more in control of my eating habits and future weight goals – this is a great place to be.  Drop me a line if you’re starting – I would love to hear about your adventures. 

Also, mad props to Javier as he was very much an inspiration in getting me to do this crazy Cleanse to begin with.  He just completed his second cleanse last week and has some amazing healing stories related to his fasting.  It is phenomenal the waste that we put and keep in our bodies – sometimes you don’t even realize all the bad you do yourself through crappy American food and lack of exercise until you get rid of it.  Yay for Japi!