The Master Cleanse: Have I Lost My Mind??

I've never really been one for fad diets.  I did the South Beach Diet once a couple of years ago.  I lasted a week.

When I was in my 20's, I developed a bit of an eating disorder.  I was obsessed with food and fat grams and for years I never ate more than 1 fat gram a day.  I was skinny, but not healthy.  There are no plans to repeat that diet, but it does show me that I have do have will power somewhere in my body.  I'm going to have to call it it out again and reintroduce myself to it soon.  My insane plan is to start the Master Cleanse on February 1.

For those who are not familar with it, it is a cleanse where all you drink is this lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper concoction for 10 consecutive days.  The cleanse requires that you do a salt water flush every morning, consuming up to 12 glasses of the lemonade, and ending the day with a laxative tea.  Yummy! During the duration of the cleanse, you do not consume one morsel of solid food.  You do not consume anything else other than water and the occasional cup of herbal tea along with the lemonade.  It is drastic, but I think I'm up for the challenge.

I'm mentally preparing myself for this challenge.  Unfortunately, one of my coworkers pushed back her last day at the job, therefore her celebratory lunch will take place on Day 8 of my cleanse.  I'm hopeful my cravings and hunger pangs will have subsided by then and I can be around people who are eating delicious food while I'm sipping water after not eating for 8 days.

Although you are supposed to do the cleanse for 10 days, my goal will be 8.  After the eighth day, I'll see if I can continue for another two days.

After you break the cleanse, you cannot resume eating your normal foods.  You will remain on a liquid diet for another 2-3 days.  The first day after breaking the cleanse, you will be allowed to drink only watered down orange juice.  The second day you are allowed watered down orange juice along with a bowl or two of fresh vegetable broth (no actual veggies).  If your digestive tract does not protest, you can have a bowl of vegetable soup with the veggies on the third day.  If all goes well, you can resume your normal eating habits starting the fourth day after breaking the cleanse.

What I've read is that you will lose cravings of bad foods and the taste of fruits and vegetables will be euphoric.  My plan is to use that time to change my diet and to limit my sweet and dairy intake.  We'll see how that goes.

I will blog daily during my cleanse.  I really hope I don't have any adverse reactions to it.  I do expect to be hungry, tired, and irritable.  I hope that is all I experience as I would love to do this cleanse 2-3 times a year.

Wish me luck!!