CLEANSE

During a couple weeks on my trip when I had the runs, I promised myself that I'd do a cleanse to make sure I got out all the bugs I'm sure I picked up. So, here I am, day 5 and I'm still alive. I've done The Master Cleanse at least once a year for the past ... maybe 5 years, and I really like it. Or at least I remember thinking that it's a good thing, and while I'm doing I'm not so sure I remember correctly. I forget how hard it is until I do it. Yesterday I threw up cayenne pepper and lemon water out of my nose, and needless to say I was not so psyched about that. But I'm sticking with it and am bypassing the cayenne pepper. Anyway, it's supposed to give your body a chance to rest from all the crap I put in it all the time and get all the stuff that's stuck in there out. Here's a gross little known fact, that you usually have 5-10 lbs of facile matter in your intestines all the time! And if you don't believe me check out this website! I was just going to put those pictures on here, but I thought I'd protect those not wanting to see pictures of poo.

I think most of you have probably heard of it, but here's the gist. I mix the juice from 2 lemons and about 2 tablespoons of Grade B maple syrup with a full Nalgene of water, and I drink 2 of those a day. I also drink a lot of tea. Usually a detox one in the morning and a laxative one at night. And that's it ... no other food or anything. It's pretty rough, but I really like doing it. OK, not really while I'm doing it, but after I'm glad I did it. The recommended amount is to do it for 10 days. I have done 10 a couple times, and 5 and 7 days also. Depending how I feel, I'm either going to do it for a week, or 9 days depending if I think I can do my first day of work which will be mostly paperwork and hopefully not 12 full hours of standing on my feet, because I don't think I could do that. Here's how it's been going:

DAY 1:
I started on a Monday, and it really wasn't as hard as I thought. I was for sure hungry, but I had a ton of stuff to do so it kept me really occupied and not thinking about food. It's so great to have this week off to really get settled in to my new place with Erika Feinaur. I raked leaves and I walked / ran / did lunges (I really need to get my legs in shape for skiing!) around Liberty park and I really didn't feel too low on energy.

DAY 2:
This day has been the hardest for me. Since I've been out of the country I've missed a lot of the debates, and all that that has been going on. I made my drink, then got back in bed and watched the debates and caught up on stuff and when I got up and around I had a super bad headache and almost felt like I was going to throw up. I ran errands, and was around but had a pretty bad headache all day. Not that it requires much strenght, but I went bowling with my family and was find. I started getting what I thought looked like bites around my waist line, and they itched just like bites.

DAY 3:
This is supposedly the hardest day for people, but it wasn't too hard for me. I woke up without a headache. I had some tea with a friend and did some errands in the morning, then came back to my place. I really think being busy is the key to now thinking about it. It also really helps that Erika didn't have any food and she's out of town and I didn't buy any, so there's nothing here to temp me. Whenever I go up to my parent's house, it's such a struggle because there's tons of good fruit and treats and everything I could want there, but here's not too bad. What I thought were bites, started showing up on the backs of my hands and on my cheeks a little, so I started figuring out that it's not bites, it's systemic, but I couldn't figure out why, then all of the sudden I remembered that I think I am a little bit allergic to dandelions and one of the teas I bought has dandelion root in it. So, I've stopped drinking that, and it doesn't seem to be spreading but it's still pretty itchy. I hope that was the problem. I hadn't had the capsules to make the cayenne pepper capsules until today, so I put some of those together and had one, and you can always feel when it opens in your stomach, and it's a little heart-burny but that is supposed to help keep your metabolism going and keep you colon moving stuff through. Later, I played a little bit of squash with my brother Jesse just for 20 mins and I was fine. And this day was great because it snowed!!!

DAY 4:
I took a capsule with my morning drink and it kinda wrecked me. It was pretty burny, but just didn't go away. I tried to drink a lot of water and my juice to dilute it, but it didn't work and I ended up throwing up. It sucks pretty bad, it came out my nose and w burning in my sinuses for like 20 min. I tried to snort water, but that is the weirdest feeling thing to do ever. So, I'll probably just empty the capsules a little but still keep taking them. I felt much better after. For some reason our power had gone out the night before, but I had some computer work to do so I walked to the downtown library. It's probably a mile each way and it was such a beautiful day! I was walking fast and had plenty of energy. It's really amazing to me that I am not starving. I do feel hungry, but it's just like I had an early lunch and it's getting late for dinner. I realize how often I eat just because it's time to eat or because it's there, and this is a really good practice for me to be better at not eating. It's funny that I'm way better at not eating anything that not eating certain things or just a lot of whatever, but hopefully this will be good practice for me. I did eat one hot tamale. I was cleaning out my backpack and it was there just screaming to be eaten and it was so good! and so good just to chew something. I've been chewing gum like it's the best thing ever. Usually at least 2 pieces at once. I smell everything too. Any food that is within 20 feet of me I smell and I want it! So, again, my house is a safe haven to not have that temptation wafting to my senses. I went to Squashworks to watch my dad and Jesse play some matches and I rode the exercise bike easy for 20 mins, and again, felt surprisingly good.

DAY 5:
As I was getting ready for bed last night, my throat started hurting just a little, and I can still feel it this morning, it's not bad, but it's there. I'm feeling pretty good otherwise. I think my body is kind of used to not getting food. Anyway, that's where I am now. Tomorrow will be my deciding day if I'm going to keep doing it for 9 days or not. If not, on Sunday, I'll have OJ for breakfast, soup for lunch, and a really small light dinner. You're supposed to take like 3 days to get back to eating real food, but I've never been that good at obeying that and I've never had problems with eating again. I've gone "#2" every morning and there's still plenty coming out, so I feel like it's working. I've lost 10 lbs, which I know I'll gain (hopefully not all but) most of it back as soon as I start eating again.

So, there it is. I know there's tons of different cleanses that people do all the time, and I think they're great. I think it's good to let our bodies relax and catch up especially with all the crap we put into them, especially me on my trip. I ate so many pastries and deep friend things, but actually a lot of it probably had a lot less preservatives and additives and such and we did eat a lot of fruit and veggies, but it still feels good to get everything out. I'll keep you updated, and let you know how it's going, and keep you all up to date on my BM's also, cause I'm sure you're dying to know :)