Pulling my hair out!!

Ahhhh, the holidays are coming!!!  I'm so scared because soon I will be presented with more food than you could imagine.  In my family we just bake and eat.  Football, Thanksgiving, birthdays, Christmas, all these occasions mean FOOD. Lots and lots of food.  This would be fine but seriously this past summer has been all BBQs at the pool, amusement park food, and for some strange reason I have been baking cookies like a fiend.

This was me 6 months ago

Back to the Master Cleanse

 Now at the close of summer and the opening of the holidays I am feeling about 15 lbs heavier.  And to make matters worse I have been asked to be a bridesmaid in my cousins wedding mid January.  How cruel is she??  Having a wedding right after the most fattening season of the year.  AHHH, and I just found out that my size XL self will be standing next to a bunch of small and medium sized girls.  Weight lose FAIL, on my part!  So I guess I am in between a rock and a hard place.

Maybe I should try this workout

  I vowed to never do a Master Cleanse again and here I am just a few months later looking down the barrel of the maple syrup bottle about to start squeezing those darned lemons again.  Wish me luck!!

Good luck with your Master Cleanse goals!

Post Cleanse Update

So I didn't realize that this little blog of mine would get so much traffic. I actually stopped posting because in my opinion I failed miserably at the Master Cleanse this time around.

Let me give you a quick update.  The cleanse went really well.  This time I didn't feel hungry or crazy like I had during my first Master Cleanse.  But by day 8 I was sick and tired of the lemonade.  I have a very social life so it was emotionally difficult for me to go to parties and events where fabulous food was being served and resist the temptation. Well by Memorial day weekend, I had had enough.  My husband came home from work and I could not bare to take one more sip of that horrible lemonade.  It's not that it didn't taste good ( I actually love the way it tastes) but after 8 days of only tasting lemon and maple I was going insane! So Saturday evening of day 8 my husband and I drank orange juice and vegetable broth and called it quits.

I lost a total of 10lbs.  So far I have gained 2 back.  But I feel fabulous and we have both been keeping up on a plant based diet and workout routines.  My Hubby is actually in the works for a Muay Thai based "cross-fit" type of fitness class right now to be unveiled at his gym, Double T, this July.  That has been helping us tone up quit a bit.  I have lost at least 2 inches off my arms since I have been joining his class a couple times a week.

Sadly I don't feel the same detox benefits that I had last year, I'm sure it could be because I didn't have as much toxic stuff in my body.  After my first cleanse I changed my life-style a little bit.  I stopped using as many toxic soaps and lotions in favor of more natural products.  We don't eat as much processed foods as we had in the past and I try to sit in the sauna to sweat things out a few times a month.

All being said, The Master Cleanse is always a great learning experience, and if nothing else, it has helped me to cut off the cravings and dependencies to caffeine, sugar and carbs.  I really have no desire to ever do this again unless I am in some type of health crisis.

I hope that the information that I have written can help you prepare yourself for your cleanse no matter what stage of health you may be in.

Happy Living

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Day 3

Whew! The last couple days have been exhausting.  Saturday was difficult, day one and I already had lots of temptations.  In case you didn't know, I love baking cakes and do it for extra money a few times a month for family and friends.  Well Saturday my neighbor had a party for her 7 year old and commissioned me to bake the cake.  A big beautiful chocolate cake with ganache filling.  Sadly I was not able to taste the cake.  To top it off the party was catered by Port of Subs (my second favorite subs) and I was constantly offered a beer.  If that wasn't bad enough, a few hours before the party, my toddler got into the fridge (when my 9 year old opened the door) and she poured my entire lemonade supply out into the fridge.  That is a half gallon of sticky lemonade...life sustaining "food" out..the entire pitcher all over the fridge, floor, rug, under the stove, in the vegetable crisper.  I had no more lemons until my husband came home several hours later and I was starving! But I survived and stuck to water until I got more lemons.  The rest of the day was just fine and I only experienced a headache before bed.  My symptoms were not so bad on day 1.

mmmmm, Doesn't this look yummy???

Day 2, yesterday, I felt as if I could sleep the entire day.  My body was aching and when I got out of bed I was dizzy.  We went to church in the morning and I felt like I could collapse with exhaustion.   After church we came home and laid on the couch for the next 5 hours, watching cartoons with the kids and doing any playing from the couch.  After a few eliminations I felt much better, and by bedtime I was feeling good again.  I must have had something terrible being mobilized in my body.  Other than feeling weak and dizzy I haven't actually felt too hungry (as long as I have my lemonade).

As this is my second cleanse, its actually a whole lot easier than it was last year.  By day 2 last time I was starving and rethinking my decision to complete it.  Every waking hour was spent wishing I could eat and thinking about food.  This time...so far, has been very easy.  I feel hungry as if it were just before a meal, but a big glass of lemonade and a glass of water fills my stomach and keeps the hunger pains away.  Don't believe me?  On my first cleanse I didn't believe anyone who said they weren't hungry either.  I think that the difference this time is that we found grade B maple syrup, I think this is really important and something that I ignored last time. Also, my eating habits this past year have been really good (less sugar and mostly vegetable based). I'm sure you are still thinking "yeah right, no food for 10+ days and you aren't hungry, you are a liar!".  My question to you is, why would I lie?  What would I or any other master cleanser have to gain from lying?  If you chose to do this I gain nothing, I won't get paid, I wont get a metal, I get nothing, but you will benefit so much from it.  So if you feel your health needs a change, you are feeling tired and "toxic", please give it a try, for yourself, you only have your health to gain.

Happy Cleansing!

Good Morning Day 1

It's a beautiful day at our house, and Day One of our Master Cleanse. Today, this morning, might be the easiest day for the next month, but we shall see.  I have done my meal planning, did not make any freezer meals (due to lack of time...fail!), my house is a mess but we have a bowl full of lemons and 5 bottles of grade B maple syrup. We are ready.

The fun straw makes it seems better, like we are actually having a party ;)

This morning started out good, I made my delicious Salt Water Flush (sarcasm, the salt water does remind me of swimming in the ocean though) and it's been going pretty good, between getting the kids their cereal and dealing with the morning tantrums I have been in and out of the bathroom leaving them to fend for themselves.  They will be fine. And so will I.


Happy Day One

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Feeding kids while on the Master Cleanse

Lots of books and Master Cleanse experts say that before you start the Master Cleanse to rid your house of all foods.  Well that would be a great idea if I didn't have 3 small children to feed 3 times a day.  That was the hardest for me during my last Master Cleanse. I had to prepare food for my kids all day and not even take a tiny bite, but I did it. You can too!  Here are some tips for being around food or even worse cooking while cleansing.

1. Meal plan for the entire cleanse 

 Make sure that you have a solid plan of what you will be preparing for the kids for the next 2-4 weeks.  Make a large grocery store trip and stock up for the entirety of the cleanse so that you don't have to face the grocery store on an empty stomach

2. Make freezer meals  

There is a gold mine of free crock-pot and freezer meals on Pinterest, if you spend a day prepping meals and freezing them a day or two before you start your MC, it will be easier for you to just throw in the oven without spending too much time in the kitchen.

Try these blogs for ideas and recipes

http://joelandkitty.com/4o-freezer-meals-in-about-4-hours/

http://largefamilyslowcooker.blogspot.com/

3. Do Not feed the kids YOUR favorite foods

    If your kids are anything like mine, they have a very different palate than yours.  Feed them things they like (healthy things) but try to avoid cooking foods that you crave.

4. Stay away from the drive-thru 

It may be very tempting to run to McDonald's to grab your kids lunch but those fries will be calling your name from the back seat and you have to have iron clad strength to keep from jamming a hand full of America's Favorite fries in your mouth.

5.Purge your home of food "extras"

No one NEEDS to eat ice cream, cookies or potato chips.  Even if your kids like these foods, get rid of them for a few weeks at least.  That pint of Chunky Monkey will be calling your name from the garage freezer at 2 am and there is usually little that any of us can do against a middle of the night graving.  So trash it, give it away, don't buy it.  Let Grandma and Grandpa take the kids out for ice cream if they really need a treat, but you stay home and sip on your sweet sweet lemonade!

6. Watch "Food Porn"

This is my Hubbys favorite thing to do while on the cleanse. While the kids are sitting down for their delicious dinner, he and I will plop down on the couch with our lemonades in hand and watch the Food network.  Be warned that this may not work for everyone, but it helped us.  We mostly watched "Drive-ins, Diners, and Dives" and salivated over all of the amazing greasy foods we weren't eating.  It got us through some really tough times, I'm not sure how, but it did.

I hope that this helps you to prepare your home to have a successful Master Cleanse.

Happy Prepping

What is the Master Cleanse???

A year ago my husband and I decided to do the Master Cleanse also known as "the Lemonade Diet".  We chose to do it for health reasons and this week we are preparing to do it again.  I have lots of people ask me  what the Master Cleanse is, there is a whole bunch of great information on the internet about it, but since I have gone through it before and I love it, I thought I would create a blog dedicated just to the Master Cleanse.

What is the Master Cleanse?

It is actually very simple. It is a cleanse (you drink homemade "lemonade" all day) that flushes all of your organs of the toxins that we consume through the food we eat, the water we drink and the products we use.  Unless you have a %100 organic and eat a clean diet you are eating all kinds of toxic substances that cause health problems and slows you down.  Ever feel tired and groggy for no apparent reason? In our society that is the norm, everyone is always tired and sick, but it shouldn't be that way.  The Master Cleanse purges your body of the impurities that make us sick and slow.  I'm not a Doctor and I don't know all of the technical terms and science behind all of it so I strongly suggest that before you start the Master Cleanse do lots of research to make sure that it is right for you.  Be warned that there are lots of books published by people who love this cleanse and as good as they all are, the number one, FIRST thing you should read is the ORIGINAL pamphlet "The Master Cleanse" written by Stanley Burroughs

In my experience, people who have not read the pamphlet (which is only about 15 pages) do not finish the Master Cleanse.  The most important thing to understand when starting the cleanse is what it was designed for. If you stay focused on its intended purpose by its creator and your own purpose for completing the cleanse you will be much more successful. Bottom line, take the 45 min and read the entire pamphlet. You can buy it on Amazon.

After you have read the pamphlet decide if it is right for you, what you want to get out of it and your purpose.  It's different for everyone.  I will tell you, that if you want to do the MC to loose a  few pounds, you will not succeed (unless you have an insane amount of will power).  Weight loss simply is not a strong enough reason to abstain from all foods for 2-4 weeks (You read that right 14-30 days..no food, nothing but lemonade, water and tea).  If you want to just get skinny, this isn't for you.  On the other hand, if you want to cut your dependency on caffeine, alcohol  cigarettes, sugars, meat, and be all around healthy and have lots of sustained energy, this may be a great avenue to take.

I chose to do the MC because I was having problems sleeping without the help of Advil PM, I have acne and indigestion problems.  After my first full Cleanse all of these problems were alleviated with the bonus that I lost 15lbs and sustained that weight lose.

Your homework now is to read the pamphlet, and decide what it will do for you. 

Happy Reading,