2010: What day are you on and how are you doing?

[Doctor Bunsen]

It's Day 30 for me and I've been feeling good (except when I miss a day of lemonade) so I guess I'm going to go for the full 40 days. My weight loss has plateaued over the last four days at 155lbs. My goal was 150. So I'm going to try varying the amount of maple syrup I'm using and replacing the lemons with limes for the last 10 days. I can't believe I haven't eaten solids in a MONTH. I want to tell the world but I know they will all think I'm crazy so I'm going to have to keep my mouth shut for the next 10 days.

I am still having some cravings for pizza. I actually looked at the Domino's Pizza web site today to see what specials are on. I wasn't tempted to order anything though because I know if I ate that crap right now I'd probably die. And I definitely won't be eating it after the cleanse. I ate raw vegan for at least two weeks after my last cleanse and maintained the weight loss so I'll most likely try to do that again.

I can't give up now. I'm almost there!

[C Mack]

Welcome to Day 7! Time flies when your drinking lemonade

Here goes the second cleanse!! Had really great results and an ok experience the first one this past January....looking forward to another good one! Had a successfull saltwater flush first thing on the first day so things are starting out great!

Welcome! all the best to you.

Hi all,
Planning on starting a ten day fast tomorrow. It's hard to fast in cold weather, at least for me, but I have some time to do it, so I've decided to give it a try. Has anyone ever tried warm lemonade? I wonder if that wold be against the rules.

Warm LA is awesome! (May want to watch the cayenne volume - it can seem spicier with added heat. If you have trouble with it I'd stqrt out lower, taste and add more if you can) Great for the coldies and totally allowed. As are frozen LA slushies and hot cold or frozen peppermint tea (sparingly). Good luck - you can do it!

Hi guys!
First of all I loved reading this forum; it is full of wonderful and useful information. I looked through the threads and couldn't find the answer to my question. I should say I did the MC once before two years ago and loved how I felt during and after the cleanse.

I am thinking about doing MC again but I am afraid that it will aggravate my external hemorrhoids which have been bothering me for the past 3-4 weeks. I read that cayenne pepper can actually help with the hemorrhoids but the thought of SWF and daily bowel movements makes me think that my hemorrhoids will flare up really bad. Does anybody have any experience with this? Thoughts?

Thanks in advance

No experience personally - but it would seem that since they generally flare with 'strain' maybe you'll be okay? Goodness knows there is no need to strain with the SWF or tea - more like the opposite! Must say though some days can be generally uncomfortable, I assume from the cayenne (or toxins) with burning. I had that issue on day one and two and then it almost completely subsided.

[patunia]

hi everyone. day 16 tomorrow will be my last. i'm not sure if i'm happy or sad about that. on one hand i can't wait till something else goes into my mouth except that crazy lemonade. on the other hand i'm scared i'll be making some poor choices with food, and all this effort will be for nothing. hopefully, i'l be thinking twice before i'll eat something sweet or fattening. i still can't believe i lost only 10lbs. in the past 6 days the scale has not moved, and i even tried adding less MS. have a great day everyone

[Benni]

Hi Patunia; Sorry to hear your Cleanse is coming to an end. Maybe tomorrow you will change your mind. Good Luck. Keep posting on your ease-out.

DocBunsen; Congratulations n reaching 30 Days. I have also had to lower my MS, and it has not affected my functioning. Not all of us can tolerate 12 or even 6 Tbsp of MS. Good Luck getting past your plateau.

Day 12 for me. I reached my 1st goal of 150 lbs today. My ultimate goal is 135-140 lbs. I know that will take some time, but I will get there eventually.

Connie; Is your LA Louisiana, or Los Angeles. I am in Los Angeles.
Good Luck to you

[Benni]

Margie; Sunny; Molunat; aaalllen; ChristyC, Hello, and Good Luck.

Here is to wishing us all a very Successful MC Journey.

[Lahontani]

It's Day 30 for me and I've been feeling good (except when I miss a day of lemonade) so I guess I'm going to go for the full 40 days. My weight loss has plateaued over the last four days at 155lbs. My goal was 150. So I'm going to try varying the amount of maple syrup I'm using and replacing the lemons with limes for the last 10 days. I can't believe I haven't eaten solids in a MONTH. I want to tell the world but I know they will all think I'm crazy so I'm going to have to keep my mouth shut for the next 10 days.

I can't give up now. I'm almost there!

Wow! Congratulations on 30 days and especially on being only 5 lbs. away from your goal! I never notice a difference in weight loss from switching between lemons/limes/maple syrup/agave, but I also switch flavors a lot, too often to see a real change. I've found changing my exercise routine helps, though. I usually do spinning, and light weights. But if I switch to pilates or yoga for a few days (4 in a row) then I often get a 3-4 lb. weight drop. Hope this helps.

hi everyone. day 16 tomorrow will be my last. i'm not sure if i'm happy or sad about that. on one hand i can't wait till something else goes into my mouth except that crazy lemonade. on the other hand i'm scared i'll be making some poor choices with food, and all this effort will be for nothing. hopefully, i'l be thinking twice before i'll eat something sweet or fattening. i still can't believe i lost only 10lbs. in the past 6 days the scale has not moved, and i even tried adding less MS......Thanx for the advise. after i think about it, i eat so much sweets, that always have been my weakness, that i get so constipated. i heard that sweets can do that. since childhood i ate soooo much of it i basically lived on that. and maybe that is why i always have problems going to the bathroom. when i got older and heard that many people use the bathroom on the daily basis or even few times a day i was shocked. sometimes i wouldn't go for week and never thought it was abnormal. i will definitely take that to the consideration, thanx again. i maybe so constipated that my body is having very hard time to get rid of that

Did you get a successful SWF? Or did I just miss the post where you talked about it? Not only should people have a bowel movement every day - BMs should occur after EACH meal - about 20-30 minutes after you're finished eating. The BM process should only take a few minutes (less than 5) and should be easy and painless. This is more than just "sweets." See a good holistic doctor - and please read some of the authors I recommended, or at least visit Dr. Rapp's website. http://www.dorisrappmd.com/
A common food, like corn, which is in SO MANY of our foods, could be the culprit. Please consider the "7 Day Miracle" by Bennett and Barrrie. It is a detox cleanse based on a pure food diet. It might be the perfect pre-master-cleanse cleanse for you!

Hey everyone, i'm on day 1 of my second cleanse. Feeling really horrid today as I over indulged yesterday because I knew i was starting a cleanse today. Feeling really sluggish and tired and hoping the first couple of days will pass quickly. This time I'm aiming for 21 days. Hope I can do it.

Welcome! The first few days are the hardest. I've overindulged (deliberately) before a cleanse, too. It's not the wisest move, but sometimes helps mentally because it's so easy to contrast the way you feel after eating crap to the way you feel on the cleanse, even if you're hungry. Best wishes on your cleanse!

I have a questin: How long can I store the lemonade ance I make it? it is hard for me to make it fresh evrytime I'm going to drin a glass due to my job schedule.

You've had a lot of answers already. But I'm going to add a few things: the longer the lemon juice has oxidized (been exposed to air) the more it loses nutrients. You can really taste the difference between fresh lemonade and hours-old lemonade. Especially on a warm day, you can taste it going rotten. Freezing the lemonade is "processing" it; so is heating it. You lose even more nutrients when you do this. Because it's so hard to squeeze lemons at work/ while traveling, etc., many of us HAVE to make a full day's worth at a time. Here are my 2 recommendations: 1) make the lemonade concentrated with less water than recommended, then keep adding ice cubes throughout the day to keep it fresh and cool. The ice will melt and give you the correct water/juice ratio. It will be more concentrated in the morning and very diluted at the end of the day, but it will stay fresher. 2) buy a juicer. you don't have to buy one of those expensive $200 Jack La Lane type juicers. Stores like target or macy's have little $25 electric juicers that are worth their weight in gold for cleansers!! I've found that most people who complain about the inconvenience of juicing are doing it by hand.

Can't remember which MC this is, but on day 7 of whatever it is. Lots of crankiness and muscus early on, but i'm feeling pretty good right now. Lunches have been replaced by bike rides around work:
I tend to do something odd and compensate for food by watching more cooking shows and sitting w/ friends while they eat. The weekend was no less.

Welcome back aaalllen! Good to see you again! I am also on day 7. I do something similar - I go through gourmet cooking magazines and cut out all the recipes (and pictures) of foods that sound good, intending to make them after the cleanse. In reality, I only end up making 1 - 4 of those recipes in between cleanses, because I just don't normally eat that way. I'm acquiring huge fat, organized, folders (13 of them!) of recipes. Maybe I'll get to them all someday before I die.

Hi all,
Planning on starting a ten day fast tomorrow. It's hard to fast in cold weather, at least for me, but I have some time to do it, so I've decided to give it a try. Has anyone ever tried warm lemonade? I wonder if that wold be against the rules.

Heating the lemonade is processing it, and therefore you lose some of the nutrients. It IS allowed, but on a limited basis. Don't do it with every lemonade. It's completely understandable to want to heat it up for the first dose in the mornings, to replace coffee. Try not to do it every day, unless it's the only way you can make it through the cleanse in winter. . You can also have occasional peppermint tea (just pure peppermint, no sweetener)

I am thinking about doing MC again but I am afraid that it will aggravate my external hemorrhoids which have been bothering me for the past 3-4 weeks. I read that cayenne pepper can actually help with the hemorrhoids but the thought of SWF and daily bowel movements makes me think that my hemorrhoids will flare up really bad. Does anybody have any experience with this? Thoughts?

I don't have any personal experience with hemorrhoids. But I do have a recommendation. I like to buy the gel-form baby oil and put that on toilet paper when I wipe during the cleanse, to keep my butt from getting raw. It really helps. I think the cleanse will eventually help eliminate the hemorrhoids completely, but the first few days may be pretty rough for you.

-------

Today is my day 8! wow, time flies! My period started a few days early, which explains my moodiness from a few days ago. Also, I had stopped taking B-complex supplements for the cleanse, and B vitamins are good for mood regulation/stress. I think in a few days I will start taking the B-complex again. Even though it's not recommended, I don't have any negative effects and lose just as much weight when taking them.

[aaalllen]

Benni & Lahontani: thanks for the warm wishes =)

I was veggie for a few years and then flexetarian before taking a trip to the land of all meat + rice dishes w/ minimal vegetables. I've had the SAD diet since. I'll shoot for flexetarian with pescaterian exceptions. I'm craving spicy roasted butternut squash soup. Last April's cleanse had a ghost chile in it *gwahahhaa* Ratatouille sounds good, too.

Looking back at cook books, I've loved Debbie Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and recently picked up Bittman's Veggie How to Cook Everything. The intro is pretty interesting. The biggest block he found most people had was that the SAD promoted a big protein entree and sides. The non-pasta vegetarian meals would need a new mindset: a variety of sides that shouldn't be thought of as sides.

I started getting cold at work yesterday afternoon and my hands are cold right now.

Weightwise, my 6-3 large frame had me start at 236 and i'm at 226. I was at around 205 as my fighting weight 5 years ago. I don't think that's realisticly possible anymore, but i'll shoot for 215 by next spring.

[C Mack]

Connie; Is your LA Louisiana, or Los Angeles. I am in Los Angeles.
Good Luck to you

Hi Benni! Actually in that reference I was using LA to mean "lemonade"

I'm actually from Ohio where it is darn cold! We had snow on Saturday LOL... wish I was in one of the warm places abbreviated that way!

[C Mack]

oh boy... today has been particularly tough as far as wanting to eat...

SKIP THIS NEXT PART IF YOU DON"T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT FOOOOOD!

I just got a call to come to the plant floor to taste something! ARGH! I can spit it right back out but lord what torture!

not just craving stuff that is bad for me either - I'm focused on the veggies I can eat soon! Want to make two completly different sorts of veggie soup to break the cleanse this time instead of just one - that way I can mix it up a bit instead of eating one giant pot of soup for days... will look on the recipe board for suggestions but thinking that will drive me crazy! 3 more days...

Keep on squeezing folks!

[Molunat]

Awww, thanks for all the good wishes and thanks to everyone who answered my question about warm lemonade.
I may do warm (lukewarm, actually) lemonade once a day if it gets really cold since I am not a fan of peppermint tea.
Day one half way through. This is always the worst day for me. Just getting used to the idea of non eating.