Breaking the fast

[renewed]

May I say a double :-[ :-[. Let me try this one more time "I eagerly anticipate Marlene Glickman's "Dining Raw" book". I truly wish I had it now, but all I would do would be to torture myself by reading all the wonderful recipes.

[Nina]

I need advise! TOday! SOrry for being so demanding.
I reached day 10 yesterday which was my goal. Now I am also expecting my period today tomorrow. Since I know pretty sure I am not prenant I am assuming it would be beneficial if I went another 9 days on the fast. My husband thinks I am doing the body bad, but I CAN do it - I went this far on it what is 9 more days? My analogy is that the first nine days of a woman's cycle is blah anyways since a period is a cleanse in itself. And intending to be parents for the second time I will on day 9 of my cycle gear up to ovulate and being off the cleanse will be perfect!!! So what I need to know is: what is the benefit of going further? I need to deside. All I need now is another bottle of maple syrup and continue as I have been.

[Ginger]

Hi Nina

I did 20 days on my last cleanse. You'd be surprised at how good you'll feel if you continue. With our SAD diets, we get so much build-up that I had solid eliminations after 15 days!! My tongue didn't clear up completely even after 20 days. And the feeling of wellness is fantastic. My b-friend was very surprised at how well I felt after 20days w /o solid food.

Good luck with your decision

Ginger

[Kari]

Peter, are there any tricks to keeping the bowels moving during transition after the cleanse? I am on day three of transition, and had my first bowel movement yesterday afternoon. Do you recommend SM tea, or prune juice, or just let things happen when they happen?

[Beaglehead]

I did 11 days of the cleanse and then got off it, going by the book all the way. After drinking only orange or grapefruit juice for 2 days post cleanse and then going to vegetable soup for the next day, I added some chicken to the soup the day after that. That night I had some serious stomach pains. I took some ibuprofen and about an hour later after the pain was gone, I had a strong allergic reaction to something, possible the ibuprofen or the nuts I had with dinner. Never had an allergic reaction to any of the items I ingested before. I have had that painful stomach for 2 days now. Also loose stools. Perhaps I cought a virus. I noticed after drinking some grapefuit juice this evening, my stomach pains went away. I'm thinking that drinking the lemonade for 11 days did something to my stomach acid production. Has anyone ever heard of any of these symptoms before?

[Lin]

Beaglehead,

Congratulations on completing your cleanse!!

Sorry you've been having such difficulties resuming eating. I have a problem with allergic reactions to foods and the environment a lot.
It's often hard to tell what causes us to react to things.
All the things that you listed could be possibilities.
Perhaps you started eating things like nuts and chicken too quickly. Maybe you should have stayed with the veggie soup plain, and maybe some veggie salad for awhile before adding other solid foods.

This I do know. Drinking the lemonade for 11 days would NOT cause excess acid production. In fact, it's just the opposite. It causes a more alkaline environment in your stomach. Many people don't know that citrus fruits cause an alkaline environment in the body. While you were drinking the lemonade and then switching to the orange and grapefruit juices, your stomach acid would have been very low.

The most acidic foods there are are meats and dairy products. If it were me, I'd suspect that the chicken you ate caused your problem, if you believe that your stomach pains are an acid problem. Adding the chicken to your diet would have caused your acid production to take a big leap and could have caused your pains.
You were wise to go back to the grapefruit juice.

Take it slow and I hope that you figure out what it was that caused your pains.

Lin

[nueland]

I just finished 15 days on the cleanse and today is my first day of orange juice!! My question is, I need to make the soup and I really don't know were to start!!
do you use a broth? do you just throw in a bunch of veggies? HELP!!

[Beaglehead]

To make the soup: There is a good recipe in the cleanse book, but it's really simple anyway. Get a bunch of veggies (organic if possible) and cover with water. You can add a little salt if you like. You then have two choices. The optimum choice is to cook the veggies for about a half hour and then remove and discard them saving only the broth. That will give you very mushy (and almost useless veggies) and great broth. If you want veggies in your soup besides the broth, simply add some fresh ones to the broth at this point. Only cook them until they are slightly softened (less cooking is better). You can add some bullion to the broth or a little cayenne pepper to taste, but use only organic, good quality bullion with no additives.

[Beaglehead]

I suspect you may be correct about eating too soon. This morning my stomach was hurting about an hour after breakfast. I drank some coffee and the pains went away. I think introducing acid (as with coffee or grapefruit juice) makes my stomach stop producing acid which eliminates the pain. Since the lemonade makes the body alkaline, my stomach is not used to so much of its own acid. Technically, one is not supposed to go off cleanse until the tongue turns pink. Mine was still white when I quit. Perhaps staying on the cleanse until a pink tongue appears, signals that the stomach is now healed (along with everything else) and can now take the increased acid without discomfort. Next time I will stay on the cleanse until I get a pink tongue, or at least for the 21 days recommended.

One thing I did notice, and am still noticing, is that many of my old injuries and pains came back one at a time and then went away. I think the theory is that some of the pain is suppressed and stays in the area (especially joints) until fully removed. Pain killers and meds tend to suppress pain, not cure ailments. I must still be cleansing even though I am now eating. My tennis elbow flared up this morning even though I did nothing to aggravate it and it's been years since it hurt. Also, my BM's are still loose and I am getting slight headaches now and then. I will do another SWF tomorrow morning and see if it helps.

Any comments?

[patricio]

Has anyone used a raw soup when exiting the fast?

Patrick day 38