The Master Cleanse: Day Ten

It's over!
It's over!
It's over!

I'm tres excited to be easing back into the land of the eating tomorrow morning. Even if it's just juice and veggie broth, it's a start. The Master Cleanse fast has been an interesting journey, but I'm ready to be normal again.

I lost about six pounds over the last ten days. That's not much compared to many people, who, depending on their starting weight, claim to lose 20 or 30 lbs in the same amount of time. I like to think it's because I ate pretty healthily to begin with and didn't need to shed as much. Who knows? Everybody's different. I fully expect to gain back the weight as I'll be returning to my former pescetarian diet (hello, sushi!). For the record, my itchy skin is thriving as if nothing happened, so it's either not a food allergy, or I'm also allergic to lemons, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, or a combination of all three.

I will honestly say that I never experienced euphoria at any point during the cleanse. I either felt fine or not fine, but I never felt excellent. Even though the hunger went away after a few days, the psychological yearning for food never did, and that was pretty unpleasant at times. I've read a lot of accounts of people feeling "amazing" from fasting. I wish I could say the same, but there's no point in embellishing. For me, it was more of a mind-over-matter challenge, and I'm glad I didn't give up.

Fasting enthusiasts argue that it may take upwards of 20 days to achieve that "fully cleansed" aura, but I'm not willing to wait it out. Ten days is plenty. If it hasn't passed through by now, it probably doesn't exist. And anyway, I really must be getting back to my cheese and crackers. 

Oh, and I appreciate all the encouragment and feedback. Really. It was fun to share this experience with all of you, and knowing that you were cheering me on (or ridiculing me, whatever) really did keep me from quitting a few times. So, thanks. I'll go ahead and step off the podium now.

Comments

[edu]

I know I've been a naysayer douchebag about this cleanse thing, but I'm very glad you conquered your "mind-over-matter challenge". I hope you feel stronger than you thought you were.

[Dennis D]

Welcome back to the world of food lol, your one tuff cookie no pun intended lol.

[Text Pirate]

Hooray! It's over! Now you can change to subjects that don't make me worry about you or the possible bad example you might set for others. Honestly, this crap made me nervous.

How about this for a subject: In the bottom right corner of the "Post a comment" area I see a little blue rounded corner that's not attached to anything. Is anyone else seeing this or is it just me? It's been there since you started using this theme but I was just ignoring it.

[Jeremy]

10 Days already? I'm sure it seemed a lot longer for you. Congrats on making it!

[Sean LaFianza]

Hi Sarah, I've been following your 10 days in my RSS feed so i haven;t read any of the comments. I was talking to my wife (a natural remedy guru) about your continued itchiness. Perhaps someone else has already brought it up but it could be a yeast issue and not related to allergies as you keep mentioning. Yeast will still continue to grow from the sugars in the maple syrup and can definitely result in itchy skin. You may want to look around for some yeast free diets which is mostly no yeast or sugars and see if that helps.

Once you kill off the excess yeast in your body you can slowly come back to yeasts and sugars.

[Tyler]

Congrats Sarah!

Have a great time eating again, I know you missed it.

[Stephen]

Congrats!

I just finished my cleanse too... toughest 10 hours of my life!

:)

[David]

Congratulations, I myself have been fasting since 7:30 this morning and I already have a headache so I'm gonna call it quits :)

Seriously, I gotta hand it to you for setting your mind to something and sticking it out. I wish I had that determination and drive sometimes.

[jan itor]

Maybe you didn't feel this euphoria cause you're stronger willed than other participants in the cleansing.

[Leigh]

Okay - i had been contemplating doing this cleanse (before I read that you started it), and I decided to go for it. Yeah, this is going to be hard. Come 5pm, will mean I have not eaten for 24 hours. How did you get past the cyanne pepper? The lemonade drink is fine w/o the pepper. This will be a definite struggle.

[reader]

Finally, it's over!

Euphoria? Yes, I think that would be from the extended period of *not eating*!!

I still think it's wiser to follow the advice of doctors and scientists rather than health fad enthusiasts, especially when you're dealing something as important as your body's nourishment, but I'm glad you've accomplished what you set out to do.

If you suspected food allergies, keeping logs of what you ate and when you had irritations would have been a better idea. You probably already tried that. It's easy for me to tell you what you should have done!

I've also had skin and health issues in the past. Really, just keeping track of everything you were doing, where you were, etc is helpful in figuring out what triggers a problem.

My co-workers here are still convinced that the recent hot weather is to blame for earthquakes this summer. Their "opinions" on the laws of nature is sometimes appalling. My point is: please don't readily believe what people tell you or what you read on the Internet.

[Liana]

Congratulations for making it, Sarah. I hope eating normal food or drinking your orange juice wasn't too hard for ya this morning. :)

[sarah]

@Liana- I'm feeling pretty good. Diluting the OJ helps keep it from tasting too sweet! I'm nibbling on a red bell pepper now with no probs!

[Angela]

Congrats!!!!! *hug*

[linda]

Just an FYI, itchy skin may also be a sign of low iron. A common issue with women.

[scooterzz]

congrats!.....but, just so you know, in the spirit of solidarity i have (over the past ten days) been eating for two and consuming everything that you haven't.........i, for one, am going to miss the cleanse......

[joel]

Congrats! This was a great ten days of reading! Glad you made it.

[Kacy]

Congrats on the master cleanse, While I would never do such a thing, I have enjoyed the daily blog updates..I'm almost sad to see it come to a close now that you aren't / aren't eating.
@ Text Pirate I see the blue corner fold also!

[sean]

wow Sarah, you are stronger than me! haha I LOVE food way to much for this cleanse thingy. Good job though, it was interesting to read about someone going through it

[ben]

I skipped lunch for you Sarah.

But hit the baconator X 3 for dinner.

[sarah]

@ TP & Kacy- Yeah, I gotta look through my code and figure that little guy out. Thanks for reminding.

[Lookman]

:D

[Doug]

Congratulations, Sarah!

It's too bad that the great cleanse didn't give you the fantastic feelings but, you've proven you can hold out for a pretty impressive span. I'm glad you were coherent enough to write about it along the way. Had you gone all euphoric on us, we might have missed out.

[Humble Bee]

Doing a fast or cleanse should be primarily for cleaning out the body and your blood stream. It is a great way to give your organs a rest and as a side effect you may lose some pounds but your focus should be on starting a new healthy regiment. Kicking off a new lifestyle is easier when you have done a cleansing fast because you have emptied out a lot of garbage in the system. If you have seen the documentary "Super Size me" you might remember how after awhile eating all that McDonalds food his body craved it and needed the next meal of crap for a fix just to feel better. Bad food will create a dependency for more bad food. So I say get it out and keep it out.

[steve]

move east before they kill you.

[me]

Being a certified personal trainer, I can tell you that the 6 pounds of weight you lost was pure muscle. (or at least 95/5 muscle/fat respectively) which is obviously not good. Now you just need to eat alot of good protein and hit the weights to gain back what you lost.

As soon as you start putting on weight, you'll actually look flabbier because you have less muscle than you did when you started, but you'll be the same weight as before (or more), and since muscle weighs more than fat ... you get the picture.

*sigh* all these people doing all these crazy fad diets. :)

And dilute your OJ? Man up! Drink it whole! 80 proof! :P

[Health]

Happy you crossed the finish line good job! :)

[Duncan]

Here I am, sitting at home alone on a Friday night (usually the best night of the week for consuming a cold beer and any thing you fancy!) limping pathetically through my fifth day of the Master Cleanse and looking for moral support online....and thank you! Your joyous completion of 10 days is what I too am aiming for -- so you have inspired me somewhat......for now...;o).....I don't think naysayers have any idea how incredibly difficult it is to deny yourself food for 10 days (I know from personal experience -- as I completed 10 days on the MC back in April 2004)....and here I am again....questioning why I have undertaken such a marathon of masochism....for a second time......just to see if I could perhaps.....this week at the office I have been bombarded with opportunities to surrender to my craving for food....a huge pizza luncheon after a big meeting just yesterday comes to mind......I just walked away from boxes piled high -- the aroma alone was almost enough to weaken my resolve....and it's not like I'm going to tell all my colleagues that I'm doing "a detox cleanse"......most people would think you are stark raving mad to give up food for 10 days.....and tonight I am wondering if maybe they are right.....but this is more than a chance to clean out and rejuvenate yourself.....this is one of the greatest personal tests of determination (in the face of temptation) that I can think of.....(probably as hard as quitting a major drug addiction cold turkey -- not that I know, thankfully).....but right now....I feel almost as if I'm going through a kind of 240 hour Bikram Yoga class....you hate doing it....but you know you will feel (and look) glowing (even with a little pride) afterwards.......and apart from that I promised myself I'd do this.....I just keep visualizing that same high five moment Sarah......cheers! (it's only laxative tea...)

P.S. This really is mice-type isn't it?....You must have incredibly good eyesight! Can't you make the font size larger for the comment box? Just a thought...:o)