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Day 1 - Friday, March 2, 2007
Day 1 - Friday, March 2, 2007
TazAkom

So the big day has arrived. Today is the first day of the master cleanse.

Let me back up and say that yesterday for dinner I had a spicy salmon hand roll and an oshiko roll. Healthy right.....

I don't think my body liked the spicy salmon.

Anyway, so this morning I weighed myself - 129.5 pounds - let see if I lose any of that. I think I will, because whenever I go to India, and I eat only vegetarian food I lose weight in shorter periods of time.

I got up and made myself a salt water flush. 32oz of saltwater. The salt water itself was not bad, except I just can't drink 32 oz. So I had 12 oz. of salt water and a cup of laxative tea.

Then at 9:30am I had my first glass of lemonade and I have had 4 of my 6 glasses so far. Six 8oz of lemonade...that is all I am having for the next 10 days.....Me who barely drinks 8oz of water in one day.

So needless to say I have been going to the bathroom quite a bit. I have gone to the bathroom to eliminate 3 times today - which is less than I was expecting. And of there are other sumptoms such as dryness of the mouth.
Morning weight: 137.5

Since I got home past midnight, it is now friday.

12:30am - Drank some Smooth Move tea and went to bed.
night - some minor bloating but nothing significant
8:00am - It's smooth move alright, wake up, go, you're done.
8:30am - Running/workout, dump all the food in the fridge that won't last 10 days
10:00am - Drank 32oz of salt water.
First half of that all at once, the rest over 15 minutes.
It gets a bit unpleasant in the second half,
but you can kinda think of it as lime juice - both taste salty.
Interestingly, I didn't have the need to go afterwards.
12:00am - Started drinking the lemonade.
Tastes fine but a bit too sweet.
About 50-60oz over the next 6 hours.
Some of it was lime, most lemon based.

Interestingly, most of the day I didn't feel hungry or think of food.
Stomach is occasionally making noises but overall I don't feel weak.

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Day 2 - Saturday, March 3, 2007
TazAkom
My Weight - 127 pounds - 2.5 pounds less than yesterday.
Akom's weight - 139 - 1.5 pounds more than yesterday.

Interesting.....

It is the middle of the day. Yesterday, I went to bed at 5:00pm. I was so tired. I thought I was only going to take a nap and then Akom woke me up at 10pm for my tea!

So the tea is having a bad effect on me. On the directions it says to stop taking it if diarrhea or loose stool develops. Well, suffice it to say, I am going to stop taking the tea. The Master Cleanse, also says to stop taking the laxative if that occurs.

I have had to go to the bathroom 4 times today, and that is not including the two times I went during the night. Not pleasant experiences. I have also vomited twice. However, as unappetizing as all of that sounds, I do feel better. The tongue swollen feeling I had yesterday is gone.

Today, I don't have my strong urges of consuming food. I don't know if my body has just come to accept no food or if it really enjoys being in this state.

My stomach has been gurgling non stop since last night. No headache and no weakness. I have had major cramping though. I have major cramping during my period too, so I am no stranger to it, it's just very unpleasant.

I am a little sleepy, as if I have food coma - how ironic.

Also on a side note, I am supposed to have my period in 4 days, and usually I crave salty foods. No cravings so far. I wonder how that actual experience go.

So far Akom has not had any significant side effects as far as I can tell.

Supposedly day three is the worst - so we will see how things are tomorrow.

As an addendum - Around 5:30pm my craving for PB&J sandwiches overtook me with a vengence. I almost went off the diet. I feel very empty and this need to put food in my mouth comes and goes, but it hits my very hard right around when I usually eat. It was EXTREMELY difficult for me not to eat. Akom got me through it. It is a good thing because not continuing with this would have been yet another thing that I didn't stick with and that would have sucked :(.
Morning weight: 139

Got up fairly late, didn't go running as I got bogged down in administrative tasks - mostly domain/hosting/application related.
I wound up rewriting the story presentation engine, again - this time to generate a static site using smarty.

Had some of the tea in the morning, and started drinking lemonade around 11am.
The tea is quite effective, producing expected results. It's now 1.5 days since I've eaten anything solid and I'm using the bathroom as if there've been no changes in my lifestyle. I guess I've never really fasted for longer than 2 days at a time, so it hasn't occurred to me just how long it takes for food to work its way through the system... Or is it what I'm supposed to be getting rid of - the ballast I've been carrying for who knows how long?

Continuing to drink the stuff, I'm actually liking it. In fact, I feel fine overall, I have enough energy for normal operation and I'm in a pretty good mood also.

Taz is having some internal conflict - she's ready to give up and start eating. She hasn't fasted before (I have an advantage here) and as expected she is now coming face to face with her ego. If she continues the fast she has the potential to become stronger, and her ego - weaker. This is truly a challenge as she is now working out her biggest eating habits - sandwiches and PB&J. I did what I could to support her and seems like she's sticking with the plan.

I wanted to head to the recycling center to check for discarded lumber to make a raised vegetable bed in our backyard, and they close at noon, so we ran out of the house and drove there - but alas, no lumber. A quick stop at the post office and Body and Soul (found different Senna tea there), and we were done with our errands. The post office in our town is always fun to visit - always something going on, everyone knows everyone and people complain and joke to you as if they've known you all your life. We then took a walk through the park and went back - can't be away from the bathroom too long when you're constantly drinking.

As evening came, I was still messing around with the various disjoint computer aspects of our businesses, and I was getting hungry again, so I made some more lemonade. It was not until I drank a lot of the stuff did I realize that my body is now ready to shed some ballast, and this time was different - it was definitely not your every day variety, but something that was waiting for this day for some time. On the bright side, I feel even better. And all this before the evening tea! I actually felt a bit of stomach stirring just prior, so if you do this and experience spontaneous bloating with minor pain - time to find a bathroom. It wasn't all that spontaneous though, I did drink 2-3 glasses of the lemonade first.

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Day 3 - Sunday, March 4, 2007
TazAkom
My Weight - 126 pounds - 3.5 pounds less than day one.
Akom's weight - 138.5 - 1 pound more than day one.

So far my craving for food has not come back. I am hungry but that's it.

Also as other people who have done the cleanse have indicated, there is no weakness or lack of energy. I am also amazed because, I usually get hypoglycemic when I'm hungry and don't eat. That has not occurred. I can function till I am able to drink some more lemonade. We have increased our consumption to 7 glasses a day and have decreased the amount of maple syrup to 1.5 TBS. It was actually getting too sweet.

I did not take the tea last night or this morning, and I have not had to go to the bathroom either. I will give it today, and maybe start on it slowly tonight again.

So far with the exception of the physical detoxification symptoms the first two days, I feel good.

Today we also went to 3 food stores in search of limes. We have decided that we like the limeade better than the lemonade. The first store we went to, the is a tiny store in New Brunswick. I was half impressed. The pictures on the website make it look a lot bigger than it really is, but it did have a lot of the things that raw foodists look for. It didn't have limes though. Then we went to the really big ShopRite on Rt. 18 because we thought 1) it would have a large organic section and 2) it would most certainly would have limes. Well for point number one, it doesn't have a large organic section at all and yes they did have limes, but they did look very "energetic". We figured since this is the only thing that is sustaining us then the limes themselves should have some good energy :). Then we thought of the Russian Farm Market on 18 and we found limes galore! We bought 20. I am averaging about 4 - 5 lemon/limes for 7 glasses. So I am hoping that we have enough to last us through the weekend.

Also, remember those food cravings I was talking about. Gone. I went to 3 food stores, and I really was dreading it, after yesterday's urges...but nothing. I looked at the food, I smelled it, and that was it. I was hungry but I didn't have this urge to eat. I was Ok with drinking the lemonade when I got home.

I also have not been drinking the tea, since it has had a negative effect on me - but in turn, I have also not had to go to the bathroom. So I am going to start on the tea tomorrow, 1 cup at a time.


Morning weight: 138.5

This is getting better and better.
I actually ran, worked out and felt just fine.
Started on lemonade around 11am (had the new senna tea first).

I have lots of technical stuff on my list today - setup a new server, move domains and apps between hosting spaces, configure things, buy hardware, etc. It's fun but it eats time like you would not believe.

I was able to become a little lighter sometime midday, though it was not without effort and some time commitment. Despite the time invested, the output was below average. I have no conjectures about reasons at this time. We'll just wait and see.

We took a break around 2pm and went to check out George Street Coop - a little store in New Brunswick that sells organic food (and you can partner with them too). We needed to buy lemons/limes anyway (10 days and 2 people call for a lot of lemons and limes). It's a really cute store and the food looks good, but they had no limes. So off we went to ShopRite - theirs didn't look too good so we picked out what we could. Eventually we drove past a farm market on Rt 18, and they had whatever we wanted! I have no idea if they are organic though. So now we are stocked for at least most of the remaining days.

Interestingly, Taz has overcome herself for the moment and even survived walking through 3 food stores, seemingly with no trouble. It's a great thing to be able to distinguish hunger from wanting to eat.

I realized that I feel different. It's not the typical "I have more energy" - but rather something like "There is less weighing me down". So the net energy change is positive, but the incoming energy volume is unchanged - I've just become more efficient. I am quite enjoying this feeling, actually.

Came back and continued to drink. Spent at least 5 hours straight working on tech stuff, getting a little worn out.

It has now been 3 full days (72 hours) since I've had food. No problems so far.

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Day 4 - Monday, March 5, 2007
TazAkom
My Weight - 124 pounds - 5.5 pounds less than day one.
Akom's weight - 136.5 - 1 pound less than day one.

So today was the first day Akom is taking the bus to work. The significance of this is that I now have to drive him to the bus stop 3.6 miles away and that he has to leave the house at a certain time or he will miss the bus. Unlike when he was taking the train, he doesn't have a choice and really needs to focus on getting up and getting all the things he wants to get done before 6:45am. Yes, there is another bus in case we miss it.

Personally, I think this is better. It is cheaper in so many ways. The bus costs $218 per month - 7.6 miles of driving/day so gas (if this all the driving this car gets) every 7 weeks - Estimated total: $230.50. The train on the other hand was - $207/month, 50 miles of driving/day so $100/month in gas, $65 parking/month, $42 in tolls/month - Total: $414. I think I'll be OK with the dropping him off and picking him up for a direct savings of $184 x12 = $2208/year.

Anyway, as I was saying the significance of this is, I have to get up at 5:30 with him to prepare the limeade for the day. I thought I would have a hard time getting up, but surprisingly I didn't. I was energetic as soon as the alarm went off. I'm wondering if I should just stay on this diet interminably :-).

8:00am - I had the tea - the new tea we bought on Saturday. So far no effect.

On a side note. Akom's yoga instructor had said something interesting, regarding the fast and that was "Imagine all the free time you will have now that you will not be eating." I didn't believe it at first, because I though, well I still need to make the lemonade and that takes time. But he's right. Now that I have making the lemonade down to a science, it takes me 20 minutes to make 14 cups of lemonade for the day with cleanup 30 minutes. Imagine the amount of time it takes you to make dinner. I mean there are books on quick & easy meals because cooking takes so long. So lets say on average it takes 30 minutes to cook, 15 minutes to plate and eat, and then another 30 mintues to clean up...and I think these are fairly aggressive times - that is at least 1 hour and 15 minutes you have spent on eating x 3. So approx. 4 hours of your day is spent on food....I actually realized the significance of this over the weekend, when I had "4 extra hours" that I couldn't figure out how to fill. I literally ahd this feeling that I was missing something...LOL!

Morning weight: 136.5

No running, some workout, barely any water in the morning.
I am lugging two bottles of lemonade to work.
And this is my first time on the bus, which worked out just fine.

Had some of the fancy tea in the morning, then started drinking sometime after 11am. Made a valiant effort to further my cleansing progress today, but with basically no success.

I do still feel fine though, energy level is fine, though my focus is a bit... lacking. I can work on one thing but keeping track of a lot or really focusing and staying focused on one thing (eg a specific meditation) is just not working. Nor am I really putting that much effort into it (I admit).

Got home past 7pm, made some fresh lemonade and had some more of the fancy tea. Results: none.

Continued working like crazy on setting up the phones and sites until bedtime, which is of course not the best idea ever

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Day 5 - Tuesday, March 6, 2007
TazAkom
My Weight - 124.5 pounds - 5 pounds less than day one but 1/2 pound more than yesterday
Akom's weight - ?

So the laxative tea yesterday didn't do anything.

This morning I woke up very bloated. I took the Smooth Move tea this morning instead of the SennaLax, which has not taken effect yet either.

I am also supposed to get my period sometime today or tomorrow. No PMS symptoms though. None. No cravings, no mood swings, no back pain, not tired. Interesting. Coincidence?

So far the day has been uneventful regarding the Master Cleanse. Energetic and no food cravings.

Yeah...the tea definitely does not agree with me....:(

Morning weight: (I forgot)

Just a workout, a little water.
Bus took a while but I was half asleep/half meditating.

As I was about to have the tea I stopped and wondered if it's really doing anything... so I used Smooth Move (that I only used the first day). It is certainly more effective. As the day progressed I felt rumbling and motion, and sure enough by 4pm I was saying: 'oh boy'. So I wasn't all cleaned out after all.

Taz thinks she's done on the cleanse based on her bathroom stats, but from my experience today I am wondering if that would be jumping the gun. I had next to nothing going on for 3 days and then it turned out I wasn't finished. We shall see.

No evening tea tonight, I am still processing this morning's.

We talked a bit about raw and other lifestyles, and I am growing more comfortable with not being 100% raw in the long term. I am enjoying the all-raw experiment for the time being and I would like it to be a clean one, but after I feel that I am done with it I will try to go on feel and expand my choices in an 'instincto' kinda way. I should practice the esoteric techniques I'm learning sometimes - not just talk about them :)

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Day 6 - Wednesday, March 7, 2007
TazAkom
My Weight - 123.5 pounds - 6 pounds less than day one
Akom's weight - 133.5 - 4 pounds less than day one

So yesterday I told Akom that I was going to go off the master cleanse today. I think he was a little disappointed.

Going off the cleanse, has nothing to do with food. I actually do not have any cravings for food. I am just worried about me health. I have had diarrhea for the last 3 days with it only getting worse each day. However, this morning there was a change for the better. So, since that is the case, I am going to stick with it for the remainder of the time.

I know I said this another one of my posts, I am simply amazed that my hypoglycemic tendencies have gone away. I am not dizzy or lightheaded when I don't eat. I am just hungry. Very interesting. However, unlike Akom I do have strong hunger after 12 hours of not eating, ie in the morning.

Still strong and energetic. With the exception of the diarhea which is showing signs of improving, no adverse symptoms.

So I had the tea this morning and it made things swing the other way and worse. I am going to take myself off the cleanse starting tomorrow.



Morning weight: 133.5 (the lowest it's been yet, though it's only 4 lbs down)

I finally went running (though it was snowing - but not as cold as it has been), worked out, drank a sip of water.
Relaxed on the bus, got to work and had the Smooth Move again. I am still feeling a bit of motion in the system from the last time. And it's still emptying, so that is a good sign.

I spoke with my reference yogi the other day and he pointed out that I have simply replaced one pattern with another - I used to eat constantly, and now I drink the lemonade all the time. So I figured I'd divide it into 'meals'. I had 3 cups or so at lunch time, and then I actually felt a bit of a sugar high. So I drank a bit around 4-5pm before getting on the bus going home, but didn't even finish it. Interestingly, as I got home I felt weaker than before, and actually started shaking a bit. Had some lemonade, it stopped. I guess that would be a sign of a sugar addiction?

Got the new phone system largely working, migraded hard drives, went to sleep. No tea or anything tonight.

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Day 7 - Thursday, March 8, 2007
TazAkom
My Weight - 123.5 pounds - 6 pounds less than day one and holding steady
Akom's weight - 133.5 - 4 pounds less than day one and holding steady

So today was the first day for me to break the fast. I bought 12 oranges, thinking that would hold me over till tomorrow. 12 oranges cost me $11 and they are not even organic!!!

3 oranges gave me 10oz, I think I will have to run out and get some more oranges.

So I drank the orange juice at 8:00am. It is now 10am and I am hungry again. However, as soon as I drank the orange juice, my stomach started to gurgle and I had to go to the bathroom. Success!!!!

Why did I end the fast early? Well I think there were several reasons. One was, I couldn't find why 10 days was chosen as the number of days to do the fast, nor could I find a rationale behind the measurements of 2T + 2T + 8oz of water, or the 32oz of saltwater. Second, my body did not want to eliminate on its own and any sort of help ended up in diarrhea. I was willing to deal with that for 1 or 2 days, but for 3.5 was too much for me. Third, I had reached a taste change with the lemonade. I actually no longer enjoyed drinking it and was starting to dread it. It made my mouth dry and sticky. Finally, my tongue had returned to its pink color. Also yesterday, I felt very weak. Today as well. If I just sit in my chair, then it is not a problem. But if I exert myself I get dizzy and my heart starts to race as if I just did a 30 min cardio workout. I know that I may be out of shape, but this is a new one for me, and not one that I am comfortable with.

I don't feel like a quitter. I truly feel that I did the cleanse to the extent that it was good for my body. People may think that I am making excuses and so be it. I didn't do this to impress people. I did it start eating on a "clean slate."

Akom is still going through with it, but I think only till Saturday. I think he would have stopped with me today, if it was easy for him to make fresh squeezed orange juice at work, which it's not.

Morning weight: 133.5 (unchanged)

Still feel very weak. Couldn't bring myself to run or work out (yes I know I gave in to self pity there). Movement was sluggish and I slept on the bus again. Haven't had anything in my mouth yet today though, we'll see what happens later.

If I don't feel any significant improvement or cleansing progress, I am considering ending this sooner. The breaking phase consists of 2 days of fresh orange juice, which I am much more likely to have access to on the weekend, so tomorrow could be my last day.

By 10am (unusually early) I started drinking - I couldn't get myself moving. It helped, but only marginally. I skipped the tea (largely because I didn't have any with me, but I doubt I would be up for it). By lunch time I was done with half my lemonade. As work intensified I started waking up (external stimulation being the energy source) and when a one-hour phone interview was dumped in my lap, I finally became energized to the point where the top of my body warmed up (not so much for the lower half though).

This is something I neglected to mention - for the past 5 days or so I've had a difficult time maintaining normal body temperature, with dominant extremes tending towards being cold. I would occasionally get hot after too much lemonade but that would wear off quickly.

That said - my observations of internal intensity and its effect on my state emphasize just how much of a mental thing my state is. I am just gonna stop making excuses and put in the work. But if I don't feel the need to continue for the full 10 days, I don't need to.

I was away from home this night, and I failed to account for my total inability to produce passive body heat at this stage. I was in a cold room (below 70F) and had only one blanket - completely inadequate for sleep. If I'm conscious I probably can sustain some intensity in these conditions, but my goal was to sleep - and I couldn't. I eventually turned up the heat to 76° and then certain body sections were finally warm. In retrospect, a few extra blankets would have done the trick, but I wasn't thinking clearly. It would still have taken me a while to heat up the bed but it would have become possible.

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Day 8 - Friday, March 9, 2007
TazAkom
My weight - 124 pounds.

I just couldn't do it. I couldn't not eat. So I had an orange yesterday for dinner.

Today I started with a glass of orange juice and had oranges all day after that. No adverse affects. I have actually gone to the bathroom more in the last two days than the last 3 days on the cleanse.

Feeling good with solid food. 		(No access to a good scale this morning)

I wasn't home so didn't get to run or exercise, and since I got barely any sleep I had to work extra hard to get myself moving. Made lemonade for today using unfamiliar measuring equipment, and for some reason I only used 3 or 4 limes... I hope that's right, I had to convert to fluid oz's - and I wound up with 6 oz syrup, 6 oz lime juice and the rest water (2L total volume, I'm using 2 soda club bottles).

The lemonade turned out to be fine, but a bit tart. Since I always felt it a bit too sweet, I actually shifted the balance towards lime a bit - it was closer to 7oz lime and 5oz maple. This made it a lot more tart and less sweet, but I liked it overall. I once again did not drink the entire 2L today. Elimination became... well, eliminated from my schedule - it simply wasn't happening.

Evening rolled around and we were out shopping for oranges - I'm breaking the fast tomorrow. We found oranges we didn't like at a farm market, and onces we liked at ShopRite - go figure. I'm still running very cold but I'm more optimistic now - maybe it's the anticipation of change.

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Day 9 - Saturday, March 10, 2007
TazAkom
My weight - 124 pounds.

Today I had cereal in the morning, nothing for lunch and pasta at the birtday party.

Interestingly enough, there were cookies and brownies and a lot of other things with sugar in it - where in the past I would not be able to help myself. I actually did not want to eat it. I did not want brownies. SHOCKER!!

I did feel a little heavy after the pasta but not uncofortable. Just a good satiated feeling. I do have an internal feeling of eating for vegetarian meals, raw fruits and veggies, and cutting out the meat, coffee, desserts. I think this is a good change.

This is also the first time in our relationship where Akom and I have been on a similar page when it comes to eating. 		Afternoon weight: 132.5 (lowest yet)

It's strange, I already feel more energetic, and nothing has happened yet! It's all in my head, as always.

I couldn't wait for lunch, I made orange juice by 9am. And then some more. And then I ate an orange. It felt good, but I'm eating very mindfully, and slowly. Body is reacting, something in there is booting up. By lunch I had more oranges and we headed out to a birthday event. There I actually ate mixed fruit, and survived. More fruit when I got home, and some more orange juice before bed.

I feel a little heavy (especially compared with yesterday, but it's not bad). I know I wasn't following instructions, fruit wasn't supposed to start till like monday I think, but I feel fine.

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Day 10 - Sunday, March 11, 2007
Akom
Forgot to weigh myself again

I ate today, and even had a salad for lunch. It was a very nice mix of vegetables - I cut up grape tomatoes, carrots and turnip. It didn't need any dressing, and when I put some home made mustard/maple syrup dressing on it I realized that I prefer it undressed. My taste definitely changed.

Taz gave up Oreos today! That is one of the biggest changes she could have possibly expirienced :)

Fruit for dinner - Taz is attempting to get me to stop picking, but rather eat predefined meals and then stop. Berries, starfruit, apple, banana, etc. Tried a sweet mango too but it wasn't ripe.

As evening drew near I felt more free with eating that I have in a while - so I decided to have some Kefir. Mixed with Agave it's quite good. I even tasted some of the hot chocolate Taz made. She is looking at me like I have three heads!


Next morning update: This is the most energetic and strong I've felt in over a month! I am not sure if it's the cleansing that allows me to derive more from the raw food I eat, the B12 (and whatever else) in the Kefir, or what - but I feel awesome.

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