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Doing The AWESOME Master Cleanse, Again!
I have been doing the cleanse every January for 9 years. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it works really well for me and I LOVE doing it! After 12-14 days of doing this cleanse I feel SO reinvigorated, have zero cravings and have even MORE energy than I usually do! It gives my digestive system a break, flushes my body of toxins, allows the body to heal naturally, and re-sets my body and my mind. Speaking of my mind –that is definitely another major part to The Master Cleanse — the mental game. It really is all about managing my mind during the first week because I’ll hear my tummy growl and feel hungry and smell and see delicious food everywhere! But I have to control my thoughts and feelings, and simply remind myself that there are so many people in the world that are experiencing REAL, serious hunger pains, and I’m just fine. Then I drink a lemonade drink, and the growling and hunger immediately goes away.
So, what is the lemonade drink? And what is The Master Cleanse exactly? It’s the Queen of all cleanses! It’s a liquid fast, consisting of organic fresh squeezed lemon juice, hot cayenne pepper, and high grade organic maple syrup in water. That’s it! That’s the food for minimum 10 days.
This is what goes into one serving:
2 tbsp of organic, fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 tbsp of organic maple syrup
1/10 tsp cayenne pepper (I like it spicy, so I use more!)
1.5 cups of purified water
You can drink as much of the drink as you want every day. Usually 9 – 12 glasses. And you can drink as much herbal tea as you like too. So I always have my cupboard totally packed full of options before I start the cleanse. (Bengal Spice is my ABSOLUTE FAVE!)
There is also two other components to the cleanse: herbal laxative detox tea at night or a “salt water flush” first thing in the morning. The S.W.F. is the worst part of the cleanse. Drinking 4 cups of warm, super salty water first thing in the morning (in under 5 minutes!) with the goal of “flushing” everything out of your body. YUCK!! It’s no joke! So I just do it every second day.
The first few times I did The Master Cleanse, it was definitely much more challenging, I’m not gonna lie. Some of the side effects were that I got really chilly/cold the first 4-5 days, I had bad headaches, and I had pain in my lower back (which turned out to the result of me not drinking enough water to flush out the toxics in my kidneys) But after learning exactly how to do The Master Cleanse, I love it and look forward to the challenge every January!
It’s a challenge for the first week and then it’s AWESOME! I wake up super early (all by myself –no alarm required!), I have LOTS of energy, my skin is beautiful –soft and glowing AND I feel super accomplished and proud of myself! 😀
This year, being in strict lockdown in Greece now, made my 2 weeks a lot easier this time. For a couple of reasons:
#1- There’s no socializing or going out. Whereas I usually go out and be social at least 4-5 times a week and that makes it difficult not to eat or drink.
And reason #2- I have TONS of lemon trees in the yard here and an unlimited amount of super juicy, delicious organic lemons from the trees! YAY!
Another important part of The Master Cleanse is to prepare your body before and after the cleanse. I do 2 days for both the ease-in and ease-out, to acclimate my body. During those days, I only eat live foods –fresh squeezed orange juice, vegetables, fruits, and veggie broth. (I make my own broth!) I just finished my ease-out day yesterday and DAMN, all my meals taste sooo delicious. I always really look forward to how incredible everything tastes after the cleanse! It’s like my taste buds are doing cartwheels!
One other really awesome and surprising benefit happened for me this time, so I wanted to make sure I wrote about that too! Way back in 2007, I had reconstructive knee surgery. Last summer, my doctor informed me that I have arthritis in that knee. I was shocked!!! That was really difficult to hear. My jogging days were offically over 🙁
My knee is always stiff when I wake up and very easily gets sprained or injured. I was suffering with pretty bad pain the last few months, so much so that I have been wearing a hinged support brace. A few days ago, as I was coming to the end of The Master Cleanse, one morning it dawned on me that my knee had ZERO pain! Usually my yoga in the morning would be hard on my knee, and going for hikes or going walks I have to be very careful and ice & heat my knee afterwards. I didn’t have any of those problems at all this past week! WHAAAT?!?! Yep, I’m serious! AND I am blown away!!! I Googled it, and turns out, that it’s a real thing. Lots of people have reported huge benefits from arthritis and other body pains being cured or reduced as a result of cleansing. So, there ya have it…one MORE great reason to do The Master Cleanse. In case ya missed it — I LOVE THE MASTER CLEANSE!! 😀
Here’s some pics and vids for ya…
