The MC - Days 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8

Geez, Louise, this week has flown by, which is fine by me... I'm looking at the light at the end of the tunnel by now (I'm currently on Day 9, SUPER behind on posting!).  Busy or not, however, I need to catch up here, so I'm going to give you a quick recap of the week...

Day 4:

From what I remember Day 4 was pretty ordinary.  I had a slight headache that carried over from the weekend, so I decided to really push to get more juice and water in during the day and that seemed to help.  My sense of smell has seemed to heighten and I feel like I can breathe more deeply.  I'm not sure if that is a typical side-effect of doing the cleanse, but nonetheless it's a benefit that I've noticed.

Day 5:

Hmmmmm.... trying to remember Monday... this is why you post regularly, regardless of your busy schedule...

Ok... I remember feeling pretty euphoric on Monday.  I cleaned the hell out of the kitchen and the cabinets, even though it's messy again.  Oh well.

Monday night, Joey and I had another "Mondate" and saw "Days of Future Past" at the Drive-In.  Great movie.  I ended the night with a headache.  If I can remember correctly, though, I struggled with headaches for the beginning of the cleanse last time as well.  I also think it may have something to do with the fact that my body is still weaning off of coffee/caffeine.

Day 6:

On Day 6 the Salt Water Flush didn't work.  I went about my day as usual and researched it a bit and decided that next time I do it, I should add a bit more salt.  That night I worked at the restaurant and came home headache free, on the road to easy cleansing....

Day 7:

On Day 7 I had a training day for Summer Camp (starts up next week), so I had to be finished with my "morning routine" by 8:30... that's a tall order and one that I couldn't serve up.  This particular morning,  after adding more salt, I tried to drink the mixture too fast in order to expedite the process so I could get to work on time.  Unsurprisingly this didn't work, and I couldn't keep it down, so I gave up on the SWF and decided to skip it for Wednesday.  The rest of the day went as normal and, once again, I went to bed headache free.

Day 8:

Yesterday, I decided to skip the SWF again, as I had to work again and didn't want to repeat the previous day's mistake.  After work, I picked up Joey and we went to pick up some groceries at the store... I'm not hungry, but I'm definitely ready to be eating again, so in the meantime, I'm planning... oh yes, I have big plans...

Last night, no headaches.  I think we're over that slump.

So, that was the week in a nutshell.  I gained a few more tips during this cleanse that I didn't realize last time:

1)  If you're making bottles of juice for when you go out, only mix the fresh-squeezed lemon and Grade B Maple Syrup, then combine your water and your cayenne as you go throughout your day.  If you mix the water in, it dilutes the fresh enzymes in the lemonade and maple syrup and they die, and if you mix in the Cayenne, it marinates in the mixture making it super spicy and unpleasant to drink.  The lemonade, when made fresh, is actually pretty tasty, but left to sit for a while on it's own gets gross and hard to conquer.

2)  Drinking a variety of non-caffeinated herbal teas this time around has been amazing.  It really helps to add variety into your palette and makes the whole experience better.  Plus, it always seems to calm my mind and my nerves to be sipping on a hot mug of tea.

3) Water, water, water...

4)  If the SWF isn't working, then adjust your intake of Natural Sea Salt in the mixture.  DO NOT RUSH this process if you feel like you're going to gag.


I've been researching a little bit more for other people's experiences on the cleanse and found these two sources to be pretty helpful as well:

1) http://familysponge.com/health/master-cleanse-tips/


2)  I enjoyed watching Yoon and Justin from "The Very Berry Life" and seeing their experience.  It's a pretty in-depth look into their whole cleansing experience as they Vlog about it daily (they have a whole video playlist dedicated to their cleanse).   Plus, I think they're entertaining to watch and learn from.

Anyway, Sunday is soooooo close, so close I can taste it...

Tomorrow I'm shooting a wedding, so I'm going to make sure to get a lot of juice in before 3 when I need to be at the church.  Wish me luck!

Talk to you tomorrow!

p.s. - sorry for the lack of pictures... I need to get back into the routine of taking pictures for the blog.  I have a fancy new phone now, so I have no excuses.

The MC - Day 2 and 3

Alright, alright, alright... we're blowin' and goin' over here in cleanse-town.  This part of the year is my personal preference for doing a cleanse as I feel hungry less when it's warm outside, plus... it's warm and sunny, there's always things to go do outside to help distract from wanting to snack and eat a lot.  During the winter, that's exactly what I want to do... eat a lot.  The downside to cleansing during the summer is that there's a lot of amazing stuff going on and it's a pretty busy time of year.  This is both good and bad.  Good in that your days are full and exciting, Bad, no Challenging, because you're usually surrounded by delicious grilled foods and drinks and social events with eating and drinking, and because you have to plan accordingly to fit all of those things in.  The past couple of days has been no exception to this Summertime dilemma.



Day 2:

Day 2 started off well.  Upon waking up, I made myself my first Salt-water Flush (2 tsp. of sea salt mixed with 32 oz. of warm water).  The SWF has never been my favorite part of the clean, but then again, it's a challenge, so down went the salty water mix.  It helps to think of the drink as a salty broth.  I'm just not that into saltiness, so here again, this bits a challenge for me.

Thirty minutes to an hour or so after finishing the drink, I began to feel a gurgle in my stomach, the mixture brewing in my guttyworks.  This part is important, as it's helping to really work out any waste just sitting around in the colon mucking up our systems and potentially creating more dangerous problems down the road.  After I let my gurgling stomach brew for a bit, I went to the restroom to relieve myself and whooooooosh, that's that.  One BIG tip:  AT NO TIME DURING THIS PORTION OF THE CLEANSE SHOULD YOU FART.  YOU WOULD HAVE A DISASTER IN YOUR PANTS WHICH WOULD REQUIRE YEARS OF MOVING FAR AWAY FROM HOME AND HAVING TO RECREATE A NEW IDENTITY IN ORDER TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS AND FIND A NEW FAMILY WHO WILL LOVE YOU AGAIN.

The rest of the day went as per usual.  I drank approximately 6 glasses of the lemonade drink.  My friend, Stacey came over and we threw around some ideas for projects that we would like to do and then I headed on to a bachelorette party that I was attending later that evening.  The bachelorette party was a lot of fun, but here again, it becomes difficult with socializing.  However, playing drinking games with the rest of the gals and taking swigs of your lemonade instead of shots of tequila is definitely one way to make sure you drink the sufficient amount for the day AND it doesn't leave you with a hangover! Let's play drinking games every night!

At the end Day 2 I had a bit of a headache, however I drank my nightly smooth move tea, and hit the hay.

Day 3:

On Day 3 I skipped the SWF because Joey and I had my friend, Deidre's wedding to attend at noon and I didn't want to risk putting myself in a precarious situation.  So, I made up my drank for the day and we headed out to the chapel.

The wedding was beautiful and so were the bride and groom!

The rest of the day Joey and I enjoyed together, relaxing and catching up on Mad Men and then watching David Gordon Green's latest film, Joe, which was a beautiful return to the familiar world's and characters in his first film's.  Joe was an intense and impressive film with simple storytelling involving complex and dynamic characters. In his characters depth is where I've always found my love for David Gorden Green's film's and the stories within them and through Tim Orr's cinematography his movie's become Art. It was a beautiful Saturday night.

At the end of the night, my headache returned, plus, earlier in the day, I started my cycle, so I drank my tea and put myself to bed in order to relieve myself of both headache and cramps.

Let me know if you have any specific questions about the cleanse or anything else!  Talk to you soon!