The Liver Cleanse: Autopsy

OK, I’ve been asked on a number of occasions since Saturday how I feel. Truth is I don’t feel that much different, physically. The only noticeable thing is that my digestion seems faster, but I’ll chalk that up to psychological.

There is a behavioural difference, though. What I’m not sure about is whether that’s the result of the liver cleanse or the master cleanse. That is this: I chew my food a lot more now, and as a consequence I eat a little slowly. I used to eat really fast, but now, I takes my time about it. I’m still fast, I think, but definitely a lot slower than before. We’ll see how long that lasts. The other thing is this desire for raw foods that I have. Last night we made a pizza and had salad. I had a lot more salad than I did pizza. Also, during the day, I get hungry and I want to eat apples and grapes and stuff. I bring more fresh fruit with me to work than I do leftovers.

Now, let me tell you about Saturday night’s running experience. One word of warning — if you do a liver cleanse, please stay in bed or a couch the whole day/evening. In other words, relax. I thought I was all that and a bag of chips. we hadn’t run since Wednesday. Friday I started the liver cleanse, and couldn’t ingest anything (not even fluids, I don’t think) after 6pm, so running was out then too. So we thought we’d try on Saturday evening. It was really chilly and cold as it is, but we went out.

Saturday for lunch, we went to a Japanese restaurant to have some sushi. Well, I wanted some easy to digest raw food, so miso soup and avocado and cucumber sushi seemed quite appropriate and tasty. I did have a little bit of vegetable tempura as well, mind you. The food was delicious, but let me tell you this. I was feeling pretty tired after the cleanse. Plus, I lost a lot of water in the process, that I apparently didn’t make it up during lunch.

So, five minutes into the running (the second 90 second jog), my lungs and chest started hurting as did my right side. I had to stop because the pain just intensified. So, we decided to just call it a night and started walking home from the park (which is just down our street and across the road). Partway down our block, I started blacking out and feeling like collapsing. I spent a few minutes prone on the ground to get my wind or whatever back. I struggled upstairs and just went to sleep for a few hours, drinking water every now and then. For dinner I had some saag from the dhaba.

Sunday, we went out to Framingham for the superior South Indian food that I hadn’t had in weeks. It delivered as per usual. Oh, here’s a surprise. I didn’t even know. This weekend was Diwali. Aimee and I usually light up candles all over the house to celebrate it, but we didn’t even know it till my sister told me late on Saturday night, and they confirmed it at the restaurant (by wishing us a happy one). Weird.

You might be happy to know that we did indeed go running last night. We decided we’d just do week 2 of the run over again this week. It went well and felt great!

To end: I will do the liver cleanse again in two weeks — my intent is to do it several times until the pea green stuff stops coming out.