Month: October 2006

The final day is here! I’m really happy to be at the end of the line here! Now, don’t get me wrong: the lemon juice/lemonade drink is actually quite delicious. And it satiates hunger. It’s just, well, it’s not exactly a dosa, you know what I’m saying? It’s definitely not warm chocolate chip cookies or apple pie or pumpkin pie or anything I’m looking forward to eating. I may be taking back the whole apple pie thing next weekend, after a week of apple juice, apples and pears.

Tomorrow night I’ll be eating some veggie soup for dinner and I’ll have the cooked veggies (sans soup) for lunch the day after. Tomorrow morning’s breakfast will be organic orange juice with pulp (Aimee likes it without, but I don’t). But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s wrap up this fast first.

All in all, I’m really glad I did it. I certainly feel clean. My tongue is pink again, by the way. This morning again I had some dark stuff with the flush. And even some before, but mind you, I forgot to drink my laxative tea on time last night. I remembered to go make it once I was in bed, and I kept intending to go do it. Next thing I knew, it was morning. Apparently, I didn’t need it.

Now, yesterday was a bit of a down day for me, but I think it was just because I was decompressing from the week. Today was a lot better. Aimee and I went out to Nashua to get me a replacement wedding band (I lost mine a week ago). Then we bought some sweaters for me to wear to work, because the weather has definitely taken a turn — it’s truly autumn, now. Finally, we went grocery shopping to get some apples, pears and organic unsweetened, unfiltered apple juice.

Aimee and a few of my friends have been worried throughout that I wouldn’t have enough energy. To be honest, I didn’t really feel lethargic or lazy at all. In fact, we went running three times. Our second week of running kicked off earlier today. This time it was alternating 90-second running with 2-minute walking for 20 minutes. Actually, 21 minutes, but let’s not split hairs 🙂 The whole idea for running was inspired by my friend, Felipe. We were talking in some irc channel once about weight and fitness and stuff, and he runs and highly recommended it. That, combined with my secret desire to run (but my consistent failure at it), made a compelling case. That Aimee felt the same way sealed the deal. Plus, we get to work out together for a change.

In sum: I recommend this clean if you’re feeling a little stuffed up with toxins and left over stuff. I definitely lost some weight in the bargain, though I will actually gain half that weight back (water weight, you know).

Tomorrow I take a break (hence the soups), but I also start my apple juice fast in preparation for the liver cleanse that happens on Friday/Saturday. I’ll fill in the details of that as the time comes. So, we bought 5 gallons of apple juice. One gallon per day for me. I don’t know that I’ll get hungry at all, but I got the apples and pears just in case I feel like eating anything solid. Additionally, the salt water flushes will continue up to Friday morning. I stick with my original statement that I made on day 1: no pictures of anything.

Wish me luck! Oh yeah, it’s almost 7pm, and I still have 3 glasses of lemonade to go!

Catch up to yesterday

Edit: filled in some links and added navigation

Exactly a week ago was the first real day of my fast. I hadn’t eaten since 7pm the night before (though I did not do the flush that morning). I had an ultrasound and a blood test, but more on that in a bit.

Aimee and I went on our run/jog last night. No hurty muscles before or after, which was nice. We kept transitioning from jog to run though, so I think our legs are getting used to this stuff. Sunday should be exciting, though it does seem a little daunting to run those 90-second blocks from running these 60-second blocks. We’re both looking forward to that. I got home late, so by the time we started, the sun had set, and so we ran under the glare of the floodlights at the park.

During one particular stretch of the run, there are houses right across the street. In front of one house, I kept smelling barbecue or steak or something. Interesting/freaky: it made me hungry! It didn’t smell bad, though it didn’t smell like something I wanted to devour right away either. It just made me want food.

We get home and Aimee put a pizza in the oven (one of those Amy’s organic pizzas with olives). Oh man, that was the roughest dinner I’ve had to be around. I came thisclose to breaking my fast right there and then. Instead, I drank my 5th and 6th glasses of the lemonade, and that satisfied my hunger. But I could still smell it! And that was torturous.

Now, others have certainly blogged about their Master Cleanse experiences. However, one lady in particular goes into fairly graphic detail, which I actually appreciated. It was somewhat nice to know what to expect. Well, except that I don’t have the menstrual thing happening, of course.

This is the icky bit, kids. She stated that there’s some dark stuff that you start to eject. I couldn’t find anything in the Burroughs book about it, so I didn’t know what to make of it. The thing is, I had to “go” before the flush this morning. And what little there was, was certainly dark. Who knows?

OK, icky bit done with (for now!). So, after my ultrasound last week, I went upstairs to get my blood drawn. In the waiting room were 4 other guys. There were two nurses taking the blood, so we pretty much went in two at a time. They took my blood and I left. My doctor called me earlier this week and said that I have a pretty severe allergy to gluten, apparently. Now, I know next to nothing about it. He asked me if I have any caucasian blood in me. People, as far as I know, I’m 100% Indian, though I guess a DNA test or whatever that is that you pay a hundred bucks for would confirm that. Anyway, apparently this gluten thing affects caucasians and only in extremely rare cases does it affect others. He wanted me to go in for an endoscopy. Question: which end does the scope go into? I don’t think he understood when I asked him, because I still don’t know. So anyway, I asked him to please let me have another blood test to verify that because I’d rather be sure, before some camera starts exploring my innards. Especially if it’s entering the exit-only zones of my body.

So, since I am fasting, I’m not going to go in for the blood test today. And next week I’m pretty much on apple juice and fruits, so I’ll go in during the week following instead. I’ll probably report here what happens thence (if “thence” is the word I want).

Oh yeah, the appetite update, I almost forgot. It’s about 3pm and I’m slightly over halfway done with my flask, so hunger @ work is apparently a non-issue for me, but Aimee’s food is.

See how Day 7 went for me.

Check out how I’ll feel on Day 9.

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Wow, it has been a week since I started this fast! Time has gone by fairly, um, fast. There isn’t really that much to report, but I will make a few notes here.

No hunger pangs this morning. I’ve been drinking a lot of water lately. I keep on running out of lemons, maple syrup and water at home and poor Aimee runs to the store every 3 days to replenish supplies for me. She’s been very sweet and understanding throughout all of this. My tongue is still a little white, but I think it might be slightly less than yesterday.

Fair warning, here’s the icky bit, so skip this paragraph. I didn’t think I had any wastes left in me after 7 days of not actually consuming anything solid. But sure enough, I do. There’s not much, but there it is.

OK, that’s over. The salt water did not taste as nasty today. In fact, it was downright bearable. Someone please do something if I ever say that I like the salt water. The funny thing is I was able to drink all 32 ounces pretty much in one go this morning. That’s definitely a first: I’ve always had to drink half immediately and then the remainder over the next 7-10 minutes.

Back to the hunger pangs for a minute. It’s 1:30 pm now and I’ve only gone about 1/3rd of the way through my flask. Last night, I wanted to eat (I was hungry, but the lemon juice did satisfy that — which irritates me slightly, now that I think about it). I wanted, actually, to eat with my wife. I wanted that interaction you get from preparing a meal and eating it together. The smell of the food she made didn’t help. She had these spinakopita things that really did smell divine (can I say that word as a straight man?).

As it turns out, the running from Tuesday did not leave our muscles sore. I guess the stretches really helped! Because of that, we decided that we will do the third and final run of the week tonight. Sunday starts the second week with 90 second jog/2 minute walk blocks!

See what happened on Day 6

Follow the adventure to Day 8

Edit: added navigation

Well, here I am, nearing the end of the workday for Day 6, and I’m doing quite well today. The cravings are virtually non-existent. There was some food I thought about today, for about 30 seconds, but nothing much, really. In fact, I’m only halfway through my flask of lemonade, because I simply have not been hungry.

Last night’s jog was so great. Aimee and I started our stretches at exactly 6pm (18:00) and 15 minutes later we were at the park doing the jog. Twenty minutes went by sooooooooooo quick, it was amazing. We were surprised that the workout was over when it was. It’s funny, given both our prior experiences with running, that we were both looking forward to last night’s jog. Some of our muscles were sore from Sunday, but a little stretching and we were both doing great. In fact, the first 60 second jog bled into a 75 second jog, because I lost track of time.

So, on our way upstairs, I could smell the cooking from next door. Aimee said it smelled like burgers, I think it smelled like boiling chicken. Here’s the thing though, to me the smell was exactly the opposite of appetising. I felt kinda sick from that smell. I guess it’s a good thing I’m vegetarian, otherwise I’d be in big trouble. Then again, I don’t think I’ve ever really enjoyed that smell. Aimee steamed some broccoli as part of her dinner, and wouldn’t you know it, that had my mouth watering.

Anyway, today was pretty much the same as usual with the morning routine (salt water flush, a glass of lemonade for breakfast, 3 glasses in a flask for the day). Oh yeah, my tongue, in the back of it, is white. Like white. It’s expected, but it’s eerie. I thought it was going to happen on Day 3 or 4, so I’m really surprised. I hope it goes away by Day 9 so I can get off this fast and onto the liver/gallbladder flushing regimen. That one features apple juice and fruit and light food, I think, so at least I’m back to eating (salads and fruits and soups and fruit salads at least I think).

See what happened on Day 5.

See what will happen on Day 7

Edit: Day 5, not Day 4, was yesterday. Navigation to day 7.

Now this is interesting. For most of the morning, I have not had any cravings for anything. For a few minutes, I fancied having some chocolate. Specifically, I was craving cold chocolate: like ice-cream or mouse or something. Cake, even. When I went to the cooler to get a refill of water, I passed by a veritable cornucopia of chocolate in candy form. None of it appealed even slightly (despite the presence of plain old milk chocolate, my favourite).

Did the usual salt water flush this morning with the expected/intended results. Followed it up with a glass of the lemon juice. Brought 3 to work, and I’m done with about 6 ounces (it’s 11:30am at the moment) out of 32. I’ve actually been more thirsty than hungry this morning. I drank a glass of water right after my morning juice.

Aimee was so nice yesterday. She went out to the store yesterday afternoon and bought me a whole batch of organic lemons. I’d run out of them on Saturday, so I was stuck with conventional ones yesterday and part of Sunday. The organics are half the size of the conventionals with the same amount of juice. Maybe slightly less, but it’s convenient: one lemon = one glass of juice. Makes the maths easy.

Today’s lunch is not as hard as yesterday. A big part of the reason is that all the devs have a lunch meeting so they’ve gone off to a big room, leaving me alone in the bull-pen for an hour or so. No smell of food == no cravings, I suppose.

Now, I’ve been sort of planning to end this fast with a liver flush. So the new plan is that I’ll finish this fast on Sunday or Monday and segue right into the liver flush regimen, which is basically 5 days of apple juice. The nice thing is that I can actually eat light meals during that, so salads are definitely in, as are fresh apples and stuff. From what I can tell, the liver flush is a combo liver/gall-bladder flush, so that should be good. There’s going to be an unfortunate bit with olive oil, but I’ll report on that when I get to it. So it seems, then, that my fasting period officially ends not this weekend, but next weekend.

The good news is that today marks the halfway point of this master cleanse fast.

Oh, and by the way, Scott Adams has some great advice.

See what happened on Day 4

Follow the story to Day 6

Edit: Added navigation

I suppose, to be more accurate, this fast is a lemonade fast, rather than a lemon juice fast. Here’s the deal:

• 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of grade B maple syrup
• 0.1 teaspoons of cayenne pepper
• 8 ounces of spring water

Now, a tenth of a teaspoon is, for some, a pinch and for others, a dash. For me, I round up to about half a teaspoon. I like the spiciness (I’m Indian, after all).

I woke up extra early (5:30) so as to do the salt water flush. In case, I haven’t mentioned this part in previous blog posts, it’s basically 2 teaspoons of uniodised sea salt in 32 ounces of lukewarm water. And you’re supposed to chug that. Look, the first couple of times, I nearly choked the stuff right back up. I had to force it to stay down. Today, I didn’t have to force so much, but it’s by no means a pleasant drinking experience. They say it takes 20 minutes to flush, but for me it’s anywhere between 30 and 75 minutes for 3 flushes. Sometimes longer.

For the curious out there (I can’t believe I’m actually going to talk about this part), I haven’t had anything solid in the flush since day 2. It’s all just been the left-over junk, so it doesn’t take very long. It feels like I’m fairly flushed, but who knows? Apparently, there are other toxins still to be released. We’ll see.

Lunchtime at the office was rough. I could smell people’s food and it drove me bananas (which I craved in the mid-morning, incidentally). I wanted Chinese food. Have you ever eaten a vegetarian Chinese restaurant that serves you those fake meat dishes? Well, Aimee and I had our first experience a few weeks ago when we went down to Chinatown for Sunday lunch. That stuff is delicious. And I’ve been craving it for lunch. Not so much as I write this, but definitely during the lunch hour.

So, back to the morning. I had a glass of the lemonade for breakfast, then made up 3 glasses worth for the day to bring to work. It’s now a little before 3pm (15:00 for the non-USians amongst my readership), and I have quarter of a glass left. I’ll have to ration this remainder till I leave for home. At lunch time, I want a bite of whoever’s burrito was wafting over to my nostrils, and instead have to satisfy my hunger with this lemonade. I mean the lemonade tastes good, but it’s no burrito.

It’s weird, because the food smells made me hungry (salivation, tummy rumbling, etc). The juice makes me feel full, but still hungry: strange. On the subject of cravings: I’m not craving the Indian food anymore. The funny thing is, I remember craving Punjabi food last night, but I don’t remember craving the South Indian food from Saturday. Maybe, it’s because the Punjabi was under my nose and the dosa not.
Today, I feel indifferent to both. I just want that fake pork dish that we had in Chinatown. I keep plotting, you know, what I’ll have at the end of this fast when I can eat again. Yesterday was Punjabi Dhaba. Today, it’s Chinatown. I don’t even know what tomorrow will be. Oh yeah, for a while yesterday, I was thinking about Ethiopian food, too. Some injera with those veggie dishes on top of it. That still sounds good.

See what happened on Day 3

Day 5 is the halfway point of this fast.

Edit: Added navigation link

Well, today was a little easier with the cravings. Admittedly, I thought about food quite a bit, but looking at it was actually ok (even watched a cooking show on PBS. I do like Ming Tsai quite a lot, and I always wonder why he’s no longer on the Food Network.) Anyway, the real craving came when I drove Aimee to Punjabi Dhaba so she could pick up her dinner. Man, that smelled delish! What else would you expect from the second best Indian restaurant in Boston after all?

When we came home I made up a glass of lemon juice, toot-sweet, as it were. Earlier in the day, though, Aimee and I went shopping for a few things; mainly, we shopped in preparation for a bit of a run. Today was the first day, and I’ll tell you what, it felt good. I’ve never felt good with running, though I’ve always wanted to. By the end of the twenty minutes, we weren’t even jogging, we were actually running (inadvertantly). Great fun, and we’re both looking forward to the second work out on Tuesday night.

And that’s it, I’m writing this just before I drink my nightly cup of senna tea at bedtime, and watching Eye of the Leopard. Fascinating show – I love big cats. And the bit with the baby baboon was heartbreaking.

Day 4 should be interesting.

Not Caught Up? Read about Day 2.

Edit: Added a missing parenthesis. And a missing comma.
Edit Again: Added navigation links

Well, Day 2 began fairly quietly. Just a few note about Day 1: I did have cravings all through the day yesterday. A lot of times, I thought “screw this, I wanna eat Indian food on Saturday,” and other similar thoughts. I didn’t really crave any particular foods, just food in general. I had the mint senna tea last night, and woke up not having to do anything.

Then I drank the salt water flush. Well, I drank 16 ounces (because I thought that was a quart) of it. I realised half an hour later that I needed another 16 ounces. So I drank water instead (because I used the proper measurement of salt, but only half the water in the first drinking). And, OK, yeah, they call it a flush for reason, I realise. ‘Nuff said.

It’s now past lunch. Aimee went over to our favourite Indian restaurant for brunch. That’s our Saturday regular. She felt really conflicted about it, because she’d rather we both go together. But, she doesn’t need to be suffering because of my fast, so I persuaded her to go. Meanwhile, I haven’t had any cravings, and I only realised I was physically hungry a few minutes ago, so I made some of the lemon juice (1.5 glasses worth).

Yesterday, I only had 6 glasses of lemon juice, and I was ok.

Catch up Day 1.

See what happens on Day 3

Edit: Added navigation links

So far, so good, in other words.