My husband and I just started the Master Cleanse AKA Lemonade Diet today and I thought I would share the experience…well…some of it at least.
It all started with a friend who said that she has done this cleanse and absolutely loved it. We had never done a cleanse before so I have no idea what we are getting into but our friend said that it is a good way to kickstart a healthier routine and develop better eating habits so we decided to give it a go. Although we are both trying to be more healthy, my husband and I are not expecting this cleanse to be a magic weight-loss experience. We really are looking to just be healthier and I hope this helps us get there! We decided to start today (Friday) and we plan on sitting around our apartment be lazy bums all weekend long.
Last night we prepared our first day’s worth of cleansing juice and here is the recipe (one person / one day):
- Two 1-liter bottles (big nalgenes work perfectly)
- Add 7 tablespoons of Grade A Maple Syrup in each bottle
- Add 7 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice in each bottle
- Add 1/2 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper / Paprika (depending on your preference) in each bottle
- Fill the rest up with fresh water!
Voila! Now you have your two servings of lemonade for the day! Much to my surprise it doesn’t taste too terribly awful either… I used paprika instead of cayenne pepper because I can’t stand spicy stuff and it’s really good especially cold. I am going to try it warm – sort of as a tea later but for now, throw in some ice cubes and it’s good!
DAY ONE: Starting weight: 156lbs
12:30pm – I am halfway into my first day and I am feeling totally normal. I do have a slight headache but I usually do around this time of day so that’s nothing new. I have been drinking the lemonade when I feel hungry and I follow it up with some water but it has been fine so far. I’m sure tomorrow I will be humming a different tune but I really haven’t had that much lemonade yet – maybe 1/3 of my first bottle. I am being cautious because I am afraid that I will drink it all too fast and not have enough for later tonight when I will be really really hungry. I don’t think it would be a major issue if I made more to get me through the night but after juicing a million lemons last night, I would like to wait as long as possible before having to go through that again!
9:30pm – The first day is officially over and we survived! I ended up with much more lemonade than I thought I would have so tomorrow I will not need to ration it out like I did today. Everytime I was hungry I just drank some juice and then I was totally fine 
. We did try the salt water flush that is recommended at night and it was retti nasty. You fill up your 1-liter bottle with room temperature water and add 1 teaspoon of organic sea salt. Then… You chug it. Gross. I faired pretty well but it was pretty terrible. Even worse – nothing happened from there. Three hours later and nothing has happened.
DAY TWO: 153.0 lbs
8:00pm – Today was pretty intense. It started off fairly well – throughout the morning we just had our lemonade and kept busy. We went to the st. patty’s day parade which was held a week late because of rain and we had a really good time until we found ourselves surrounded by people walking around with fresh-made potato chips, tzaztiki filled pitas and corn dogs. It was pretty excruciating but after a trip to target for some more maple syrup, we watched some basketball, a couple movies and made it through another empty-stomach day. I did try the salt water flush again and much to my dismay, it failed again. It is pretty tough to drink the salt water mix and I don’t think I will be trying it again – it’s just not worth it especially if it isn’t going to work. The website said that it should work for everyone but I tried it with a teaspoon of salt the day before and today was a tablespoon and still nada – I think I’ll just stick with the lemonade. Both my husband and I had a headache if not the whole day than at least half of it so I’d say that is a major side effect but I think things will ease up soon – apparently the first three days are the hardest.
DAY THREE: 151.0 lbs
10:00am – I think today is going to be the hardest yet and then hopefully it will get easier. I have lost 5 lbs in three days which is pretty insane but I think at this point if I had any food I would proabably feel even worse. This is definitely something I will need to ease out of. Drinking the lemonade hot is actually really good especially in the morning! My headache is gone (for now) but I again, I think today will be the hardest so I’m just going to stay home and relax with the fam.
8:00pm – Today was pretty hard but I managed! My husband and I kept busy again walking the dog and watching movies. My headache actually has not come back (thank sweet Jesus) but I do feel really groggy – kind of like a sinus infection without the stuffy head. I tried the salt water flush one last time and YET AGAIN… nothing. I swear I feel like I have ingested the entire atlantic ocean for absolutely no reason so I will not be doing that again. Serious this time. One major mistake we made was going grocery shopping… we needed more lemons anyways but we also got some other things that we will need by Wednesday when this insanity will end. Since our trip to Trader Joe’s, my husband has been having hallucinations involving hummus, pita chips and fresh cut mozzerella. YUM. Too bad we’re going to go through Tuesday. He might cave in and start eating again tomorrow but we’ll see, I would say that 3 days is awesome for your first go. I don’t even know if I can make it! If this grogginess goes away tomorrow then I will probably go the distance but I dont know how easy it will be for me to work in my office and feel like this. Keep your fingers crossed.
DAY FOUR: 152.4
11:00am – Interestingly enough, I gained 1.4 lbs overnight! Maybe it is because my husband caved last night and had a mozzerella and tomato sandwich on french bread with hummus and bagel chips. Just smelling it forced my body to gain 1.4lbs. Yes, he did give in but it is alright, he held out as long as he could. We were watching TV and I looked over at him and he said with the saddest eyes he has had in a while, “I dont think I can do this any longer” so he finished. He did three days which is pretty amazing – to be honest I have no idea how I am still standing. The grogginess has gone away and my stomach is feeling normal but now it’s just a mental thing. Knowing that I haven’t eaten anything is kind of crappy but I am starting to realize that I don’t NEED as much food as I was eating and I also don’t need things like french fries, feta cheese and macaroni and cheese. We’ll see how the rest of this day goes – lunch and dinner will be a battle.
5:30pm – I am on my second bottle of lemonade and the end of the day is starting to hit me. I think I just need some more sleep and I will get through this. After much more research – I am determined to make this salt water flush work for me so I am going to try it again with more salt this time (1.5 tablespoons) and I’ll keep you updated. Lunch wasnt bad – I just went to my apartment and ended up deep cleaning the whole time – maybe this cleanse brings my OCD out.
DAY FIVE: 153.0
3:00pm – I have absolutely no idea how I gained anything yesterday! I didn’t eat ANYTHING! I seriously think its the salt water cleanse. I used more salt and room temperature water but it did nothing so I will blame the .6 gain on that! Today is my last day on the cleanse thank God and I am really ready to start getting back on a food-consuming diet! I can’t say that I am hungry anymore because that feeling went away and I don’t have a headache or anything but I am missing out on a ton of social things that I wouldn’t miss out on before… like lunch with my co-workers or even dinner with my husband.
Other than taking a hit on that part of my life and the unexpected 2lbs gain, things are going well and I just finished my second-to-last lemonade bottle! I just have to make it through tonight – biggest loser night! Maybe they work out really hard and do the lemonade cleanse and that’s how they pull such massive numbers each week?! Just Kidding – they are my heroes!
AFTER THE PROGRAM: 150.4
Today I went off the cleanse – thankfully. It did wonders for me and I definetly feel healthier but I am so glad to be consuming things other than lemons and maple syrup. I am amazed at the weight loss though – almost 6 lbs in 5 days… I think I would have lost even more if I had not done the salt water flush. It did not work for me at all – it’s definitely worth a try but it’s not for everyone like all the sites say. I feel fine today – I had OJ this morning and I just finished lunch and had a bowl of vegetable soup and some spinach salad. I have some major anemia so I knew I needed some iron ASAP and the beans in the soup and the spiniched helped me out big time.
I am a little nervous that I am going to gain every single one of those 6lbs back but I am going to focus really hard on excersising, portion control and less crap. For example, I didnt use any salad dressing on my salad during lunch today and it was just as good as any other salad that I’ve ever had. I need to keep away from cheese – that will probably be my biggest challenge. I have a clean slate to start with after this cleanse and I really need to stick to my guns and not go crazy with the fresh mozzerella that is currently in my fridge. ugh. My husband gained everything back immediately and is convinced that the same thing is going to happen to me but I am going to try really f’ing hard to not let that happen. Even though it was only 6lbs, I can totally notice in the way things fit and how I look. I don’t want to lose this – I just want to make it better!
Overall the cleanse was good – I’ll probably do it again in a month and hopefully it will be an easier experience, especially now that I know what to expect. Good luck if you’re about to start and don’t give up!
<3
