The Master Cleanse-Day 1

9:30 am
My alarm went of at 7:15 but I didn't actually roll out of bed until 8am. I had planned to get up, make my tea, drink it, take a shower, let the tea coarse through my body and drink my lemonade concoction at 8am. Well that didn't happen. Instead I hurriedly made my tea, checked my emails, sipped my tea (cuz it was too hot to actually drink), finished half of it, hopped out of the shower, finished the tea and off to the kitchen to make my lemonade: 2 tablespoons of lemon, 2 tablespoons of maple, 8 oz of water and 1/10 of cayenne, but I only had a measuring spoon for 8. Well, there I went 8:30am and drinking my drink. Reaction: tons of coughing. As Kristin pointed out, I don't like hot things, so the fact that I probably put more cayenne in it than I should have didn't help. Second reaction: its too sweet. I like sugar, but I think I'm done with it for now. Usually, I don't like sugary drinks, I just like them to be sweet. And I've decided, before all this went down, that I'd make this every hour until I got home. I'm supposed to have 6-12 cups in a day, more if I'm working out, so my last one will be 5pm before I hit the gym. After the first drink, I immediately downed some water and vowed to put less cayenne and less maple syrup.
Time to make another glass.

10:30 am (three glasses)
The drink sucks ass and makes me nauseated, but must keep trucking along. So far nothing horrible. I am hungry, but not STARVING like I expected to be. I think that as long as I take them on a scheduled basis, there will be no excuse to get super hungry. Like I might have mentioned, I have a bit of a headache and feel just a tad fuzzy in the head (I couldn't remember someone's name a moment ago) to the point of a bit of light headedness, but other than that, I feel pretty ok. I will say this: I don't think I'll be having any maple syrup with my pancakes any time soon after this . . . YUCK. I also think I'll look for an alternative to maple syrup. I know the book says something about raw cane juice . . . that might suit me better, make me less nauseated? Hopefully.

What I hope to achieve from this is the just clear out my body (my tummy and the intestines) of all the yucky I've accumulated through out the years. I know I have some reactions to a lot of good: onions, celery, garlic, milk, etc, so I want to slowly start introducing those things into my system, with milk being at the end of it. I want to start of my healthy eating fresh. Yes yes, I will indulge in cake and pie and pastries, but I'm hoping that after this, the craving for them will have gone down. I just want to know what it feels when things are functioning properly.

3:00 pm (seven glasses)
Its mid afternoon and I'm feeling sleepy. Just a few minutes ago, I started to get the hunger pangs. I knew it was time. Instead of letting just one hour pass between feedings (um, that's a weird way to put it), I let an hour AND A HALF pass and well, I guess that half hour was just too long. So quickly, I got up and made my drink. With the previous drink, around "lunch" time, I made myself some herbal tea. I decided to stop drinking so much water because I was afraid it would dilute its effects on me, but I think I'm going to start picking it up again.
What I am really looking forward to is going to sleep. After work, I plan on going to the gym to have a light work out, getting some more lemons at trader joes (cuz I don't think I've bought enough) then heading home. Depending on how I feel, I'll either sit and relax with a bit of Bones, or just head to bed. I've been needing a good nights sleep and if anything, this would be the night to do it. The relationship with food, however, has been interesting. Either I don't crave it or the idea of it makes me sick, much like after a hangover I suppose. I walk by the bowl of treats and chips at work and I take a mental "thank you" note to myself because I'm not "supposed" to have it. I mean, I'm not supposed to have candy anyway, I don't even like it, but I will, just cuz (which is the worse reason), but this time, I'm just happy I really "can't" and therefore, won't.

7:45pm (ten glasses)
I just got back from the gym and made my 10th cup. My lips are burning a little bit, but that's pretty much all the discomfort I feel right now. The gym was fine. I decided to take it easy. I did my stretching, then I did some ab work out and hopped on the bike for 20 minutes. When I walk home, I try to take it easy on the cardio as the walk home is exercise enough sometimes. The order of business is this: shower, salt water drink, an episode of Bones and hitting the sack. I think 10 glasses of this stuff is good enough for day one, don't you?

You might wonder whether I have some discomfort from drinking the laxative tea (which I am supposed to twice a day or once and then the salt water flush thing). And yes, it's there and no I will not go into detail because I'm a lady.