The Master Cleanse

I have heard of the Master Cleanse, or Lemonade diet since I was a teenager, but only in the last couple of years did I try it for myself. I did monthly 3 day fasts in my 20’s and 30’s, and remember how hard it was to do nothing but water! This cleanse is a lot easier to do, without the desperate hunger and very fast flooding of toxin release, which can cause headaches and painful symptoms.

The Master Cleanse was developed in the 40’s by an innovative alternative health care practitioner named Stanley Burroughs as a cure for ulcers and digestive complaints. “Side effects” happened to include weight loss/balancing, clearer complexion, better digestion, and a whole host of detoxing benefits. It basically resets your whole system. I don’t care what anyone says about not needing to detox because “that’s what our liver and kidneys do”, with the amount of crap in our food and the rate of serious chronic disease, including of the liver and kidney! it is clear to me an occasional flush is beneficial. You can look at the tongue for some proof of something leaving your body. On day 2 of the cleanse you can expect your tongue to turn white and fuzzy. As the days go on, you will watch that thick patch slowly fall off and become ragged. Perfectly pink and healthy tongue will show up underneath it. When it is fully clear, it is the trigger to end my cleanse, and it is generally right around 10 days for me.

People have apparently done this cleanse for hundreds of days, (why I don’t know!) but you can live on this lemonade for quite a while with no serious damage. Longer cleanses are very good for ridding the body of parasites and for dealing with heavily polluted colon and organs, but 10 days is the norm, and what is recommended for most people. If you spot evidence of parasites in you bowel movements, it would be worth going longer and adding natural herbal dewormers to your daily routine (black walnut powder, chives and wormwort in a capsule).

What you can expect:

We’re all different, so outcomes will be different too, but in general you will have 3-5 days of potential icky restlessness, cravings, fatigue, stinkiness, irritability, breakouts, soreness, and other signs of crap flooding your system. Your guts are being cleaned out and without spending time digesting, your body can work at healing. I find the last half of a cleanse wonderful! Vision sharpens, mental clarity and focus improves, your body feels content and pain-free, and your obsession with thinking of food dies back. It is best to start the cleanse on days off to get the feel for it, and don’t have anything really physical planned for the whole time. Also, don’t do it over Thanksgiving or a big event for obvious reasons!

You will lose weight if you need to, and I have found it tends to level out on the cleanse at your ideal weight, minus about 5 pounds of what is generally in our colon. I found the weight stayed off nicely afterwards, it really felt like a reset for appetite and digestion. Being lighter makes exercise easier, so that helps too. My husband and I both lost 15 pounds both times, which became 10 when we resumed normal eating.

Pain relief... I started my last cleanse after a brutal bout with a bladder infection, digestive slowdown and a flooded out kidney that stopped working right. My legs felt like they were encased in acid and were so sore and tired, which must have been the blood my body was not cleaning. 3 days into the cleanse and all the pain was gone, and my digestion and bladder started functioning perfectly again. Even my foot, with a broken bone in it from a firewood accident, stopped aching so much.

So lets get to it.

Prep work: Stop or seriously cut back addictions like coffee or soda or alcohol several days before or you WILL get a headache! Two days before your start date, lighten up your eating. Fruit and vegetables mainly, and lots of healthy liquids.

Get yourself the following:

-2 quarts (at least) of number 2 (Grade B in the USA)maple syrup (the darker the better). You can pre-order a half or full gallon (for 2 people) of organic maple syrup from me at the Apothecary.

- apx 80 organic lemons. You don’t have to buy them all at once, but I find 8 a day is good. Use them at room temperature.

- Organic cayenne powder. I grow and grind my own for this.

- sea salt

- good water, without fluoride or chlorine.

- A natural laxative like senna or Senokot.

- Smooth Move laxative tea or other herbal laxative tea

All those lemons and maple syrup may seem pricey, but I remind myself I am not spending money on anything else to consume! No fancy coffee, no beer, no food, so you actually SAVE money!

You really do need a juicer for this cleanse for the lemons. Doing it by hand would be way too much work and ineffective.

Basic recipe

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp maple syrup

1/8 tsp cayenne

8 ounces of water

Drink 6-12 glasses a day, more if active.

Here is how I like to do it, based on the above basic recipe, and I’ve made it more streamlined with less juicer cleaning! I double the portion size and find 4-5 big glasses a day (10 regular size) is my average:

-Juice 4 or 5 peeled lemons in the AM. Count how many tablespoons you have as you put it into a sealable container. Add equal amount of maple syrup. Stir. This is your concentrate for half the day, keep it in the fridge, and don’t add the cayenne until you are ready to drink it as it will infuse and be way too hot. The fresher the better, so try to do a morning batch and afternoon/evening batch with another 3 or 4 lemons.

-In a 16 ounce glass spoon in 8 tablespoons of the lemon syrup mix. Add about a 1/4 tsp of cayenne (more if you are okay with some heat, I heap it). Fill with water, stir and enjoy. I like to keep a couple of containers of water in the fridge so they are nice and cold for this. Most people really like the unique flavor, and it is not hot.

The Process: The night before you begin, take laxatives. I do 3-4 Senokots or senna pills. Every evening during the cleanse you take laxative pills and in the morning you will do something to flush your bowels out, whether it be the laxative tea, or the oh-so-fun salt water flush!

Salt water flush: 2 quarts of warm water (that’s 8 cups!) 2 TEASPOONS of sea salt I do the salt flush only 3 or 4 times during the whole cleanse, sometimes I just need the warm water and it is good to go. Some people can’t get it down, but I have a trick that helps: Think of it as salty chicken noodle soup broth or something like that you enjoy. Drink half and let it settle, then do the other half. Take about 10 minutes to drink it all. Within an hour you will have action.

It is very important to keep the bowels moving regularly to remove all the waste in there. Think FLUSHING. WAIT until after that first bowel movement to have your first lemonade of the day. There will be more during the day, 3 or 4 is ideal. Near the end of the cleanse, an enema with 2 quarts of water and the juice of 3 lemon held for 4 minutes is a good way to polish those guts right up if you are so inclined!

TIPS:

You can drink herbal tea while on this cleanse (I cheat and add a tablespoon of the lemon syrup mix to the tea once in a while to sweeten it up!) and drink water when needed. You can take probiotics early in the day, and an anti-parasitic supplement, but no other supplements should be taken.

If you are alone while doing this, you will really appreciate the clean kitchen day after day! The hours you save preparing and then cleaning up from food could be used for grooming and self-care. I like to pamper myself on this cleanse, long baths, naps, using a dry bristle brush to sluff off old skin, pedicure, henna, the works. Your energy will be lower for the first part at least, and spoiling yourself makes the whole thing much more enjoyable.

Avoid blocking your pores if you can. Let your body breathe and sweat to help facilitate the old cells and toxins leaving. No lotions, creams, deodorants, or heavy makeup if possible. If you must be really physical, drink more lemonade. As much as you want. Maple syrup is very rich in calories and it’s natural glucose will give you energy, and the lemons are full of vitamins to help back that energy up.

This may sound crude, but seriously: Don’t trust farts.

Coming Off the Cleanse It is vitally important to slowly come off a period of no solid food or you could put yourself in the hospital. The first day off eat nothing but oranges and maybe a clear veggie broth later in the day. Day 2 more oranges, maybe some steamed vegetables and add steamed veggies to the broth. For sure do not do bread, dairy or meat for those 2 days. Day 3 you can add small amounts of your regular diet, but be forewarned, you may have lost the taste for something that aren’t healthy for you!

Good luck! Feel free to ask me any questions about this process.