Breaking the Fast: Day 1 - 2: Eating Mindfully

DAY 1

Menu: Probiotics, fresh squeezed OJ, and Naked brand bottled OJ (eck.)

At last!  The cleanse is over.  I have to admit.  I'm a little disappointed in myself.  This is the longest cleanse I have ever gone on.  22 days, homies.  22.

I'm not disappointed that I didn't last long enough.  I'm disappointed that I didn't utilize the time to really delve spiritually and utilize the benefits that the cleanse can bring to the mind, heart, and soul.  I totally went into this cleanse with the purpose of losing weight for my wedding and as a result, I didn't really check in with myself as much as I could have because my motivation was not completely thought through.  I did lose a lot of weight, which I'm pleased about.  But the next time I do this, I have to remember to take advantage of the way my mind and body feels in order to cultivate my spiritual practice.

You win some.  You lose some.


DAY 1:
Anyway.  Day 1 was tough for me.  I drank fresh squeezed OJ mixed with water and a scoop of probiotics from Whole Foods that a lady that worked there recommended for coming off of a fast.  But I felt cravings and hunger the whole day.  I also didn't drink enough water.  I really just wanted to get to Day 2 so that I could chew something!  While I was at Whole Foods, I bought two beautiful mangoes for Day 2!

Day 2:
Today I cut up half of the mango.  It wasn't completely ripe yet but it was sweet enough.  I cubed it and it took me about 2 hours to finish it.  That was breakfast.  It was so delicious.  Sweet.  Juicy.  Running down my mouth.  I love this part of coming off the fast.  The sensation of food and the explosion of flavors in my mouth.

Last year, I went on a silent retreat and during mealtimes, we were encouraged to eat mindfully.  Taking every bite and paying attention to all the aspects of eating in the present moment.  Quite honestly, at the beginning of the retreat, it seemed a little bit "too much".  I mean, it was just eating, after all.  But after a few days on the retreat, eating mindfully became an incredible and transformational experience.  The food magically became the best food I have ever eaten and I had such a sense of well being and peace through the act of eating.  That feeling has remained with me.  I don't always eat mindfully, but when I remember to, I am washed over by waves of that decadent feeling.

I ate my mango in this way and the mango felt almost like medicine to my heart.

I'm feeling very much at peace right now.  It's only 9:03 am so we'll see what the rest of the day brings.

Also, Someone is baking cookies and I can smell the chocolate chip deliciousness wafting in through my open window.

6:46 PM

Oh my goodness.  I went to Cafe Gratitude today and ordered the "I am honoring" raw vegan nachos. It was takeout and I couldn't even wait until I got into the car.  I had a few bites on the way.

Undescribable.

The cashew nacho cheese. The sunflower seed pate.  The guacamole.  It was all incredible.

I've been snacking on that the whole day.  And I just love it.  I love that I'm eating again. I'm enjoying food so very much.  On the way to Cafe Gratitude, I had to walk by a famous pizza join in Berkeley, called Cheeseboard - and I wasn't craving the pizza.  I was more excited about the raw food!

I just drank a whole bunch of water and I'm feeling a little bloated.  I don't know if I ate too much.  It was truly only a few bitefuls at a time.  But I'm not hungry.  My lower back is hurting a little bit.

But I'm happy to have eaten real food!  I had this sense of wellbeing and peace after eating.  I felt really satisfied and happy.

Good Day 2!

Day 22: unprepared

I totally forgot to get more lemons.

Oops.

Luckily, I have about 20oz of leftover from yesterday to get me by before I go and get my much needed supplies.

I think today is my last day.  I'm gonna make a run to whole foods to get the stuff needed to ease out of the cleanse.  I'm also going to scope out what raw foods they have available.

Luckily, Cafe Gratitude is not so far from here, either.  They are a local raw food restaurant that I haven't been to for years but have now reawakened a natural craving for.

The SWF is truly the thing that  is the worst aspect of the Master Cleanse.  I only did about 16 oz before I gagged and told myself, "That is it."

I am feeling run down today and I don't have as much energy.  I am going to take it easy and relax a little bit.

Day 8 - Day 21

Day 8 - Day 21

Whoah.  That was fast.

Dude.  I'm on Day 21.  I apologize for not blogging.

But in summary.  I didn't really know how long I was going to go on this fast.  I was thinking I would maybe try 14 days.  Then I just kept going.

I try to check how I feel every day to see if I should continue.  So far so good.  I have decided to end my fast either tommorrow or the day after tommorrow.  The main reason being that I have my bridal shower to attend in 6 days and I need time to ease out of such a long fast.

I've noticed that I've lost a significant amount of weight.  Other people have noticed, too! And I've also been able to fit into my skinniest jeans.  Good news for me.

I decided to bring out my dreaded scale and something weird happened.  I gained 4 pound overnight and it has remained constant at that weight.

 I forgot how much I dislike scales.

Anyway.  I've totally been cheating this fast.  I skipped doing the SWF two days in a row (!).  I did that a couple of times. And I've been skipping out completely on the cayenne.

I think because my motivation is mainly to lose weight.  It's not the best motivation, I know.  And so my actions reflect that.

The last couple of days have been tough.  I've been torturing myself by watching youtube recipes.  My favorite right now is this Korean chef named Maangchi.  I want to eat everything she cooks!

AAAAAAHHHH.  I can't wait to end the cleanse.  I think I'm done.

It's a tough mental game to go this long.

Master Cleanse Day 7: ZOO

Today is Labor Day and I went to the zoo with TD and my goddaughter and her parents.  I'm Buddhist, and my goddaughter's family is Buddhist, so technically it's my Buddha-daughter.

So Buddha-mother and Buddha-daughter hung out at the San Francisco Zoo today.

It was HOT in the bay area.  So we walked around while the sun pounded down on us.   I felt a little tired walking around but I wasn't sure if it was because of the heat or because of the master cleanse.

Buddha-daughter's mother is pregnant and she was also feeling the heat and tired as well.

So it wasn't just me.

Day 7 has, so far, been fine. At the zoo, my super human smell senses awakened to the many, um, "fragrances" available to one at a place where animals are kept.  The flamingo exhibit was particularly pungent for me.

We walked around and as long as I wasn't around food, I was ok.  There are a million cafes at the zoo and we walked past one that has big fat juicy burgers served with big fat juicy french fries.  There was a family going to town on the burgers and I wanted one so incredible badly in that moment.  I could smell the intoxicating oil of the fries.

But then we kept walking, and I was fine.  I did have to take a double swig of my lemonade to calm my very active tummy at that point.

Once we got home, I was tired enough to take a 30 minute nap.

I'm awake now and the neighbors are BBQ'ing and it smells divine.  TD is in the kitchen cooking dinner.  I can't wait to smell what it is!

Master Cleanse Day 3: YAAAAAAS

Day 3.

Feeling niiice.

I don't know if I've just done a lot of these cleanses and I'm used to it.  But the days are flying.

The only time I'm really in a bad situation is when I get a whiff of whatever is cooking in the kitchen.  And even that's not so bad.

I've been super busy wedding planning, so that may be what's alleviating all the usual cravings.   I just don't have the time to think about food.

My day went like this:

SWF - 16 oz. No gagging.  That's a big WIN for me.

I brought someone to the airport today and we were super late.  We literally ran through the terminals trying to get on the plane (My friend made it, barely.  He was the last to board.  They were about to close the doors and he made it!)

Anyway, all that running didn't phase me.  My energy levels are great.  In fact, better than when I'm eating because I don't crash as much.

The only thing is that I didn't sleep very well last night. I woke up at 2am and didn't go back to sleep until 4am.

But today my energy was stable and really good.

Day 4-6: BBQ's and more!

Well.  The last 4 days have flown by!  Here's a little rundown of my whole situation.

DAY 4
Honestly, I think this time around, I've really habituated to being on the cleanse.  Day 4 was completely and utterly uneventful.  I am only getting about 16oz of the dreaded SWF down before I start to gag.  So I let it be.

All in all.  Day 4 - EASY.

DAY 5
Ok.

Just kidding.

On Day 5 I was tired all day.  I am not drinking the recommended 60 oz. because I think I'm just lazy.  My stomach rumbles and I try to pay attention, but I've been so crazy busy with wedding planning that it just doesn't seem to register as important on my "thangs I gotta git done" list.  Not the healthiest attitude, I know.  I recognize that.  I accept it.  I'll try to do better.

DAY 6
This day was the toughest.  I went to a BBQ potluck today.  Everyone brought incredible homemade dishes, mostly indian or himalayan in nature.  And they all smelled and looked incredible.  To top it all off, there was BBQ!  And the icing on the proverbial cake, was some dude showed up with KFC (win!).

I'll just go ahead and post these pics from the potluck to torture myself more:

delicious potatoes cooked in masala spices

glorious glorious bbq

homemade tibetan flatbread. dead.

beef biryani

.

chana masala

ting momo

laphing

chicken drumsticks cooked with just a bunch of yummy things

It awakened the crave monster in me and it was very difficult to watch everyone eat all this amazing food.  I especially craved the chicken drumsticks.  I kept imagining myself biting into a chewy meaty part of the drumstick.  It's making me salivate right now.

I took a walk during the picnic and I felt quite at peace (once I wasn't around the food anymore).  It reminded me of my experience while I was on a silent retreat for a week last year.  I love that aspect of the fast.

Ok.  Until manana.

Master Cleanse Day 2: Epsom Salt Bath and Tongue Situation

Day 2 and I'm feeling fine.

I swear. The worst part of this fast is the SWF.  In past cleanses, I have been able to get to at least 20 oz.  This go around, I'm only doing about 16 oz.  I don't know what it is.

I.

just.

can't.

do.

it.


So I drank 16oz of that warm salty.  And about 30 minutes later, the rain of terror came.

I'm exaggerating.  Just the usual liquid gold.  Nothing unusual.

I'm typing this as TD, my fiancee, is eating his famous homemade biryani for dinner.  It smells incredible.  I can almost taste it myself.

Anyway, I'm noticing on this cleanse that although my tongue is funky, it is not as bad as past cleanses!  That is so very deeply satisfying.  It gives me a little faith in the cumulative effect of doing these cleanses over the course of a few years.

To end the evening, I took a deliciously hot epsom salt bath and soaked for about 30 minutes.  It got my heart pumping and I was completely relaxed afterwards.  Highly reccomended.

So that's it.  Put Day 2 in the books.  Uneventful.  And I like it like that!

Master Cleanse Day 1: Meh

Day 1.  Uneventful.

I woke up ready to go.  I got my saltwater flush and, as expected, only managed to chug about half of it only.  I gagged twice.  It was on the cooler side, so I think I'll try to make a warmer batch tommorrow.

The SWF did it's thing.

And I made my lemonade.

The first half of the day was completely fine.  I had meetings, did work, drove - all with normal energy levels.

But by 4pm - I started to crash.  I got home and took a nap.  I don't usually take naps. I was feeling tired.  I still am feeling tired and I have a slight headache.  It's about 8:30 in the evening and I could easily turn in for the night.

One thing - I omitted the cayenne pepper from today's lemonade thinking I would so some cayenne lemonade shots at some point.

Fail.

I guess I'll just have to bring the cayenne pepper with me tommorrow.  It's just too spicy to drink all day for me.

All in all, nothing major but feeling a little low on this first day.  It's to be expected.

Buenos Noches.

The night before Cleanse-mas.

2015 and it's time for another round of the Master Cleanse!

I start tommorow and I'm looking forward to it!  Since last we parted ways, dear readers of this outdated blog (all 2 of you), my dietary habits have roller coastered.  I've had periods of just not caring what I put into my body as well as various periods of veganism, vegetarianism, coffee binging, coffee abstaining, wine drinking, wine not-drinking.

All in all, I think it evens out to semi-clean eating these last two years.  As a result, I'm semi-plump.

And I need to de-plump because, guess what!

I'm getting married!  Me and TD (I introduced him in the last cleanse) are going for it and I couldn't be happier.

I've been on a ketogenic diet and reduced my caffeine intake in the last few weeks and I am happy to say not only have I lost a little bit of weight, I've also gotten rid of sugar cravings and any dependency I had on coffee.

So I think I may be going into this cleanse a little stronger than I have on past cleanses.  My goal is to look nice in my wedding dress.  I have to admit.  It's mostly superficial this time around.  I'm looking forward to clarity of mind and the light feeling I get from the cleanse as well.

So join me on this journey and we'll see you tommorrow!