After sharing my experience of the Master Cleanse on Facebook, I got a lot of questions and a request to do a video. So, here it is.
Simply said, the Master Cleanse is a 10 day fast to detox your body. It is the hardest of cleanses I know off. All you do is drink; you don't have solid at all food for 10 days. So, it’s tough. If you want to get an idea of the day-to-day process read My Master Cleanse Experience.
Although I did this cleanse quite a few times, I lost count, I am far from an expert. I am just sharing my experience because I was asked to do so and hope you can learn from it. Here is what I know.
Why do you do this Cleanse?
The very first time I did it, I was in my 20’s, I did it as a challenge and to lose weight but I knew it was not a weight loss program. Even though you do lose a few pounds the goal is to detox your body, getting rid of waste and allowing your system heal and it works.
Every time I do it, I almost literally see my skin clearing up, my energy levels increase, little body aches disappear and best of all, my stomach gets flat!
The Master cleanse also teaches you about food, your relationship with food and your eating habits. One of the interesting things is that you will find yourself looking for food even before you get hungry.
Then when you get seriously hungry this detox can become a humbling experience. When you realize that plenty of children don’t have food and feel hungry every day and starting to understand the privilege of just having food.
The ingredients
What do you need to start this cleanse is one of the main questions I got. This is simple and probably quite affordable when you realize that food for ten days will cost you less than $50. Here is what you need:
Organic Grade A Amber Maple syrup: $23.99
Smooth Move Tea: $4.99
Organic Cayenne pepper: $3.99
Lemons: $10
Himalayan Salt pink: $3.99
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Total: $46
About the ingredients
The most important ingredients are the maple syrup, cayenne pepper and lemons. This is because this maple syrup, cayenne pepper and lemon drink is going to be your food for ten days. Maple syrup has all the minerals your body needs to function and the lemon and cayenne pepper are supportive.
The measurements are 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of lemon, on a 8 oz glass of water and about 1/3 of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper.
This is a guideline. Feel free to add a bit more maple if you have a sweet tooth, more cayenne pepper to stay warm or add more lemon for taste. Keep it reasonable proportional though because basically, this is your food for ten days. Do not skip your food, make sure you drink it regularly during the day.
Once I was so tired of the maple syrup drink that I substituted it for coconut water, reasoning coconut water is as healthy too. Well, I got lightheaded and even more hungry. You don't want that to happen to you.
Smooth move and Salt water flush
Since you have no solid food you need a tea to create bowl movements. That is what the Smooth Move tea is for. The salt is for the salt water flush to get rid of the toxins.
The salt water flush is the nastiest part of the cleanse. You take about 3 teaspoons, 2 to 3 teaspoons on a glass of water. And you drink that in the morning or whenever you're ready to cleanse out your intestines'.
This drink, I promise you, will flush out the toxins, the buildup from your stomach. It will literally flush out what you have in your intestines, and it's going to be nasty.
For your own good make sure you are not too far from a restroom. I certainly don't recommend to do this at your work. You will be going to the bathroom within an hour or two after you drink the salt water flush. You're gonna go and you're gonna go a couple of times.
When you feel anything going on in your stomach don't even try to pass gas, don't do anything. Just make sure you get to the restroom real quick. You don't want you to have accidents. Be prepared. The salt water flush stuff is going to come out and it's going to come out sooner than you think.
The night before you start the cleanse
The night before you start the cleanse you begin the cleanse with a laxative tea or some kind of detox. Don't use any pills. It's a detox, it's a liquid detox so don't do pills. Find yourself a tea with sena in it so you have a bowel movement or it stimulates at least your intestines.
Yes, you can have water. Can you have tea? Yes, you can have tea. No caffeine a tea, have herbal tea. My choice of tea during the cleanse is the Marva or Moringa tea from Suriname. They also help me cleanse. Both are available in the store.
What to expect
So, what can you expect when you do this cleanse? First of all, consult with your physician. The cleanse is not for everybody. If you get a headache or you feel so nauseous that you need to vomit it, yes, it means your body is cleansing itself. However, if it's unbearable, just stop it. Find yourself another cleanse because I have friends who are just as strong and powerful as I am but they just couldn't pull through and that's okay. It is probably not a good cleanse for you, so you can just stop.
If your system can handle it and you can get through the 1st day of the Master Cleanse, here is what you can expect.
The first two days are relatively easy. You just drink the maple syrup it's really not that bad. I mean, it tastes good. So, the first two days will probably go ok to pretty well.
The third day, I promise you, you will bounce with energy. You will see your skin clear up, you will feel little aches that used to have, are going away.
Day four you will feel like you will never ever have junk food again. Euphoric like my system is great, I feel great. However, by day 5, that great feeling, that inspiration might be over because you're gonna get hungry.
You're gonna get hungry, you're gonna get cranky, you're gonna be mad at the world because everybody has food but you. And, your senses are even sharper because you can smell better, you can see clearer, because your body is cleansing.
At the same time, you're going to be mad and hungry and cranky. So, I can promise you that, that's no fun. However try to think about the fact that it's a privilege to say no to food. Try to think of this as the spiritual compassionate part of fasting. There is a reason every religion has fasting.
You can also start thinking about how you will break the fast. This is the last part of the cleanse, breaking the fast.
After you didn't have food for ten days, it is not wise to have solid food all of a sudden. You need to ease out of the cleanse. So how do you do that?
The official guide will tell you to start to drink orange juice. Personally I'm not a orange juice drinker, I don't like fruit juices. They contain a lot of sugar without fiber. In general, I follow a paleo diet and paleo doesn't recommend fruit juices.
So, instead I eat a whole fruits, I may eat a grapefruit, or a mango. That's how I break the fast. If you want to do it by the book, just do fruit juices all day and soups on the 11th day. On the 12th day you just do vegetables, vegetables and soup, then the 3rd day you can let go and start eating normal again. This is basically how you do the cleanse.
Warnings of things you may not know about
The last time I did the fast, I had a one day period which was super strange. So, I wend and did my research. I found out that yes fasting like this does have an impact on a woman's body. Fasting can change your cycle, be aware of this. Women who do Ramadan who are also fasting experience these changes as well. Some say it's part of the cleansing system. I don't know what it is, but be mindful that the cleanse may change your cycle.
Also read: My Master Cleanse Experience.
