Yesterday was a really hard day for me, but as I mentioned I ended on a high note and went to bed feeling pretty good… but not great. I decided yesterday that I was going to cleanse all day today and then have a modest dinner. I told myself I would make the official decision this morning in the event that I had another great day and wanted to just continue as is. This morning I felt the same way as I did all day yesterday.. I was just over this dang cleanse! The lemonade was starting to taste bad and it was getting harder and harder to drink the large quantity. So, we decided together that tonight we would eat… and we did! Scotty and I shared a bowl of healthy soup and had a half glass of wine. We are planning on doing a modified cleanse for the remaining 5 days, but I won’t bore you with daily updates since I will technically be eating. So, all in all, this cleanse was a positive experience and my parting gift is losing all of the 7 pounds I gained!! I feel great, but I am ready to join the world of eaters! Thanks for following me in this roller coaster ride of a cleanse! I will definitely do it again… just not any time soon!!

I will return to posts of the girls… the real reason you all tune in to this blog!

Cheers!

14-Jan-2013 10:55
 
14-Jan-2013 10:55
 

Surprisingly, I made it through Day 4 without giving up!! And even more surprisingly, I owe it all to Scotty. Yesterday I was his support system and got him through the afternoon/evening, and today he was more than my support system. I wanted to call the cleanse because I was bored… not hungry. The lemonade is loosing it’s flair and starting to get old. I think my down fall today was not drinking enough water between lemonades. I started to loose my steam. Once I pounded some water and drank another lemonade, all was looking up for me! I am ending the day on a good note! I feel good and I continue to feel and see the changes I was hoping for in doing this cleanse. Who knows what tomorrow will bring… every day is a new challenge!!

05-Jan-2013 20:38
 
08-Jan-2013 21:18
 

ToDAY was another good day for me. The day time seems to be pretty easy to get through drinking my lemonade. The evening time, however, is what is going to make this cleanse come to a halt early. There are several reasons why. First, doing the cleanse with Scotty, as he with me, is both a blessing and a curse. We help each other get through the rough times, but are also each others’ Achilles heel. If one of us is having a hard time, the other will either be a great strength or will say, ‘if you want to quit then I’ll support you and quit too.’ This cleanse is a total mental game. The hunger doesn’t usually set in until the end of the day, but all day long you notice the food commercials, the food truck driving down the road, and making food for the kids gets really hard. Today it wasn’t as wonderful of an experience as it was yesterday — what the heck was I thinking?! And finally, the evenings are very difficult because we have so much down time. It gets dark out around 5:30 so doing any activities out of the house isn’t really possible. So we are hanging out in the family room, right by the kitchen, and usually making dinner for Kayden and Kloey. The hunger has set in and the lemonade is usually gone by then. Irritability also sets in around this time of day. So while the cleanse is getting difficult, we are still holding on for now. In spite of the bad, we are experiencing some good as well. Without getting too graphic, it is clear that the toxins are exiting our bodies — thank you disgusting salt water flush! There are times with great energy and as expected there has been some mild weight loss to top it all off. So with the bad, there is some good. We’ll see which one wins out tomorrow!!

23-Jan-2013 12:06
 
23-Jan-2013 13:27
 
23-Jan-2013 18:31
 

Well, I made it through a second day! Today I felt great! I did not feel hungry all day. I managed to make real food for Kayden and baby food for Kloey and still not even sneak a lick off any of my fingers! I think making food actually makes this process easier. I know it sounds strange! In fact, I thought it was going to be the hardest part. I think it’s because I still get to think about each meal and smell the food being made. This, surprisingly, does not make it more difficult not to taste what I am making. I did, however, make extra chicken and steak with a variety of separate sides to give Kayden throughout the week so I don’t have to smell the sweet smell of food baking/cooking every day! I know I’m in trouble when Kloey’s food starts to look good! So anyway, today was a good day. I actually felt a little burst in energy and easily drank my ‘lemonade’ throughout the day – it’s starting to taste decent. I think the fact that I am constantly drinking the lemonade and water that I have a sense of being full throughout the day. And I have also realized that most of my meals were scarfed down and sometimes eaten while running to get something for someone anyway. Not having to worry about a third mouth to feed throughout the day has made it somewhat less stressful! I am hoping that I continue feeling this great, but I understand that it might get harder before it gets easier!!

19-Jan-2013 19:03
08-Jan-2013 13:11
 

21-Jan-2013 07:41
 

Most people have probably heard of the Master Cleanse, but might not know completely what it is. Basically, the cleanse consists of only drinking a “lemonade” drink. The lemonade has Grade B syrup, lemons, water, and cayenne pepper. In a day we drink several large glasses of this mixture – around meal/snack times. In addition, every morning we take a salt water flush, which can only be described as drinking a tall glass of ocean water. For me, this is the absolute worst part of the whole experience. The lemonade is nothing to write home about, but it’s not nearly as bad as the salt water flush. In the evenings you can add in a laxative tea to help with constipation. The goal of this cleanse is to go 10 days. I should admit, Scotty and I have done this before and we made it 5 days the first time and 4 days the second time. We are hoping to make it all 10 days, but of course will listen to our bodies and call it when one or both of us feels like it’s the healthy thing to do!

The reason we have decided to do this cleanse is because we both felt like we needed to make some serious changes. Like everyone else, we indulged too much during the holidays. I stopped exercising, ate more, and generally over indulged! When I stopped breast feeding Kloey I was at my pre-pregnancy weight. In the 6 weeks since I have stopped, I have gained 7 pounds back. I am not doing this cleanse solely as a weight loss measure, but I’ll take what I can get! I basically want to make dietary changes for myself and my family. I am hoping this cleanse makes me feel better by detoxing all of the yukky stuff inside so that I can start with a clean slate!

So now that I have briefly explained the cleanse and why I am doing it, I’ll give my daily update. Each day I am going to blog with how I am doing and how I am feeling. I am hoping that journaling this process will help hold me accountable to stay strong and not give up early. Today was our first day and we made it. Having done this before, we knew we needed to keep busy – especially on the first day! So today we went to Sea World!! We were there when the doors opened and left around lunch time. We got home, played outside with the girls, and took another walk! We managed to stay busy enough. We know that tomorrow will be the hardest as hunger tends to set in and irritability increases. It will be interesting to see how making meals for Kayden effects this whole process for me. I have always been one to snack on her food as I made her meals, made my own meal, and then hit up the sweets after nearly every meal! Today I am happy to report that I have not felt hungry and was only slightly irritable – towards the end of the day. Fingers crossed that I don’t throw in the towel tomorrow!!

Here is Scotty preparing our first day’s meal!

20-Jan-2013 18:14
20-Jan-2013 18:27
 
20-Jan-2013 18:27
20-Jan-2013 18:39
 
20-Jan-2013 18:40