The Master Cleanse – Day Three
The book I read said days two and three are supposed to be the hardest for most people on the cleanse, so I’m perplexed why I find it so easy and, honestly, boring. I get up, drink salt water, stay home for the next 90 minutes (heh), and whenever I’m hungry all day I drink some lemonade. Easy…
It’s not bringing up cravings. I’m not sitting here bored because I’m not eating. It’s really sort of a non-issue.
I made it to the gym today, and within a few minutes of starting my cardio, I notice that my mouth is all sort-of phlegmy. Not that I have something of a quantity that could be coughed up, it’s all just coated and kind of slimy. And my nose starts blocking up as well. In addition to that, I am really not feeling in the mood to work out. It’s not a physical thing, my body is handling the workout fine. I just don’t feel like being there.
Of course, I just blast the Rent cast recording on my iPod (in honor of the show finishing its Broadway run on June 1), finish the workout despite my feelings, and by the time I’m able to blow my nose or rinse out my slimy piehole, all of the phlegm is gone again. Eriq mentioned his eyes being bloodshot, but I’m not seeing anything like that in mine. So…
Let’s talk books today. I bought three Master Cleanse books in advance of doing this cleanse. I purchased: The Master Cleanser by Stanley Burroughs, the book that started this whole thing back in 1976; The Complete Master Cleanse by Tom Woloshyn; and Lose Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days by Peter Glickman. A bit overkill, but they are all quick reads.
Had I known how well my body is taking to the cleanse, I would have probably been fine with the original Burroughs book, which clocks in at under 50 pages. The origin of this diet is pretty strange. He supposedly was just inspired to write this diet down as a way to heal stomach ulcers in 10 days. Shortly thereafter, some guy shows up and tells Burroughs he has stomach ulcers that are going to kill him, and Burroughs shows him the paper with the diet written out on it. Sounds implausible, of course. But people have founded religions on less, I suppose.
The Complete Master Cleanse was probably the most definitive of the three, and the one I enjoyed the most. It just walked through his experiences with the cleanse both personally and as a practitioner in Burroughs’s healing techniques. He goes into Burroughs’ other therapy methods, which are a sort-of massage and color therapy, explaining how those could also help during the cleanse, but I’m sticking to just the lemonade.
The Glickman book was enjoyable because it had a lot of different voices represented, as Glickman runs the message boards at TheMasterCleanse.com and included a lot of message board chatter on various topics.
So, I guess it’s really up to how people think they might best receive this information. Burroughs is the minimal approach, Woloshyn has the authoritative vibe, and Glickman had the most accessible version because it had a lot of different voices once it hits the message board section.
I am still surprised how little I am caring about food. A lot of the books advise not going out to the movies, to big events, or even watching commercial television because of the food ads. I think my being vegan is probably beneficial here, because I hate all the junk they sell at the movies anyway and don’t consider the ads on TV to be selling what I consider to be food, so I’m used to living in a world of sights and sounds that don’t really pull my focus.
I mean, I spent tonight polishing up a cookbook review for this site, and reading through all vegetarian recipes while drinking my lemonade. But still… nothing. I just thought ‘Hmm… this will be a nice recipe to try after I’m off the cleanse.’
I still question whether the laxative tea is doing much. Most of the books say to avoid drinking pure senna tea because you can cramp up, and it should probably be diluted or find a blend that has a smaller percentage of senna instead. I have 100 percent senna tea bags, and on the first pass I steeped in at the minimum recommendation. No obvious reaction. Now I’ve been steeping it longer than it says, and I’m still not reacting to it. Who can tell…
So, nothing major to report aside from the slimy workout action. I’ll have to report whether that comes back at the gym tomorrow.
