Wednesday, September 3, 2008

So how was the Master Lemon Cleanse?

I highly recommend a cleanse someone that really wants to do it for the cleansing purpose. Perhaps a time when one is turning a page in their life, trying to break old habits (smoking, drinking, eating) or trying to cultivate health and discipline. One should maintain a strong will to keep the fast through the 10 LONG days and nights(a 4 day weening period) as well as put thought of planning a healthy diet to have a successful and constructive cleanse. The mind is the the tricky part as the hunger is temporary as with all sensations, eventually wane.

The account from one of the books on the cleanse tells of people experiencing some heavy emotions, that are brought up by the cleanse. The body is releasing junk locked up in your large intestine and flushing out parts of your circulatory system. Places all around the body hold memory in the neurons and associations to pain and not so pleasant emotions can be brought up with this release. There are reports of long time smokers who have quit for years experiencing the taste of tobacco on the cleanse.

It took me to accept that I wasn't going to eat, and that hunger meant to drink some of the lemon mix, which gets really tiring to the tongue. Cravings passed and curbed, my thoughts felt had a heighten clarity, and a euphoric feeling was present.

The process of finding lemons around the neighborhood, squeezing and being consistent about replacing my need to eat with such a simple diet of freshly squeezed lemons, maple syrup (200 calories per serving available for your body to use) and Cayenne Pepper was part of a process.

Lemons are nice...the skin holds pores of oil, that will ignite if you squeeze them to a flame. The color of a lemon is calming at the same time invigorating and indeed cleansing. The lemon trees I harvested had thorns which tatooed my arms for the following week.

While on this cleanse and not eating regular meals, it was clear how much of my normal day is based around my stomach and my need to satisfy my desire to eat.

The past few years I have been working on a more function based diet, continuing the gap of my pallet with a sugar colonized pallet of the North American sugar barons, who colonized Cuba, involved slave trading, and colonized the American pallet with fast food, high frutose corn syrup, and Coca-Cola. Sugar is a drug, most of America is hooked on and the high fructose corn syrup really messes with the body, and creates a lot of "dis-ease." I really can't see fast food as food suitable for a human body.

I have been very lucky to have access to farmers markets very locally in Los Angeles. I am able to have organic produce from local farmers where I could eat for less then $40 for the week, very well. Good for the body and despite the arguments that local farming infrastructure uses fuel resources, it is probably better for the local economy and the environment, because it is localizing nontheless.

If my experience makes you interested in trying the cleanse, I highly recommend reading the book on the master cleanse, cover to cover, to fully understand the different aspects behind this process. The Full Master Cleanse by Tom Woloshyn, it is holistic to the approach and may open up other avenues of wellness. The OG cleanse is written by Stanley Burroughs.

Although, Oprah's doctor show my say different, and Penn & Teller from Bullshit! (who are very unhealthy looking, to put it nicely) might bash a cleanse and claim it's a fad...even my father who is a physican didn't think it was a great idea, I feel benefits, and there is another school of thought that feels that cleanses are highly beneficial. In fact fasts and natural cleanses are built into a lot of cultures around the world. That being said there are many other cleanses you can try other than the Lemonade Diet if you can't handle the ingredents.

My older brother Peter dropped about 30lbs during his first attempt on the cleanse--right on.

My younger sister Robyn didn't read the book and dropped the cleanse the first day--maybe next time.