Breaking the fast - April 22

This entry is three weeks late, but it's worth trying to catch up to since I know people were curious about how my detox went. As you may remember, I began the Master Cleanse on April 12. For 10 days, I survived and eventually thrived on an all-organic meal plan of lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, purified water and tea. Even now the idea seems foreign, since I returned to the world of the eating without so much as a headache. The body is a resilient thing.

The main question everyone asked was of course, "Did you lose any weight?" The amusing answer is no, and I'm willing to share the difference. I began the detox weighing in at 120 (I'm 5'5") and on the last day I weighed myself at 122. Two days after breaking the fast, I was down to 118 and I assume that's because I lost the water weight I'd been accumulating from doing the "salt water flush" each morning. I am now back to my normal 120, and am quite comfortable there.

I eased back into eating on April 22 with a breakfast of orange juice, a lunch of vegan split pea soup, and a dinner of vegetarian chili. I was determined to not slip into my old eating habits, but I made the mistake of thinking that I would "behave" myself on vacation. That of course, did not happen.



We flew out to Virginia on April 23 to attend Captain Trapp's change of command ceremony and visit Brian's family. I'll blog more on that after this post, but the important point is that we spent a week eating and drinking like we were on vacation - lots of excellent food, beer, grilling, eating out, etc. I should have made healthier decisions about what I ate, but I gave into the spirit of vacation and went right back to eating the way I did before the detox.

Now that we have been home for two weeks, I'm back to working on my eating habits. I still drink a ton of water (I dislike soda) and try to get fresh fruit and veggies into my diet, but I'm occasionally a sucker for a good burger. I've been taking vitamins recommended to me by Brian's mom and they give me a far better energy boost than any caffeine drink ever has. The treadmill is still not my friend, but I've been doing yoga every other day and I'd like to get my life back on a schedule even without the regularity of a work day.

Thank you to everyone who sent their support and encouragement my way throughout the detox. I'm not perfect and I certainly didn't come out of the detox as well as I could have, but I'm working on improving myself each day. Namaste :)