MC-Day 7

Breaking The Fast

Today was my final day on this first Master Cleanse.

Here's why:
Last night after posting my day 6 results, I got extremely ill once again. I developed a severe case of heartburn (and I don't get heartburn), my heart started racing (very scary), and at one point I nearly fainted. I definitely felt that my blood pressure was up, too. I became to weak and nauseated I could barely move, let alone drink any water without throwing it up.

I suspect that some (if not all) of that discomfort was due to detox. Still, I started to wonder just what kind of long-term affects could the cleanse be having on my body? I was definitely feeling "cleaner", but was I risking my health? Was I so toxic that this first cleanse was going to be too jarring on my body? I decided I would carry on anyway, despite the symptoms.

3 Dreams

That is until I feel asleep last night and had three dreams, each more intense than the previous, that I should break the fast today. There's nothing I trust more than my intuition, with the possible exception of my dreams. So, I decided that today I would end the fast and make the transition to more raw foods. Once I have cleaned my body up a bit through diet and exercise, then maybe I'll be able to return to the cleanse for the full 10 days without experiencing such harsh detox symptoms.

Reader Beware

Tonight on the Master Cleanser Forum, I read about someone who rushed her husband to the hospital after he started to experience symptoms similar to mine-only even more severe. Her husband's heart wouldn't stop racing and his blood pressure, which was historically high anyway, suddenly became critically high. As it turned out, the woman made the right call in seeking medical attention. The doctors told her that her husband had been mere minutes from death when she brought him in.

Unfortunately, someone else experiencing those symptoms asked the more "experienced" cleansers on the forum if he should abandon the cleanse and seek medical attention or just wait it out. Someone replied, "Yes! Consult your physician", while another replied, "It's just your body detoxing. Take a hot bath, drink some water and don't worry about it." The second reply seems incredibly irresponsible to me. How could anyone know if what someone else's body was doing was "normal." LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!

I'm not suggesting in any way that I was anywhere close to death. And I never thought I was. I guessed I WAS probably just experiencing some serious detox symptoms. Still, everything I was feeling, including an extended period of heart palpitations (sorry, but I don't see that as being a "good" detox sign), really freaked me out. I imagine my body is just really loaded with toxins, hence the severity of my symptoms. Fortunately, I stayed on the cleanse long enough for it to benefit my colon, and learned a great deal about my body.

Breaking The Rules For Breaking The Fast

My experience on the cleanse wasn't typical. I didn't go into detox until the end of day 5, and even then I experienced significantly more detox symptoms than most people do. With the exception of day 1 and 2, when I got the starvation mode, sugar rush "high" feeling that comes from being all gung ho about something, I never oscillated between feeling sick and feeling all blissed out. And my hunger pangs never fully left, in fact, they continued to get stronger. Starting the morning of day 5, I pretty much continued to go straight down hill with no reprieve.

Since a lot of what is a "typical" experience on the cleanse didn't seem to apply to me, I decided to break the rules for breaking the fast. I started with a glass of watered down OJ this morning, and proceeded to get severe heartburn, which persisted all afternoon. By 5 pm and decided that what my body needed was something lite, but also more substantial. So I ate some vegetarian vegetable soup (with extra water added to make more broth) along with a few crackers. I was also very careful to chew everything very well. Yum! Within an hour my energy was restored and I was feeling like a million bucks! And still do! Oh yeah, my tongue went immediately back to pink, too. Hmmmm....

So Was It Worth It?

Yep. I'd would say thatjust about any type of learning experience is worth it. My body definitely feels better (especially now that I've eaten :) and I generally have a much better "ear" for hearing what it is saying to me. I'll probably do the cleanse (or some kind of juice fast) again in the future. I truly believe that giving my digestive system a break now and then is necessary and I feel like I achieved that on the MC.

Perceived Negatives About The MC

1. I'm not sure anyone can convince me that longer than 10 days on the cleanse is good for your body. Part of the high that people feel is (in my opinion) related to your body going into starvation mode. As your body adapts, down goes your metabolism (you also get damn cold). I worried a bit about messing around with my already low metabolism. Breaking the fast can't be that different than yo-yo dieting as far as your body is concerned. For people who go back to their former bad eating habits, the cleanse could set them up for gaining more weight and making it even harder to lose the next time around.

2. Sugar (even from maple syrup) is sugar. Your body might be getting some trace vitamins and minerals from it, but it still converts the syrup to sugar. I get the
science behind the cleanse, but it still bugs me a little. One thing I don't normally eat is a lot of sugar. I kept wondering if once I got off the cleanse would I would crave sugar?

3. Laxative Tea. Yeah, it works like magic, and I get the "whys" behind the SWF and laxative teas. Still, I'm not sure if forcing a bowel movement with laxatives everyday is good for your body either. Herbal or otherwise. I've read about people being on the cleanse for extended periods of time who come to rely on the tea afterwards as their only/best means of getting bowel movements. That seems scary to me. All muscles in the body tend to lose strength (and get "lazy") when something else does the work for them.

4. The lack of nutrients. I don't seriously believe you can get all the nutrients you need from lemon juice and maple syrup-not even for 10 days. If you're pretty healthy going into it, no worries. Your body will surely rebound just fine. Some people say the weakness you experience is due to toxins circulating in your blood. That may be so, but some of it is probably also due to the fact that your are not getting enough nutrients and calories, and that your losing water at too fast a rate. I wish the book had placed more importance of drinking water.

For most people the benefits of going on the MC probably outweigh any negatives. The most important thing to remember is to listen to your body. If you're coming off of a pretty toxic lifestyle, be prepared for some harsh detox symptoms. I wish everyone the best of luck on their journey!