My Lemonade Diet Is Going Sour

Day 3

Today is not a good day, people.  I slept like crap last night.  Gone was the peaceful slumber of the night before.  I woke up at 12:30am with telltale rumbles in my gut.  I was back in bed by 12:45, but I woke up what seemed like every hour.  When I got up a little before 7am, the headache from the night before was back.  I weighed in and was down to 122.4.  Even the .8lb loss wasn't enough to brighten my spirits.  I had some tea, but it took a good hour to get the whole cup down.  I wasn't feeling it.  I also wasn't feeling the lemonade.  Just smelling the lemons in the kitchen (the heightened sense of smell common on the cleanse had kicked in) was making me nauseous.  I waited what was probably too long to have my first glass, so I doubled up the serving to make up for it.  It wasn't enjoyable, but I drank it.  But for the rest of the day, all I could taste was honey-lemon cough drop.  This is pretty much my worst nightmare, because I HATE cough drops.  The flavor is up there with cough syrup for me.  Maybe it stems from a childhood full of sickness (before I had my tonsils out and tubes put in)?  I don't know, but the hatred is there, and it's a deep-rooted loathing.  I don't know why I didn't just think to brush my teeth (as Jake suggested later) to get rid of the lingering flavor, maybe the lack of energy was making me stupid.  Anyway, by 4pm, that double dose of lemonade was all I'd had.  I was staying busy, so I wasn't feeling ravenous from the lack of calories.  I'm the type of person who forgets to eat when she's distracted.  But I knew it would be better for me to drink some more, so I mixed up another serving.  Just smelling it was bad, but when I took a drink the gag reflex set in.  I stopped and took a breath and told myself to get over it and try again.  So I did, and this time I almost wasn't able to overcome the gag reflex.  I don't know about you, but cayenne is not at the top of my list of foods I think I'd enjoy throwing up!  It felt like my body was literally rejecting the lemonade.  I thought, "What if I can find a substitute? Like limes?" But even the thought of that was giving me gaggy feelings.  The citrus/syrup blend is just something I can't stomach anymore.  I don't want to give up, but I know if I continue on this track I'll avoid the lemonade at all costs and end up starving myself.  I want to cleanse my body of toxins, not become anorexic!  I talked to Jake about how I was feeling.  He was very understanding and wanted me to do what's right for me.  I felt like such an asshole! Here I was the one who got us started on this whole thing, and now I'm wanting to jump ship?  I told him I would think about it some more before I made any decisions.

I remembered that another blogger Shan had done The 3 Day Cleanse back in January and really liked how she felt afterwards, and I remembered thinking that the juices she talked about sounded pretty yummy.  I went back and read up on it, and it sounded like something I could ease into pretty easily.  As part of the Master Cleanse "Ease Out" you're supposed to juice for a day anyway, so I thought, maybe I can just extend that a few days?  I talked it over with Jake, and he said it sounded like good plan.  We'd spend Day 4 of our cleanse drinking only orange juice to prep our systems for more complex digestion. On Day 5 we'd start juicing and keep it up for 3-5 days, depending on how we felt.  The goal is 5 days.  Here's a link to a kind of recipe cheat sheet Shan put together for her 5 day cleanse.  I don't actually own a juicer, but I have a Vitamix, so I'm going to adjust the recipes to fit that.  I'm thinking I'll just need less of each ingredient for the same volume of "juice" since there won't be any pulp leftover.  I'm planning to drink quite a bit of water to account for all the extra fiber I'll be getting.  I'm also planning to get an early start on my Metamorphosis reboot if my energy level feels up to it upon starting the juicing.  I'm still feeling some guilt about veering off my original course, but I know I have to do what feels right for me.  And this way I'll still be getting a lot of cleansing benefits.  I have to admit, though... part of me is going to miss knowing that all the "waste product" moving out is years of backed up crap.  I'm sure I'll still be getting rid of some of it, but I can't imagine it will be to that same degree.  That part of Master Cleanse was very empowering. 

I'll be pounding orange juice tomorrow.  I have a feeling it will have never tasted so GOOD.