May 27, 2011

Master Cleanse Diet

My mom and I are going to be starting The Master Cleanse diet next Saturday. It's a diet designed to detox your body and cleanse your colon. (Sounds fun already, huh?). We've tried it before, but we didn't stick with it for long enough. So we're attempting to go at it together  in order to keep ourselves motivated.

Here are the directions for the diet if any of you want to try it with us:

ALL THIS INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND AT: www.mastercleanse.org
Step 1: Making the Lemonade
                1/10 teaspoon (or a pinch) – Cayenne Pepper
2 tablespoons – Grade B Maple Syrup
2 tablespoons – Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
1 cup – Purified Water
Roll each lemon firmly between your palm and the counter. Put sufficient downward pressure as you rock the lemon back and forth under your hand. You are softening the lemon to make the extraction of juice more efficient.
NOTE: Store your lemons on the counter NOT IN THE FRIDGE. Enzymes are dormant in the fridge. You want those enzymes. If you buy 50 lemons in advance, store 40 in the fridge and take the 10 most ripe lemons out for your first day or two.
Drink your lemonade FRESH. The key to The Master Cleanse is fresh lemon juice and the living enzymes that it contains. The other ingredients are important as well, but the fresh lemon juice is irreplaceable (but yes, limes can be substituted).
            Do not pre-mix your lemonade. The longer your lemonade sits, the more enzymes die. If you need to pre-mix your lemonade, then you should only mix a concentrate of just Fresh Lemon Juice, and the Rich Maple Syrup.  The maple syrup acts as a preservative. This Lemonade diet concentrate will keep the enzymes alive long enough to be consumed during the day. Do not add the cayenne or water to the concentrate. The cayenne will “steep” like tea, and make the concentrate very hot.
Step 2: Drinking the Lemonade
You will drink between 6 and 12 glasses of this Lemonade each day (some people drink as much as 26 glasses per day). This will depend on how big or small you currently are (caloric needs), your tolerance to physical and psychological urges to eat, and your desire to lose weight. Master Cleanse weight loss results vary according to your pre-cleanse weight, and can be managed, to a degree by how much lemonade you drink. Drink more, for less weight loss. Drink less for more weight loss. DO NOT DRINK LESS THAN 6 GLASSES in an effort to lose “extra weight.” Weight loss (if any) should occur naturally. Drink whenever you’re hungry or when you feel a lack of energy (weak or shaky), which is quickly corrected by drinking a glass of Fresh Lemonade. 12 glasses should be your starting point from where you make adjustments.
Step 3 – Inducing Bowel Movements
The Detox of the Master Cleanse Diet occurs largely through Bowel Movements. The daily detox bowel movement is the result from the nightly laxative. The BEDTIME LAXATIVE IS NOT OPTIONAL. Some choose to do a morning laxative as well.
There are several herbal laxatives that work well. Most people find that by using laxative tablets they are able to better manage the dosage. Often, the suggested dosage is not enough to produce the movement in the morning. Tom Woloshyn, author of The Complete Master Cleanse swears that 4 tablets is a good starting point. If you cramp or wake up early with a movement, scale back to 3 tablets. If your movement doesn’t happen in the morning, scale up to 5 tablets.
Step 4 – Concluding the Diet
Repeat for every day of your intended duration. Most Master Cleanse practitioners won’t recommend less than 10 days. 10 days is a great achievement and will produce far better results as your body can really begin to focus on the deep and dark within. 14 days is very challenging. 2 weeks is more than enough.
Ease out- Day 1- Orange Juice
Drink only freshly squeezed orange juice + water (to taste) make 2 liters of this. If you need more calories, add some Maple Syrup.
Ease out – Day 2Juicing, Blending, Soups and Broths
This step preps your body for a liquid diet and delivers macro nutrients more quickly to your bloodstream. Juice/Blend fruits and vegetables (not necessarily together, unless you like that sort of stuff) If you do not have a juicer, you can make broth or soup.
Ease out – Day 3 – Living Food Diet
Simply remove processed foods, meat and dairy from your diet. Eat fruits and vegetables. (Things high in fiber.) Don’t go to heavy on the fruits as they are high in sugar. A 60/40 balance of vegetables to fruits is a good guideline.
IF YOU TRY IT OUT, I WANT TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE. I'LL KEEP YOU UPDATED ON MINE. :)

Being Released

This past Sunday, the Relief Society presidency that I have been a part of for the last year was released. I have mixed feelings about the situation, but mainly I'm relieved my turn is over and I'm excited for the new presidency. I can tell they are going to be exceptional. :)

Anywho, I just thought the few of you that read this blog would be interested in that little update. :)

May 17, 2011

Why My Husband is Amazing.

So yesterday I was having a very difficult day; mostly self-inflicted, emotional drama. Either way, I was having one of those days where you just need a hug. And the stupid people I have to talk to on the phone for 5 hours weren't helping my mood. I texted Doug while I was at work and told him that I was having a hard day.  When I came home from work Doug gave me a big hug & then I went and took a nap. I had a class to go to at five, but when I officially came home for the day Doug was making pasta salad with homemade pesto sauce, and tuna sandwiches on yummy asiago & pepper artisan bread. He had bought me tiny cucumbers and cherry tomatoes (If you know me, you know that cherry tomatoes are the equivalent to a bouquet of long-stem roses in my book). Later we picked up his sister, Alyssa, and she watched "Ghost Town" with us (which is one of my all-time favorite movies).  So all-in-all, it was a pretty nice end to a pretty crappy day. I have an awesome husband.