Coming out of the closet with lemons in my pocket.

I’m going to do that darned lemonade cleanse. You know, the “Master Cleanse.”

The first time I heard about it I was working in a health food store in Calgary, and one of my co-workers had been on it for a loooong time. He looked amazing and felt great.

I’ve always been rather prone to subjecting myself to experimentation, deprivation and extremism of one kind or another. Maybe it’s the hair? A redhead, single, homeschooling, rawfoodist, self-employed mother with some highly unusual spiritual ideas about the world, admittedly puts me in a minority. Anyway, regardless of the weirdness behind me, there are a few things I know for sure, and they look like this:

Recently, I received a few emails from clients asking me about the Master Cleanse. Enough that I decided I better look into this and inform myself a bit more fully.

Here’s what I “think” about the cleanse:

Well, I don’t necessarily “agree” with it as an idea. I mean, it’s really just maple syrup and cayenne pepper and lemon juice with water.

First of all, maple syrup is cooked.

Cayenne pepper is an irritant, as far as I’m concerned.

And lemon juice… well, I wouldn’t just eat lemons, so why eat lemon juice, right?

WRONG!!

You see, I sat down and made the concoction myself the other day and I liked it A LOT!! Not just a little bit, I actually liked it A LOT! And it made me feel GOOD! Sometimes that’s the only judge I need to determine the value of something in my life. Sometimes “thinking” things to death has only gotten me into trouble or left me feeling lost. Nothing like learning by doing.

I’ve done enough human experiments and trial and error projects on myself that I know some thing just DON’T work. I know my body and how I respond to things.

Anyway, to get one up on the wagon, I decided to get in touch with Peter Glickman, author of this little book here featured on the right of the page. In fact, he’s going to be our guest tomorrow night as part of the Sisterhood, so you better believe I’m going to be asking him all the questions I can possibly ask him about this process. He wrote a book designed to support people through the Master Cleanse and respond to many of the unanswered questions he felt people had about this cleanse.

Here’s what I “know” about myself:

I’m a lousy faster.

In fact, one year, I decided that I was FINALLY going to do a 3 day fast. I had tried and tried and tried for years, but never got more than a day and a half. For me, a fast is WATER! That’s it. Anything else is a cleanse of some kind. Anyway, I had always wanted to do a 3 day fast, but never managed to do it because with kids, and working and stuff on the go, I just couldn’t pull it off.

So, I rented a room at a spa one year for my birthday. Just me.

First of all, a spa by yourself isn’t that much fun.

And fasting by yourself at a spa is even less fun.

I had my computer with me, probably a mistake, looking back. I should have just rested, or something. Anyway, I was happy, because I accomplished some amazing cleansing out of my computer’s files. But as for the experience itself, I HATED being alone and I just wanted to go home and EAT!!

*sigh*

So, it was a lousy experience, and I kinda gave up on fasting outside of the occasional 24 hour fast.

But I still wouldn’t mind that feeling of extended “cleansing,” though.

I know a lot of people are doing “juice feasting” but I’m missing a piece to my juicer, and I can’t bring myself to do it because I have a bit of a button on all the lost fiber. Call me an “indoctrinated natural hygenist,” if you will, but I’m not indoctrinated enough, obviously, because I’m going to give this lemonade thing a fair chance.

*sigh*

And to be honest, I’ve been having a rough go lately.

Nothing dramatic, just not feeling my bubbly best. Divas can be drama queens, as I’m sure you know. So, I’d really like something to recharge me and get me back on track. When you make your living recharging others and helping them get back on track, it’s hard to know where to turn when your own steam starts running low. And I’m not going to pretend for a minute that I don’t have rough days or weeks, because I sure as heck do.

So, for the next 10 days *GULP!* (Did I just say that?) I’ll be sipping back lemonade and limeade and seeing how that goes.

*Gulp*

And just the fact that I’ve said that gets a big ball of nerves all gopped up in my throat.

I know that I sure do like this lemonade. And I sure do need a bit of a boost from the ordinary to get me feeling my frisky little self again. Soo.. that’s the book. Lemonade is the name of the game.

And once I get through this, I’m starting my MARATHON TRAINING PROGRAM.

Darn tootin’. I’m gonna strap back on sneakers and I’m excited about it!
Okay… so that’s me. Comin’ out of the closet with lemons in my pocket. I’ll keep ya posted and I’ll try not to make it too self-indulgent.;-)