Master Cleanse, Modified

So my girlfriend at work mentioned Stanley Burrough's Master Cleanse and being as I am in need of serious detox after two years of non-stop eating, drinking and smoking whatever and whenever, I decided to committ to a 10 day cleanse. The basic recipe is as follows:

fresh lemon juice and maple syrup (grade B) in equal parts
cayenne pepper to taste
clean water

This is to be imbibed all the day long, whenever one feels hungry. I have been having four quarts of the stuff at work (8-4pm). For the day, I bring a mixture of one cup juice pre-mixed with one cup of syrup and mix the concoctions on breaks.

Now, according to the official literature, one is supposed to take a cup of smooth move tea (an herbal laxative) in the AM and then proceed to imbibe ONE LITER of water mixed with two teaspoons of sea salt so as to give oneself an internal enema(the salt water has the same density as the blood and therefore is not absorbed, so basically it's a shower for your digestive system).

Well, anyway, being that I don't want to sabotage myself with too much suffering in the beginning and seeing as I am not much of a rule abider anyhow, I'm actually not following the cleanse as prescribed. Big surprise! SO, no salt water for now. Maybe on day 3 or 4 when I feel super confident about my ability to stick it out.

I have decided that so long as I drink four quarts of the lemonade, my caloric and vitamin needs are met for the day. SO, in the evening, I am having cold herbal infusions as per my liking.

On day one, I had red clover/peppermint and on day two I am having red clover/mullein. This is to use up all the wildcrafted herbs I collected and dried last year before the new season comes and also because I really think that with no food in my system, the tonics might actually be quite beneficial.

What has been really amazing about the fast so far is how much easier it is to NOT EAT when you're fasting as opposed to not eating the WRONG THINGS when you ARE eating. This has sort of reawakened my taste for truly yummy things. I have been fantasizing not about rich and luxurious foods, but about avocados, sprouts, and raw food in general.

This could be, of course, because I am planning to break the fast on fresh grapefruit juice during the day and some kind of seriously herbal asian style brothy soup at night for the first three days and then start incorporating foods suitable for a raw food diet.

It's not that I want to go back to a raw food diet forever, but I do feel like I have to center myself and get back to those basics because I feel I have become rather addicted to those warming and yummy foods of winter. I am planning on joining a CSA this year and with the warm weather coming, I think it's a great time to make a change.

Interestingly, my fast is coinciding with lent, which is also a traditional time of fasting and in harmony with the coming of the spring and the bounty of the seasons to come.

Well, I suppose I will end here by saying, that I am truly and pleasantly surprised by the relative ease with which the fast has begun. As someone who receives an inordinate amount of pleasure from food, I thought this would be somehow more painful. I am really looking forward to the end of the fast, but not in a fiendish sense of "I can't wait to eat food again" more like, wow, I will have really accomplished something good for myself two weeks from today.