As I am typing this down, I am on my Day 2 of the cleanse. I'd like to share my experience on trying the Master Cleanse. I know these journals are helpful for people who will be trying the cleanse for the first time. (Believe me, I've read a lot of them before I started the cleanse). I'll just give a quick narration on how I started..

I always have sweet tooth, and I always crave for something sweet. That into consideration is the reason on my enormous weight gain. I was a size 6 in high school through my first year of college. I gone size 8 when I started staying at Manila and rented a room. 2 summers ago, I became size 10 because I was getting loco over cheese when I had my OJT as an analyst at Kraft. After the realization, I tried doing South Beach, it was effective because I became size 7and I had been doing SB for 5 months, just sticking on SB Phase 2. When I eased in through SB Phase 3, I was doing well, until I lost track during the holidays. After a year of mindless eating, I became size 12. For 5 years, I have been struggling on my weight.

After the holidays, I made a decision to lose some weight and try to achieve the body I really wanted. My self-esteem have hibernated and I became unhappy of myself. Especially when all of my clothes did not fit me anymore and I actually have to buy for much larger ones. That had been the turning point when I decided I will lose all this excessive baggage.

When 2010 came, I started renovating some of my habits. To prepare myself of this losing weight thing, I cut down rice and ate a lot of vegetables. It was easy for me to eat vegetables because I did SB and I got used to eating it. The hardest thing for me was to cut back on my sweets. The first thing I did was to stop the sodas and stick to water and more healthy drinks. It was easy because there's iced tea. But now, I choose the type of iced tea to drink. I prefer the Lipton Iced Tea and C2 Green Leaf for the sugary taste is less. It was easy for me to not miss rice because stir-fried vegetables as substitute is very appealing. I cut down my pastry intake. I eat less bread and just sticked to more vegetables.

After two weeks on these kind of eating, I decided to try the master cleanse. The cleanse is a good way to lose weight but still feel healthy. The hard part was there are no solid food for 10 days, only the lemon juice. To prepare for the cleanse, I canvassed and looked for shop where the ingredients are available. I found cheaper lemons at Landmark Supermarket for Php12.75/piece (compared to SM @ Php15/piece and Rustans @ Php20/piece). The sea salt, organic maple syrup and organic laxative tea are all available at Healthy Options. Cayenne powder was easy because all supermarkets have cayenne at an okay price (Php18.00/50g). I was undecided on the Maple Syrup because it was too expensive (the cheapest one are @ Php800 for a small bottle). The Sea salt at Healthy Options mostly are iodized ones. The rock type of sea salt was a bit expensive (Php 100++ for a tiny shaker). The tea was a bit pricey too. The Organic Smooth Move tea was priced @ Php250 for 16 bags.I was really have a hard time looking for organic stuff around because there a limited stores that sells that stuff (and my budget was a bit constricted.)

I bought 6 lemons for starters and cayenne. I decided to skip on the maple syrup while I'm still finding for a natural sugar substitute like agave syrup of fructose (Healthy Options claims to have these out of stock ). I bought a chinese laxative tea (Kankunis) which was cheaper (Php35/4 bags). I'm just not sure if it's organic or not, but oh well, as long as it has the laxative effect, it should be fine.

Day 1 (January 21)
I took the tea late afternoon on Jan 21(I have classes in the morning and it will not be a good thing if I took it before bedtime) and waited for the bowel movement until midnight. The bowel movement occurred when it was a few minutes before my class. (Good thing I woke up late so I was still at home when the movement came.) After the movement, I decided to drink my first glass of juice and brought the rest to school.

During classes, my mind was telling me I am hungry. So I drank the juice everytime I felt I was hungry or when my stomach grumbles. The juice was not that good, just bearable (maybe if it has something sweet on it,like the maple syrup it will be good.) It tasted like medicine because it have a bitter aftertaste. I included the pulp on the juice, so there were some pulp and the cayenne floating on my drink.

Luchtime came, Joel and I were arguing because it seems he lost his appetite when he knew I was on the cleanse. I encouraged him to eat while I just downed my juice and water. The smell on the cafeteria of the school was tempting and it is making my stomach growl even louder. I mustered enough strength to avoid food even if Joel was eating beside me on the table. I gulped on the juice and washed the aftertaste with water. I managed to go through the day. I drank the tea mid-afternoon.

Dinnertime, Joel and his group decided to pull an all-nighter to finish Robo-SVP (their design project). Joel cooked ground meat with tomato sauce. The smell was unbearable and I was fighting my urge to taste his food. It looked tasty and I was loosing my mind. Good thing I managed to finish my whole 500ml bottle of juice and pre-occupied my mind on juicing my next set of juice. I made a 1L of juice and refrigerated it.

Nearing midnight, Joel and I decided to talk Chloe (our dog) for a walk outside.(It is much safer to let her go that time for there are less cars and people). As I was chasing Chloe, I felt my stomach hurt. I began to worry that I might be getting hyperacidic again because of the juice. And it worsen when Joel told me that it may be ulcer because I haven't eaten anything the whole day. When the pain was unbearable, I rushed home and went to the bathroom. I remembered that I had the tea ,in the afternoon so maybe this was just the bowel movement. My bowel is disgusting but I was happy because I can see some visible fats in it (yuck! this is gross..) After the bowel movement, my motivation to continue soared. I can do this 10 day cleanse, my mind kept saying.

1AM and I'm still not sleeping, my stomach is growling. I retreated for the night but I can't sleep. I read New Moon on my phone so I will get sleepy and it worked. at 2AM, I was sleeping.

Day 2 (January 23)
I woke up at 9AM, and Joel's group was already sleeping on the floor. I went back to sleep because I was worried that my stomach will grumble. I cannot drink the juice on my empty stomach because of my hyperacidity. I manage to go out of bed at 12NN. I decided to take the tea first before drinking the juice. I noticed that my stomach was so flat!. Joel told me that in the wee hours of morning, My stomach was growling too loud that they heard. I am beginning to doubt if this cleanse really works. I'm craving for my morning coffee and cereal.

After taking the tea, I just surfed the net all day while drinking water and the juice.
I happened to bumped on one site that had Beyonce's interview regarding the cleanse. Beyonce ate vegetables while on the cleanse. I was like "Was that cheating??" but then she did lost some weight even for the cheating part. So I searched of there were safe food to eat while on the cleanse, I found out that it was safe to eat organically grown fruits and vegetables. But the article was a bit doubtful because the article was stating the ways on how to cheat the diet. My mind suddenly went for the apple that was sitting in the fridge. It had been 3 hours that I'm battling whether or not I eat the apple.

I mustered enough willpower not to eat the apple. But feeling a bit grogy today, zero calories for 2 days?? I'm amazed I made it. Will sleep early to take my mind of this hunger pangs..