Master Cleanse - How do I lose weight fast?

Master Cleanse - celebrities rely on it to lose weight quickly, health-conscious people do it regularly to get rid of their food cravings, and spiritual people use it as a form of fasting to get mental clarity. If you  identify with any of the groups of people above, choosing to do the Master Cleanse is a no-brainer - of course, you're going to plunge right into it! But if you're not a celebrity, or you're not health-conscious, or you're not spiritual, why might you want to do it?

Here are just some of the reasons why people choose to do the Master Cleanse:

1. They want to lose weight, fast!

2. They feel bloated and are getting a bit lethargic, and they need to quickly regain their energy.

3. They know for a fact that they're living toxic lifestyles, and they want to do some detox.


Fast weight loss - how does 1 lb. a day sound?

This is just about the average amount of weight that people lose while doing the Master Cleanse. The Master Cleanse is a 10-day fast, so people lose at least 10 lbs. Some lose more, specially the ones who don't cheat and follow the procedures to the letter.

Stanley Burroughs, the person who developed the Master Cleanse, says it can even be done for 40 days or longer. 40 lbs is a lot of weight for most people, but for those who really have a lot to lose, this cleanse delivers what it promises.


Get renewed vitality and energy in 10 days

Fast for 10 days and become energetic in the process? How could that be? Don't people who fast need to sleep all day? People who fast by taking water only need to rest. People who do the Master Cleanse can perform their normal day-to-day activities while doing the fast. While doing the fast, I was even going to the gym 6 days a week.

Once you get rid of all the sludge in your colon, and the toxins in your cells, be prepared to re-experience the kind of energy you once had when you were in your early twenties.


Master Cleanse for Detox

We live in a toxic environment. Mercury in tuna, preservatives in our food, carbon monoxide in the air, flouride in water, chemicals in fabric softeners - everywhere we go, we are exposed to toxins. If we don't periodically deep clean our bodies, we eventually get sick and die. If you clean your house regularly, perhaps you notice that even if you clean it every week, there eventually comes a time when you need to do some general cleaning, as dirt seems to accumulate somehow. Think of the Master Cleanse as your general cleaning procedure.


The Master Cleanse in Detail

The Master Cleanse is not a crash diet, although most people who do it typically lose 1 pound a day. As the name implies, the Master Cleanse is a way for people to clean their bodies from the inside. When we take in toxins through our diet, the toxins must be eliminated by the liver, and when there's too much for the liver to work on, the toxins get stored in our fat cells in the liver. When the liver runs out of room to store these, it releases them into the body and the body creates fat cells to contain these toxins.

The body also accumulates toxins in the colon where the blood has to filter through these toxins to get to the liver. When this happens, the body is being fed dirty blood. Symptoms of auto-intoxication include headaches, nausea, mental depression, irritability, stress, tension, tiredness, sluggishness, mental fogginess, insomnia, and susceptibility to other diseases.

Treating these symptoms is never the solution. We must go the source of these symptoms - the toxins - and eliminate them from our bodies.

Not eating solid food for 10 days gives the body the chance to rid itself of these toxins as our enzymes are freed up to clean our bodies instead of trying to digest the food that we put into our bodies. The lemons and cayenne pepper loosen the toxic deposits, and maple syrup provides us with energy. Meanwhile, the salt water flush removes the toxins that have been released into the colon. This is a system that cleanses that colon, the liver, kidneys, and other organs, and that is why it's called the Master Cleanse.

For the lemonade, use Grade B maple syrup and non-irradiated cayenne pepper. For the salt water flush, use un-iodized salt. And before going to bed, take the smooth move tea.

There are three things to remember:

At night: 

Beginning the night before you do the Master Cleanse, and every night thereafter for 10 days, take a laxative tea. The best tea to take is Smooth Move (which in the Philippines is available through Healthy Options.)

In the morning: 

Immediately upon waking up, drink a quart (0.9 liters) of water with 2 teaspoons (use a teaspoon used for measuring ingredients, not an ordinary teaspoon) of non-iodized sea salt (rock salt will do). Drink it all at once, or at least within 5 minutes. Don't wait longer than that to finish the whole amount. After usually about 30 minutes, you will need to go to toilet as the water will be flushed out of the system.

In the event that you need to go to the toilet even before you take the salt water as a result of drinking laxative tea the night before, don't worry. Just drink the salt water after you're done going to the toilet.

It might take about another 30 minutes for your body to flush the water. Once the water has been flushed out completely, you normally won't need to go to the toilet again. This will not give you LBM.

The combination of the laxative tea and the salt water flush may be compared to the agitation and rinse cycles of a washing machine. The laxative tea agitates the toxins that line your colon, and the salt water rinses them out. It is absolutely important for you to do these steps during the 10-day master cleanse as not doing them will mean that the toxins that are being released from your fat cells are not leaving your body and could therefore re-toxify you.

All throughout the day:

Every time you get hungry, make some lemonade. Here is the recipe:

8 ounces of purified water (about 250 ml)

2 tablespoons of maple syrup (Grade B, available from Healthy Options)

2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice (usually the juice from half a lemon)

a dash of cayenne pepper (1/10th of a teaspoon)

There is no need to be scrupulous about the measurements as that would complicate things. To simplify this, you could even make batches of 500 ml or 1 liter at a time. When making 500 ml, just use up a whole lemon and add 4 tbsp of maple syrup. When making 1 liter, use 2 lemons and 8 tbsp of maple syrup.

This was a 1-liter mixture. 1 liter of water + 8 tbsp of freshly-squeezed lemon juice + 8 tbsp of maple syrup. Filled up a coffee jar and a glass. As lemons vary in size, you may use up anywhere from 2 to 4 lemons to come up with 8 tbsp of lemon juice.

Just don't try to make 2 liters at a time as it's best to have the lemons freshly squeezed. Do not use bottled lemon juice.

Most people find that they need to drink anywhere from 6 to 12 glassed of lemonade a day. If you need more than that, go ahead. There is absolutely no need to starve yourself as feeling starved is one sure way to discourage you from continuing the cleanse.

If you can tolerate cayenne pepper well, you can use more than what the recipe calls for. The cayenne pepper breaks up the mucoid plaque and dilates the blood vessels, thus speeding up the detox process.

During the 10-day process, you may also drink water and some caffeine-free tea. Do not take anything else - no coffee, no soda, no crackers, no vegetable soup. Your body must be completely devoted to cleaning out the toxins, and it can't do that if your enzymes are being used to digest food.

Breaking the 10-day fast:

After 10 days, it's important that you take nothing but freshly squeezed oranges or grapefruit for the 11th day and 12th day. Eating something solid immediately will shock the body as your digestive system needs to be eased back into eating solid food.

On the 13th day, have orange juice again for breakfast, but by lunch time, you can start eating fruits and raw salads.  


There you have it - the information that you need to think about, and actually start doing the Master Cleanse.