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.

Weight loss exercises - Do I need to exercise even though I'm eating raw food

Weight loss exercises - do I need these to lose weight even if I'm already eating raw vegan food?
The word "exercise" is loaded with a lot of meaning or emotional charge for a lot of people who don't exercise. Many negative associations come up, and mostly these are the reasons why they don't exercise - not enough time, it hasn't worked before, I'm too tired to exercise, I don't know where to begin, I get sick when I exercise, etc.
For people who don't exercise regularly, the reasons cited above make sense. They have perfectly valid reasons why they don't exercise. Truth is, no one has to exercise. The moment you "have to" do something, it stops being fun. You don't have to exercise, but you could, if you want to get results faster.
Instead of waiting for several months to see results, you might start noticing that your pants are getting loose in a matter of days or weeks. You start seeing your jawline and cheek bones after a week or two. You begin to feel a little more energetic, and you find that you feel more refreshed upon waking up. These are the results that could actually motivate you to exercise some more.
But for most people, the real challenge is starting to exercise. How do you push yourself to do something that you don't even feel like doing in the first place? 


1. Ask yourself what form of exercise you might enjoy.


2. Look around and see where you might do this exercise.


3. Look at your closet and see if you have something to wear.


4. Ask your friends to see if they would want to join you.


Ask yourself what form of exercise you might enjoy.
Some people think that exercise is boring, specially when they see people staying on treadmills for an hour or more. You do not need to spend hours on treadmill. Would you rather swim instead? Do you enjoy playing tennis or badminton? Do you enjoy riding a bike? Have you ever thought of learning karate or capoeira? Initially, what matters is just to pick one, any one, that you think you will enjoy. It has to be enjoyable for you.


Look around and see where you might do this exercise
The gym is not the only place to work out at. For people who don't have the time, money, or inclination to sign up for a gym membership, see if you can start right at home. Maybe you can start by getting an inexpensive rebounder and just jump up and down for 10 minutes. Or maybe you can jog around the block when you wake up. There is no need to spend a single cent to begin exercising right now. 


Look at your closet and see if you have something to wear
I find it to be a bit humorous that some people hesitate to start exercising because they have nothing to wear. Really, this is just an excuse. You can lie down on the floor wearing your pajamas and start doing crunches long before everyone else wakes up. Or if you really must have a complete outfit, there's a sale happening somewhere almost every week, and this would be a great time to shop for clothes. 


Ask your friends to see if they would want to join you
For some people, it's easier to start if they have someone to kick their butt. Find out if your spouse or some other family member would be interested to run with you, or maybe swim a few laps with you, or maybe even just go up and down the stairs a couple of times with you.


Weight loss exercises need not be complicated. They need not be expensive. There is no need to invest in a home gym or buy an expensive piece of do-it-all equipment that you see on home TV shopping.

The important thing is, to borrow Nike's tagline, is to "just do it".


When you start eating raw food, your body will begin to detoxify. All the live enzymes you've been introducing into your system will start doing their job of cleaning out the junk from your body. When you exercise, you naturally start to sweat. This helps your body to get rid of the toxins that are flowing out of your fat cells. 


Being on a raw food diet is the perfect complement to doing a couple of weight loss exercises.