Lemonade Cleanse

I have read many great things about doing a lemonade cleanse. This can heal so many illnesses and underlying problems. Not to mention it's a great reducing diet. With all the diet fads out there, if more people just tried this lemonade cleanse, they would save a ton of money that they wouldn't have to spend on diet books, pills, diet food, etc. It is a cleanse consisting of drinking a lemonade mixture of fresh lemon (or lime) juice, pure maple syrup, cayenne, and water. You drink this 6-12 times a day, on the lower end if you want to reduce. This combination gives you all the minerals and enzymes to keep you going. It's said that people feel great on this cleanse. As with any cleanse, the first three days are the hardest. Once past those days, it's possible to do long term (10 days, two weeks, 20 days, 30 even 45 days).
Recipe: Juice of half a lemon, 2 tb pure maple syrup, 1/8 ts cayenne, 10 ounces of water.
You are also supposed to drink a laxative tea before bed and do a salt water flush first thing in the morning. A salt water flush consists of putting 2 ts of good salt in a quart of water and drinking.
So here I go!

Day 1
It's the afternoon of day 1 and I'm super excited to start this cleanse! I'm shooting for 10 days. I'm really eager to see if I can keep it up that long. After my last 3 day juice fast I felt really well and like I could go on longer. So I'm optimistic that this will go really well.

Day 3
I'm feeling good and amazingly have no desire for food. I'm making food for the family and it's not bothering me at all. I have plenty of energy and I'm not hungry. Very grateful for that!

Day 5
Today is the first day I felt any hunger. So I had an extra lemonade drink and felt better. I didn't really feel hungry until evening time. Still have good energy even though I haven't "eaten" in 5 days! I walk on the treadmill everyday for 20-30 minutes. I have done the salt water flush 3 out of the last 5 days, not really enjoying that, not sure if I will continue with it.

Day 7
Wow, I have gone a week! I'm starting to really look forward to eating again and for this to be over but I'm not miserable. The last couple days I have felt hungry in the evening. With an extra lemonade drink I feel better.

Day 10
I cannot believe I made it to day 10!!!! Today is the last day and I really have no desire to continue it but I'm very happy I made it this far. I really would like to get back to eating, only because I really want to taste something different. I'm rather bored of the lemonade drink. But I'm still feeling really well. I did the salt water flush a few more times but not everyday.

2 days post cleanse
I have been eating all raw food for the last two days. Seriously I take like two bites and I'm full. If I try to eat more than that my stomach feels like exploding. It's so weird. I make a big glass of carrot juice and can barely get through half of it.

7 days post cleanse
I feel really good after doing this cleanse. My body feels really healthy. I still can't eat a regular portion of food. So smaller portions. I thought I should just have smaller portions throughout the day but even hours after eating I'm still full. I'm guessing eventually I'll be able to eat normal portions again.

10 days post cleanse
I'm starting to "try" to eat normal portions but can't always finish. Just making sure I get plenty of raw veggies.

Final thoughts
I feel like I accomplished something big. With that said though, I'm not sure if I would do this cleanse again in the future. Maybe it's too soon to decide that. I do feel like my body is functioning really well, so that's a plus. I really got bored of it near the end though. A 3-5 day regular juice fast is probably more up my ally. It felt like this cleanse was never going to end. But then when it did end, it felt great that I got through it. I don't recommend anyone does this as their first cleanse, unless you have a serious health issue you are trying to heal and time is of the essence. I'm glad I did a 3 day juice fast the week before this. I believe that made it so I didn't have any bad detoxing in the beginning, which is always nice. All and all, I'm very glad I did it, maybe I'll do another in a year or so.... =)

*Consulting a natural or holistic health care practitioner prior to starting this cleanse is highly recommended.