If you've got the money, honey

I've got the time...time to read the books the son loaned and the daughter sent me, time to think, time to watch the birds changing into their summmer feathers. Time to talk with friends and time to make music. 

I've been doing the master flush again. It's what I call a liquid fast, no solid foods for ten days. Some people call it a diet. I think a diet is something you do for long term.

For me it's a cleansing that recenters me spiritually and gets my body back to "original manufacturers specifications". Mom wanted to do it but kept thinking she couldn't do it alone, so I said I would do it with her. For those of you that might care, this is how I do it. 

2 Teaspoons of real sea salt in four cups (1 quart) of water. (I add about one cup of boiling water to dissolve the salt then add the rest cold.) This is a "chug-a-lug", you should finish it in fifteen minutes or less to get it all down at once.

I do this in the morning, before I "start" the day and again, two hours before bedtime. 

This is the bowel flush. Be prepared to spend some extra time (and tissue!) in the bathroom. It usually takes an hour or more to pass when you start. By day four or five, it's going right on through in about 25 minutes. 

The Drink

2 Tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice, up to 2 tablespoons of real maple syrup, 1/10 a teaspoon of cayanne pepper. Add water to make an 8 ounce drink (1 cup). 

Drink 6 to 8 glasses a day. I use it as "meal replacement", meaning I make it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and bedtime snack. 

I usually double the receipe in a 16 ounce glass so I don't have to fuss with it as often. 

Make sure you are getting the 64 ounces of water a day that each of us is supposed to drink. Yes, that is one gallon...Most people use purified or distilled water because they can track it easier. I just use my tap water, it's filtered. 

I do NOT cut out my caffine. I know it's supposed to rid my body of toxins - some of my toxins are dear to me. I have my coffee and I add any juice I please to the day. Not instead of the water and the lemon drink, but in addition to them. 

You will lose some weight on this fast, partly what you didn't eat in ten days and partly what you have eaten that is still with you.....Even with my normal eating habits and having done this once last year, it was day six before I had a "mostly liquid" flush. I stay on it the full ten days to give the fluids a chance to soften up the remains in the intestines and move it out. 

The "real" master flush reccomends a laxative tea in the evening. For me, that seems like a little over kill. But for Mom, she added prune juice and a stool softener the first two days to get things moving right. I felt like I needed some fiber in there to "scrape the sides down" so I added flaxseed/ginger/cinnamon tea one night and may have some again tonight - it was GOOD! It's my own concoction. 

I don't make this set in stone or rocket science. Some people add extra salt (heaped teaspoons) or less water. Some people lighten up the cayanne pepper. I cut the maple syrup in half or it's too sweet for me. 

I feel this regime gets my circulation going, cleans out the filter system in my body and resets my eating habits by giving my body the ability to process foods correctly again. Lots of people think it's BS and a waste of time. 

I lost 14 pounds the first time I did this. Over the next months I continued to lose weight. I was satisfied with less food. I don't believe it was from "shrinking my stomach", you put a quart of water in it twice a day....But if you are getting the nourishment from your food again, you need less for your body to throw up the "I'm full" signals. 

My standard was two sandwiches, chips and a pickle for a "light" lunch. Some times I couldn't finish even one after I did this, and forget the pickle...Didn't need it. 

I liked being able to slice an apple and about two ounces of cheddar cheese up for lunch with a glass of milk and feeling full. I like being able to stretch my food budget, too, now that I'm on unemployment benefits for income. It makes a difference. 

So that's what's going on this week. We are on day seven, just three more to go. Mom is feeling fine and amazed that she's not hungry. That was the main reason I made it ten days the first time. If I made the lemon drink when I felt an urge to eat, I was satisfied. 

That's not to say that temptation isn't out there. Just that I really didn't want that brownie and my body knew it. My tummy still wanted it, my mouth might crave it, but if I was honest with me, I didn't NEED it. 

It's the only fast or diet I've been on that I am NOT hungry on. It's the only thing that ever helped me lose weight AFTER I was done doing it. 

So the winter weight us northerners get is getting the old heave ho and I feel pretty good about things today. And, for the record. I weighed 238 pounds the first time I did this. By July I weight about 175 with no additional exercise or enforced diet. 

My extension came through on the unemployment. I'm still looking for work. But I have the time to enjoy life a little, even with no money I'm doing just that! 

Love the one you're with!