How to do the Master Cleanse

  

The Master Cleanse is simple. You just do these:

·         You eat nothing for ten days (or more!) except for the lemonade juice made from fresh lemons, organic grade B maple syrup, and cayenne pepper (recipe listed below).

·         Every night, you take an herbal laxative tea. Yum!

·         Every morning, you do a salt flush

·         After ten days (or more!) do the ease-in diet for three days

That's it!

Let me take you step by step through the process,  quoting from The Master Cleanse by Stanley Burroughs, the author of this cleanse. 

Preparing yourself

Be careful to read the entire instructions so that the diet will be of the best benefit to you. First prepare yourself mentally to follow in detail the entire directions and continue as long as is needed to make the necessary changes. One of the best signals of the completed diet is when the formerly coated and fuzzy tongue is clear pink and clean looking. During the diet it becomes very badly coated.

The Night Before starting the diet commence drinking laxative tea.

In the morning take the salt-water (or) laxative tea. This should be done each night and morning during the diet— rare exception— if diarrhea develops. When diarrhea is ended then continue above directions.

– Stanley Burroughs

The lemonade:

Recipe for each glass

2 Tablespoons lemon or limejuice (approx. ½ lemon)

2 Tablespoons genuine maple syrup (Not maple flavored sugar syrup)

1/10 Teaspoon cayenne pepper (red pepper) or to taste

8 oz water, room temperature

Combine the juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper in a 10 oz glass jar w/lid and fill with the water.

Shake it up and drink. (Cold water may be used if preferred.)

You will be drinking a minimum of six glasses a day, plus lots of water. Don't worry, this lemonade eases hunger, and gives energy. Therefore you need never go around hungry during the master cleanse, and I found I had a good level of energy throughout.

For on the go – make lemon-maple concentrate

When you are on the go, it is better to bring along a jar of the maple-lemon concentrate with.  The concentrate means that you haven't added water to the mixture, so it's just the maple syrup and the freshly squeezed lemon juice. (You may add the cayenne pepper now or just before drinking it.)

With your jar of maple-lemon concentrate, you will have all the food you need in a day in an easy to carry package. I managed to do the ten day fast with this system, going to the gym, running errands, meeting clients, even going out of town! The concentrate jar is the best help ever!

You will need:

·         Clear glass jar that doesn't spill liquid

·         Dark cloth to wrap around the jar – I used an old black sock. It was clean!!!

·         Jug of pure water – or just get/buy bottled water wherever you are in the day

Ingredients for one day of lemon-maple concentrate:

·         3 lemons

·         12 spoonfuls of maple syrup

·         3/5 teaspoon of cayenne pepper – or just pour some cayenne powder from the shaker

I would squeeze three lemons (that is already six glasses of lemonade), put that in my glass jar, add the maple syrup, and shake in some cayenne pepper powder. Some prefer to put in the pepper only when they drink it, as putting the pepper in the concentrate steeps it, making it more spicy. Since I didn't want to lug along another bottle – the cayenne pepper – I just sprinkled it in my concentrate already. I did not mind the spiciness too much.

Whenever I need to drink my lemonade, I would get a glass of water – usually using my water bottle – and put some of my concentrate there.

Yeah, so this means carrying a glass jar of concentrate in your handbag, and if you're particular, bringing quite a lot of water too. I'm just thankful my handbag is huge. So I put them all in there, and I was all set for the day!

HOW MUCH DOES ONE DRINK?

Take from six to twelve glasses of the lemonade daily during the waking period. As you get hungry just have another glass of lemonade. NO OTHER FOOD SHOULD BE TAKEN DURING THE FULL PERIOD OF THE DIET. As this is a complete balance of minerals and vitamins, one does not suffer the pangs of hunger. Do not use vitamin pills.

For those who are overweight, less maple syrup may be taken. For those underweight, more maple syrup may be taken. For those who are underweight and worried about losing more weight, about six glasses of lemonade a day is enough for those wishing to reduce. Extra water may be taken as desired.

Every Night:  The Herbal Laxative Tea

A laxative herb tea is found to be the best helper for most persons. It is a good practice to take a good laxative herb tea right from the beginning— the last thing at night and first thing in the morning.

To help your elimination, it's good practice to have a laxative herb tea at night, and to do a salt flush in the morning. I believe these are essential to the master cleanse, as you don't want to pile up all the stuff  you are eliminating from your body in your colon!

When you do take the laxative, be prepared to do several rounds of elimination in the morning. For me that meant  I could not schedule any early morning activities. Too bad for my early morning gym sessions! I managed to squeeze in gym time later in the day during this fast.

Cheat tip:

You may also take a mint tea in the evening, says Burroughs.

This was great news for me. This meant I could still go out and relax with some friends in a nice tea house or coffee shop, getting myself some hot peppermint tea.

Every Morning:  The Salt Flush

DIRECTIONS: Prepare a full quart of lukewarm water and add two level (rounded for the Canadian quart) teaspoons of sea salt. Do not use ordinary iodized salt, as it will not work properly. Drink the entire quart of salt and water first thing in the morning. This must be taken on an empty stomach. The salt and water will not separate but will stay intact and quickly and thoroughly wash the entire tract in about one hour. Several eliminations will likely occur. The salt water has the same specific gravity as the blood, hence the kidneys cannot pick up the water and the blood cannot pick up the salt. This may be taken as often as needed for proper washing of the entire digestive system.

If the salt water does not work the first time, try adding a little more or a little less salt until the proper balance is found; or possible take extra water with or without salt. This often increases the activity.

Remember, it can do no harm at any time. The colon needs a good washing, but do it the natural way—the salt water way.

It is quite advisable to take the herb laxative tea at night to loosen, then the salt water each morning to wash it out. If for some reason the salt water cannot be taken in the morning, then the herb laxative tea must be taken night and morning.

This is not so hard to do. I used the one quart glass bottles  fruit juices come in, putting warm water and the sea salt there. I cover, shake it, and drink it up. Sometimes it would take me a while to finish the bottle – my longest time was 30 minutes to finish the bottle of water.

Then prepare to rock! The bathroom, I mean. The movement should begin around 30 minutes after drinking the mixture.

The first few days I had semi solid poop, but in the latter part of the cleanse, I was just discharging light colored liquid, like tea. For me this indicated that my colon had indeed been cleansed. Yay!

Buying the ingredients

Now that you know what to do, it's time to go out and get everything you need:

·         60+ lemons - use fresh (organic) lemons only, never canned lemon nor frozen lemonade or frozen juice, according to Burroughs

·         62 oz of organic grade B maple syrup (NOT maple flavored pancake syrup). I bought 2 of the 32 oz tubs  

·         powdered cayenne pepper (red pepper)

·         pure water (some buy mineral water but I just used our filtered water at home)

Plus:

·         Sea salt for the morning flush – one small pack. I got the non-iodized pack

·         Laxative herbal tea for the evenings – I got a box of Smooth Move (16 tea packs in a box)

You will also need:

·         juicer for the lemons – I found the manual juicer good enough for this task

·         measuring spoons

·         measuring cups

Where to buy?

Almost all the ingredients for the master cleanse, except for the lemons, can be bought from Healthy Options.  They are the only ones I know that stock grade B organic maple syrup.  I bought two big jugs of those maple syrup – the biggest they stock. They are not cheap, but they were for my health, so ok. There I also bought organic cayenne pepper powder, sea salt, and Smooth Move herbal laxative – these are the best tasting laxatives I know.

I actually finished those two jugs in ten days, with some wastage – meaning, I made some lemon-maple concentrate that I wasn't able to drink that day. I wouldn't feel like drinking them the next day so I would make a new batch. As a result, I almost ran out of maple syrup on my last day!

You can also buy herbal laxative teas in the supermarket, I found, as well as ordinary cayenne pepper, for cheaper.

Lemons

The lemons  I used were bought from the Munos palengke. They weren't organic, but this was the most convenient location for me.  Lemons  are also available in the supermarket, though they cost more there.

I probably used more than 60 lemons all in all. The great thing is that lemons don't go bad easily! So you can buy them in bulk, store the lemons in your ref, and just put out the 12 you will use in several days.

A tip I learned was to roll the lemon in the counter before cutting it, to make it easier to juice.

Manual Juicer

I bought a manual juicer from Save More supermarket at the Mezza.  Strangely enough, SM department store did not carry manual juicers, but there's a section in Save More that does, in the non-food area (in Mezza it's on the leftmost side when you enter the store.) They also have measuring spoons and cups there, and I bought myself a set of those as well.

Water

Pure water is recommended. Our water at home uses a pretty high standard filter, and so I felt comfortable using that. I know some people buy bottled water for this cleanse, which is probably fine. Some prefer distilled water, but Burroughs does not recommend it, saying it's dead water, devoid of any minerals and life.

After the Cleanse:  The Ease Off

Breaking the diet: Be absolutely sure you follow the directions very carefully to prepare your body for normal eating. Do not over eat or eat too soon. Serious problems (nausea) can occur if detailed directions are not followed.

HOW TO BREAK THE LEMONADE DIET

Coming off the lemonade diet properly is highly important— please follow the directions very carefully.

FIRST DAY:

Several 8 oz. Glasses of fresh orange juice as desired during the day. Drink it slowly.

Some still use maple syrup on this day for calories. Since I had run out of maple syrup at this time, I just drank pure orange.

Warning: DO NOT eat the pulp of the orange. The flesh colored covering of the orange contains good fiber, and I normally eat it. But at this time – your stomach may not yet be up to the hard task of digesting tough fiber! This could result in nausea, which was exactly what happened to me.

In desperation I did a salt flush in the middle of the night and threw up the orange pulp peel almost undigested. So this was what caused me such a tummy ache!

Second warning:  DO NOT order soup, even clear soup, from a commercial establishment. They usually put MSG and what not in their foods, and your stomach may not be able to handle this right after a very pure diet. This was another one of my mistake, and I immediately experienced headache after eating a few spoonfuls of clear soup from a restaurant.

Cheat tip: if you can't control yourself and take in a very little bite of food, make sure to chew it thoroughly. Your stomach cannot handle solid foods! But in my experience, a very tiny bite of home cooked food, chewed so thoroughly that it was almost liquid, did not cause me any trouble.

SECOND DAY:

Drink several 8 oz. Glasses of orange juice during the day— with extra water, if needed. Some time during the afternoon, prepare a vegetable soup (no canned soup) as follows:

RECIPE FOR VEGETABLE SOUP

Use several kinds of vegetables, perhaps one or two kinds of legumes, potatoes, celery, carrots, green vegetable tops, onion, etc. Dehydrated vegetables or vegetable soup powders may be added for extra flavor. Okra or okra powder, chili, curry, cayenne (red pepper), tomatoes, green peppers, and zucchini squash may be included to good advantage. Brown rice may be used, but no meat or meat stock. Other spices may be added (delicately) for flavor. Use salt delicately as a limited amount of salt is necessary.

Learn to enjoy the natural flavor of the vegetables. The less cooking the better.

Have this soup for the evening meal using the broth mostly, although some of the vegetables may be eaten. Rye wafers may be eaten sparingly with the soup, but no bread or crackers.

I really liked the vegetable soup prepared in our house, with okra and other vegetables. Thankfully, when I mentioned vegetable soup, and some of the listed ingredients, our cook knew just what to do.

THIRD DAY:

Drink orange juice in the morning. At noon have more soup: enough may be made the night before and put in the refrigerator. For the evening meal eat whatever is desired in the form of vegetables, salads, or fruit. No meat, fish, or eggs; no bread, pastries, tea coffee, or milk. Milk is highly mucus forming and tends to develop toxins throughout the body.

(Milk, being a predigested food, has been known to cause various complications in the stomach and colon, such as cramps and convulsions. The calcium in milk is difficult to assimilate and may cause toxins in the form of rheumatic fever, arthritis, neuritis, and bursitis. The resulting lack of proper digestion and assimilation of the calcium allows it to go into the blood stream in a free form and it is deposited in the tissues, cells, and joints where it can cause intense pain and suffering.)

FOURTH DAY:

Normal eating may be resumed, but best health will be retained if the morning meal consists of our type of lemonade or fruit juice: and, of course, if a strictly fruit, vegetable, seed and berry diet is followed. If, after eating is resumed, distress or gas occurs, it is suggested that the lemonade diet be continued for several more days until the system is ready for food.

Congratulations! You can now eat normally!

Benefits:

During and after the diet, my stomach was so flat that it was a real joy to look at myself in the mirror! Flat, without any gassiness too! And I felt so light in my movement – I could really tell the difference during my gym classes. I loved it! In those moments, I felt that the master cleanse was truly, absolutely worth it!

Also, when I stuck out my tongue and looked at it in the mirror, it was a beautiful, healthy pink, without any whitishness on top. So healthy! :)