21 Oct 2009
The Results of the Master Cleanse
Urban Green Girl's Master Cleanse Results
Three weeks have passed since I finished my master cleanse and I am ready to give you the results.
My skin didn’t clear up like I was hoping, so this just proves that it is, indeed, hormonal and stress related. Asides from having a huge feeling of self accomplishment and pride, I did lose 7lbs overall, and this wasn’t even a goal. It has been 3 weeks since I finished, and this weight hasn’t come back. I have, however, been careful to not over eat since this was a good starting over point for me.
Pros:
- Sense of accomplishment
- Stable weight loss, 7lbs overall
- Toxin removal
- Better appreciation for food
- Eat better (eat more grains)
Cons:
- Did not clear my acne
- Took 2-3 weeks to get my digestive system back to normal
- Went on a food binge afterwards
- No difference in energy levels or fatigue (but other facts explain this, like going to bed at 1am)
Tips:
Introduce foods very slowly after finishing the master cleanse. Eat lots of soups (homemade if possible) and easily digestible foods like vegetables and grains, smoothies and humus with pita. Continue taking the laxative tea, once every 3 days.
Would I ever do it again?
Absolutely! Once a year. I believe yearly cleansing is important for overall health, whether I would do this one or another one is yet to be determined. I would, however, consider doing the master cleanse again though. I would also suggest finishing it with a liver cleanse like I did. Just remember to do the parasite cleanse before. I used the product clear from Awareness. Not only does clear kill all stages of parasite development, it is also an antibiotic and virus killer that doesn’t harm your immune system.
I have been able to heal myself from strep throat by using this product. It also gives immediate pain relief to sore throats by opening the capsules up and swirling the herbs on the back of your throat with your tongue and a bit of saliva. You might not like the “herby” taste, but it works. I swear by this product. It would also be a great product to take if backpacking in developing countries.
How to find a naturopath:
Cleansing or detoxing may not be for everyone. Whenever venturing into any kind of health treatment, it is always wise to seek professional advice. You may be someone that might need to follow different procedures then what I did, especially if you have health problems or have abused any types of drugs or alcohol in the past. I did my cleanse under the guidance of a naturopath, I would suggest you do too.
In Canada, contact the Canadian Association of Naturopaths
In United States, contact the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians
Congrats girl!
I didn’t tell you this but I just finished doing the cleanse too. I was going to do it for 14 days, but I ended up doing for 11, which I’m really proud of nonetheless. My reason for doing it was desperation
hehe. I’ve been having weird skin flareups below and behind my ears for over a year now and having heard some pretty good things about how the cleanse could help, so I decided to give it a shot. I told myself that if it didn’t work, then I would find a dermatologist. The first few days went really well. Around day 7, basically right in the middle of it, my skin flared up again, like big time! Considering I wasn’t eating anything, just cleansing, like you, I realized it was hormonal and stress related. I toughed it out until day 11 and my rash being what it was, I decided to ease-off.
I’d lost 12 lbs, I gained back 5 but I’m perfectly ok with that. I wasn’t doing this to lose weight. I still feel amazing. I don’t have wicked sugar cravings anymore. I hardly drink coffee anymore too (a coffee every 2 or 3 days) and I feel renewed.
As for my skin, I’m tracking my cycle to the day, to see if there are specific times when my skin flares up, according to my hormonal peeks and valleys. I’m hoping to see a pattern and thus be able to “plan” for those days with nutrition, skin care and stress management.
Since I finished the cleanse, I changed my skin care regimen and now only use the fabled Dr. Hauschka line for sensitive skin and I’m happy to report that everything is normal… right now. I’m amazed! My skin got better AFTER I finished cleansing. hehe. Oh well. But the main lesson here is that I need to relax. I need to make some time for me and learn to manage the stress in my life.
Melissa Thibodeau
October 29th, 2009 at 10:20 ampermalink
Melissa – Glad to hear you did it too and for your results. I realised my acne too was stress related. I started taking B vitamins though because those reduce the effect of stress on the body, so if you’re stressed, I highly recommend taking them. Trophic is a good brand and entirely Canadian
Funny, I lost exactly 12lbs and gained by 5lb as well. Although I find my appetite has actually sky rocketed since…don’t know why.
How is your skin now?
UrbanGreenGirl
October 29th, 2009 at 10:01 pmpermalink
Vitamin B huh? I’ll give that a try. Thanks for the tip. You should check out Jillian Michael’s book on mastering your hormones. She explains the correlation between the specific hormones in our bodies to ailments and suggests specific foods to increase or decrease the specific hormone levels. It’s really fascinating. Also, you should take a closer look at your diet to see if you are balancing alkaline and acidic foods. If it’s primarily acid based, this could be responsible for your skin problems.
I’ve been really stressed out lately (nobody ever said starting and running a business was easy
)
I started doing ‘brain dumps’ every night. I basically write long ’streams of consciousness’ down. Dump it all out, everything that’s on my mind. I’m not trying to solve any problems by doing this, but just getting it out of my head before bed helps me fall asleep faster. I could lie there for a really long time just going over garbage that’s bothering me and not sleep. After I do these brain dumps, I plug myself into my ipod and listen to relaxing nature sounds and meditate for 10 minutes before bed. I just started a couple of days ago and I already feel different. Calmer.
My skin is still normal right now. Almost 2 weeks and no flare-ups. I just ordered the rest of the Dr Hauschka products for sensitive skin. The intensive treatment products. Can’t wait to do a weekly restorative mask while taking a nice soothing bath.
Since the cleanse, I’ve re-committed myself to taking better care of me, to pamper myself and my skin, to not let myself sweat the small stuff so much. I also discovered a new passion for cooking. I always liked to cook but now I’m always on a quest to find THE new healthy recipe, much to the delight of my bf, who was doing most of the cooking lately.
Melissa Thibodeau
October 31st, 2009 at 11:33 ampermalink