An Update on My Goals for May and My History of Diets Continued

My Goals - the 1st Week of May: I give myself a grade of C for the week. My biggest challenges were to walk enough (goal - 10 miles per week) and to learn a new recipe. I realize that I need to plan my week. I also was not under my 1800 calories per day goal every day but I kept the Food Diary and that helped to remind me about my choices. There were things I wanted to eat or times I wanted to eat more of a tasty dish but just thinking about having to write it down helped me to make better choices.

Weight Loss 1st Week: 7lbs. (I know, crazy right?)

My History of Diets

The diet I am going to talk about today is both very restrictive and considered by many to be a fad diet. It is also a fasting diet. Please remember that I am sharing my personal experience of the diets I write about. Do not take any of this as a recommendation for or against a particular diet. I just hope my information will be informative to people making choices about how they are going to lose weight and get healthier.

I have done the Master Cleanse about four times. The first two times I followed it for only four days and I will admit that I stopped because of how I felt. I had an awful headache and my energy was so low that I just wanted to stay in bed. I had written the Master Cleanse as something that was not good for me personally and moved on to whatever was next on my list of diets. About three years after the last attempt, I came accross a website on the Master Cleanse and read many of the entries from people who had tried it. I found that many people seemed to have a bad day or two somewhere between the third and fifth days of the cleanse. Many people also describe feeling much better in the subsequent days, more energetic and clear headed. Well, I thought, maybe I needed to give it one more try.

The next time I tried the Master Cleanse, I committed to ten days. I scheduled it during a lull in my life and made sure that the third and fourth day fell on a weekend that I had few commitments. The first three days went as usual. I was hungry most of the time and had cravings but it was not unbearable. Late on the fourth day I felt very emotional with low energy and a headache that just would not stop. This lasted on and off for more than 24 hours and, yes, I considered quitting at this point once again. I kept reminding myself that I just needed to try to get past this point, that I was almost half way through. When I woke up on the morning of the sixth day, I felt better than I had in months. I had a lot to do that day, including teaching, but I had energy to spare. I also felt very optimistic. I had no cravings. These feeling lasted through the end of the fast. On the eleventh day, I was ready but not anxious about ending the fast. I took four days to add solid food to my diet and tried to follow the guidelines for doing this. The most recent time I tried this, I had an almost identical experience.

Though I would not try this for 40 days, as some people do, I believe I would do it again. The biggest challenge for me is finding a time when it will not interfere with my schedule. However, overall, the Master Cleanse has some positive results that lasted for almost three months. I had fewer headaches and more energy, made better food choices, and found myself less likely to give in to emotional eating. All-in-all, it was a beneficial experience for me.

From my first review of my diet history, I determined that:

1) I need a diet that allows me to snack throughout the day.
2) I need a diet that does not cause cravings, one with limited refined carbohydrates.

What have I discovered from my experience with the Master Cleanse?

3) Periodically doing a very simple and restrictive program can be helpful to me.

Hmmm, I'm not sure where this list is leading but it is an interesting journey.