#1

i'm gonna start the master cleanse in a few days. you know, salt flush. smooth move tea. lemon juice, cayenne pepper, maple syrup. except i personally don't use maple syrup. i use agave nectar instead. i'm not a huge fan of maple syrup unless it's on pancakes or french toast but i don't want to drink it and i don't want to smell like it (gross). also i read somewhere before i did the cleanse for the first time that agave, too, has a low glycemic index and thus has a low impact on your blood sugar levels.

this is the third time i'm doing it.

the first time i did it, i really was just curious to see if i could not eat food for ten days and how much weight i'd lose.
i could, and i lost 15 pounds.
halfway through i was getting fascinated by what it was doing to me psychologically.
it made me kind of kooky, which was fun but i was also totally changing the way i felt about food.
i wasn't craving junk food after like the first day, and watching other people eat junk food really grossed me out. i craved avocados and had dreams about swimming in a big bowl full of avocados and heirloom tomatoes.

i also started buying books about superfoods. i got really into knowing what the foods i was eating were actually DOING for me. and i started developing a real appreciation for good food.

the second time i did the cleanse, i was focused more on being able to get the salt water flush down. 32 ounces of warm water and 2 teaspoons of sea salt. i couldn't do it the first time, i would throw it up everytime i tried to drink it. because it's disgusting. whoever wrote that it tastes like flavorless chicken soup was a LIAR. not even dude, it's fucking gross. so this time i was determined to do it (and i did, each day). i was also curious to see how long i could go without eating things like gluten, dairy, (refined) sugars and meat. i went about 3 months. the first time i ate a piece of bread, it gave me a bad stomach ache. the first time i had dairy, i broke out in hives.

but it's tough, once i started eating those things my body readjusted. it didn't make me sick anymore. and it just became easy to eat that stuff. but it doesn't make me feel good. and when i know that i can feel REALLY GOOD, from eating super-good-for-you foods, it makes me feel bad :(

so now is round three. at this point i know i can go ten days without eating. that is the easy part, it's what comes after that's the hard part. but i mean really... TEN DAYS, NO FOOD. i have willpower, i'm just lazy.

my ultimate goal with it this time is to eliminate gluten, dairy, sugar and most meat from my diet when i start eating again. not for three months. but eliminate these foods for real. it's easier not to miss certain foods when you don't eat for this period of time. but i can do it. and realizing that i can do it has made me decide that it's time to get healthy. i'm 25 and i'm overweight. and i also live in los angeles.