Progress... Well, After The Fact

My cleanse ended YESTERDAY!!!  I officially made it 15 days on the juice cleanse.  Here's my take-away:

Pros

• SOOOOO much easier in the beginning than The Master Cleanse ever was... as in NO HUNGER!!!
• SOOOOO much tastier... as in there are about a MILLION different juice concoctions you can come up with!
• SOOOOO not boring...Drinking the lemonade on The Master Cleanse gets VERY boring after about the 10th day.
• Weight loss was a steady 1 pound a day.
• Staying hydrated was a snap!
• Monster Energy.  There are always sluggish days on The Master Cleanse.  This juice cleanse had NONE!!!
• Skin glowed.
• NO SALT WATER FLUSH... those of you who have completed The Master Cleanse know EXACTLY what I speak of here.

Cons

• Cleaning the juice machine after EVERY "meal" of juicing got to be annoying.
• I found that I had some serious cravings... and for bad food!  On The Master Cleanse all hunger and cravings pretty much disappear after the first 3-4 days.
• NO SALT WATER FLUSH!!!  Ok, so I know I put that in the "pros" list... let me explain (and I'm going to try to keep this as not-gross as possible).  After a while on The Master Cleanse, the morning ritual of cleaning your insides and "eliminating" begins feeling REALLY GOOD.  Its hard to put into words how scouring your insides really feels.  Welp, on the juice cleanse I found that eliminations pretty much shut down.  I was surprised when I had eliminations on day 5 and again on day 11 and it didn't feel anything near as good as my beloved salt water flushes.  It was also a lot less "controlled" if you catch my drift.   The salt water flush is done first thing in the morning.  It takes about an hour or so and when its done its done.  Let me just say that when I say I was surprised on days 5 and 11... I was surprised and very lucky I was near a restroom both times.  It's funny that something I hated so much in the beginning of doing The Master Cleanse turned out to be something I craved.  Well, I just decided that the next time I cleanse (in August) I will incorporate a flush every morning before juicing my fruit.  We'll see how that one works for me.

So yes, this fast was a HUGE success.  I will definitely be giving this one another try toward the end of summer.  I'm excited to see what happens between now and then.  The true test of a cleanse is not what happens during, but rather what happens after its over.  And over the years I've always noticed "something new" about my body after each cleanse was done.  I'm anxious to see what happens now that the juice fast is over.  One big change I'm committed to is that I am going to continue to juice every evening before bed.  The energy I had on this cleanse HAS GOT to do with the fact that the body is receiving so many vitamins and minerals.  Each glass of juice contained a minimum of 3 servings of fruit/vegetables in each glass.  And it isn't the processed crap that you get at the store.  This is straight from the living food right to your system in liquid form and IMMEDIATELY absorbed.  That right there blew me away the ENTIRE TIME I was on the fast.  I kept waiting for the day that I'd feel tired or run down and the day never came.  Needless to say, I am THRILLED with juice fasting, and compared to The Master Cleanse (while I recommend BOTH... with your doctor's supervision of course), I HIGHLY recommend juice fasting and give it 1000 high fives!!!!