My Background

I am a 27 year old, I am 5 foot 3 inches, and weigh 154.4 pounds. In high school and up until the age of probably around 22/23 years old, I weighed 108 pounds and was nice and thin. I used to have a lot of anxiety in my youth (still do) but I handled it differently. I would skip meals because of a nervous, nauseas stomach and just being a very nervy, tense person helped me keep my weight down. I also chain smoked from the age of 17 to 25. After leaving home I never really knew how to cook healthy- I am embarassed to recall in my first apartment going to McDonalds for lunch and ordering chicken nuggets so I would have something for dinner later! I still don't really know how to cook. I was a vegetarian for about 4 years and didn't eat healthy as a vegetarian- I love animals and always will but I didn't know or have the willpower to eat mostly vegetables and lean proteins like tofu and beans. I ate a lot of carbs and fats. I quit smoking and went to eating and drinking excessively. I still do not know how to fill the void inside me that caused me to first smoke and then eat/drink to extremes.

So why now? Well first of all, I am not expecting to achieve permanent weight loss by doing the Master Cleanse. I need to do something though, and just wanting and planning on eating better and making better choices hasn't done the trick. I can't seem to go one meal without making a poor choice. Its not like I go a few days or a week and then I break my healthy eating pattern, I can't get through Meal 1. I have less energy than I ever have, and it effects my ability to enjoy life. Even something as simple as walking up the stairs leaves me out of breath. I don't exercise. I just can't go on living the way I have been, so I am resorting to a more dramatic measure. Much like I quit smoking by abstaining, I am going to abstain from food for a little while just to kind of restart and regroup, a "time-out" of sorts.

Like I said, I don't expect to accomplish permanent weight loss. I am very excited about some of the benefits of the Master Cleanse that I have read about. For one thing, the Master Cleanse supposedly helps get rid of any excess candidae in your body. My mom has always insisted that I have a yeast problem, mainly because she listens to a lot of health fads. There is some truth to her opinion though- I was born with thrush or a yeast infection in my throat, and all my life my tongue has had a white coating on it, which supposedly can be a sign of yeast overgrowth. The Master Cleanse is supposed to turn your tongue back to pink, and if all else doesn't come through, at least it will be neat to stick my tongue out and have it be pink for once!

Another reason I am doing the Master Cleanse is because it is supposed to help rid me of cravings to salty, greasy, crappy foods. Gosh I would love to not even find fast food appetizing, cause lets face it, right now I do and crave crappy burgers and fries and steak sandwiches all the time. The amount of grease I eat is pretty disgusting. I sometimes even crave fruits and vegetables now so if it can help me crave them more I would be pretty grateful.

Thats about all I am hoping to gain out of this Master Cleanse or "Lemon Cleanse" or whatever it is called.