Well even though I’m getting into the swing of things, and becoming pretty good with my routines, today brought something new for me both psychologically and physically. But nonetheless day four went down with no major hitches.

Day Seven

I wake up, somewhat sleep deprived as usual, but feeling like a daisy. The first few days of the cleanse I was taking short naps in the middle of the day to deal with the cold. I would wrap myself up in a blanket and lay down to keep warm, then inevitably doze off. But in the last few days I’ve been actually sleeping less AND cutting the naps out.  And I feel great.  Today is no difference. In the word’s of Radioactive Man (kind of), “Up and atom!”

Not a bad sleep!

Off to the kitchen to start my day off with a low point, the dreaded Salt Water Flush! My friend (and marketing maverick) Jean-Guy Francoeur once told me about this book he read called, Eat the Frog (insert Frenchman joke here). It’s about productivity and time management. If I remember correctly, the tenant of the book is that we ought to do our most difficult, dreaded, uninspiring tasks first thing in the morning. When we complete tasks that we dislike it immediately releases endorphins, and we get a mini chemical addiction to that. Our body basically falls in love with the idea of completing difficult tasks… I’m not sure if that’s working for me. Or if I even believe in it. But I must admit that drinking a liter of salt water does probably taste somewhat like swallowing a frog. Or at least they’re in the same league.

I mix the concoction almost exactly to Stanley Burroughs‘ original recipe… one liter of water, two teaspoons of salt. The only diff is I make the teaspoons just somewhat heaping. This time I  hold out as long as I physically can. Seriously, I really push the limits here.  It was almost a salt water fluch fiasco.  For the first time ever the BM is a biggy. Really biggy. And dark as always. But after the first movement I don’t really have much else.  Regardless, I am proud.

Hop in the shower, warm up. While I’m washing my hair I feel some weird bumps on my forehead. Once out of the shower I check them out in the mirror. EGADS!!! My entire forehead has broken out with some type of rash!!!  WTF MATE, WTF!? Ok, chill out, no big D. I have been wearing my toque (American’s read: beanie) about 16 hrs each day. That could certainly cause some irritation. I’m not convinced that’s what it is. Actually, I’ve heard of this phenomenon before.

In our day to day lives we take in all sorts of allergens and toxins. Often we have a reaction to them as they pass through our system. But sometimes they don’t get all the way through the system.  Sometimes bits and pieces of them get caught in the crevices of our snaking intestine. There they sit, dormant, for who knows how long. And once we ‘shake them up’ and get them moving again we can have another reaction. The body will try to dispel the toxin as quickly as possible, through which ever exit doors it can find. Sometimes this can mean hives, or a rash. Unfortunately this was on my face.

So I don’t entirely freak out. But I’m a little shaken. But the rash subsides as the day wears on, so I don’t put much stalk into it.

The rest of the day goes pretty smooth except that I’m starting to miss food. I’ve trained myself to use food as a bench mark through out the day. I get up and have breakfast. I work for a while then eat lunch. Once I’m done for the day I can have dinner. These are really significant milestone’s in my day. Without them I’m noticing that it’s a lot tougher for me to time and space my day well.

Food was the bookends to my day, but it sure isn't any more!

At the end of the night I go out for a walk with my girl. But after walking for a while it seems like we have nothing to do.  Just keep walking I guess. Usually we would stop in somewhere for a snack, dinner, maybe a drink.  But all of that stuff is off limits. Eventually we decide on a hitting a midnight movie (that’s the reason this post is coming soo late). In the last year I’ve become addicted to theatre popcorn. Not tonight! Instead I head to the candy counter and ask the guy if I can get a big cup of water. He starts to pour me a miniature cup (I believe they call it the ‘courtesy cup’, which is pretty ironic, because there is nothing courteous about giving a person 1/3rd the amount of water they really need). I tell him I’ve been fasting and really need one of the big cups. He tells me they are inventoried and he can’t do that. I offer to pay. He still refuses (what a meathead!). Then he tells me he’ll break the rules this one time and proceeds to give me the smallest of the regular sized cups. As you can tell, I’m still a little miffed about this.

So I actually missed my last lemonade of the day…oops. I had my final lemonade around 8pm, and didn’t get to bed until about 2am. This is probably good practice for me leading up to my trip on Saturday.

How do I feel?

Same old, same old. Still feeling good.  No noticeable loss in energy (with the exception of the end of the night when I had probably only had 800 calories for the day). Today was definitely the most productive day, from a work standpoint, I’ve had in about a month.

Like I said above, I miss food. I’m a bit of a foody. I love to go out and eat. I love the atmosphere, I love the conversation, and I love the FOOD! So that’s a big part of my life that is missing right now. Also, I’m a little surprised by just how skinny I’ve become. Yowzers! You can see my ribs! That can’t be too good. But eight days from now I’m going to be starting Shaun T’s Insanity workouts, so I have no doubt it’ll go back on.

My outlook moving forward?

As crazy as this sounds, that little rash on my forehead was actually quite encouraging. I was starting to feel kind of like, ‘what am I doing this?’-y.  The Master Cleanse is a huge challenge, and when you don’t see results it’s difficult to press on. I’m not doing this for the weight loss, in fact I’d rather not lose weight. So it’s been tough to keep my eyes on the end prize. And as much as I don’t like rashes on my face, to know that my body is working hard to dispel toxins, and it’s working, that was a little boost for me.

Tomorrow marks halfway!