Do Not Underestimate The First Day of The Cleanse

Kudos to Kat and Deanna for putting this blog together. I would not have taken the initiative on my own. I think it will be both cathartic for us and hopefully insightful for those of you who have not tried the cleanse.

While Kat and Deanna did take the initiative to schedule the cleanse week and jointly performed all of the ingredient purchasing without my help, I have always been enthusiastic about the idea and looked forward to starting the process for some time now.

I pride myself as being a patient person, someone who can endure many challenging endeavors. So when I imagined how these ten days would go, I envisioned that I would be able to complete the process without much difficulty, maybe experiencing some uncomfortableness along the way.

I'm very fortunate that my wife Kat planned out our first morning preparation. So far I have felt like a passive participant. From the previous posting you can see that we prepared the first batch together with relative ease. We did bicker over the measurement conversions a bit but were reassured that we had the formula right after we whipped out the calculator. Fortunately for me, unlike our friend Deanna, I don't mind the taste of the mix and might even lean towards liking it. I will say that the cayenne pepper did take me by surprise a bit as it tingled the back of my throat. It definitely gives the concoction a kick. Kat got a little in her eye for a moment and briefly reacted like someone had doused her with pepper spray.

So everything start off well. Heeding some sage advice from a friend of ours who has successfully been through the process several times, I kept active during the late morning hours to keep my mind off of the ritual of eating. It was working very well and I felt great. I was cleaning the house and completing tasks well enough for Kat and I stick to our plan of getting my car battery replaced. So grabbed a couple of bottles of water and headed out to nearby Sears Auto. I estimated that the trip would take and hour and a half tops. Plenty of time for us to get back and relax and have another bottle of the drink.

Everything was going well until I hit a little rough patch. The battery replacement was taking longer than expected and I had to keep on top of the sales rep to make sure our car went through. After 45 minutes I was very impatient and more irritable than I normally am. Longer story short, the battery replacement plus another errand took about two and a half hours.

At this point I hadn't had the lemonade drink in over three hours. On the drive home I was feeling a little dizzy and had a headache. I was the most uncomfortable that I had been all day. Kat noticed that I hadn't drank any of my water during this time so I took a few slugs from my water bottle. I think I was dehydrated. No lemonade and almost no water for three hours was a big mistake. Fortunately, when we got home I drank another bottle of the mix and now feel much better.

Lesson Learned: Do not underestimate the challenge of the first day.

Kat and I should not have gone on errands today and should have just laid low. Staying active around your house is one thing, but embarking on errands where you have to interact with potentially difficult full-stomached people is another. Also, I think I need to stay hydrated between feedings. I think sometimes thirst is mistaken for hunger pains.

Thanks for reading. Hope someone learns from our collective experiences someday. I can't promise I will post as often as the two blog founders but I will do my best. Happy cleansing!