Re: Seeking opinions: 21 days or more?

Congrats on making it this far! Whether you keep quit or keep going at least you got a good cleanse so far. :)

"I never thought I would make it this far, so I've already achieved a great deal. But now is the time to decide whether I should conclude for now or go a few more days or go for 30."

Well why do you have to decide now? Why not take it one more day at a time and quit when you're sure you want to quit? What are you missing out on if you're still fasting Monday or Tuesday? Pizza party with your friends that would probably make you feel guilty afterwards? You might need to be more honest with yourself here.

I think some people get too obsessed with numbers. On every fasting forum the magic numbers seem to be 10, 21, 30 and 40. Like 23 days sounds stupid and 21 is better. I don't get it. Take it one day at a time. There doesn't have to be a "now is the time to decide". Let your body tell you when you're done and not your mind. And not your nose and eyes when your favorite junk food is around.

For me, I always know I'm done with the Master-Cleanse when I can't stand the lemonade anymore. It tastes good to me in the beginning. Then after day 30 or so, my tastebuds just change and I start cringing at the thought of it and drinking less than 6 glasses. I'm on day 42 now and I ended up switching to fruit and vegetable juices a few days ago. I didn't even mean to go this long. I like day 20-30 because that's when I usually lose a pound a day steadily for some reason. Other people seem to lose faster than me though.

Another thing I've noticed about day 20-30 though from posting/reading forums for the last year is that around that time people seem to lose the most mucus and old fecal junk starts peeling off. Besides me, I know there's been a few people on this forum that have passed mucoid plaque around then.

Reasons to stay on:

* I'm still removing (what I assume to be) old bile, the nasty, acetone-smelling orange-brown sediment I find in my output.
* I'm having a resurgance of emotional food-craving issues that I should work through.
* Why the hell not go to the end of the month?

I think your reasons to stay on are definitley better than your reasons for wanting to quit. =)

How about using this time to find something to replace the emotional food issues with? Eat out of boredom? Find something else to do when you're bored. That emotional thing gets easier with longer fasts. At least if you stay on now you're already half way there.


Reasons to wrap it up:
* I've been more tired than usual for the past couple of days.

- Detox. Are you doing the tea and SWF? Drinking less lemonade? Try adding a bit more maple syrup if you need the extra energy?

From therawfoodsite.com
"Mistakes
2. Not recognizing cravings, tiredness, boredom, etc. as detox symptoms and not knowing they will go away with the next mornings' eliminations.

When I personally start someone on the Master Cleanse, I emphasize knowing what the detox symptoms are and knowing they will be gone with the next morning's eliminations. The only exception I've found so far are caffeine headaches, which usually last 2 to 4 days.

Nearly anything can be endured for a day. However, if you think the unpleasant sensations will continue the whole 10 days, you will quit just when the cleanse is about to do something good for you. "



* I'm reallllllly excited about kicking back into a mostly raw foods regimine.

- Great. But raw foods will be here tomorrow and in February so what's the rush? Have you read a lot about the raw food diet? If you haven't, you might want to learn more about it to be more prepared.. That could make another few days go by faster and easier for you. Like looking into raw food recipies and all that.

* My social options are few, and I'm getting tired of having to turn them down because they're food-related.

- Yeah, not a good reason to quit.. Why can't you go to anything social because there's food anyway? Go, socialize, just don't eat.. If people don't know you're fasting than come up with another excuse for not eating. (Stomach ache, cramps, whatever) If you have a food addiciton/temptation problem then you should probably continue fasting to overcome it.


* I could probably continue detoxing if I do my diet properly.

- Yeah, you could if you don't mind it being slower.

* I'm planning on doing a short Master-Cleanse in May, before the start of the summer.

- Longer fasts do a deeper cleansing though. =)



Have you seen these fasting sites? Except for all the religious stuff..I found them inspiring to go longer on my first MC..
htp://www.freedomyou.com/fasting_book/juice%20fasting.htm

http://www.juicefasting.org/detox.htm


http://therawfoodsite.com/mistakes.htm