The Lemon Detox Day 9 – What’s The Point Of All This?

By day nine, the one question I can bank on having been asked more times than I’ve had hot spicy lemon drinks, is ‘Why?’

As in ‘Why the hell are you doing this, are you mad?!’.

In truth it’s a fair question, and one that does occasionally enter my mind whilst supping on lemon juice and watching someone else tuck into a lovingly prepared bowl of fresh pasta.

But before I get into my reasons as to why, it’s interesting to observe that a question such as this, which is so pertinent and valuable to almost any activity, only tends to get asked when you do something different to accepted norm.

If you spend half of your waking hours at a job that drives you mad or get stuck on the treadmill of life just to please people around you, but still fit neatly into the society’s regular ebb and flow, no one bats an eyelid.

But do something as transient as change your eating habits (or not eating habits as the case may be) for just 10 days, and people freak out.  Bit mad innit?

So why lemon detox?

Well, for me it’s more a case of why not?!

The way I see it, it’s only 7-10 days of your life, the theory behind the program makes sense and it’s been roadtested by close associates.

So for me it’s not that bigger deal.

Variety is the spice of life, it’s invigorating to challenge yourself, and so although not eating solid food for a week or so may sound tough, so do most of the best things in life when you put them down in black and white.

Ever tried getting the job you’ve always wanted, meeting the person of your dreams or running a half/full marathon?

Over the years I’ve thought nothing of filling my body with toxins – over eating, over drinking, over indulging for not just days at time, not even weeks, but for months and years.

So 10 days in the opposite direction is not likely to kill me.

The Lemon Detox is also known as The Master Cleanse and the first time I did it  I was looking to do exactly that – cleanse my system and get all the muck out of my colon that I possibly could.

Did I know if it would help?  Did I know if I could manage it?  Did I know if I’d feel really ill?

Of course not, but I was prepared to suck it and see (sucking lemons probably isn’t a good idea though, best stick to juicing them).

I was also interested to see the effect it would have on my mental state – would I be able to concentrate, could I operate normally, would I feel better?

The answer to all the questions was obviously yes, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it again.

It may not be for everyone, but how many times have you thought ‘I’d never do that, I’d hate it’, then once you’ve tried it, you can’t wait to do it again.  Did someone say Karaoke?!

The Lemon Detox Day 10 – Food Glorious Food

When that cheeky tyke Oliver Twist famously stated, ‘Please Sir, I want some more’, he wasn’t talking about his daily lemon, maple syrup and cayenne fix.

Believe it or not, the object of his desire was something far less appetising – a bowel of thin workhouse gruel.

But it just goes to show, that when you’re hungry, even the most basic culinary staple can taste like a Michelin starred Gordon Ramsay creation.

Case in point being yours truly, the AHN, drooling over a freshly prepared orange juice and banana smoothie on the evening of day eight of the cleanse.

‘Cheat, fraud, liar!’ I can hear you cry, ‘you were meant to be a strict lemontarian for ten days’.

But before you get all bitter about my lack of lemons, there’s some interesting wisdom for the would be Master Cleanser in here.

1/ If you take up jogging or swimming, you don’t have to run a half marathon or swim a two mile ocean race to get benefit from the activity.

Often the best way to start things off is to ease into it.  The lemon detox is the same.

So if the idea of just drinking the lemon drink for 7 days freaks you out, cut it down to 3 or 5 days and taper it a little by drinking a large glass or two of freshly squeezed orange juice each day.

Mentally the orange juice can be a big boost and will not dramatically alter the cleansing effect of the diet.

Then if you get on with the program, look to extend the duration 3 or 6 months down the line.

2/ When you come off the detox, be sure to ease yourself off.

Today I’m heading off to the Vipassana meditation camp, so over the past couple of days I’ve been weaning myself back onto solid food before the first morning there.  I did it like this:

Day Eight

Evening – fresh juice from 3 oranges blended with 1 banana into a smoothie

Day Nine

Morning – lemon drink as required

Afternoon – lemon drink as required

Evening – some solid fruit – 2 apples, 1 banana – then an hour or so later, a small raw vegetable salad – spinach, tomatoes, avocado, olive oil and of course lemon juice

Day 10

Morning  – lemon drink as required

Afternoon – orange and banana smoothie as above, then an hour or so later,  1 avocado and tomato sandwich

Evening – vegetable soup

And I feel perfect on it.

Though my eyes have taken on a distinctive glint.

I think this is down to the stimulating effect of the cayenne and lemon on the body – it pumps you up in a good way.

A bit of anecdotal/worthless evidence to back this up – my wife drunk a glass of the juice and said she was ‘buzzing’ for a couple hours afterwards.  Lightweight.

So the cleanse is a pick me up, a clean me out and a shake me off some weight.

Sounds like the perfect wonder drug – if only Sigmund Freud had hit upon this and not cocaine, maybe Western psychology wouldn’t be so messed up ;)

And for all you would be weight losers – check out the daily weight loss moments of truth at Day 11 – Daily Weigh In Results.

Or you can go back to The 20 Post MasterClass menu.

And do let the world know what you think of the lemon detox…now that you have the unadulterated facts, straight from the the horse’s mouth.

4 Simple Burn Belly Fat Exercises

Since spring has finally sprung and the sun is shining bright, lots of people are starting to focus on burning that extra belly fat that prevents them from having a great looking midriff.

Spring and summer inevitably bring feelings of a need to lose a wee bit of that belly fat and if you’re like me there were plenty of meals during winter when I could have left the table a little bit sooner. So we’re going to look at a few exercises to flatten your stomach here. The good news is that there are dozens of weight loss exercises. Some are more effective than others and some, including these ones are particularly good for burning belly fat.

Always remember to warm up and stretch properly before hand and consult a professional before doing these exercises to avoid injury.

The Hip Lift

For this belly fat exercise lie on a hard floor on your back. you can use a cushion or lie on a yoga mat in order to protect your spine. With your arms at your side, turn your palms to face upwards and straighten your legs out as far as you can towards the ceiling and at a ninety degree angle to your stomach. Keep the legs as straight out in front of you as you can and try not to bend the knees. Now lift your hips up and away from the ground whilst at the same time pulling your abdominal muscles in and down towards the spine. Keep your legs pointing upwards. Hold it like this for a few seconds and then carefully lower your hips to the floor. Repeat 12 times over.

The Seated Torso Twist

Sit on the floor for this exercise to flatten stomach. Put your feet flat on the floor about shoulder width apart and bend your knees. With your arms stretched out in front of you, lock your fingers together. Lean back about forty five degrees whilst contracting the ab muscles. Rotate your torso as far as possible to the right hand side, taking care not to strain or hurt your upper body. Try not to lead with the arms. Instead use the abdominal muscles to turn your body. It’s like you’re holding out an imaginary gun in front of you. Once you’ve turned as far as possible, rotate to the left. Take it easy, trying not to let your momentum twist you. Repeat 12 times.

The Stomach Plank

For this exercise to flatten stomach, lie on the floor on your front. Use a cushion or a mat if your stomach is getting sore. Lift yourself up on to your elbows and position them about a shoulder width apart. Now lift up your lower body onto your toes. With no arch in your back your body should be in a straight line. Hold for thirty seconds, then lower yourself back down. Once is enough for this exercise.

The Side Plank

This exercise to flatten stomach is a variation on the stomach plank – it starts in the same position – up on your forearms and your toes. Now roll onto your side keeping your right forearm on the ground to support your upper body. Lift your hips up and lean your left foot on your right foot. Just like the stomach plank, your body should be held straight, but this time you’re on your side. Put your left hand on your hip and hold the plank position for five seconds. Return to the starting position and repeat on your left side.

Well that’s it. Do these a few times a week and spring may be a little hard work but summer will be excellent. For some great reviews of the top belly fat burning programs check out belly fat exercise reviews.

Lemon Detox Day 6 – Yoga and Headaches

I’ve got a yoga DVD called Yoga For Surfers, which is great as I like yoga and love surfing.

Normally I avoid instructional DVDs like the plague, especially for something like yoga where it’s meant to be about mental calm as much as anything else, but this one works really well for me.

Anyway, it’s a very tough, strenuous 45 minute workout of ‘Vinyasa Flow’ yoga and I’ve not done it for a long time.  So today I got it out, dusted it off and went to work.

It was hard going, aching arms, caked in sweat, you get the (pretty) picture.

Then later I went for a 30 minute run and sauna.  I shot the Day 6 video just after and was feeling great.  All good.

The trouble was I only drank 5 glasses of juice today.  So I was totally knackered, fell asleep by 8.30pm, then woke around 10.30pm with a pretty bad headache.

The moral of this fascinating story?  Don’t overdo the exercise and if you train, make sure you drink plenty of juice and load it up with maple syrup.

The maple syrup is really the only place you will get any meaningful calories, so don’t be shy – after a long run I often drink a bit of it neat, straight from the bottle – what a nutbag eh, I just don’t care!

And if you’re thinking you want to lose weight on this diet so you don’t want too much maple syrup, remember two things -

1/ this program is not primarily about losing weight, it’s about cleansing

2/ you will lose weight anyway, don’t be stupid about it and push it too far.

The last you want to do is get ill as you’ll look like a right schmuck and have people crowing ‘No wonder you’re ill, you haven’t eaten for 6 days’…I can hear it now! ;-)

Read about transience in tomorrow’s post Day 7 – Nothing Is Forever.

Or go back to The 22 Post MasterClass menu.

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