Master Cleanse Day 1

Monday mornings are always a little on the blue side, but this particular one had navy streaks written all across it!

6:00 am and the wind is howling, lifting white licks of foam across the ocean. My backyard lawn is sporting the neighbours' trampolene, upside down, just having narrowly missed my lovely little veggie garden. The monstrosity must have flown right over their wall, clearing our line of palm trees to land where it did!

After weighing myself (being the start of this Cleanse) and measuring tummy, hips and chest, I eyed my litre of salt water blearily and downed it. No, not all in one go, I sort of closed the back of my throat (?) and poured it down; checked the level in the bottle, heart-sinkingly noticing that it wasn't even past the halfway mark. I just couldn't do it - it was not the best, first thing in the morning but I swallowed on. The stuff threatened to come back up again and I suddenly felt sick, but I finished it, every last drop.

Well, they say don't move too far from the loo in the first 1/2 hour and they are right. A short while later, I managed to freshly squeeze my lemons, measure out 2 Tbsp per glass, multiply that by 10 (because I planned on having 10 glasses during the rest of the day), then I did the same for the maple syrup. Adding that to my large bottle of chilled mineral water, I tossed in 1 level tsp of Organic Cayenne Pepper (luckily I like this taste) and gave the whole mixture a good shake. The first glass tasted really pleasant and I knew I was going to be okay.

Feeling a bit fluey, complete with sniffy nose (which I understand is normal, and will probably get worse before it clears completely), I went for a quiet lie down and had a light sleep for about an hour. It wasn't really necessary as I have not felt depleted at all, but I normally go for a brisk walk on a Monday morning and as the weather was so inclement, I couldn't do that, so I gave in and tucked back up in bed. Throughout the day I drank glasses of the "lemonade", knowing that if I ran out I could always make a bit more, but the 10 glass quantity was quite sufficient for me.

This evening, after having a long hot soak in the bath, I drank a cup of Senna Herbal Tea and made up the Salt Water Flush for tomorrow morning (oh joy!) and, after having watched Australia's Master Chef competition on telly, it's time to turn in. Gosh, that Crochenbouche with praline and creme patisserie looked so good! I can't say at this stage what I would like to eat once off this Cleanse, but no doubt visions of many types of Sugar Plums will dance around in my head before the time is up, but hopefully I will start craving carrot and beetroot spirals by that time.

Night night.