Day 9...master cleanse

Day 9 started out great. I weighed myself as I mentioned yesterday and lost more weight, so I'm down a total of 15 pounds. I had to make enough servings of orange juice to last me through the afternoon. Earlier this evening I had my first bowl of vegetable soup. About 3 hours later, I felt unfulfilled, so I had another bowl. No hunger, I feel great.

Tomorrow is the last day and I'm so glad. I get to have a salad, legitimately. I'm so looking forward to it. I'm going to try to hit the gym but I have so much to do since we're leaving Saturday so we'll see how it works out.

In wedding news, my DOC got the huge box Mike sent her with all of our ceremony and reception stuff as well as our parents and bridal party gifts. Just waiting on the programs to arrive and she'll have everything. We met with one of guests tonight who's purchasing our alcohol off a military base to go over everything so he knows what to get. I just hope we have enough. I would hate for the alcohol to run out before the party's over.

So basically, we're all set. On my to do list tomorrow is:
Pedicure and Manicure
Hair
Getting my e-ring dipped and cleaned
Picking up our fathers' and Mikes' suits
Packing

That's it. I sort of finalized our seating chart, although there are still some questionable folks in there that we're not certain about. Luckily, I refused to count them in the 1st numbers we gave to the caterer. Just in case they decide to come, I can add on but I can't take off.

8 more days as Ms.....

Day 8....the cleanse

I started day by going to a kick ass spinning class at the gym. I sweat so much it was ridiculous! But I felt great afterwards. I went to the market and bought about 20 oranges to make the orange juice today and for day 9. All day and evening I alternated orange juice and water. Didn't feel hungry at all.

Best part is I weighed myself yesterday morning and I'm down another 4 lbs. Weighed myself this morning and I lost 2 more pounds, so total to date is 15. I'm psyched! The only thing that concerns is how my body is going to react when I go back to normal food. Am I going to put the weight back on right away? Am I just losing water weight or fat also?

Hopefully, I can keep the weight gain to a minimum or none at all by watching what I eat and still working out.

I'm leaving work now, because I'm done! They won't see me until March 9. I don't know how I'm going to come back to work after being off for 3 weeks.

The cleanse...day 7

I am done with the lemonade. Today was the last day of the lemonade portion of the cleanse. I was tempted today to eat a meal, albeit a healthy one, but I stuck to my lemonade. I'm going to weigh myself in the morning to see if there's any difference.

Now, I am going into the ease out phase. Day 8 just consists of orange juice. All day. Sipping several 8 oz servings of orange juice. I think I need to head to the store after I hit the gym because I don't have enough oranges to make enough for the day. This article explains in detail what the 1st day of the ease out phase is about.

I'll report on day 8 tomorrow. Good night...

My menus

Well, wadda ya know? My menus are too dark just as I suspected. After I ordered them. Ugh. But I have a solution. Since the menus are a little too big to sit nicely in the napkins, I'm going to find a Kinkos' in Florida to cut them down. I'm cutting the dark part that can't be read anyway which happens to list the cake flavors. No biggie. Everyone should know by looking at the cake in the corner what's for dessert. Problem solved as far as I'm concerned.

Other than that, my DOC received the first shipment we sent today of wedding supplies. Actually, we sent her all the bridesmaid and groomsmen gifts. She should receive the large wedding day supply box on Thursday. That has everything from the aisle runner to the cocktail hour centerpieces in it.

We finally got a hold of our photographer today and went over a rough draft of the timeline for the day of. I also got in touch with my florist to clarify some things in my contract after some concerns were raised by another bride who was not thrilled with her bouquets.

All in all I think everything is coming together and to an end....

Day 6...cleanse

Day 6 went well except for the flush. I took my laxative tea Sunday night and the SWF yesterday morning. Couple hours later, I use the bathroom a couple of times and think that's it. I go to the gym and towards the end of my workout I decide to do some crunches. Wrong move. As I'm crunching I feel like I have to pass gas.....you know the rest. I hauled ass outta there. The SWF is no joke and obviously lasted for more than an hour in my case.

I was back to work so mentally I was prepared for just lemonade all day and night which is exactly what I did. No problems, no hunger, no cravings. Drank water in between and felt great.

I got home last night and had the laxative tea but then I had this weird feeling like dizziness/weakness. I went to bed and woke up this morning feeling great. I weighed myself too; no change :( Don't know why but it's cool. Still down 9 pounds in 6 days, pretty damn good.

Today is my last day of the lemonade. I'm taking the next 3 days to "ease out" of the diet so I'm ready for Florida Saturday. The ease out phase is just orange juice the first day, fruits and broths/veggie soup the 2nd day, and the 3rd day is fruits/soup then a salad for dinner. So by Saturday I should be able to eat some regular food. The only thing I'm scared of is going back to regular food and putting the weight back on. I am totally prepared to work out and eat mostly healthy ;-) while in Florida to maintain as well as on the honeymoon. I'm so not flushing all my hard work down the drain in 3 weeks.

It's so easy to put on (weight) and hard as hell to take off. Moving right along to day 7 people....

Day 5...the cleanse

Day 5- Pretty good. Took the laxative tea Saturday night and the SWF Sunday morning. Normal stuff. Mike and I went out about 2 pm and I didn't think to bring my lemonade with me. Needless to say, by 5pm I was starving. So I opted to have a salad. Yummy and healthy. The funny thing is I weighed myself this morning and I am +2 lbs. How the hell that happen? I only ate a salad and a few Doritos (heehee) on Saturday. So total weight loss to date is 9 lbs. Still cool with me. Had my laxative tea Sunday night to get me ready for day 6.

In wedding news, we got our seating chart done and packed up all the stuff we need shipped to Florida. We're just waiting to hear back from my DOC as to when someone will be home to collect our things when they arrive. I started ironing on the transfers I made and they came out wonderful! I can't wait to wear my Mrs. undies ;-) I think we're pretty much done with things in NJ, just need to focus on packing now so I don't forget anything. Today I also mailed my thank you notes from my bridal shower. Glad to get that out of the way early. :)

New Toy....

After weeks of procrastinating, Mike and I finally went out camera shopping today. Actually, the only reason we went was because the camera I already own won't accept a larger xd picture card so all we'd be able to take is about 100 pictures while we're gone for 3 weeks, total. So, we needed a new camera.

I asked my knotties girls awhile ago which brands they recommend and the majority ruled for Canon or Nikon. Well, the first camera store we went to today, a Fuji was shown to us for $119.00. Not a bad price, but eh, I figured we should at least hit Circuit City before deciding, since they're going out of business. Might find a great sale! Tsk, We got to CC and judging by the limited products left, we were too late. Most of the displays read "last one!", which meant buy off the rack with no accessories. I need at least a manual! I'm one of those people that gets a new gadget and reads the manual from front to back. So, CC was a no go.

I decided I'd go back to the first store and just get the Fuji, but this Internet queen couldn't resist checking online to see what I could find at such short notice. (We need the camera by Friday) I found this Canon on amazon.com for a great price. The reviews are pretty good too. I also purchased a 4gb memory card and paid for 2 day delivery, so my new toy should be here by Wednesday. I can't wait to read the manual on the plane Saturday!

Day 4....cleanse

Saturday was not easy to say the least. First off, Saturday is traditionally my cheat day. Diet wise. I usually eat well at work all week to treat myself on Saturday. Okay and maybe Sunday. Just the weekend in general dammit! So I broke. But not badly...I had a salad...OK. and some Doritos. but only a few. I still took my laxative tea last night and this morning the SWF. And guess what?
I STILL lost 3 pounds! Total to date is 11 pounds. Whoo!

I will tell all you cleansers out there, it's a mind game. I was not in the very least THAT hungry where I felt starved. Mentally, I was telling myself, it's Saturday. I'm supposed to be eating something. We usually go out to eat so that made it even worse.

The good thing is when I thought of food and my cheat day, miraculously I wasn't thinking about traditional "cheat" foods. I wanted salmon yesterday. or ultimately what I did eat, a salad. Weird, huh? I actually wanted, no craved (mentally) healthy food. I think that's why it didn't affect my weight loss at all.

Today is day 5 and I can tell you already I was out allllll day doing wedding shopping and didn't have my lemonade with me. Soooo, I had another salad. This is totally not a part of the cleanse but whatever. As long as I'm losing weight, I'll do a real flush after the wedding.

What you have to understand about this cleanse is that there are many reasons to do it. Right now, with my wedding 12 days away, my reason is weight loss. Period. And since the scale numbers are still going down, that's what matters to me.

Tomorrow I'm going strictly back to lemonade. Hey, it was the weekend. But I didn't have a pizza or McDonalds or Taco Bell, as Mike suggested earlier (ugh, the nerve of him lol) or any other greasy spoon meal. A salad is totally guiltless in my book.

Until tomorrow....day 5 coming up.

Day 3....Master Cleanse

Day 3 went surprisingly well. Well, not exactly in the beginning. I took the laxative tea last night and went to bed probably about 20 mins later. I felt the bubbling in my stomach then. I was able to get to sleep without having to jump up to run the bathroom, so that was a good thing.

When I woke up I took the SWF and decided to lay back down. Again, to early in the morning for me, it was about 8 am. No lie, about 8:41 the rumbling began in my tummy and I had to beeline for the bathroom. I went about 3 more times over the course of 3 hours. No joke. The SWF is no joke. When they say you will eliminate, you will. Not to be gross but it's mostly liquid since that's all you're consuming.

When I finally got a bathroom break, I made my lemonade for the day. Had my first 10 ounces and headed out the door. First stop was Sprint to get my contacts switched over to my new phone. No way I was going to manually type all those names in the new phone. After that, I went to the gym and did a quick 35 minute cardio session. Headed home and got ready for work.

The good thing is I don't think my scale is lying to me; today I weighed myself and I lost another 3 pounds. That's 7 pounds in 2 days! I'm excited to see what the scale will say in the morning. I bet 2 pounds down, what do you think?

So, I'm not hungry, just took another serving of lemonade and I feel great. I'm not taking the tea tonight or the SWF in the morning because I have a hair appointment at 9 am. That means there's no time to hang around the bathroom all day. I'm still planning a wedding, remember? And we leave next Saturday so there's a few things to get together this weekend.

Day 4 coming up. Stay tuned....

Day 2...Master Cleanse

Day 2 is going well. Started out this morning just making the lemonade because I didn't have time for the SWF. As of right now I'm not hungry. I worked out today and felt great. Energy level is through the roof. Bonus is I weighed myself this morning and I was down 4 lbs! I don't know if my scale is lying to me, but I'd like to believe it's not. We'll see when I weigh myself in the morning before I head to the gym.

After working out, I headed to my parents house to freshen up and take a quick nap before heading to work. When I woke up, the aroma of Salisbury steaks was coming from the kitchen. My mother had to cook when I'm there and on this cleanse. Damn that food smelled good! I hightailed it outta there before my mind told me I was hungry. That's what it is, a psychological thing, I believe when it comes to hunger. Anyhow, I got to work and had some lemonade.

Tonight when I get home I plan to take the laxative tea and then the SWF in the morning.

All in all, so far so good.

In wedding news, we paid most of our catering bill, paid off the florist, the cake lady, the photographer and the DJ. The only thing left is the videographer and the DOC. Feels good to get this stuff done but I hate to see the bank account dwindling down. 15 days to be a Mrs.!

The cleanse....day 1

Day 1: I didn't have the laxative tea last night so I started off this morning with the sea salt flush. Drank it down with no problems (1 quart). Some of the blogs I've read, people complained about how horrible tasting it is and some people were even throwing it up. Well, it just takes like warm salty water to me. No biggie. If you've ever gargled with salt and warm water, you pretty much got a taste of what it's like. However, it's not as salty as regular table salt.

After the SWF (salt water flush) I layed back down because it was pretty early, in fact too early for me to be up. I read that usually within an hour, you'd be ready to eliminate. For me, it was almost 3 hours later before I woke up with the feeling "I gotta go!". Nothing special in the bathroom yet, (I'm talking about the poop) sorry to be so blunt, but mostly what I read people talked about how your eliminations change after disposing of the waste in your body. So maybe that's later.

After the bathroom I went ahead and started my lemonade concoction. I used 4 lemons (which is actually 3/4 cup) 3/4 cup of the syrup, approximately 60 ounces of filtered water and .50 ml of the liquid cayenne. Mixed it all together and got my first taste. Actually delicious! I filled my glass pitcher and let it chill in the fridge. Throughout the day and even now I've taken 10 ounces of the lemonade followed by water. I can't believe I'm not hungry yet.

I doubt if I take the laxative tea tonight or the SWF in the morning because tomorrow is going to be a loooonnng day and I just don't have the time to wait around a toilet for 2 hours. I'm up tomorrow for work at 7 am and I won't get home until 2 am. So strictly lemonade tomorrow. I may get some exercise in since I"ll be at work all day. .We'll see. Stay tuned!

The Master Cleanse

So, I'm getting married in 3 weeks and I still have some weight I could stand to lose. I love the way my dress looks on me and all, and am happy with how much weight I've lost thus far, but there's always room for improvement. So, I'm starting the Master Cleanse.

I've heard people talking about this cleanse, and honestly never thought much of it. The last time we (Mike and I) did a cleanse was right before Thanksgiving. The results were wonderful; we both lost weight and felt great. That cleanse was for 30 days. No time for that now so I'm giving this one a try.

Before you think I'm about to starve myself, I've researched the hell out of this cleanse. Celebrities have used it; most notably, Beyonce when she lost 20 pounds for her role in Dreamgirls. From the numerous blogs I've read, it actually works when done correctly. The time on the cleanse varies from 3 days all the way to 45 days. I'm giving it 10 days this go around.

This cleanse has been around for more than 50 years and obviously used for just as long. For more information on the cleanse just google it. It's also known as the Lemonade Diet or Maple Syrup Diet. There's a ton of information out there on it but I'll give you the short version: drink laxative tea at night, have sea salt water in the morning (to aid in elimination), then during the course of the day have 60-120 ounces of the lemonade. The lemonade is made up of maple syrup, lemons, water, and cayenne pepper. Check any of the websites and they'll give the list of what you need to get started. I highly recommend reading everything you can before trying this cleanse.

Here's the slideshow of my shower. We had a ball! The girls did such a wonderful job I couldn't believe how everything turned out. I was so near tears and touched at the love displayed for me. I have to develop the bacholerette party pics because I ran out of space in my digital camera and had to use, what I call, throw aways. (disposable cameras) So, I'll be back with those pics.

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