First day off the cleanse! Summing up the cleanse

Okay, so technically it's the second day easing back into normal eating. Yesterday my strategy was to start getting my body used to something besides lemonade. I drank a lot of broth, some orange juice, and some lemonade...without the syrup or cayenne (I used some Truvia sweetener). I don't know if I can EVER eat pancakes with maple syrup again...pancakes yes, but the maple syrup...I'm not so sure. Jeremy doesn't even want to look at another lemon for a while...but I am loving normal lemonade. My taste buds thanked me repeatedly for the broth. It was a welcome change.

Throughout the day I kept to liquids, trying to keep up the mentality of a growling stomach means I should drink something, rather than just because I can, I'll drink something. I worked at the pizza parlor and decided I should really be careful and ease more slowly back into getting my body used to digesting solids, so I had a tiny amount of vegetables: some pickle slices, piece of tomato, etc. I did falter a tiny bit when I had A-French-Fry and a small bite of ice cream. But still, added up, I consumed less calories than I had the previous days on lemonade. The lemonade and syrup was about 600 calories a day, but today, I only had about 400 calories. I'm trying to figure out now the difference between a hungry stomach growl and a digesting stomach growl.

Today is a new day, however. I'm up 2.4 pounds from yesterday, which doesn't make sense to me because if you added the weight of all the liquid and veggies I ate and drank, it wouldn't equal 2.4 pounds of consumables. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with "that time of the month" coming very near.

Anyway, today, I get to lightly feast on some yogurt, orange juice, and some more veggies. I'll take it slow and see how I feel, but I may try a small bit of a light soup as well. Tomorrow is the last day of transitioning, so I better make today and tomorrow count because Friday at lunch, I got a lunch date with hubby at the pizza parlor.

To sum up the cleanse, I do feel clean, lighter, and accomplished. I haven't lost my taste for junk food, but I feel more motivated to eat healthier. I bit into a carrot and it tasted better than ice cream. I bit into a cheeto and it didn't taste as good as I remember. I could feel and taste the unhealthy of it and it wasn't too pleasant. The flavor was good...not as good as the carrot, but there was just something gross about it, so maybe I kind of have lost my taste for junk food. Like right now, I cannot wait to have a cucumber, and chips are farthest from my mind.  

I'm glad we did it. I probably will never do this exact cleanse again, but I'm glad I did it. I think it set me up for healthier choices in the future, plus gave me the confidence to know that if I can virtually fast with nothing but lemonade for 7-10 days, I can conquer any diet or cleanse that comes after this.

It was a good experience...difficult, but good. The three biggest pointers I have for anyone who is interested in trying it are:

1. You have to WANT to do it (not try it) The mentality of finishing rather than trying to finish is stronger verbage that really helps - believe it or not.
2. You have to set CLEAR goals for yourself and will yourself to stick to them.
3. Tell friends and family about your plans to finish it. My biggest motivation was not the thought of failing myself, but proving the ones wrong who didn't think I could do it. Telling people about it held me accountable not only to myself but to others, which was one of the biggest factors in my success of it.