Day 12

The first day off cleanse. Oranges. What lovely things they are. We got up near noon, and each took an extra-salty half dose of the SWF. I felt I really needed it to clean out what was left from yesterday, and to get my body cleared for some new stuff. We squeezed all ten of the oranges we’d purchased the day before and made orange juice, watering it down to taste (pure OJ is not usually taken at this point, too intense they say). We also took a pro-biotic and a digestive aid pill (chewable! Yea for chewing!) I’d picked up at GNC. We didn’t get started drinking the juice until around 2:30, at which point we were both incredibly tired. I’m sure this was from not finishing our juice the day before and not having any calories for almost 15 hours. Lethargic, my boyfriend drank even more OJ, while I also spiced it up with a couple swigs of the left-over maple syrup. I’m sure it spiked my blood sugar, but I knew I needed some more calories. Within an hour or so I felt better, and then we went outside to run some errands, perking us up even more.

We’d decided a couple days ago that we weren’t going to adhere strictly to the end-diet suggested by the book. Again, this was influenced by friends. We pushed up the schedule by a day, making the veggie soup in the afternoon. At 8:30 I had my first sip of something non-citrus. Delicious, natural, wholesome, fresh veggie broth, it tasted better than I’d thought possible. After tossing in every fresh veggie we could find, a bay leaf, some coriander, basil, thyme, salt and pepper, we simmered our soup for 2 hours, creating a thick broth with floating bits of veggies—we didn’t even strain. Rebels, we are. We used our smallest bowls, and filled them with about 1.5 cups of broth, but by the time we’d downed 1 cup we were full. AMAZING! We couldn’t get over how great that was – how much money our newly tiny stomachs would save us! We followed with another pro-biotic and a digestive aid, both were flavored, too, strawberry and papaya. Almost desert… We put the rest of the soup in the fridge for the next day and sipped OJ and water until bed. It was a marvelous day, and I even had an evening BM-huzzah!

Total lbs lost: 10

ps. During the cleanse I dropped a jeans size, which was pretty exciting, I finally fit in all the clothes I was wearing a couple years ago! My boyfriend dropped almost 17 lbs, which is pretty astounding. We both landed firmly in our “Normal BMI” range, as well, which was great. The long battle: to maintain it.