My Reasons

There are plenty of reasons to go on a cleanse, and I have most of them. First and foremost I wanted to do this because for that last year I’ve been suffering from IBS. For those who never have, it’s really more of a life consuming ordeal than I ever thought possible. I’ve spent more time looking up constipation, diuretics, bowels and laxatives than anyone ever should in their life. I embarked on this to see if cleansing my digestive tract in an intensive way would help alleviate the agitation that I’ve been experiencing for way too long. I tried a lot of diet and exercise techniques (I’m 25 and ate more prunes and had more high fiber products than most grandmas), but nothing seemed to do the trick. It all started when I went off coffee for a week, and was then exacerbated by iron pills I started taking when I found out I was anemic. Those iron pills, they will stop you up like no other.

I also did this because, while I had pretty good eating habits in high school, that all went out the window in college. I had great portion control, but I started eating for reasons other than hunger, namely stress. I also started eating much faster than I ever had before. It affected my weight and how I felt. I also lost the ability to really have my body feel FULL and EMPTY. I ate when I was stuffed, I ate when I wasn’t, and what had previously felt like hunger turned into a ravenous need for food. I couldn’t handle not eating for a few hours. I wanted some of my control back.

I also did it to jump start my weight loss. After gaining about 20 lbs during college, I was still having a lot of trouble losing much of it. I was at a mental block, more than anything else, after I’d lose 10 lbs. I’d been going to the gym regularly for about 4 mos and trying to watch myself, but every time I would near +10 I would fall flat and go back near +20. I wanted this to push me past that point so I could see the results.

Another reason was the number of people I knew who did it and were thrilled with the results. Many changed their entire lifestyle to be more healthy, and I hope to get to that, too. Everyone I spoke to felt terrific after the cleanse and were more than excited to share it with me and help me through. They did a lot to convince me.

I finally decided to start the cleanse when I did because it looked like it was at a fairly good time (though it was right before my birthday! No cake!), and because there had been a lot of visitors in town and holiday eating right before hand—my body was less than happy with me. My skin dried out (not at all normal for me) and I started getting terrible heartburn. I just felt awful for the two weeks before, though I continued to eat horribly until the day of the cleanse. I wanted something to put the breaks on bad behavior. The Master Cleanse.