Day 5 of the Master Cleanser

So far, so good. The only 'symptom' of cleansing I've experienced so far is the outbreak of a couple of major pimples on my face ~ very unusual for me. The lovely Andrew informs me that, according to traditional Chinese medicine, this is actually because my diet is too acidic (all those lemons and limes). Other than that, I'm just periodically hungry as hell, and spending significant chunks of mental energy planning exactly what I'm going to eat when I start eating again. On the other hand, last night Andrew and I watched "Supersize Me!" which made me feel a whole lot better about abstaining.

It strikes me as fascinating that I'm capable of all kinds of self-discipline in certain areas of my life... and utterly lame about it in others. I'm sure another couple of years of psychotherapy would probably help me root out the reasons for this, but I can't afford it right now.

I haven't done any of the laxatives teas or internal 'salt washes' that are recommended in the various lemon regimes. I'm just not interested in putting my innards through that kind of stress. So, all I can say is: not a whole lot of solids going in, very little in the way of solids coming out at this point. Although weight-loss wasn't a major goal of this undertaking, eight pounds have, shall we say, 'departed' so far.

One interesting side-effect: a drastic drop in my own body odor and a concommitant significant increase in scent sensitivity. I have an excellent sense of smell in general, but now I can detect an unripe banana at 50 paces.

At this rate, I probably could go the full ten days, but I've decided to cut back to just seven, since I'll be traveling up to Boston on Friday for family festivities. It would be weird and borderline rude to completely refrain from eating while I'm there, and I'll need a couple of days to get back to a normal diet beforehand.