How to Master "The Master Cleanse"

I don’t believe there are any magic bullets or shortcuts when it comes to creating an ideal level of health and wellness, but The Master Cleanse by Stanley Burroughs, is a pretty good place to start. The health benefits and weight loss one receives in a short period of time is quite impressive. More on the benefits later in the article.

About two years ago one of my closest friends and an expert trainer, Scott Sperry, told me about a “lemonade diet” that would help me to eradicate toxins from my body, help me to lose weight, as well as bring me tremendous peace of mind by ridding myself of stored up impurities. It all sounded too good to be true, (until I read about salt water flush!) I wondered why hadn’t I heard of it before?

When he handed me the booklet, I was a little perplexed. I was expecting to get a large, hard copy book with a shiny cover that had a “New York Times Bestseller” blurb bragging about how many millions of copies it had sold. What I got was a paperback booklet that looked like something from a 1950’s garage sale. But I’ve learned not to judge a book by its cover, and I’m especially glad that I didn’t jump to any conclusions in this instance.

After reading through the booklet, I learned that the Master Cleanse is a pretty straight forward and simple concept. Burrough’s view on disease and treatment takes confusion out of the picture and gives control back to the individual. His book states, “All diseases, regardless of their names, are only varied expressions of one disease, toxemia…Disease, old age, and death are the result of accumulated poisons and congestions throughout the entire body. These toxins become crystallized and hardened, settling around joints, in the muscles, and throughout the billions of cells all over the body…Lumps and growths are formed all over the body as storage spots for unusable and accumulated waste products, especially in the lymphatic glands. These accumulations depress and deteriorate in varied degrees, causing degeneration and decay. The liver, spleen, colon, stomach, heart, and our other organs, glands and cells come in for their share of accumulations, thus impairing their natural actions…Cleansing is basic for the elimination of every kind of disease…as we eliminate and correct one disease we correct them all, for every disease is corrected by the same process of cleansing and building positive good health.”

Basically, there are only a two ways to rid of toxins from your body; wait until the toxins become so overwhelming that your body heats itself up to burn them off (running a fever,), or you can cleanse yourself without the need of all the pain and discomfort that being “sick” entails.

However, even after reading all about the process I was still reluctant to believe that a simple combination of fresh-squeezed, organic lemon juice, grade B organic maple syrup and cayenne pepper could manifest such a powerful change

How does the Master Cleanse work?
The lemon juice acts as a cleaner, which dissolves waste from throughout your body. Just like some kitchen cleaners have lemon in them to help cut grease and grime, the real lemon juice in this recipe cuts the “grease and grime” from the inside of your body. The cayenne pepper acts as the distribution agent by helping with circulation, and the maple syrup contains all the sugar and nutrients that your body needs to maintain its basic functions. Though it sounds strange to live strictly on a lemonade diet, usually seven to thirty days is recommended by Burroughs, this mix does indeed contain all of the nutrients you need to function normally.

What does the Master Cleanse entail?
The fast is pretty simple. Drink a laxative tea at night to loosen excess matter from your intestines; “Smooth Move” works well. Upon waking up drink one large glass of room temperature salt water using un-iodized sea salt. Then wait anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour and the toxins will rush out of you like kids out the door on the last day of school.

Now that you’re one flush closer to cleanliness, start chipping away at the rest of your body’s toxins by drinking the lemonade for the next week or longer. The cool thing about the cleanse is that you can drink pretty much as many glasses of it as you like, so each time you get hungry, just have a glass. This is especially good for battling the “I need to fill my stomach feeling”.

“REMEMBER, the only things you can possibly lose are mucus, waste, and disease. Healthy tissue will not be eliminated. This diet is superior in every way to any other system because it dissolves and eliminates all types of fatty tissue. Fat melts away at the rate of about 2 pounds a day for most persons and without any harmful side effects.”

It’s also important to note that just like sitting in a therapist’s office revisiting a disturbing memory from your past, you will be releasing some stored up poisons, this is normal and healthy. Here’s a short blurb of what to expect as you start the cleaning process, “we become sick and feverish; large amounts of mucus are eliminated; diarrhea increases the discharge of waste material; and all of our resources go into action to clean us out as fast as possible to prevent these poisons from killing us. When this happens do not panic…”

From personal experience I can attest that it’s true, just like the first spring cleaning of your home in 10 years, your body now has been given permission to release all it’s junk and toxicity, and what comes out might not be pretty. You might notice that your excretion smells extra bad, your acne might flair up and you might sweat all sorts of stuff that might make you feel embarrassed or confused, but don’t be, it’s completely normal and completely necessary.

I lost 10 pounds in 5 days and my wife lost 8 pounds in the same time period. We felt lighter, cleaner, more refreshed and got compliments for the next month on how young and trim we looked from people who had no idea we had done the cleanse. We also felt like we were able to step away from the need to feed ourselves every few hours, it was as if by stepping away from food for a week, we were able to regain control of our appetites and learn just how little sustenance we really need to live a bountiful life. Then, when we did start eating “real” food again, we were much more selective about what we put in our bodies, partly because we cleaned our taste buds off, and we didn’t have the same desire for junk food; and partly because we worked hard to clean ourselves out and we didn’t want to waste that time and effort and jump right back into old eating habits.

Since then, I’ve recommended it to my clients and a few family members. The people that have taken our advice have had the same successful results. Todd lost 13 pounds in 9 days, Anthony also lost 12 pounds in 6 days and Christine lost 8 pounds in 5 days. However by looking at them I would have assumed they lost years from their lives as well, everyone looked substantially younger and had a much healthier complexion.

It’s recommended you do this cleanse a few times per year to keep yourself clean, lean and your wits keen. So during this holiday season when the average American gains 8 pounds, or any other time of year for that matter, consider using the master cleanse to help you win your own personal “battle of the bulge” and overindulge on something else, like a nice tall glass of lemonade and a peaceful state of mind.

For more in depth information, I highly recommend you read about The Master Cleanse for yourself, this can be a tremendously effective tool you use for the rest of your life!

Resources:
-The Master Cleanse, by Stanley Burroughs