The Cleanse Day 5 1/29 Lazy Picture Day.

Day 5. Sunday.  This had to be the most uneventful day I have spent in Japan so far. I was exhausted. I didn't do anything. Literally, I did nothing. The cleanse requires you to drink 6-12 classes of it's lemonade mixture a day. I drank 3 or 4. I was simply drained. I watched a bunch of movies, I can't tell you which ones because that is how irrelevant they were, and also how bad. Seriously, can I get some better directors and screenwriters up in hollywood?  The amounts unartistic trash that is being mass produced and sold is crazy. But I guess that's what I wanted on day five, unartistic trash. So I suppose, you talentless folks have a market, days like day 5 where all any of us want is unartistic trash. That's when you come in. I suppose I was struggling with what the hell to do with my next year. Stay or go, stay or go. Move to Kochi City and teach/travel or move to Cali, struggle a little but write. At one point NYC was in my equation but somehow it got taken out (long before the cleanse). I guess the truth is I've always wanted to move west and I know it. But I have so much love for NYC, it's inspiring and I almost ended up there for undergraduate school. NYC and home have a lot in common, I want a new place. In any case, I suppose part of my day was spent thinking about what to do and then trying to not to think about what to do, that's when all the unartistic trash comes into play. And my do-nothing sunday played out like a charm.

The cleanse only bothered me when I thought of smoothies or hummus or soup. Other than that, I had the senna leaf tea that is taken every night before bed around 6:30. Hence only 3/4 glasses of the lemonade. I tried to sleep but I couldn't get comfortable. I have too much hip for a futon. I'll explain this further on day 6.

I did however take pictures so. Here are the before and afters as of day five. On day 1 I was at 52kg or 114 lbs, by day 3 I was at 50kg or about 110lbs. I lost 4 lbs in 3 days. By day five it was more but I'm only hopping on the scale once every 3 days... because well I don't believe in them. I believe your body is at a point where you are happy and you feel good regardless of a number. So well scale it out for a cleanse but nothing else.

Pictures: You can see small changes in the body. It's beginning to redefine itself again, become less round.  My curves are redefining themselves so it might be hard to see but while my hips may look bigger on day five it's because my waist has lost a considerable amount. Because I got some of the poses a little off, it's harder to tell the changes. I would guess by day 5 I was about 6 lbs down.  Can't believe I am posting this since it's day 7 and I look so much better. Someone better appreciate it because I hate displaying my body to anyone. Jut not who I am.


BEFORE.                                                                                                                                           AFTER: FIVE DAYS

The Cleanse Day 3 and 4, 1/28-29

           There is not much to say about days 3 and 4.  On day 3, I was exhausted. I woke up feeling shaky. My classes were canceled for the day, due to some sort of flu out break (hence why teachers shouldn't work sick). So I decided to take the morning off. Day 3 is suppose to be the hardest day, the bitch day. But like my last post highlights Japan has made it easy not to feel bitchy about not eating soilds. Day 3 was still a bit of a struggle but mostly because I felt weak, or just exhausted.
            Every morning of the cleanse I am suppose to drink a quart of water mixed with two tablespoons of salt. I have to drink on an empty stomach. Part of me suspects that this is because if I didn't do it on an empty stomach, I would probably throw up.  As it is I can usually only take in 3 of the 4 cups that make up a quart. The point of the water is to cause a movement in the bowls and simply clean the body out, aka  cleanse the body of wastes. Yes, it works. On the 3rd morning, I felt the shakes so bad that is was hard to get down the salt water. It took me two hours, instead of the usual one to get it down. I was grateful for the class cancelations.With the cold weather outside and the cleanse, I was not sure I could have made the walk to the office. Instead I took some time to feel better and read.
               Day 3 was a friday and a friend decided to come visit after work. That was helpful, since for some CRAZY reason they decided to try the cleanse with me. By the time I was suppose to meet them, I was feeling a lot better. We talked about smoothie cravings but the rest of the night was filled with distractions of movies and conversation.

              Day 4, Saturday. This ended up being my bitch day. It wasn`t too bad. I was craving bread and got a bit snippy with my friend. I just wanted bread with vegan butter not that I can have butter in Japan but I wanted it. Cravings were on the rise this day: a small craving for saltin crackers, turned into a peanut butter and saltin cracker craving, which got my friend I talking about peanut butter and choclate bars, which we decided was better than just peanut butter. However, peanut butter with choclate doesn`t go good on a saltin cracker, so the saltin cracker got traded out for a granham cracker. And not just any gramham cracker, a cinmmon sugar granham cracker. Then we decided that the chocolate should be slightly melted and that we should discover some sort of vegan marshmellow because it too belonged melted on our mouthwatering little treat. We may or may not have gone a bit over board. Either way, it still sounds amazing. That was just the morning discussion. Later in the day, we talked about making hummus and pita bread. And dalh. We came up with a number of healthy options to go with it them... like those saltin crackers, which later became the pita bread and so on. I was impressed that we didn`t fall off the deep on this one. But, today, 2 days later, I  can think of a hell of a lot more to do with that hummus!

All in all, Day 3 and 4 passed with some ease. It was a struggle thinking of how many days were left. But during the cleanse days 3 and 4 are the real hump to get over. We just had to remind ourselves that it is a day to day process. To think day to day. To think "I am on day 4, I have made it four days. I can make it to tomorrow." And not to think "I am on day 4 of 10, WHAT THE HELL!?" Glad to be over the hump!!

Cravings: See above!!!
Syptoms: On day 4 started developing a small sore throat. Nose was running ( I wasn`t that upset about this, I`ve always wished it was a little smaller anyways. ;)  Oh God, I just told one of those jokes that reminds me of my father. All well, it shall stay for your amusement of my dorkiness/ ability to laugh at myself).

The Cleanse Day 1 and 2. 1/26-27

           Today, day 2, was a mess of hearing "Amanda what will you do with your car? It's all up to you. We don't want to push you. You have to get rid of it today. It's all up to you" over and over again. That is not what I call "not" pushing me. I wanted to yell, "JUST LEAVE ME ALONE so I can think!!" My office wouldn't let me breathe. And amid all this stress, I am two days into the cleanse.  Yet, it wasn't the cleanse stressing me out. It was simply the office. The cleanse helped keep me calm because interestingly enough, I feel like Japan makes this food fast easier for me.
           How could the cleanse be easy anywhere? It's not but  Japan offers a vegan far less temptations than America. In this country going out to eat for me is... Well, it is a never. There have been occasions that I have been able to head out. In places like Hiroshima/Tokyo there are countless Vegan restaurants.  Even in Kochi City, there are a countless number of indian restaurants whose amazing curries I can have. That is if they agree to cook them without  the animal cream/milk (not found in traditional indian curry, but that's Japan for you). In the city there are also two vegan restaurants but I have yet to greet their doors and spy on their menus as they maintain awkward opening hours. In other words, they are open weekdays only and for short hours.
            So why not eat in Kochi? For me, Kochi city is a three hour drive away.  I visit regularly but it is impossible to make the trek on a weekday. That would mean to drive six hours in one day. But when you work until 4 or 5 O'clock that trek becomes impossible. So on most days, going out to eat means cold とふ と ごはん tofu to gohan (tofu and rice). And on a number of occasions it has meant simply eating ごはん gohan (rice) with soy sauce. For some reason that I can not explain, restaurants in Japan do not have untainted tofu or veggies on stand by. They are almost always already sitting in a massive amount of fish broth. (Yes for me any amount of fish broth would be considered a massive amount ;) ).  My options are limited and I build up my patience.
           As a vegan in Japan, going out to eat is not a regular experience. It is more like it were for the 1950s American family: an occasional, an event. This is in heavy constrast to my daily eating habits back home. In America, going to a restaurant was a weekly occurrence. If my family and I chose to stay in and still forego the cooking, we'd order a pizza from Papa John's or any place.  It was never an issue to find a red pizza (no cheese pizza) or even a pizza with vegan cheese. When I was living on my own for 2.5 years in Boston, skipping the home cooking was also made easy with a plethora of vegan friendly take out options. In Japan, even the pizza dough has milk (not a traditional ingredient either).  Since arriving in Japan nearly six months ago, I have had pizza once. It was a red pizza cooked by a good friend. Basically, I have gotten use to living without these luxuries. I don't want to accept them forever.  I have known a better vegan lifestyle and I am eager to return to it but I can live in Japan as a vegan. I have made it work. I cook from scratch: spaghetti sauce, curries, bread, even cookies, and so on. I order an annoying amount of overpriced vegan products offline in order to accomplish these deeds. But I make it work. The simply fact is being a vegan in Japan means not always eating what you want, and having to search high and low to figure out how to have it.
           This sort of deprivation has made the cleanse easier than it could ever be in America, who's vegan awareness offers countless temptations. I simply have less to loose in Japan's vegan meal market. So what if I don't cook my five hour speghetti sauce or go through the trouble to find substitutes to make massaman curry a reality for 10 days. It will be there next week. And there no real going out to eat occasions I am being teased with because I live alone in this town. There are no restaurants or friends close by to tempt me.
            So it's easy then? NO. Even in Japan, the cleanse  has not been without it's cravings and struggles. I have a smoker's addiction to gum and yesterday at 4:15 as I was leaving work I desperately wanted a piece of chewing gum.  And today, I want to bite into anything edible, just to chew. This was so bad that as I was cleaning my car in order to send it off to it's final resting place, I thought that the stale peanuts on its uncleaned floor looked amazing. I could feel the crunch and salt undoing themselves in my month. Don't worry, I maintain my composure, I didn't not eat the stale nuts (no pun intended. Alright maybe it was intended a little ;0) ).  It is still a struggle, just simply less of a battle on the day to day. Yet all day even as I felt stress out by my co-workers, I could feel that I had more energy than in past days. And just knowing  that this diet is easier here,  kept me calm. It allowed me to ignore all the bull shit and just simply focus on anything else.


Cravings: Strawberry smoothie,spaghetti, massaman curry, peanuts, baked chips, and gum. Basically these are all the things I ate right before I started the diet.

Symptoms: My conjestion feels as if it is clearing, my stomach hurt at night, I feel a bit colder than usual (but for all I know the tempature dropped).

The Master Cleanse

             I have decided to attempt the Master Cleanse while living in Japan and blog about it. For those of you who do not know, the Master Cleanse, sometimes known as the Lemonade diet, is an all liquid diet. It consists of special lemonade and lasts a total of about 12 days. Later I'll post the 12 day program for anyone who might want to try it. I have completed the full diet once before, and attempted it two other times. It is hard, frustrating, and rewarding. So why now and why in Japan? 
              Japan, for me, has been a struggle. A battle between myself and it. I should probably tell you a little about (my) life in Japan. Japan is not the Tokyo or Kyoto, or Osaka, or even Hiroshima that you imagine it to be. It is inaka いなか (countryside) on nearly every corner and crevice you could imagine. The inaka is an abundance of rice fields, miles of empty space, and countless old rundown buildings. The high tech Japan you flash through your mind, exists only in those big cities, far from where I live. It is hard to believe that these two worlds could coincide in the same place or even the same country or even in the same decade. But, they do. Needless to say I am living in the inaka of Japan. There is one other english speaker in my town, who has lived here for 20 years with his wife. Other than that I am in a land of Japanese, in a town made up of grandparents, "Obachans" and "Ojichans".  My japanese is limited, we could even say that it's nearly non existent, which has made living in inaka difficult. There are other foreigners here on the same program as me but they live about an hour away. The options for having friends over during the week is limited to, well, to myself.  With all of this, I fell into a trap; I lost my balance and my focus. I am a wrier, a creative writer but lately the words have stopped flowing, my mind has become a tangled mess of "numb."  I have become "comfortably numb." Last week as I couldn't even get myself to wash dishes, I decided that it was time to start the cleanse. I was... I am spending too much time focusing on food and rest, and not enough on myself.  I should probably mention that I am a vegan in Japan,  so a lot of time has to be focused on cooking from scratch, which I love to do. But, when I say focus on food I mean looking forward only to meal time, a moment of pure goodness and into thinking of the vegan cookies from home that I have stashed away. I suppose in many ways, I took moving to Japan harder than others, and that many have adjusted under the same conditions better than I have. But this is my fight, and I am trying.  I'm doing the diet to refocus myself and to yes, get my weight back to where I like it. So here I am, about to step into the arena and inviting you all to watch. I've decided to keep this up on my regular blog because well, it's just part of my life in Japan.

               Why the cleanse: The cleanse refocuses your diet and your state of mind. It's as difficult physically as it is physiologically because we don't realize that the habit of reaching for the chips, is just that a habit, a ritual. It's as bad as the smoker's need to bring a drag to their mouth. We need to spoon and shuffle something into our mouths. We've done it at least 3 times a day, everyday for 365 days now take that and multiply it by however old you are.  It becomes a mindless habit, like breathing. Now imagine 12 days without that.

                 I will post day to day updates, I can promise you they won't always be nice. Currently on day one and I can already feel the need to reach for a chip, or anything. The point is to show how difficult the cleanse can be but also it's strengths, physiologically and physically. And to provide you entertainment. ;) Pictures will go up. Just not yet, I'm not brave enough today to post the before pictures at this moment. But they'll be up.

Symptoms before the diet: Fattness (lol), stuffy/conjusted/runny nosy, fatigue, complacency
Weight: 52 kgs  or about 114 lbs  (I don't believe in scales, more on that later. I am doing this simply to show the effects of the cleanse)
Weight gained in Japan: I hadn't been on a scale in a long time but I'd estimate 14 lbs (my mom knows, I wouldn't look at the scale but I stepped on it so she could be nosy. I'll find out for the blog).