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).
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