carol rustin

hola! i let the blog slip. my bad!

i’ve been cooking a lot lately. i have failed to take photos of it so i could blog about the process.  utlimately, its what i plan to do with this website.  i have made the decision to be better about it so expect lots of recipes along with step by step photos soon.

my trips to the grocery store are brief and cheap lately.  needless to say, im getting creative in the kitchen so expect wacky but simple dishes.

Tofurkey sandwiches are the bomb diggity! Tofurkey tastes just like turkey and it fits perfectly on wheat buns:) HOORAY! I’m happy to be eating solid food again but my stomach still isnt with the program.  I wish there was some special pill I could take that would fix my insides.  I’ll have some more soup for dinner and I’ll put some extra cayenne in there so hopefully it’ll get to repairin!

Lorens sister is coming to town this weekend–it should be interesting to see what happens when we introduce booze into our systems.  Whats the healthiest form of booze? Vodka soda? Hopefully anywhere we go, they’ll have clean, meatless salads for me to enjoy.  I was looking at restaurant menus online the other day and discovered that there actually are some restaurants still out there that dont offer vegetarian items! Rock Bottom Brewery only has 1 vegetarian item (the Hummus Goat Cheese Salad) and its terrible!  They have pizza and you can create a veggie pizza but they dont offer wheat dough so peace out Rock Bottom! You were fun while you lasted! The only pizza we eat anymore is the ones that I make at home. I get whole wheat thin crust pre-cooked and then load it up with veggies and light cheese.  No pizza restaurant can make pizza the way I can–i’ve been trained with 5 years at Rocky Mountain.  I make the healthiest and most delicious pizza in town!

I have nothing of interest to say.

The Ease Out process is not to be ignored. I got a little ahead of myself yesterday and ended up with one of the worst stomach aches in the world.  Clearly my digestive systems needed to be introduced to food again.  Friday we drank OJ and broth and later on in the evening we had multi grain pancakes (hehe). Yesterday we woke up early and ran errands for most of the afternoon.  Then we went and had lunch and ordered hummus, pita, veggie wrap, fruit and an omelette with vegetables in it.  We ended up taking half of it home with us and snacked the rest of the day.  Around 10 last night we each ate a veggie dog with some vegetables on top of it.  Around 1:00 am is when the stomach ache of the year rolled in.  Clearly my stomach was in no place to digest a veggie dog, eggs or hummus with pita. hah! it was delicious though! Today I had a grapefruit for breakfast and then started the soup that I should have made and eaten yesterday.  Its got an hour left on the stove before we can eat it. Tomorrow will be my first tofurkey sandwich!

I’m starting the Ease Out process today. What happened last night really freaked me out and I think its time to stop the cleanse. i felt miserable today and every time i got near the juice i would feel nauseous. I went to Kroger and picked up some OJ and some organic vegetable broth. Today I’ll drink those things and tomorrow I’m going to make some soup. I told myself if there was a time during this cleanse when I was unsure or felt really really bad I would stop. That time came. I’m still proud that I lasted 6 days.

Later:

Since drinking the OJ and broth i feel 110% better! Im glad we did the cleanse–it was a learning experience. I’m sure we’ll do it again one day…we’ve never fasted before so lasting 6 days is a huge accomplishment.  I can consider this experience a trial run.  It can only get better the next time we do it!

Woo hoo!! Day 6! I feel accomplished! Sunday is our last day on the juice and then Monday is OJ and broth. Originally we were still going to do the juice on Monday and then do OJ and broth on Tuesday but Loren’s sister is coming to town on Thursday so we wanted to be able to eat freely when she’s here. Makes her visit less fun if we have stipulations on what we can eat. We want to be able to show her and her friend a good time. I still get hungry around 6 every night but by the next morning it seems like a distant memory. I did my salt water bath yesterday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised. Eliminations were good, long, but good.

So far the biggest problem I’ve had with this cleanse is the bad taste thats in my mouth 24/7. Ive been brushing my teeth at least 4 times a day trying to keep fresh breath. I read that you can drink mint tea to help reduce bad breath and other odors that your body is excreting. I havent noticed body odors but I do pride myself in always being on top of my game hygienically.

Loren posted a video blog of him chugging the salt water bath this morning. Check it out.

More later!

Later

Well i feel terrible. I had a slight scare this afternoon but I’ll save you the gross details.  the hardest for me on this cleanse. every night i die of solid food hunger. im sick of the juice today–i only had 1 liter. i cant drink anymore today. i did my salt water bath this afternoon and decided to drink my tea around 4 pm so i can have another movement before bed. im so over this right now i want to give up and start the easing out process tomorrow. sunday is our last day on the juice and it seems so far away.

I had to go back and edit something I wrote yesterday. You cannot substitute honey for the syrup…my bad. Also, laxative tea is what you use at night if youre going to do a salt water bath in the morning. I did the tea last night and woke up from stomach pains at 2:30 am. I was in the bathroom until 4 am (yes i talk about poop. its an important part of this cleanse).  Needless to say, I decided to snooze until 8:30 instead of waking up at 7:30 and doing the salt water bath. I’ll do my salt water bath later today. It needs to be done on an empty stomach so I’m going to finish my juice around noon and then do the chug at about 2:30 or 3 (whenever i get home from work). More later!

Later:

i did my salt water bath about 20 mins ago. now we play the waiting game. i read that you’re supposed to wait until you simply cannot hold it anymore to go to the bathroom. fun, huh?

i went to whole foods today to stock up on lemons and limes. tomorrow will be the first day we try the juice using limes instead of lemons. i wonder if it will be good–ive never had limeade before. i imagine its going to be similar. the cayenne is going to taste better with the lime though i believe–makes more sense than the lemon. cayenne pepper has actually been known for its healing power for thousands of years. cayenne pepper extract is known to help heart attack victims. you’re supposed to spoon feed the person having the heart attack a teaspoon of the extract every 15 mins or a teaspoon of the powder mixed into a shot glass of hot water. its pretty interesting all the good cayenne peppers do for you. read all about it here.

for those of you who are confused or think we are “starving” ourselves, the juice we make is actually liquid food. lemons and limes contain the richest source of vitamins and minerals of any food. maple and cayenne are also full of vitamins and minerals so your body doesnt feel hungry when you’re on this cleanse. the cayenne re-builds the bacteria in your stomach that dies when youre on it. when you eat solid food, your body is so busy breaking it down it never has a chance to clean itself out. this cleanse is just giving your body the time it needs to clean itself. i am a strong believer that people are not meant to eat red meat. our bodies simply arent equipped to break it down. your little insides are working their butts off trying to break down that burger you ate for dinner last night. they’re tiring themselves out–dont you think they deserve a little break and some “me time”? it takes about 72 hours to break down red meat. if you’re eating red meat everyday, where does it get stored when its waiting in line to get broken down? a recent study has shown that 30-40% of people with colon cancer eat red meat or processed meats daily. avoiding colon cancer means giving up red meat? fine with me…the choice is pretty simple actually. not only does red meat put you on the fast track to cancer but its also LOADED with saturated fat.

i feel great. im not hungry and i have a lot of energy again. im really happy we decided to do this cleanse–its already change my life and im only half way though!

I didnt sleep very well last night so when I awoke this morning I didnt feel too good. Plus I had some pretty bad cramps. They have since gone away once I started drinking my juice. Loren and I are thinking of switching from lemons to limes for a couple days. Maybe it will boost our spirits a little. It seems like 6 pm is the time when I want to eat food. Going through this process has made me realize how often I eat. The times when I would usually have a snack, my body is still expecting it…sometimes I find myself in the kitchen just looking at food imaging all the things I could eat. Luckily, when I went grocery shopping last week I planned out the meals so we dont have much of anything in the house.

To avoid any kind of confusion you may have, we are still drinking as much water as we usually do. I put down about 2-3 liters of water a day…its the only thing I drink for the most part. I used to think of lemonade as a treat…something tells me I may grow to hate it after this.

My eliminations were short last night…should I be worried? I think because there was so much on Day 2, Day 3 was light. I also didnt chug a full liter of salt water last night–I drank about 3/4 liter. Tonight we’re going to have laxative tea and have our eliminations in the morning–hopefully we’ll see some change.

oh, as of this morning ive lost 6 pounds since saturday.

Almost to the end of Day 4:

this evening I got a sudden burst of energy! i swept the house, did dishes, cleaned walls and baseboards and started laundry! im impressed because ive been without energy this whole time. getting all of that done while being on the cleanse AND menstruating officially makes me a badass.

im really excited to start eating again with my newly cleaned insides. i found a recipe online from a girls blog who did the cleanse. she made this soup during her ease out process–its full of veggies and beans and i cant wait to eat it!! one of my favorite things to do is look at menus online for restaurants. before i go out to eat, ill look at the menu and decide what im going to eat so i can go in knowing exactly what to expect. this evening i researched a menu that i know fairly well but looked for just vegetarian items. the restaurant im talking about is ru sans (sushi). usually when we go we order fish and some veggie items. next time we go, its all veggies!! they have an excellent selection of things for us to eat and its one of our favorite restaurants. we go weekly. ok, time to get back to suckin down juice! i gotta keep my energy up! tonight we try laxative tea for the first time! we’re going to have to wake up early so we have enough time for our eliminations before work! ill report back tomorrow.

Its really surprising how well this is going.  I dont wake up hungry and the only times I do get hungry is when I smell food.  I need to learn how to portion my juice better though…its 12:25 and ive got 1/4 of my first liter left.  Usually I’m driving from property to property during my work day but today I’ve been flying the desk for most of it so thats not too good for juice rationing.   I’m glad the work week finally came because they usually fly by–it will make getting through this week a lot easier.  Then its just another weekend and Monday and we’re done.  My mom tried the juice yesterday–she’s a fan! She liked how spicy it was. Spicy lemonade FTW!

I can already tell a difference in my body that I’m losing weight fast through this process.  I dont believe in doing this cleanse just to lose weight but I dont mind it being an awesome side effect!

Once I get the lemon to juice ratio down, I’ll be able to be more prepared.  Because the lemons vary in size, some days you use 3 lemons, some days 6.  Its difficult to plan when you’re buying them so I need to pay attention and educate myself about it.  For instance, today I had 5 lemons left and made 3 liters of juice. Yesterday I used 5 lemons and it made 4 liters.  Maybe there isnt a science to it…maybe I just need to make sure I always have a boat load of lemons on hand…

I read that menstrauting while on the Master Cleanse is awesome because some of the toxins that are removed from your body are the ones that cause cramping.  I feel a slight cramp today but its nothing too distracting.  Only when I’m seriously bored do I pay attention to it.

I’ve lost 2 pounds since yesterday and will probably lose 2 more before the day is over. I did not wake up as hungry today as I thought i would. I only crave food when i smell it and thats usually when I’m driving so its easy to not care about it. What i do to curve my cravings is picture myself eating a big pile of grass, dirt and all. This does an excellent job of making me not want food after I smell it.

I have a slight headache which I expect to go away once I’ve chugged some “juice”. I expected hunger pains but I am experiencing none. Here’s the gross part: I’m expecting to menstruate any day now so its going to be a challenge to curve those cravings AND the normal everyday cravings. Because menstruating is a natural cleanse on its own, i dont expect to have any problems having it occur while doing the Master Cleanse. I read that its actually good to do both at the same time because the Master Cleanse is removing the toxins in your body that cause cramps and bloating. I expect this cycle to probably be the easiest and most pain free one ever!

Almost the End of Day Two:

I’m terribly hungry right now. My grass trick isnt working anymore. hah. maybe ill go outside and lay in the grass so it becomes effective again.

I just got done with my TWO HOUR elimination. maybe 1 liter of salt water is too much for me?

loren and i are doing a 10 day cleanse to rid our bodies of terrible toxins that have infested our insides. Its called The Master Cleanse. To put it simply, everyday instead of eating you drink a potion you’ve concocted consisting of organic lemons, organic grade B pure maple syrup, water and cayenne pepper. the mixture tastes great (i put a little too much cayenne in my first batch) so, so far so good. some people do this cleanse to lose weight, im doing it to clean out my insides. im taking back control of my body from the corporations who stole it. ive already been losing a lot of weight naturally because of the changes i’ve made in foods and drinks…i expect to come out of this cleanse being even more of a food snob. hope society can handle it!

Almost to the End of Day One:

we just finished our first salt water bath and it was a STRUGGLE to get down! warm salt water has been my nemesis ever since i was a little kid when my ma told me to “rinse with warm salt water” whenever i had a sore throat. as i struggled to get down the warm salt water, i felt like i was going to puke. everywhere. 45 mins from now im going to have my first “elimination”. wish me luck!

i did feel hungry at different times throughout the day, but its definitely not as hard as you may think. the juice you drink when you’re hungry actually does a really good job distracting your tummy. if i can manage to keep myself busy and not think about food or any vices that i may have, this is going to be a piece of cake. luckily, i do have plenty of things to keep me busy.

what im looking forward to most is starting over with food. once my insides have been cleaned, im going to put only good things into it. loren and i are both committed to being 100% vegetarian. it wont be hard, the only meat we eat now is fish and turkey (for our turkey sandwiches). luckily tofurkey exists for the turkey sandwich addicts like myself. im looking forward to my first tofurkey sandwich.