I Chose Fasting Over Feasting This Thanksgiving

This year, I celebrated Thanksgiving completely differently than I ever have before. Rather than use food to express gratitude, I decided to find gratitude without food. I have never done a long-term fast or cleanse before. I typically will do 12-15 hours of intermittent fasting each day, but I’ve never gone 24 hours without food until Thanksgiving week. I’m also notoriously “hangry” and think about food and my next meal constantly. During my lowest point in my hanger episodes, my boss would carry around snacks for me in case our day was longer than expected and I started to take a turn for the worse.  More recently, I’ve been able to curb my hanger, but my old tendency was to consistently think and plan for the next meal  by inquiring “when will we eat next?” “What are we having for dinner?” Sometimes getting so hungry that I obnoxiously only talk about how hungry I am until I can finally eat. See my latest blog on my journey with dieting and relationship with food to learn more about my history.

My gratitude card from yoga class on Thanksgiving.

My boyfriend, Mike, has been wanting to do the Master Cleanse for several months, but it was hard to find a good time for us to commit. Cleanses have always terrified me because I have always loved food SO much. I have always found so much joy in food and consistently plan my next meal. However, I was excited to try something new and push my known limits both physically, but more importantly spiritually. I know of intense yogis who fast, we all know Gandhi fasted for 40 days, and I was excited to push my mental boundaries to re-approach my relationship with food. I had some mantras that I practiced: “I am not this body.” “I can rise above hunger.” “I don’t need anything in the physical world.”

Please hear this loud and clear… this was NOT an attempt to lose weight, look skinny, or have any sort of long-term impact on weight loss. I decided to do this cleanse to release “stuck” toxins and gunk from years of eating processed foods and meats. I wanted to challenge myself mentally to teach myself that I don’t “need” food even if I feel hungry. [AM3] I chose to commit to a modified version of a cleanse that worked for ME. And I highly recommend you do the same if you choose to begin any sort of cleanse or fast. Doing it for the right reasons is so important.

I read a couple of blogs of other people’s experiences to get ready (find them here and here). My Mom and sister also sent me some articles (here and here) and a podcast basically recommending people do not try the Master Cleanse. A lot of the reasons to not do it were related to long-term weight loss goals or an unsafe way to lose weight, but since those were not my reasons for wanting to try a cleanse, I decided to give it a try, but to throw my own personal spin on it, while also telling myself that if I ever became too uncomfortable or too hungry I could always stop, which I inevitably did.

We also added the saltwater flush every morning, starting on day 4 (2 tsp of salt in 32 oz of water). You chug the entire 32 oz bottle right when you wake up, and it makes you literally shit water, full of all the gunk that’s been trapped in your intestines. It’s advised to wait several days before doing the saltwater flush as to make sure your stomach is completely empty of “food” which is why we didn’t start the flush until the morning of day 4.

We modified the Master Cleanse slightly, so I’ll give a quick run-down of what it is as-written and how we interpreted it for ourselves.

The way it’s written:

• 3-day ease in:

  • Day 1: Raw fruits and vegetables

  • Day 2: Juices and broths

  • Day 3: Only orange juice

• 10-day cleanse / fast:

  • Drink “lemonade” throughout the day whenever you’re hungry (60-120 oz / day):

    • For every 10 oz of water: 1 oz of fresh squeezed lemon juice, 1 oz of dark maple syrup, and a dash or two of cayenne pepper

• 3-day ease out:

  • Day 1: Only orange juice

  • Day 2: Juices and broths

  • Day 3: Raw fruits and vegetables

The Mike & Dannie Version:

• 1-day ease in:

  • Mike did only juice

  • Dannie did raw fruits and vegetables

• 6-day cleanse / fast:

  • We drank “lemonade” as written above

  • On day 4, we started the saltwater flush

    • 2 tsp of salt in 32 oz of water

• 3-day ease out:

  • Day 1: Juices and broths

  • Day 2: Same as day 1, but added cooked potatoes and carrots to the broth

  • Day 3: Same as day 2, but added cooked kale to the soup

All the ingredients we needed for a week! Lots of lemons, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper.

The final product! We made about 128 oz. (1 gallon) of "lemonade" per day, totaling about 1 gallon per person per day.

In addition to this, you also drink as much water as you want throughout the day and laxative tea at night. We drank peppermint tea throughout the day too, which was helpful, especially to supplement that warm cup of coffee I was used to each morning.

A commitment to yoga was an important part of this cleanse for us. We joined a local studio (https://serenityyogastaug.com/) and went every day during the week of our cleanse. I ended up going 14 days in a row, which I am incredibly proud of. Unfortunately, during our last 3 nights in Saint Augustine the studio was closed due to roof repair, so I couldn’t continue my streak. This was a great way to keep our bodies active and stretched out, but not over-worked as we were ingesting a LOT fewer calories than we were used to. This had a big impact on my mental fortitude and connection to the divine as I struggled through some moments of this cleanse.

Our selfie after day 4 of yoga in a row!

Here’s how it went…

Ease in day: It was so much easier to eat only raw fruits and vegetables than I thought it would be! This actually made me realize that I could easily incorporate more raw food days into my normal diet from time-to-time if I’m feeling extra bloated from eating too much processed food. This was our first night of yoga, and I may have over done it a smidge, going into challenging poses like wheel without being fully prepared… resulting in a back injury fully felt in day 2.

Day 1: Holy migraine! I knew not eating would be a challenge, but I was not expecting the awful caffeine withdrawals! Besides a 21-day period back in March of 2022, I had at least one cup of coffee every day since I was 16. At about 2 pm on day 1 a migraine hit me out of left field and didn’t dissipate until I woke up the next morning. It was close to the worst migraine I’ve ever experienced and left me completely debilitated. I still managed to go to yoga, thankfully it was a vinyasa & yin class ending in a sound bath shavasana; however, all I could do upon getting home was crawl into bed and go to sleep.

My "hungry migraine" face!

Day 2: I was probably most depressed on this day… just overall fairly sad, unsure what to do all day. I ended up buying a paint-by-numbers kit from Hobby Lobby (of all places…) that’s still sitting unopened on the dining room table. The muscle pain was real and was a good reminder to drink a LOT of water. I started experiencing pain in my lower back that made it difficult to sleep, although it could have been from three days of yoga in a row, which I hadn’t done in a very long time. Regardless of the reason, the back pain almost took away from my hunger pain, so it was harder to notice that I was ever “hungry.”

Day 3: My headache was completely gone by day 3 and I was feeling really good! It felt like this would be fairly easy to accomplish and things were looking up for me. I felt mentally strong and physically strong as I started the day with a 75-minute gratitude flow class to kick off Thanksgiving. Pictures of peoples’ Thanksgiving plates on social media and my family group chat were a little disheartening. But it’s strange when you cut out food for only a short period of time. Rather than feeling angry like I was missing something, I actually felt satisfied knowing that I’ll be able to eat all of my favorite foods very soon!

Day 4: My back pain was still very intense. I did a yin yoga class and cried during half frog pose. The instructor said “let the pose be your medicine,” which made me erupt in tears because the pose was so painful it was hard to think of it as medicine. But through very deep breath work and concentration I was able to find some relief in the class. And, my sister suggested I take a bath… my first one in many, many months and that felt incredible! [AM5] This was also the first day I incorporated the saltwater flush, which completely empties out your intestines. It’s advised to wait several days before doing the saltwater flush as to make sure your stomach is completely empty of “food” which is why we didn’t start the flush until the morning of day 4.  The flush actually felt really good! More than painful, it was very relieving.

Day 5: I was most hungry during this day, and started craving foods I don’t even like very much. A pizza delivery truck was behind me while I was driving and I started thinking about how good a slice of pizza would taste… pizza is not a go-to food for me, and I never really crave it. After talking with Mike and expressing how very hungry I was this day, we decided to cut the cleanse short and make broth on day 6 for dinner.

I took the dogs for a walk and felt very fatigued after a two-mile walk. Listen to your body!

Day 6: On the morning of day 6, I was still releasing “poop” after the salt water flush, even though I hadn’t ingested any food in six days… meaning that was all still stuck in my body since before I started the cleanse. Later that day, grocery shopping for broth and eventually soup with vegetables was so fun and exciting! The day was much easier than the previous day for not eating food. We also went thrifting and let me tell you… if you can shop on day 6+ of a cleanse you will absolutely love trying on clothes in a dressing room! While losing weight wasn’t my goal of doing this, it was definitely an outcome – so strut your stuff and enjoy it! I officially made it six full days (144 hours) without food. For dinner we had broth after yoga, and it was the best tasting broth I’ve ever had!!

Has anyone ever looked so happy eating broth?

Easing Out (Days 7-9): This period is incredibly important. Your metabolism is much, much slower and you need to be cautious with what you eat and how much you eat. Many people experience gaining weight back pretty immediately after doing this cleanse, and/or feeling really sick. I found the weight gain wasn’t noticeable by easing in very thoughtfully. For 24 hours we ate only plain home-made beef broth and drank juice. The second 24 hours we added cooked potatoes and carrots into the soup, mostly blended to make it extra thick. I also drank juice and had the plain beef broth for lunch. By the third 24 hours post our 6-day cleanse we added cooked kale to the soup. I worked full days during the ease out period and found it relatively easy to get through the workday without coffee and with the limited amount of food I was eating.

By the fourth day after the cleanse we were back to eating “normally” and went out to eat for ramen at lunchtime and I had a smoothie bowl for dinner (one of my all-time favorite meals to eat – I probably missed eating that the most throughout the entire cleanse). Since then, I’ve been back to eating completely normally, even indulging a little bit with more dessert than normal attending holiday parties and fun dinners out with friends. My eating habits haven’t changed drastically since starting the cleanse.  If you’re curious about my regular eating habits, check out my most recent blog on my eating journey. However, reframing my mental approach to food, staving off my hanger, and proving to myself that I can do anything I set my mind to made the cleanse well worth it to me!

If you’re considering doing the Master Cleanse or any other fast or cleanse, I’d say go for it! Challenge yourself and prove to yourself that YOU CAN DO ANYTHING! However, always do this challenge by honoring yourself and what you know to be best. If you only make it 1 day or 3 days – that’s great! I’m hoping by the next time we do this, I can make it a full 10 days, but who knows? Take it slow and easy and, as always, honor your intuition.