If you’re not prepared, coming down from your cleanse can be very rough. Nothing can split you in half quite like an unwise meal as your reentry into eating after cleansing.

The first time I did the lemon detox diet, I was fighting off powerful cravings every step of the way. I was craving foods I didn’t even know I liked. Foods I wouldn’t normally eat. The cravings were coming out of the woodwork.

I persevered, but when the time came for breaking the fast, all those pent up cravings conspired to have me return to eating yummy delicious tempting food immediately. I literally broke my fast with a big pasta dinner with steamed broccoli rabe, pecorino romano cheese and linguini tossed in olive oil and garlic.

While the meal itself was delicious, my feelings afterward were anything but. I definitely would not recommend this experience to anyone out there!

Here, then, are some basic guidelines for the best way to break a fast.

Commit to a Smooth Transition Beforehand

If you cleanse for 10 days but didn’t realize that you’ll really need to tack on two extra days of transition at the end of that cleanse, those last two not-cleansig but not-eating-solid-food days can really come as a shock. You might not have the willpower to make it through a proper fasting comedown if you aren’t mentally prepared.

So, prepare yourself beforehand. Know that you’ll need to give yourself a couple extra days after your cleanse to come off of it and back into eating normal foods. THat way, you won’t be as vulnerable to the temptation to eat solid foods too quickly after your fast.

Start With Juice

As badly as you want to return to the world of eating solid food after fasting for a spell, hold off a day or two and drink thicker juices instead.

Pulpy orange juice is a great option for the first thing to have as you come off your lemonade fast, and after a few hours you can move on to the next juice. Fresh juices will taste amazing to you after days with just the lemonade.

Move on to Soups

After you’ve had your juices, the next step is to eat some thin soup. Nothing too intense–no floating chunks of chicken or chunky vegetables.

Miso soup is my personal favorite soup to consume as I come down off of a fast. Any soup that is thin, doesn’t have any chunky ingredients and is spiced relatively lightly is a good choice.

Eat Salad for Your First Solid Food

The first solid meal you consume after a fast is a hugely important aspect of how much detoxing you’re able to do.

If you eat a salad, all that roughage will scour your digestive tract and push out the lingering toxins and residues that your flushes weren’t able to push out of you.

Keep your salad small and simple–no heavy dressings and no crazy ingredients. Have a good helping of greens and then wait and allow that salad to move through you.

When the salad hits your stomach, your digestive tract will have to fire back up to return to its normal digestive functioning. The lighter and simpler the first food you eat after a fast is, the easier of a time your digestive tract will have.

You’re Home Free!

After you’ve eaten a salad and given it some time to digest, you can start slowly adding in heavier foods.

Don’t let all those cravings you might be feeling get the best of you, though! So much of the benefit of cleansing comes in letting us change our dietary habits so we choose foods that are healthier for us. Try not to revert to old bad food habits and instead commit to a new way of healthy eating.

If you follow a fast with lots of healthy meals–whole foods, fruits and vegetables, nothing processed or full of chemicals–you’ll be well on your way to losing weight and feeling great.

If you don’t know how to break a fast, coming down after a cleanse can be an extremely rough experience. But if you follow these pointers, you’ll enjoy the incredible feelings of well-being that emerge after a good cleanse and a safe and healthy return to normal eating.

• Allow Yourself to Rest

It’s easy to try to maintain your usual schedule while you’re on the lemon detox diet. The lemonade is so refreshing and energizing that you really can maintain your normal schedule if you absolutely need to. However, use the period of cleansing to give you body a chance to recuperate.

As much as you can, rest.

• Combine the Detox with Other Types of Non-Food Fasts

Consider pairing your period on the master cleanse with a different type of fast.

You can fast from using computers, fast from reading news, fast from driving, fast from negative thinking…the sky’s the limit. But while you’re doing your physical cleanse, you’re in a great place to do other types of fasting as well.

• Stay Away from Temptation

When I first started doing the lemon detox diet, I worked in an organic health food store. Fasting while being surrounded by all kinds of delicious, healthy foods was rough! Don’t do that to yourself–while you’re on your fast, stay away from grocery stores, restaurants and dinners where people are eating.

Why torture yourself?

• When Things Get Tough, Drink Lemonade

If you’re doing the master cleanse and you’re feeling hungry, tired, irritable or depressed, it’s time to drink a little lemonade.

Don’t be a hero.

The lemonade cleanse is designed to be gentle. If you wanted to go into the depths and suffer like crazy, you’d be doing a straight water fast. Embrace the logic and kindness of the lemon detox diet and go to your lemonade when things get particularly tough.

• Have a Fasting Buddy

It can be very, very fun to do a cleanse with a partner. Of course, if either of you are susceptible to peer pressure, this strategy can backfire on you. Make sure whoever you partner up with on your cleanse is as committed as you are. Then, give each other support to make it through the hard times, and celebrate together when the cleanse is over.

• Keep Your Fast To Yourself

How’s this for going in the opposite direction of the previous tip?

Fasting freaks people out. Don’t talk about it while you’re doing it.

There’s a reason the Bible portrays religious figures fasting in isolation–first off, there’s less temptation, but even more importantly, there aren’t a bunch of people around calling them crazy and trying to get them to eat.

When you’re on your fast, you become very sensitive to the things and people around you. Be careful who you interact with on your fast, and most importantly, keep your fast a secret unless you really, really trust the person to support what you’re doing even if they don’t understand it.

This is the most vital tip on this entire page–trust me, I’ve had to learn this one the hard way!

• Pray

Fasting has been utilized by spiritual practitioners since time immemorial. And there’s a good reason for that–fasting opens you up to whatever you consider to be the source of life. When you approach death’s door through fasting, you have a chance to deepen and rejuvenate your relationship with the source of your life.

Prayer is a great thing to do while fasting. You don’t have to pray in any particular way, either. Whether you use words or simply commune in the silence, the more time you can pray while you’re on your fast, the better you’ll feel and the deeper your cleansing will become.

The toughest ingredient to find if you’re doing the lemon detox diet is the right maple syrup.

For the purposes of the lemonade cleanse, you need Grade B organic maple syrup.

And if you’re planning on doing the cleanse for at least 10 days, you’re going to need a substantial amount of it.

Now, depending on where you live, you may not have trouble locating a good supply of Grade B organic maple syrup. But just in case you aren’t have much success finding any near you, here are some places you can buy the best maple syrup for the Master Cleanse online:

Coombs Family Farms 100% Pure Organic Maple Syrup Grade B, 32-Ounce Jug List Price: $28.85 Price: $19.75 Read Reviews

NOW Foods Maple Syrup Grade B Organic, 32 ounce List Price: $24.99 Price: $18.99 Read Reviews

Shady Maple Farms Organic Maple Syrup, Grade B, 32-Ounce Jug List Price: $35.70 Price: $27.79 Read Reviews

Maple Syrup Organic Non-GE 16 Ounces List Price: $12.99 Price: $7.60 Read Reviews

Master Cleanse 10-Day Organic Kit with Free MC book List Price: $64.95 Price: $89.95 Read Reviews

First off, what are you aims in undertaking the diet? Are you trying to lose weight and think this diet might help you? Do you want to feel healthier? Clear up oily skin? Develop a deeper connection with your concept of the divine? Rid yourself of addictions?

Before I examine those expectations and let you know what sort of results you can expect to experience when you do the lemon detox diet, let’s look at an overview of what most people go through when they do the master cleanse.

The First Three Days

The first three days of the cleanse tend to be the toughest. You’re adjusting to the lemonade and being off of solid foods, and you’re likely feeling hungry and going through some strong cravings.

At the same time, you may not have the energy you’re used to having (particularly if you’re working or maintaining your usual active schedule).

Expect the first three days to present some challenges, and resolve to make it through them. Take things one moment at a time, and drink as much of the lemonade as you need to have the energy to get you through your day.

The first three days may not be as tough as I’m making them sound, but better to be ready for anything and then cruise right through them.

The Middle of Your Cleanse

By the time you get to the middle of your cleanse, you’ll likely be feeling great. Your body is lighter, and it is now able to get down to the dirty business of cleansing and detoxing.

Each day has its own roller coaster of highs and lows. The highs occur when you’re feeling light and connected to the innate health pulsing through your body. The lows occur as your body dumps toxins into your digestive tract and you need to eliminate them through a flush.

Overall, though, the middle of your cleanse will find you in your rhythm and feeling good. If your commitment is strong, you’ll have more than enough momentum to push through any challenges that arise.

The majority of the challenges that arise while you’re on a cleanse are mental. Your thinking tries to bring you down. Assert your will in response to any attempts your mind makes to trick you into stopping, eating or otherwise abandoning your commitment to give you body a bit of a rest.

Toward the End of Your Cleanse

After you get over the hump and round the bend into the final stretch of your cleanse, you’ll likely be in good spirits. When you know you’re going to make it, you can relax a little and enjoy the ride.

The bulk of the deep cleansing happens the further into your cleanse you go, so you’re also now getting the maximum benefit from the lemon detox diet. Rest as much as you can to allow the cleansing to take place at the deepest possible levels.

Your body will usually let you know when it’s time to return to regular eating. True hunger, when it arrives, feels very different from the habitual hunger we’re used to feeling.

On my longest fast–which was 13 days 7 of which were only water–I had an intention of fasting for as long as my body wanted. It was a very deep experience, though it wasn’t exactly hard. I just rested.

However, around the 13th day, it became clear that my body was hungry and wanted to return to eating. Since I began my fast with a very low body fat percentage, I’d lost most of the extraneous weight that I had on my body. I looked a little scary, honestly–very, very thin.

The hunger that arrived that deep into my fast was one of the only times in my life that I’ve felt truly, deeply hungry.

Lest you think this was some weird masochistic and dangerous practice to be engaged in, I’ll also share this: I stopped doing flushes when I went to the straight water fast. I’d been doing a liquid fast for the first week, did a liver and gallbladder flush (to great effect) and was doing a daily flush. Then, I went to water only and began a deeper fast.

Four days into my water fast, 10 days into my entire cleanse, I suddenly had to go to the bathroom very urgently. I raced to the toilet and spontaneously released the most bizarre substance I’ve ever seen come out of me. When it hit the bottom of the toilet bowl, it formed wavy stalactites that wiggled in the toilet water.

Just seeing that made the entire fast worth it. And I felt *amazing* afterward.

All of which is my (slightly disgusting) way of saying that you’ll know when it’s time to stop your fast. And if you’ve been a reasonably well-fed human most of your life and you don’t have any medical conditions, you’ll be able to fast for 10 days without endangering your health.

Remember, though: always listen to your body and consult a physician before undertaking any new health regimen including a detox program.

The book that started the whole lemon detox diet phenomenon is called The Master Cleanser.

This book is really more of a pamphlet–in a few short pages, it relays the guidelines and instructions for following the lemonade diet.

The Master Cleanser provides a little analysis of the phenomenon of fasting and what you can expect, but it really doesn’t go into the same level of detail as many other books on fasting. The primary topic covered in The Master Cleanser is how to initiate the lemonade diet, how to administer the daily flushes and a basic primer on what’s possible with the cleanse and what to expect.

The recipe for the lemonade you’ll be drinking during your Master Cleanse is as follows:

• The Juice of 1/2 of a fresh lemon
• 2 Tablespoons of Organic Grade B Maple Syrup (I’ll explain more about why Grade B below)
• A very small amount of Cayenne Pepper (as much as you can handle, or as little as a small pinch)
• 10 ounces of fresh clean water

Mix all of those ingredients in a sealable glass jar. I like to use the kind of glass bottles that many store-bought juices come in. I have the juice ahead of time and save the bottle to use as my lemonade jar.

And there you go–you’ve just made your lemonade and you’re ready to begin drinking it!

Grade B Maple Syrup

Maple syrup comes in different grades, which signify the syrup’s level of purity. You might think that we’d obviously want the highest grade of maple syrup–Grade A–but Stanley Burroughs, the author of The Master Cleanser, is very clear about the importance of using Grade B maple syrup.

The reason for this is that Grade A is too highly purified–it is missing the vital mineral content that naturally occurs in unfiltered maple syrup. A fasting person needs all the nutrition they can get, and so, Burroughs advises us to go with Grade B maple syrup.

The Daily Flush

In addition to drinking the lemonade, the other big aspect of the lemon detox diet is the daily flush.

As you fast, so goes the theory, your body uses the downtime when it’s not busy digesting food to do some spring cleaning. Toxins and impurities that have accumulated in the body are gathered and jettisoned via several vectors–sweat, the breath and, most voluminously, the intestines.

However, when you’re fasting, you’re not normally using the restroom. You’re not eating anything, so you don’t have anything to push out the other end (sorry to be graphic here…but cleansing is a slightly graphic topic at times…).

A flush involves ingesting something that creates a laxative effect to induce a bowel movement even though you don’t have any solid food in your intestinal tract.

The recommended flush in The Master Cleanser is to use salt water (2 teaspoons of sea salt mixed in 1 quart of room temperature filtered water). Drink the salt water as quickly as possible, wait until the time comes and then allow the salt water to push through and come out the other end.

I find the salt water flush a little harsh for my tastes–I prefer either laxative tea like Smooth Move or Oxy Mag. Both of these approaches feel better and work just as well as the salt water flush.

How Long to Do the Master Cleanse?

Burroughs recommends 10 days for The Master Cleanser program to work its full magic, but how long you do the cleanse is of course up to you. Some people do it for much longer periods, and many people do shorter bouts of the lemon detox diet.

It takes your body a few days to shift its systems into clean-up mode, so if you only do the cleanse for a couple days, you won’t really get the benefit of giving your body a chance to expel built-up toxins. If 10 days is too long for you, consider shooting for 6 or 7 days. I’ve done several six-day Master Cleanses, and they have always felt very productive and helpful.

It can be tempting once you’re in the throes of the lemon detox diet to want to abandon ship early and return to eating food. Be prepared for how you’re going to handle temptation before you begin the diet. Stay true to your commitment to see the cleanse all the way to the end. But also pay close attention to how you’re feeling and don’t try to be a hero and push yourself beyond what’s healthy for your body.

Starting with smaller cleanses and building up is a great way to feel out how you respond to prolonged periods of cleansing.

There’s no hurry when it comes to The Master Cleanser. Go slowly and reap the mighty rewards.

This site is my attempt to give back a little now that I have plenty of experience following the lemon detox diet and other cleanses like it.

Doing a cleanse is like giving your body a chance to do all the housecleaning it doesn’t usually get to do since it’s too busy digesting food and racing from one appointment to the next while the stress steadily builds up throughout your physiology.

When you detox, your body gets to step back, take stock and repair what needs fixing. Even a brief cleanse can lead to massive benefit if you follow the guidelines and make sure to give you body as much rest as it needs while it detoxes.

Since my first lemonade cleanse about six years ago, I’ve done the lemon diet a number of times, and I’ve tried other types of cleansing, detoxing and fasting as well. Through these intermittent spells of detoxing, I’ve let go of addictions, I’ve strengthened my digestion, I’ve cleared up my complexion and I’ve experienced new levels of clarity and energy.

I want you to have the same positive experience through doing the lemon detox diet. And so, this site is here to help you orient, adapt and prepare for the singular journey that is your own lemon detox diet.

I hope you get a lot of benefit out of what I’ve written here. Thank you for stopping by!

The Lemon Detox Diet is one of the most popular cleansing regimens in the world.

Here’s how it works:

For 10 days (you can do as many or as few days as you like), you consume no food and instead drink only a mixture of water, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and grade B maple syrup.

You can drink as much of the lemonade as you like.

The less you drink, the more aggressive your cleansing will be.

If you’re having a hard time on the cleanse, drinking more lemonade can ease the intensity of the cleansing process.

During the time that you are cleansing, you also do some kind of flush to allow toxins released into your digestive tract to exit your body. The famed Salt Water Flush is recommended by Burroughs in his book The Master Cleanser, which started the lemon detox diet trend. However, you can also drink a laxative tea or take a laxative supplement if you prefer.

After 10 days or however long you decide to cleanse, it’s time to break your fast and return to eating. This is one of the trickiest phases of the lemon detox diet.

You can start with a little orange juice alongside your lemonade to get your body accustomed to digesting the orange juice pulp. After a day of transitioning onto orange juice and your now-trusty lemonade, you can then resume eating solid food. Simple and light is best at first–like salad with very little dressing, or fruit, or soup.

If all goes well, in a few more days you’re fully off the cleanse and back to your normal way of eating.

Why Would Someone Do This?

It’s interesting…if you look at the Wikipedia page for Stanley Burroughs (the founder of the lemonade diet), it’s pretty clear the the entire entry is pretty down on his work. It’s not often I encounter such a thoroughly negative biography on Wikipedia outside of dictators, murderers and the like.

So what gives there? Why is there so much controversy around this man and the lemonade diet?

I’m getting a little off-topic here. Your question is, “Why would someone do the lemon detox diet? What good things happen as a result?” Don’t worry, though–I’m getting there.

It’s important to recognize that there are plenty of people–including, apparently, many doctors–who, according to Wikipedia, believe something along these lines: “The ‘Master Cleanser’ has been utilized widely since Burroughs’ death although it is regarded by the professional medical establishment to be more deleterious than beneficial.”

Now our question becomes even more interesting: if the professional medical establishment regards The Mastern Cleanser and its lemon detox diet as more deleterious than beneficial, then, seriously–why would someone do the lemon detox diet?

To answer that question, I’m going to have to speak from my personal experiences doing the cleanse and other types of fasts.

What It’s Like to Do the Master Cleanse

My first experience doing the Master Cleanse happened while I was living in Brooklyn, New York.

I carried my glass bottle of lemonade with me everywhere I went. City streets, the subway, my workplace–the crazy city swirling around me begged me to indulge my desires to eat something solid.

It was nice to be light with nothing in my stomach. After the third day, I felt great. My mind was clear. I enjoyed my heightened sensitivity to everything around me.

I can’t say whether I was actually passing toxins out of my body via the nightly salt water flush, but I did notice that I felt much better once I got whatever was in out. It was interesting to see food residues still emerging from my body four, five, six days into the cleanse.

One of the things I like best about the lemon detox diet is the fact that you really don’t have to suffer while you’re on it. You can simply drink a little more lemonade if you start flagging or feeling painfully hungry. The lemonade tastes good. It’s a nice thing to live off of for a short period of time.

The most positive benefit I received from my first bout with the master cleanse was the ability to examine and let go of a bunch of food addictions that I’d been carrying around. The newfound knowledge that I could adhere to a fasting regimen added to my confidence. And there are subtler benefits that had more to do with foo-foo things like Spirit, energy and Love.

All in all, my first experience with the lemon detox diet was a success.

How to Know if the
Lemon Detox Diet is For You

The lemon detox diet isn’t for everybody.

But is it for you?

First off, make sure you’re in very good health before experimenting with any form of fasting or cleansing. If you are sick in any way, then either wait until you’re better or consult your physician. The cleansing reactions brought on by fasting can be quite intense, and you need to be very careful unless you’re absolutely sure your body can handle the detox process.

Second, do you like to push the limits of what you think is possible for yourself? If your answer is yes, then you might enjoy the voyage of the lemon detox diet. It’s fun to see how much we’re capable of doing that we didn’t realize before. If you’ve never gone 10 days in a row without ingesting any form of solid food, the lemon detox diet is an excellent introduction to the world of cleansing and detoxing.

Finally, are you willing to put up with a little physical (and emotional, and mental…) discomfort for a longer-term gain? Although the lemon detox diet is one of the gentlest introductions to cleansing, it is still an at-times grueling physical challenge. The nightly flushes can be very challenging. At times, your body will be extremely tired. The hunger comes and goes, but sometimes it comes on in force. Be prepared for that.

Calling All Intrepid Health Seekers

In spite of what the professional medical establishment may say about the lemon detox diet, I’ve personally received a great deal of benefit from the several times that I’ve done it. Fasting has become an integral part of my life, and the lemon detox diet gave me a way into fasting that was gentle and allowed me to keep fulfilling my responsibilities while living in a big city.

I wish you success in your quest for well-being. Consider the lemon detox diet as a wonderful option on your way forward.

You'll never look at lemons the same way again...