I have never really been one to try out fad diets or other sorts of healing type things but about a month ago I was just feeling really dumpy. A friend had mentioned that she was going to do this wierd "Master Cleanse" thing, which sounded kinda suspect. So what I did was look it up on line and I started reading about what this thing is and what it does to you. The people who had tried it out raved about how this cleanse cleared their minds and bodies and it sounded like the things that it solved were exactly the things that I was feeling -- unfocused, kinda burned out, unable to take on the hard problems at work... that sort of thing. Oh, and a little overweight (185 is too heavy for a guy with my build and height). So I thought I would give this thing a try. Here's the deal:

* for 10 days, you eat NO SOLID FOOD.
* instead, you drink this weird lemonade mixture - 2 tbsp fresh squeezed organic lemon juice, 2 tbsp organic grade B maple syrup, little bit of cayenne pepper, 8 oz. bottled water. 6-12 glasses of this stuff a day.
* also, at night you have a cup of herbal laxative tea
* in the morning, a quart of luke warm salt water.

I am writing this about 4 weeks after I finished. The results of this thing were astounding:

1) I have my focus back! I am starting to think big again! I think that the last year at Tribe really burned me out (it was a tough year) and I had sorta been coasting ever since.
2) By the end of my cleanse I was down to 169 lbs! Now I am back up to 173 but that's a lot more like where I am supposed to be.
3) I had a mountain biking injury from 6 years ago just go away! Now I have full mobility again and can do all the stretches that I used to be able to back when I ran seriously.
4) Best of all (and this was a completely unintended side effect) is that my cholesterol which at last check was over 300 is down to 159!! Is that crazy or what?

So I guess the bottom line is that I will probably do this thing again -- like once a year, maybe next time in January when it's crappy outside anyway.