Master Cleanse Shopping List

First, let me adamantly state that I loathe to go grocery shopping. It is the bane of my existence and I detest the entire experience. I don’t know if it’s that I’m a semi-recluse, having to fight traffic and rude people, budgeting and spending money, or the insane amount of organization it takes to get the most you can for your money. I suspect it’s all of these things combined with some sort of strange personal quirk, but I digress. Point made.

With that said, today is the day I’m to go shopping for my Master Cleanse supplies. I’ll have to make a few more runs to the local grocery before it’s over to restock on lemons, but everything else I intend to get today. This will include:

• 1 ½ gallons of pure, organic Grade B maple syrup
• 1 bag of the best natural, unrefined sea salt I can find (great care will be taken to ensure that I do NOT get sea salt with calcium silicate added—it is positively atrocious!)
• 1 smallish bag of organic cayenne pepper
• 12 or so organic lemons
• 1 box peppermint tea

I’ll probably pick up a few other things while I’m there for the family, just because going to Earth Fare is a special trip and I hardly ever get up that way. But that’s what I need for the cleanse. I get the peppermint tea because: one cup of herbal tea per day is allowed on the cleanse, peppermint is good for the digestive system, I love peppermint, and it’s really nice to have one thing to look forward to at the end of the day other than more lemonade. With a bit of maple syrup, it tastes almost like peppermint candy. Yummy!

I will be taking my own containers and getting the maple syrup from the bulk section. It’s cheaper that way and I’m recycling. I called the store the other day to make sure they had plenty on hand and he said he did. There will be much drama if anything otherwise proves to be the case.

How Much Lemonade?

This shopping list is based on the Master Cleanse recipe with my calculations about how much I need per day. I have it figured that drinking 12 servings of lemonade per day, plus the little bit of maple syrup from my tea will bring me in at about 1,700 calories per day. Not exactly up to minimum requirements, but certainly not dangerously low by any stretch of the imagination—not for just two weeks, anyway.

The book advises that you drink 6-12 servings per day. I’ve set my sights on 12 because of the calories. I seriously doubt I will get that many down every day, but we’ll see. Also, I think it’s important to mention that the original recipe makes 10-ounce servings, not 8-ounce. That seems to be a source of some confusion, but that is what Stanley Burroughs said so that’s what I’m going with.

The biggest thing that bothers me is the amount of sugar. It’s an insane amount of sugar, to be sure. However, the sugar is in a nutritionally sound substance that is much better for you than the types of sugar I consume every day, so I’m going to say it’s ok—better than what I normally have, anyway. Again, it’s just for two weeks and then the juicing phase begins. Alright…let’s go shopping!