Cleanse Shmenze

Everyone from US Weekly to the NY Times has been talking about cleanses and detoxing lately, but nobody seems to agree on whether or not they work. The medical community has been saying cleansing can be harmful, and if you do it all the time, it probably is. A couple of years ago, I tried the Master Cleanse where you only drink water with lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper for 14 days. I lasted a whopping 2.5 days. It was too hard with my busy social calendar to set aside 2 weeks of not eating or drinking anything but a not-very-tasty lemonade. But I did feel good and it was easier to go without food than I thought it would be. I don't really see how giving your body a little break for a couple of days at a time can be a bad thing. I have some friends who do the Master Cleanse at least once a year for 14 days and normally lose a lot of weight, so who knows. There's no magical bus to skinnytown, just good old diet and exercise - and speaking of, I'm off to the gym.