Hiya Milan-a,

I agree with all the posts above, especially Pepe's. However, a few practical tips might help you get started. So, here are some things I found that worked for me. I knew my metabolism would be down, and concentrated on bringing it up again by changes in diet and exercise, and continuing things that were helpful during the MC.

I'm one of the lucky ones who managed to keep from regaining weight after a 22-day MC. I hope my experience can help you experiment and find your own best way.

I followed the protocol for returning to normal digestion pretty much exactly, going 7 days instead of 4. I did make one mistake - I ate some chicken on Day 3 and was shocked at how much energy it required to digest it. I became weak and dizzy within 20 minutes! So I learned my lesson - follow the protocol. I read somewhere that the period of time to return to normal digestion (Stage 5) should be about 1/3 of the time of the fast, so 22/3 = 7 days. I spent 2 days just drinking orange juice and then on the evening of the 2nd day had light vegetable broth (the top of the soup I made, the few solids were mostly wakame seaweed). From the third day to the 7th day, I drank the same soup (remade as needed). During this time, detoxing continued; some days my tongue was pink, other days coated white. Weight loss slowed but continued.

From the 2nd day on, as my strength improved, I increased my exercise. I mostly walk, so I increased from just under 10,000 steps to 15,000 steps a day. I also started using mild stretching and calisthenics, from the 3rd day on, but had to be careful as I got dizzy easily. From the 7th day on, I increased, when I had time, to 20,000 steps a day.

I'd read somewhere (probably on CZ) that it's good to increase calories consumed by no more than 500 per day during Stage 5. Since I was doing this over 7 days, I tried to follow this, but found that I had little appetite, so just ate what my body wanted. My body responded well to the soup, so I continued with that and gradually added meats and healthy fats in the 2nd half of a 14-day period. Note that meats absorb a LOT of energy as you digest them, so go lightly here, if you want some energy left over for exercise! I also found I had a craving for greens, so had lots of salads and green juices. I cut back on the walking a little, as it seemed too much too fast, and just did 20,000 steps when I had lots of energy. I also avoided caffeine during the first 14 days as much as possible.

I'd found sleep and water to be imperative to a smooth MC, and so I kept both up as much as possible - at least 8 hours a night sleep during the dark hours (to maximize the release of melatonin) and 8 - 10 glasses of water a day.

It's been almost a month since I finished my MC, but I find my appetite is still low. My one "cheat" is fried chicken - sold in Japan in small quantities. My energy is pretty much back to normal, but my strength is still a little low, so I plan to add light weight-lifting in the next week.

I focused on returning digestion to normal, by paying attention to how my body handled nutrition, and hoped to maintain my weight loss at best. Rather than regain the weight after coming of the MC, my weight vacillated between 49.5 - 50.0 kg (I'm 5'0" tall, that's about 110 - 112 pounds, I think) in the first 7 days, then it stabilized, and now it's going down again (today weighed in at 49.0 kg). I'm watching my weight as I see it as an indication of places for toxins to be stored - in the fat cells - but my fat % has continued to go down, although my weight went down more slowly. I think that means that as fat is being lost, some of the weight has been added by muscle mass. I'm ok with that!

So, some suggestions to maximize continued detoxing and maintain weight loss (prevent the reappearance of toxin-laden fat cells):

Soup recipe
6 cups water
2 - 3 small potatoes, sweet potatoes or yams, chopped, skin left on (for potassium)
3 large carrots, chopped, skin left on
3 onions, chopped
Handful each of brown rice, barley, quinoa, millet or similar grains (2 or 3 types)
Handful each of your choice of beans and lentils
Handful dried wakame or seaweed of your choice (great for Iodine & chlorella)
After boiling 20 minutes, add (all raw and chopped):
Cabbage
Spinach
Radish tops
Bok Choy
Turn off the heat immediately.
Taste, and add:
2 or 3 tablespoons of miso paste
Herbs or spices of your choice

Salad

I fill a family-sized bowl with a wide variety of salad greens and eat slowly. It's really important to chew greens to a liquid before swallowing, to get the most out of living enzymes and reduce the stress on digestion. Some suggestions:
Lettuce, cabbage, radish tops, raw spinach, raw daikon (Japanese radish) tops, bok choy, edible chrysanthemum, dandelion leaves, water cress.

Salad Dressing:
I love this. It's best to make it just before eating, so the enzymes are still fresh. In the early days of Stage 5, reduce the healthy fats and increase the acv:
3 tbsp flaxseed oil
3 tbsp sesame seed oil
2 - 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
Handful of chopped fresh parsley (if you don't have this, a handful of salad greens)
1 chopped clove garlic
Small, chopped piece of ginger root
Put in a blender and blend for about 1 minute, pour onto salad and mix. The parsley/salad greens will make the salad dressing thick and stick to the leaves.

Juices

If you have a sweet tooth, this one will help:
2 carrots, 1 apple, juiced. Add any greens you like if there's room.

Green juice (salad in a cup):
A mixture of any of the following:
Carrots (1 per cup, important to make a bitter green juice drinkable), lettuce, cabbage, bok choy, the stems and/or flowers of cauliflower or broccoli, radish greens and/or radish roots (go easy here), green onion (all), water cress, raw spinach, 1 or 2 cloves garlic, small piece of ginger (go easy here, it's hot), green peppers (any colour, actually), or celery. Anything that can go in a salad can be made into juice.

By the way, if you find your bms are down after adding solids, 3 or 4 cups of green juice should fix that up. It's more effective if 3 or 4 cups are drunk quickly (remembering to chew the juice), but if your stomach has shrunk, I've found that drinking 2 first, then an hour later, 2 more, is also effective.

One way to tell if your metabolism is still low is to notice whether you still get cold easily. If you do, your metabolism is low (so your internal "fire" is low, too). To help keep you warm, you could try adding cayenne pepper, raw minced ginger or raw minced or juiced garlic to your food. All have heating properties and might help to raise your metabolism for a little while.

A hot detox bath also helps. 1 cup each of Epsom Salts (magnesium sulphate) and 1 cup of baking soda added to hot water, soak for 30 minutes or as long as you can stand it (get out if you are dizzy), finish with a cool shower (arms and legs first followed by back, stomach and head) and go to bed. Be careful if you have blood pressure or heart problems, and if you get dizzy, get out right away. You will stay warm for hours, and the magnesium absorbed through your skin has many benefits.

Exercise: Essential to raising your metabolism. You might have found it hard to exercise much during the MC, but as soon as you're capable, increase your exercise, preferably the day or day after you start eating solids again. The solids have the tendency to sit on your stomach soon after the Master-Cleanse (at least, that happened with me), but going for a walk or doing a light calisthenics workout (and drinking water during exercise) did wonders to move it on. Also, I found that my strength was slow to come back, but my energy levels zoomed during Stage 5. So walking (on level ground) was perfect for me - I just increased it. Yoga is also beneficial.

I hope these tips might help you raise your metabolism levels to a level you are comfortable with. And, as Pepe said above, there's lots more info in CZ to help you; try looking in the juicing and fasting forums.

PC