ggg...I ran into this same level of skepticism from
my close neighbors who love me to pieces and were
convinced that my fast (30 days) was akin to slow
suicide and *damn* if they were going to watch me
do THAT! If my neighbor had been my father, he would
have locked me up and force fed me and even at my
age...heh heh...he did threaten that.

For me, it is about boundaries, and even in a
relationship there has to be trust and if you have
done your homework and are comfortable with your
choice, that will have to be good enough for your
boyfriend. I just kept telling my neighbor that I was
comfortable with my choice AND I had done it last
year too and survived so time would have to prove
that his fears were not justified.

In your case, this too will be the real proof that
you are doing something which says YES to you.

It seems often too, it has more to do with the other
person feeling discomforted that *their* world is
changing. My neighbors were losing their dinner buddy
and at first they were uncomfortable eating in front
of me. Once I made them feel comfortable and I was
easily able to go sniff their food, the guy is a
phenomenal cook, and sit with them while they ate
and drink my lemonade, that seemed half the battle.
My own boyfriend who is a big guy, think Samoan
wrestler here, came with all kinds of food since I
advised him there was none here, and he was very
uncomfortable at first but when I pulled up my chair
and sat at the table while he ate the feast he had
brought, his level of acceptance really shot up.

What I have found too in my own experience is that
if you change, the other person will find themselves
making small changes which add up to bigger changes
on their own. My boyfriend loves to cook AND feed me
and he has the metabolism of a blast furnace while
mine is more like a matchstick...gg. His idea of fun
is cooking and adding a six-pack of Shiner Bock beer
to the mix. I shifted back to juicing carrots and
replacing the "ritual" of eating and fixing those
other things to different dishes, suggesting, hey,
I wanna try this, would you like to try some?? It
did mean sometimes, he was fixing his own meals and
me, mine, but more often, it was us fixing stuff
together. We drink MUCH less beer, more water, take
walks together and make stirfry stuff and cook more
than going out. My real test was when my BF took me
to Ryan's buffet where usually something will catch
my interest and I just drank my water. I traveled
with a small cooler and lemonade so again, that I
could/would, still do things with him that he enjoyed
doing with me, sans food, made him more enthusiastic
since the cleansing gave me more energy, focus and
a sense of accomplishment in myself, since the main
challenge of The Master Cleanse is to overcome the
emotional eating and relationships with food which
are not as healthy as we prefer. My boyfriend has
even lost weight and is doing Epsom Salt soaks
and has done parasite cleansing, stuff he swore he
would not do, but my own success in body cleansing
has finally piqued his interest enough to come to
it on his own. Again, that old adage, you can lead
a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink.
Well, when the horse gets thirsty and notices other
horses drinking...ggg...they stand a good chance of
coming on their own~!

I think if you avail yourself of all the info online
and in books, in general, concerning body cleansing
and maintenance, you will eventually find that your
priorities can stand up to the strongest criticism.
Most of my boyfriends initially were hesitant but
in the end (pun intended) they did parasite cleanses
and juicing and fasting and it did become a bonding
experience.

My goal is to have a good to great quality of life
and to avoid prescription bottles and hospitals
and I doubt if anything anyone can say will change that
goal. What I did hear, which was music to my ears, was
at the end of a month, my neighbor said, "you were right".

I think he and his wife have a greater respect for me,
and more often than not, the reaction to my fasting/
cleansing experiences is that some say they could never
do it, and others say they wish they could. YOU are
at the point where you are telling yourself, I CAN do
this, and that will sustain you through this shift to
improve your health. You cannot control what your BF
thinks and if you "go there" and make this a power
struggle, you run the risk of breaking commitments to
yourself by sacrificing them to someone else. You need
to decide if this is really how you want to manage
your life...to live to please someone else at the cost
of losing sight of your own goals and dreams. I did that
for a while myself and can say, I like the way I am now,
assertive and goal-oriented. Saying YES to me does not
always mean saying NO to others, but sometimes it does,
and that is just the way life is...no promises but when
you make yourself happy and love yourself, then you are
available to others in a way which is empowering to both
of you.

I wish you much success with your cleanse. Thank you too
for your support~~ggg.

be happy, be well,
Zoe

-_-

The Master Cleanse Express
//www.curezone.org/blogs/f.asp?f=770