I wouldn't call what you did "cheating" I would say it was more of an "adjustment" to suit your needs. What you did kept you on course and not interfering with the digestive system to let the MC works it's mojo. I did a 40 dayer before T'giving and another in March cept in March I switched over to juice fasting around day 30 +/- and that was a very cool experience and one I think I will repeat on future MCs. My tentative plan will be to do a minimum 21 days straight MC then switch to juices for ?? days.
Your post is inspiring me to do a semi juice thing as I'm feeling a might sluggish lately. I think it's mostly due since I have not been very active this summer with the drought and all the rivers being down and not going to the gym as much as I should. Throw in some stress and constant 90/95 deg dry heat and....................
Bonking is like when you're doing your thing and you have the energy then just suddenly you run out of steam. Sometimes it's gradual but quite often it's just "bonk" and you're out of energy. In rough water sports like you and I do that is a dangerous life threatening thing so just be judicious and make sure you got enough lemonades in you and or molasses to make sure you don't bonk out in the middle of wiping out.
On the clarity thing usually around 2 weeks you start hitting your "mellow" stride and then around 21+ days if you are the kind of person that won't obfuscate it all by diverting that new found clarity and equating it to some religious dogma it can be a very rewarding experience if you use it to "self observe".
See how you're feeling at the 20 day mark and you might find that you are in a really cool mental place and it could be that you will function even better than before when you're administering the meds to the patients.
One of the very cool effects for me when I hit that clarity stage is always my interactions with people. I get this feeling of understanding who people "really" are and what my interactions with them entails. If you really take it to the self observation route is almost like you're watching your interactions with others from another "not I" space.
As I'm sure that you are well aware that >everything< that happens in us including every single thought involves a chemical reaction so when one fasts for the longer periods you are "literally" changing the chemistry in your system. This affords you a really unique opportunity to see things things from a totally new perspective if you are so inclined to take this unprecedented chemical change into the self observing realm. Coolest experience I've ever had.