You probably caught bits of my 21 day cleanse on Instagram (@mrkatedotcom) and Snapchat (mrkate) but the entire time I was also documenting our journey so I could make a vlog about the experience to share with you all!
Joey and I embarked on The Clean Program 21 day cleanse after we got back from our trip to France. In France we loved how much time they take to think about food and mealtime and we were missing that from our busy schedule back home where we work until 8pm and eat take out all the time. On the plane back from Europe, I watched the movie Wild (with Reese Witherspoon) and I was inspired by the challenge that she embarked on (which was to hike 1000 miles by herself). Since there's no way I was going to take a 1000 mile hike, I thought I'd combine my desire to reclaim my health and attitude towards food with an intriguing challenge. I remembered that my friend Geri Hirsch (her blog is Because I'm Addicted) did the Clean Program cleanse before her wedding, so I asked her if she recommended it and she did, with a rave review!
Henceforth, Joey and I read the Clean book and were immediately motivated to embark on the 21 day cleanse to detox from toxins and reacquaint ourselves with clean, healthy food.
The Cleanse:
- Is all about eating "clean" which means avoiding allergens like dairy, gluten, sugar, alcohol, soy, red meat and nightshades.
- Breakfast and dinner consist of a nutrient dense shake (that you make yourself out of awesome ingredients) which gives your body the time to detox as opposed to digesting solid food during the night.
- Lunch is a solid meal made from "clean approved" foods.
- Optional: take the vitamins (3 times per day) which you can buy via the Clean brand or your own from the health food store which consist of a probiotic, digestive enzymes, vitamin D3 and liver detox supplement. I definitely recommend taking a probiotic to help replenish your good bacteria. If you're not going to take the vitamins make sure you're really cramming your shakes with lots of nutrient dense food.
- Optional: use the Clean Program shake powder mixed in your smoothies (you can get the packets with all the daily vitamins with the Cleanse Kit which ends up being $20 per day if you stick to the 21 days). The powder is good for those times you're making a shake really quickly and you want to make sure you're getting a complete "meal" of nutrients and protein.
- Get The Magic Bullet: NutriBullet it will save you sooo much clean up time when making your twice daily shakes.
- Go grocery shopping often for fresh ingredients for your shakes and lunch so you always have something fresh and delicious to eat.
- Make a shelf in your pantry and fridge devoted entirely to your "clean" foods so you're not tempted by other items in your cabinet and you can quickly mix up a shake.
- Use the Clean Program forum and free advice from the clean team (you can email them or set up free phone calls with them) to help you stay on track and answer any questions or concerns.
- Buy those pre-washed containers of baby kale and baby spinach (organic of course) which make it so easy to stuff a ton of good greens in your shakes.
- If you get sick of shakes for dinner, make a clean vegetable soup and puree it for your liquid meal.
- Be honest with the people around you about what you're doing so they can be impressed by you and don't give you shit about not eating fries with them.
- Don't quit! You will feel so good after this cleanse and so proud of yourself for finishing! Cheating is not worth it. It's only 21 days! You can DO IT!!!
- The first week was the hardest to get used to the new routine but after that I loved how great I felt!
- I fell back in love with healthy food. My taste buds were heightened by not eating tons of processed foods and sweets and I now crave clean foods more than crappy foods!
- I learned how to shop and prepare more "clean" foods.
- My dry skin cleared up.
- I wasn't constipated.
- I slept great.
- I lost 5 pounds!
The cleanse glow!
One of my favorite shake combo of ingredients:
- A few pieces of organic mango
- A handful of almonds
- A small handful of frozen cherries
- A big handful of baby kale
- A tablespoon of raw cacao powder
- A teaspoon of spirulina
- A tablespoon of flax seed oil
- A tablespoon of tahini
- Half coconut water and half unsweeted almond milk as liquid - amount depends on your shake glass, I usually use 1 cup each
- Optional: A packet of the Clean Kit shake mix (for added nutrients and protein), half an avocado for some good fats (will thicken your shake too)
Good supplements to take while on the cleanse.
Our couple shakes!
What one of our clean lunches looked like: Seared (line caught) ahi with balsamic vinegar, brown rice and steamed/baked zucchini and carrots.
Post cleanse...
top: BB Dakota
skinny jeans: Top Shop
Mr. Kate jewelry: Forest Horizon Cuff & Alicorn Horn Necklace
A juice tasting flight!
For more healthy food ideas, check out: 'Pack A Healthy Lunch'
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below! xo
