Hi loves!! It’s only 9 days until my wedding and I just finished a cleanse, how cliche.lol I wanted to test a cleanse specific to glowing skin, pre wedding, and share my results with you! In this post I’m recapping my full experience on the anti inflammatory Clean Program. I’m sharing my sharing my top Clean approved recipes, what I learned, and what I will be incorporating into my daily life.
I selected the Clean Program because my incredibly talented nutritionist friend Lisa @ZINCNUTRITION recommended it. The Clean Program is a physician developed 21 day anti inflammatory dietary cleanse producing improvements in skin, sleep, digestion, energy, mental clarity with a reduction in bloating, constipation, headaches, and joint pain. Sounds good right?
I loved the fact that the program was not at all calorie restrictive and that there were far more approved foods than unapproved foods! The primarily rule of Clean Program is to cut out inflammatory foods (sugar, booze, red meat, eggs, peanuts, nightshades, dairy, etc.) The daily menu is comprised one Clean smoothie for breakfast, one healthy approved foods lunch, another Clean smoothie for dinner, and added supplements at every meal.
Finding the right smoothie recipe was the biggest challenge, the Clean packet mix was pretty bland and required an inventive mix of ingredients. I discovered a mix of textures, lots of spices, and ample stevia was the perfect combo to make a crave worthy smoothie. Below I’m recapping my favorite recipes from my experience.
Clean Matcha
Ingredients
1 cup boiling water
1/4 teaspoon organic cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon spirulina
1 tablespoon Ippodo ceremonial grade organic matcha powder. Click on the photo below to try my favorite antioxidant rich smooth matcha
1 dropper liquid toffee stevia. Click the photo below for my favorite sugar free natural sweetener.
A pinch of pink salt
Recipe
add all ingredients to a blender and blend until frothy.
#eattoglow Chai Smoothie
Ingredients
1 clean vanilla smoothie packet
2/3 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup puréed pumpkin
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon coconut butter
1 teaspoon organic cinnamon
1 teaspoon organic ginger powder
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon Chaga Mushroom powder
1 dropper organic liquid stevia
Recipe
add all ingredients to a blender and blend until frothy.
Sweet Potato Chips
Ingredients
1 medium sweet potato
one tablespoon organic olive oil
Recipe
Preheat oven to 350
Slice sweet potatoes into thin rounds with a mandoline
Place sweet potato rounds on a lined baking sheet drizzle with olive oil
Bake for 10 minutes, flip, bake for an additional 10 minutes
Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes
add sweet potato chips to a fresh salad with romaine, organic sliced chicken breast, roasted asparagus, fermented cucumber, stone ground mustard, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
#eattoglow Spirulina Smoothie
Ingredients
1 clean vanilla smoothie packet
1 2′ slice of zucchini
12 cup of de veined kale
1/2 of one small apple
The juice of 1/2 of a lemon
2/3 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1/2 teaspoon spirulina
1 tablespoon coconut butter
1 teaspoon organic cinnamon
I packet Four Sigmatic Reishi Mushroom Elixir
1 dropper organic liquid stevia
Recipe
add all ingredients to a blender and blend until frothy. Top with almond butter, coconut flakes, apple slices.
These recipes can be enjoyed even if you’re not on Clean, feel free to substitute two scoops of your favorite vanilla protein powder for the clean packets. Now onto my results!
Glowing skin was my only post cleanse expectation but it was far surpassed! Skin health wise, the anti inflammatory diet gets a 10, my skin was perfectly clean and vibrant until I indulged in a cheat. I cheated with a piece of vegan pizza and my body rebeled from the gluten by forming three giant pimples the next day! Learned a major lesson with that one, my skin hates gluten! My favorite result of the cleanse was waking up and feeling fantastic, full of energy, and ready to take on the day! I never felt my occasional bought of brain fog or sluggish start to the day. Another favorite result was getting regular! I’ve always been an irregular pooper…lol but really. The supplementation and addition of magnesium changed the game for my daily routine;) The Clean Program magnesium supplement is called Eliminate, cheeky right? The lemony berry flavor completely masks the sometimes chalky mag taste.
The last major result inexperienced was a generalized de puff in my body and face! If I hadn’t been intentionally avoiding weight loss by adding additional healthy fat to my diet, i’m sure this program would have illicted a scale drop. To recap my results were
1) Glowy Skin
2) Energy
3) Regularity
4) De puff
I felt so good on the cleanse I will most definitely incorporate some of the practices and swaps into my daily life. Pre cleanse I was pretty addicted to red wine, I would have a glass almost every night. I discovered on this no booze cleanse that the extra sugar and tannis was making me groggy and adding unwanted puff to my body. I now plan on enjoying a tequila soda or two on the weekends and sub wine for tea on weekdays.
Hot sauce was another addiction, I would dump hot sauce on all of my meals, adding phenomenal amounts of sodium to my diet. After three weeks of cutting hot sauce, my palette had reverted back to previous preferences and I didn’t need that massive salt kick!
I however am back on the decaf coffee and grass fed beef and loving it!lol All good things in moderation right??
If you’d like to try the Clean Program I have a $60 off code just for you!! Go to this CLEAN PROGRAM LINK and use code TheTrueSpoon at checkout.
xoxo,
Celeste