Our Experience with the Clean Program 21-Day Cleanse Bleecker September 9, 2015 Health, Healthy, NYC Experiences To explain the Clean Program in the simplest way, I’d say it’s like hitting the reset button for your body. By giving yourself 21 days of eating clean, and food approved by the Clean Program, your body rids itself of built up toxins and will naturally eliminate unnecessary cravings and overeating. The Clean Program, created by Dr. Junger, wants you to take clean eating a step further by eliminating all potential allergens and difficult to digest foods from your diet for 21 days. This includes gluten, dairy, soy, corn etc., which are all known as potential allergens. You must also eliminate foods that are high in starches, such as potatoes, white rice, etc., as well as though high in natural sugar, which cause blood sugar to rise (bananas, strawberries, raisin). Click HERE for the full elimination list. It’s very important to note that the focus of the Clean Program is NOT weight loss. Instead, this cleanse is about detoxifying the body and repairing the digestive system, although weight loss is most often an added bonus. But the real focus is on HEALTH, remember that! It’s a true lifestyle change, not a quick fix. I first found the Clean Program through healthy blogger sisters @Spinach4Breakfast, who are both huge advocates of the program. On their own blog, they provide healthy and clean recipes, with a whole section devoted specifically to the Clean Program. Here are their thoughts on it: We’ve done a few 21-day cleanses over the past two years. We plan to do 1-2 per year as the program suggests. In between cleanses we try to stick to the clean foods listed on the elimination diet list the best we can. We continue to have smoothies for breakfast because it is an easy & light way to start our day. In between cleansing we also add in other natural foods such as organic eggs, bananas, tomatoes, eggplant, sweet potato, etc. that we have no negative reactions to. When we find ourselves falling off track (holidays, eventful weekends, vacations ahh!) we do a “mini cleanse” for 7-10 days to get back ON track and reduce our cravings for junk food. After reading about how much they loved this cleanse, I decided to give it a try. I enjoy eating well, so how hard could a (bit) more restricted diet for 21 days be? How the Clean Program Cleanse Works For 21 days you are supposed to replace two meals of the day, preferably breakfast and dinner, with a shake, made with a cleanse shake packet. Your third meal of the day, typically lunch, can be anything using clean approved foods. An example is hearty salad with wild salmon, which is a go-to for me. At all meals you take one clean program supplement packet as well as one probiotic to aid in the digestive process. Overall I didn’t find it difficult to get through the 21 days. Of course when social events came up, I simply switched my dinner shake to lunch and made to sure to eat clean program approved foods when I was out. I had fun experimenting with smoothie and shake recipes(so much so, I broke my blender in the process!) and used recipes from the Clean Program’s blog as well as Spinach 4 Breakfasts’ for my lunch meal. I also found myself full throughout the day, without the need to snack between meals, which is a very typical habit for me. By the end of the cleanse, I felt so good that even after it ended I have mostly continued starting my day with a smoothie and eating foods from the approved list. (Though I can’t stay away from sweet potatoes, I must admit). If you’re interested in hitting the reset button for you body, now is a great time to try the Clean Program. As summer settles down and you’re able to get back into more of a routine, why not start fresh with a 21-day cleanse and get your body back on track too! No better time than now. Click HERE for details.
