21 day Food Lovers Cleanse Guide, the Story First
This is my intro of sorts to the cleanse I will be doing in a couple of weeks. I’ll be posting my shopping lists, recipe list, and general how to get ready for it soon in case you want to do a cleanse or incorporate healthy recipes into your diet. This is not a New Years resolution type deal. I do these a couple of times a year, and it happened to be this is when we had time to do one.
I love food. So when I cleanse, it needs to be filling and taste good.
In my past life I was a massage therapist. It feels like centuries ago that I made a living from helping people with their aches and pains. It is quite interesting to me my journey to where I am today. Since I can remember I have loved food. I have always loved vegetables, fruit, and good tasting whole foods. I was never much for fast food, other than In n out and the occasional high school late night or after sports practice. I do, however, recall always asking my Mom and Dad for salad for lunch or dinner. This memory lead to me to do some recalling of how I came to love health food. I remember in high school being interested in health, yoga, granola, hippies… Oh wow, it’s because I was sort of a hippie in my earlier years, now people tell me I still am. I just don’t dress the way I did in high school, which made it obvious I was a total hippie.
My parents and family in Mexico always fed us whole foods, made at home, from scratch with fresh vegetables and fruit which was the start of it all. It stuck with me. I met many people along the way who were interested in health foods. I had a massage therapist when I was in my very early twenties who taught me a lot about healthy eating. It stuck too. I worked in restaurants from fifteen years old, Jamba Juice, fresh coastal Mexican style foods, a cool healthy breakfast style place in Santa Barbara, to high end cuisine in Sacramento. But I observed a lot in each of these places, learning a lot from the chefs and practices of the kitchen.
It brought an early awareness to eating good food, made well, and using whole ingredients, which brings me back to massage. I became a massage therapist when I was 24. I love the balance between science and sage smudging, good vibes. It was perfect for me at the time, and it brought me to working in a great office full of like minded individuals. We offered acupuncture, massage, chiropractic, exercise programs, cleanses and healthy lifestyle coaching. That is where I learned about a fairly hard core cleanse that I ended up doing.
The 21 day hard core cleanse:
- no dairy
- no meat until the last week, small portions of fish or chicken
- no grains until the last week, brown rice and lentils ok
- no caffeine
- no processed foods of any kind, healthy or not
- high quality organic supplements and protein shakes
- mostly raw or low heat cooked vegetables
- small portions fruits
- as many vegetables as you want
- no nuts, seeds, dried fruit, canned vegetables, all fresh
- HARD CORE 21 DAYS
Honestly, it was an amazing experience that I enjoyed thoroughly. It challenged me, which is good. It made me tired, emotional, yet in the end feeling healthy, revived, and cleansed. I would do it again and again.
The 21 day OC cleanse:
There are three levels on this cleanse that vary for each individual, but roughly comprise of the following…
- no dairy
- no meat
- no caffeine
- spirulina/chlorella tablets everyday for protein
- first week: smoothie breakfast, raw lunch, cooked dinner
- second week: smoothie breakfast, cooked lunch or dinner, raw blended lunch or dinner
- third week: smoothie breakfast, raw blended lunch or dinner, raw or cooked blended lunch or dinner
- grains, nuts, seeds, corn tortillas are all ok
- as many vegetables as needed to stay full
- portioned fruit
I have not done the above mentioned OC cleanse but family members have done it, and enjoyed it.
I have done the Master Cleanse, apple juice cleanse, green smoothie cleanse, all vegetable cleanse, and the above mentioned hard core cleanse. I do a cleanse or two throughout the year to reboot my tummy and general health. I eat mostly healthy most of the time. But I do eat dairy, meat, fish, carbs, dessert all in mostly balanced ways. So to me, I just like to put a bunch of extra healthy stuff in my body to reboot.
DISCLOSURE: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. I AM SHARING MY EXPERIENCES WITH YOU. CONSULT A DOCTOR BEFORE DOING ANY CLEANSE. THANK YOU.
My Cleanse approach this time around:
- no dairy
- no meat
- minimal caffeine, I will drink tea and occasional coffee if I want
- minimal healthy processed food, such as Asian sweet potato noodles and corn tortillas
- brown rice, quinoa, farro, lentils, beans
- minimal nuts and seeds, lower fat choices
- as many vegetables as needed to stay full
- portioned fruit
- raw and cooked vegetables meals in balance
- smoothie for breakfast
- snacks: kale chips, roasted chickpeas, nuts, dried fruits
My general feeling on this is, keep full with healthy foods. If I have a craving for desserts, I can make an extra smoothie, maybe with more sweet fruit. If I want a snack I will eat roasted chickpeas, kale chips, or dried bananas. I am not going hard core, but it will be clean eating for 21 days. I’ll drink green tea and maybe a cup of coffee if I am craving it. I will meditate quietly each day to keep grounded and sane. Go for walks everyday and get my 10,000 steps in. No extra stress. Light yoga.
Special Equipment: Food dehydrator (you can dehydrate in your oven if you don’t have one), spiralizer to make noodles from vegetables. Not needed but cool to have. I recently won the Excalibur from my friends site, The Blender Girl. She is a great reference for recipes, tips, and an amazing woman.
Some recipes I’ll be using for the cleanse. I’ll just adapt any of them by removing the dairy or meat…
Zucchini Ribbon Salad, I may use carrots instead since they are in season
If you have any questions please feel free to ask! Email me or comment below… fabiola(at)notjustbaked(dot)com.
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