The November 2017 cleanse was a huge success!
From November 1st through 21st, a group of 350 people joined in a biannual Clean Slate Cleanse. This group quickly bonded and shared recipes and self-care tips and celebrated triumphs together. For three weeks, we all ate a wheat-free, sugar-free, caffeine-free, alcohol-free, and 100% plant based diet.
Eliminating foods like meat, dairy, sugar, and alcohol can seem intimidating at first. So can the amount of food prep and cooking that is initially required. However, you get to experiment with new ingredients, try new cooking techniques, and flush toxins from your body more rapidly.
Health Benefits of Cleanses
Cleansing is nothing new. Cleanses are part of many healthcare and spiritual traditions. Plant-based dietary cleanses have been shown to:
- Decrease body weight, waist and hip circumference, blood pressure, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL, ‘bad’) cholesterol,
- Reduce risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome, and
- Increase testosterone in men.
What does the cleanse entail?
When you sign up for a cleanse, you receive a few tools to help you conquer it such as: a bank of recipes that will help you get started with plant based eating, journal prompts to help guide you through the emotional journey, and access to an exclusive online community.
This cleanse was special for me because the group of participants were so engaged, committed, and creative. It wasn’t always easy! The first couple of days on the cleanse were rough on a lot of people. Sugar crashes, caffeine crashes, travel woes, and lack of familiarity with the food ingredients generated loads of questions and triggered some difficult emotions.
Once we got going our Facebook group was alive with excitement. It filled with detailed recipes and became a center of empowerment for all of us. I gazed in wonder at the bountiful, vibrant food that people created. I was inspired by the stories of successes of plant-based eating in stubborn children and husbands. This group gave me so much and I am grateful that so many lives were changed.
The cleanses just get better and better!
In preparation for the cleanse, April Howton , Kelli Wright and I worked together over the summer to put together an initial collection of recipes. Thanks to feedback from the cleansers, the recipes are now more direct and delicious.
We also were joined on this cleanse by a professional recipe tester who helped me ensure that instructions were clear (no more glugs of olive oil, it needs to be teaspoons, lol). Many participants gave excellent feedback that helped transform the recipes from personal to professional.
On this cleanse, April and I stretched ourselves to create new recipes that met the needs of participants. For example, we had a lot of people who chose to avoid all soy. I am a tofu junkie and many of my recipes use tofu. However, I honor that some people choose to avoid it, so we created new, inspired dishes for them. We also put together a vegan thanksgiving spread and easy to cook crock-pot options.
Also, I completed AromaYoga training over the summer, so it was great to be able to bring in more meditation, visualization, and yoga to the mix.
Those before and afters, though!
The average participant lost between 5-10 lbs on the cleanse. We had 2 people who were able to discontinue diabetes medications. One of them noticed significant blood sugar reductions in a mere 9 days. Another cleanser was able to decrease the dose of medicines to treat inflammation. Cleansers reported having better breath in the morning, better bowel movements, increased desire for sexual activity, and improved overall wellness.
Several of the cleansers have mentioned that they don’t ever wish to return to the way they used to eat. Instead, they opt for cleaner choices on a daily basis!
Save the date! Join us for the next cleanse by visiting this page!
