Losing some weight motivated me to keep it up with eating better for a while, but as I got busier and busier with school and HoopGirl, I fell back into some patterns that are not so great for my health. Nevertheless, being around Christabel is inspiring. She truly treats her body as a temple…not in some crazy extreme way, but in a nice balanced way. I of course am always picking her brain about the amazing things she is always up to and this cleanse was one of them. She told me how much it changed her eating patterns and opened up her awareness to her emotional eating and just helped her become more conscious about it all. So as soon as she started selling it on the site, I knew it was a sign that I had to do it.

I got my cleanse in the mail and was so excited (and nervous) to start. At first I was overwhelmed by it all, but the Workshop DVDs that come with it really helped me figure out how it could all be done and why I was really doing it. The first week was a nice way to ease into it…it is a plant-based vegan diet with no caffeine, sugar, alcohol, etc. I was a vegetarian on and off for years, but haven’t been in the last few years because I felt that I needed the protein. I am still not a big meat eater naturally and eat meat/dairy free products where I don’t mind it. So the vegan thing wasn’t too hard except for missing cheese and sour cream. But giving up soda…phew, that was the challenge of this week for me. It was interesting to see those cravings creep up…it wasn’t even about the caffeine, it was the attachment to the sugar and bubbles and comfort a Coke brings me. I soon discovered that sparkling mineral water with lemon and the effervescence of kombucha were excellent replacements for me. I also really enjoyed the smoothies every morning and experimenting with all the different recipes. I lost a few pounds this week because of just eating so much better than usual.

Week 2 was a little more scary for me at first…it is an all live, uncooked, vegan diet. Like I said, the vegan thing is fine, it’s the not cooking the foods thing I was nervous about. I love warm, comforting foods. But I did it…I learned to make some raw meals, ate a ton of fruits and veggies, and started playing around with Energy Soup (a blended raw soup that can be super tasty). Luckily here in the Bay Area we also have some nice raw resources…Café Gratitude is one of them. It’s a live, organic, vegan restaurant that has one of the best philosophies/vibes I have ever seen. I came out of this week feeling absolutely incredible with a ton of energy and a whole new respect for the raw food diet.

So Week 3 is supposed to be a continuation of week two, except that it is all liquid…everything is blended so that it is easier on your digestive system. I got a couple of days into this week when I had to travel on short notice. I decided to take a break since preparing the foods was a little more complicated for me while away from home and in a strange place. I extended the cleanse and went back to the primarily vegan diet from week 1. I then decided to stop the cleanse completely because I felt that I had already gotten so much out of it…so many changes in my diet, body and mind!

I have now integrated some of the aspects from the cleanse into my daily routine, including the morning smoothies with the Dr. Greens Superfoods powder every day. I am also eating so much better over all with more whole foods, raw foods and less junk, soda, etc. I ended up losing about 9 pounds from the cleanse and have kept off 5 of them a month later.  I am planning on doing this cleanse again in a couple of months and will likely do it a few times a year!

So yes, I highly recommend this cleanse to anyone looking to detox, reevaluate their eating, get some awesome healthy and fun recipes, or just feel more connected to what they are putting in their body.