Christine's Cleanse Journal
This is a daily journal of my experiences during the Standard Process 21 day cleanse. I am hoping to rid my body of some of the toxins we all encounter daily. And who knows what other wonderful side effects I will see?! Maybe some weight loss and mental clarity?! I wouldn't mind a bit ;) Stay tuned!
Day 0....
I am a firm believer that you need to plan out your cleanse. That's what I did yesterday. I went to Walmart and bought everything I would need food wise for the next 5-7 days or so.
My grocery list included:
Bananas
Strawberries
Apples
Avocados
Carrots
Broccoli & Cauliflower
Eggs
Almonds
Hummus
(red pepper flavored)
Lettuce, spring mix
Broccoli, cabbage salad
(pre-mix)
Frozen strawberries
Frozen blackberries
Then I had to get my cleanse supplements from Lanpher Chiropractic Clinic ready. The three I am using are SP Cleanse, Gastro-Fiber and SP Green Food.
I also needed to get the cleanse powder ready to put in my daily shakes. This is called SP Complete and is also available in a Dairy Free option for those who do not tolerate dairy products well. I will be using this option during my cleanse, as I am lactose intolerant.
To make the daily shakes a blender of some kind is needed. I have a magic bullet so I am going to use that, but any food processor would work. I like the convenience of the magic bullet because of the handy mixing containers that also double as my cup once I have made my shake; this makes it easy to take with me when I'm on the way to class or clinic.
I also needed to get my big water bottle ready for all the extra water I will be drinking every day during the cleanse.
I also like to prepare the food I can ahead of time, so I took all the strawberries I bought and cut them up and put them into separate containers to grab easily throughout the week for lunches and snacks.
Then I also hard boiled the eggs I bought, again for the convenience of packing them quickly and easily for lunches and snacks.
More to come tomorrow when I actually start the cleanse!
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Day 1:
I must say a few things to begin this cleanse journal. I have modified the cleanse slightly from it's original format. The original cleanse calls for no meat or protein for the first 10 days and (having done this twice before) I know I need protein every day. So I have opted to add almonds and eggs, and occasionally some chicken or fish to the normal cleanse diet from Day 1 instead of on Day 11 like the plan originally called for.
Also, my pre-cleanse weight is 149.4lbs... hopefully I will have progress to report on that statistic as I progress through these 21 days :)
Here we go!
For Breakfast yesterday I had a SP Complete Dairy-Free shake. I used 2 heaping scoops of the powder, 5 frozen strawberries, 1/2 banana, Some ice cubes and some water. With my shake I also took my morning supplements: 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber
For an early morning snack I had an apple.
For lunch I had a broccoli and cabbage salad, it was amazing!
Along with this salad, I had another serving of my cleanse supplements: 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber
Lots of crunchy carrots and cabbage, then whole pieces of broccoli. It came with a flavorful, oil based orange dressing that was very good too. Oil based dressings are ok on the cleanse as long as they have very little or no sugar in them.
The main food items I am cutting out of my diet by doing this cleanse are Sugars, Carbohydrates, Dairy, Caffeine and Alcohol.
I can eat as many vegetables and fruits as I want to each day, I just need to keep the ratio of veggies to fruits 2:1, so twice as many vegetables! That may seem daunting at first, but when you make the bulk of your meals salads and then add additional vegetables to them it really turns out to be pretty simple to stay within that ratio. And delicious!
So, continuing on.... for a mid afternoon snack I had a handful of almonds and a hot green tea.
I am also drinking 60-120oz of water each day, so mentally add all of that water in!
I do make frequent trips to the bathroom, but I am feeling like I am losing some water weight, so that's always awesome!
On this cleanse Herbal Tea is recommended or Green Tea is an ok substitute on the first few days. I am still trying to get used to no caffeine, and there is very little in Green Tea... and it's freezing outside, in May! Anyways...
For dinner I made a super tasty salad with spring greens, 1 hard boiled egg, 1/2 an avocado, almonds and Italian salad dressing.
Again I took the last round for the day of my cleanse supplements: 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber.
My evening snack was a banana and another strawberry and banana shake (same as breakfast).
The recommendation for shakes per day is 2-3 and in the past I feel like I have gotten the best results when I consistently got 3 shakes in per day. I only got 2 in today, but going forward I will be having 3 per day. They are wonderful to add to your reduced calorie diet because they are very filling, and I think pretty tasty!
Well that's all for Day 1... stay tuned! Have a great night :)
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Day 2:
Yesterday morning for breakfast I had another tasty shake! I went with strawberry banana again, because it's great :)
And I took my 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements
For an early morning snack I had a bowl of strawberries.
For lunch I went to Whole Foods and got a wonderful salad with fruit from their salad bar. There was a spring mix for the lettuce, then I added red cabbage, carrots, peppers, hard boiled eggs, almonds, dried cranberries, cold peas, lime cilantro chicken and pineapple. All topped off with an Italian herb dressing.... Yum!!
And I slugged down my 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements with some H2O :)
For my afternoon snack I had another shake, this time using frozen blackberries instead of strawberries! Wonderful, very sweet and no added sugar!
Then for dinner, I wasn't actually that hungry after having my shake, so I had a plate of sweet baby peppers and took my last 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements for the day.
Aren't they pretty? :)
Finally, for my evening snack I had another strawberry banana shake to get my 3 in for the day!
I must say, for anyone thinking that they will be starving on a cleanse or detox program, think again! I am not restricted to how much I am eating per day as long as my ratio of veggies to fruits is 2:1. By sticking to mainly vegetables, the amount of calories I am eating per day has plummeted, but I do not feel deprived.
And another note, spring/summer is the perfect time to do a program like this because there is endless fruit and vegetable variety at your local grocery store or farmers market. Just today I got some green grapes, mangoes and grapefruit to mix up my fruit for the next few days :)
That's all for Day 2! Please feel free to email me or post comments if you have any questions!
christine.lanpherchiro@gmail.com
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Day 3:
Well yesterday morning I had my wonderful and colorful blackberry and banana cleanse shake... and of course my 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements.
I should add here that the supplements I am taking daily seem like a lot, but they go down so great and smooth and with no unpleasant "vitamin" taste, especially when taken with a shake. I normally do it this way, pairing my three shakes during the day with the three rounds of supplements that I need to take daily to get the full effect of the cleanse.
These supplements will actually pull the toxins out of my cells...Here's how that happens...with the decrease in calories (from cutting out all carbs and sugar, etc.) I will be shrinking all my fat cells! One fun fact about fat cells that is not really fun at all, is that you can never get rid of any fat cells, and no matter how much weight you lose you will always have the same number of fat cells!
Your fat cells are also where all the toxins are stored, so the more we shrink them by 1) cutting calories and 2) pulling out toxins with the cleanse shakes and supplements.... the leaner we will be!
So... let's continue with the rest of my delicious food from yesterday :)
For my mid morning snack I had some home-made trail mix of almonds and dried cranberries... so wonderful I could have eaten the whole bag!
Then for lunch I had another great salad with avocado and hard boiled egg slices on it with a dash of almonds and Italian dressing.
And of course my 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements to shrink those fat cells!
One awesome side effect I have been noticing is my digestion is amazing! I used to get pretty burpy after meals before going on the cleanse, and I would feel bloated after eating. After being on this program for just 3 days I can't remember the last time I burped, and I have not felt the least bit bloated, which is amazing cause I'm eating all the time :)
For my afternoon snack I had another shake, strawberry banana this time! Shake it up! Get it? ;)
For dinner I had a special treat of cooked herb shrimp and steamed vegetables - broccoli, cauliflower and carrots!
So delicious! It was wonderful having some lean protein with some super flavorful veggies :)
And... you guessed it! 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements as well!
Then for my evening snack I finished my day off with a blackberry and banana shake again... it's so much fun eating 6 times a day and getting healthier!
That's all for today, have a great evening everyone :)
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Day 4: Hey readers! Well I have excellent news to report today! If you didn't see on our Lanpher Chiropractic Clinic facebook page or on my Christine Marie facebook page already this morning, I weighed in and am down 3lbs already! So I have lost 3lbs, (or 12 sticks of butter as I like to think of it :P) since Friday! And I have not been hungry once, my energy has really increased yesterday and today and my digestion is amazing!
So, if you could use some weight loss, better digestion, more energy and you love to eat tasty fruits, veggies and lean protein... maybe a cleanse would be a good idea for you!
For breakfast yesterday, guess what?
Yep I had a delicious shake... of the blackberry and banana variety :)
And, of course 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber down with it!
I added an egg at breakfast as well.
My plan is to start my workouts today so I am going to up my protein from here on out.
Then for my morning snack I had an apple, my favorite kind are Honey Crisp... just a fun fact :)
I followed that with a handful of almonds for some more protein.
For lunch I had some sweet baby peppers, green grapes and two hard boiled eggs.
And my cleanse supplements, 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber capsules.
Eggs are a great source of protein, and I have found very filling, and don't forget so tasty!
For my afternoon snack I again had a cleanse shake, this time of the strawberry and banana flavor.
For dinner, as I was quite full from my afternoon shake, I had a banana and a handful of almonds again, and my last round of 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements.
After dinner, Nala (the world's cutest boxer... and my puppy) and I went for a brisk 1 hour walk outside in this beautiful weather :)
I had plenty of energy to do this, and even felt invigorated after ! This surprised me a little due to the fact that I am not cosuming that many calories, but my worries were unwarranted.
Isn't she so cute? ;)
To end the day, I had my final blackberry and banana shake!
Thanks for reading everyone!
Stay tuned, there is mango in my future :)
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Day 5: So I need to apologize right off the bat, because there is no mango in this new blog post... I was going to have it for dinner with shrimp, but I realized I really needed to eat the rest of my broccoli and cauliflower tonight, as they might go bad soon. I know, I led you on, but I PROMISE there will be mango tomorrow! :)
I bet you can guess that I had a shake of blackberry and banana flavor this morning for breakfast ... and a hard boiled egg for extra energy while I'm at clinic today :)
And my 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements....
But, I bet you didn't guess that I am down another pound already! That's 4lbs since Friday! (or 16 sticks of butter in my world!)
That's amazing! I could hardly believe it when I got on the scale this morning... what a great way to start off the day!
So delicious!
For an early morning snack I had an apple, and it was amazing and very juicy, a Honeycrisp of course.
Lunch was tricky today, as I am in clinic from 8-2 with no lunch break, so I had some Sweet Baby Peppers and a handful of almonds with a lot of water! I was pretty hot because I was so busy today, but it was really fun helping my patients! :)
For my afternoon snack I had another blackberry and banana shake and my 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements.
Then for dinner I had a hard boiled egg, broccoli and cauliflower and half of an avocado... Amazing!
I needed to eat the broccoli and cauliflower tonight, but man were they good! I always dip them in Italian dressing...my favorite :))
Then for an evening snack I had another blackberry and banana shake and my final 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements of the day!
Night everyone :)
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Day 6-13
Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been putting up daily blogs for a last week. With traveling home for the long weekend I got a little behind! But don't worry, I have lots of pictures ;)
For breakfasts for the last week I had shakes of either blackberry or strawberry variety with a banana of course, and my morning round of 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber.
Then for my morning snacks I would either have hard boiled eggs, a handful of almonds or some fruit like an apple, bowl of strawberries or green grapes.
For lunches, I would normally have a salad of some sorts. I love hard boiled eggs on my salad as well as dried cranberries and avocados.
And of course my mid-day supplements of 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber :)
Now on Day 11 of the cleanse, I was able to add some light meat back into my diet, which really adds a lot to salads :)
Roast beef is fun, and when sliced thinly makes a great flavor adder to any spring salad.
The bottom picture is a naked burrito from Qudoba, which was great! Also on Day 11, I was able to add a little rice to my diet. So on the bottom of my naked burrito bowl I just had them put a little rice, like less than 1 serving spoon full when they normally put like 3 full ones.
That also had grilled peppers and onions, a corn salsa, grilled chicken, black beans, lettuce and guacamole. YUM!
For afternoon snacks I would normally have some veggies or another shake.
For dinners I have been having cooked veggies, light meat such as shrimp (my favorite) and chicken meals, or salads.
And as I promised... here is the mango!
The pit or seed of the mango is in the middle so you need to cut the sides of the mango off around it.
Then the best way I have seen the mango cut up is to make this criss-crossed pattern to get the fruit off in little cubes that don't have any of the peel on them.
Fun fact: People who are allergic to poison ivy and poison oak will also have a reaction to eating any part of the mango peel.
So really, this is the safe way to cut and prepare mango as well.
And it looks cool :)
Then I fried up my shrimp and added the mango cubes. I seasoned the mix with basil, black pepper, garlic powder and Cayenne pepper for some kick!
Bon appetite!
Then for an evening snack I have been having my 2nd-3rd shake of the day with my last round of 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements.
Overall I feel amazing on this cleanse! I have tons of energy, never have that bogged down bloated feeling after eating.
I am craving sugary foods less and less, and I get to eat all the time haha! :)
Well, I hope you all have been enjoying these posts, keep looking for more!
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Day 14: 2 weeks in!
For the last 14 days I have cut out all grains, dairy products, caffeine, sugar and alcohol and I have never felt better! I have lost 6 lbs and am now down to 143 lbs :)
My energy level is wonderful even without sugar or caffeine, and my digestion is pretty close to perfect!
Let's get to the good stuff now... what I ate!
For breakfast, a strawberry and banana shake and my 7 SP Cleanse supplements, and 3 Gastrofiber supplements.
Then in the mid morning, since it was cold and rainy... I had some hot green tea, so cozy!
For lunch I had a salad with strawberries, almonds, dried cranberries and Italian dressing, and a kiwi :)
And I had my second round of supplements, 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber
For my afternoon snack I had some almonds and an orange, so sweet and juicy! I have missed oranges!
Dinner time brought some shrimp on my salad :)
Plus half an avocado, a hard boiled egg and Italian dressing.
For my evening snack I had another strawberry and banana shake and my last round of 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements.
I have been lifting weights 3 days a week and that has been going really well, I have enough energy, and I have been going on 1-1.5 hour walks with Nala 3 days a week also!
Overall, I feel fabulous, and might not stop this program! Lol ;)
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Days 15 and 16: Over the weekend I really had some amazing
improvements! While maintaining the nutritional advice of the cleanse
completely, I have really increased my workouts and exercising. This has helped
me lose 2lbs more over the weekend!
Now I am officially down 8lbs in 16 days!
I have never experienced results like this before!
I am doing weight training on my upper body, back and core
every other day, and walking at least 30-60min, 3-4 times a week with my
adorable side kick Nala :)
For breakfast both days I again had my delicious shake, Saturday I had strawberry and banana, then Sunday I had blackberry and banana. Then I also had my 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements.
Then for morning snacks I had green grapes both days... they were crazy sweet and juicy! I was instantly in love :)
For lunch, on Saturday I had a naked burrito bowl from Qudoba, as I was out shopping at the Mall of America. I had a very small amount of brown rice, all the grilled veggies, corn salsa, chicken, guacamole, lettuce and black beans, AMAZING!
Sunday I had a broccoli and cabbage salad with a sweet orange dressing, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds and carrots; so crunchy and delicious!
I took my second rounds of 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements at lunch as well.
For afternoon snacks in the afternoon I had sweet baby peppers and oranges both days because they are wonderful. :)
For dinners I had a broccoli, cabbage salad with sweet orange dressing, along with sweet peppers and oranges on Saturday.
Then Sunday I had a spinach, hard boiled egg, avocado and shrimp salad with Italian dressing.
For evening snacks I had shakes again with my last round of 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements for the day.
I am so impressed with this cleanse! It is fun, easy and so rewarding!
I would seriously recommend it to anyone who is just simply looking to feel healthier on a daily basis.
Not to mention weight loss, tons of energy, great tasting food, wonderful sleep patterns, amazing digestion, mental clarity and overall awesomeness :)
Have a great night everyone!
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Days 17-21 :)
The last 5 days of the cleanse were not a lot different from the other days and meals and shakes and supplements, but I will share some examples of what I devoured on this delicious veggie and fruit packed healthy eating adventure!
For breakfast I had a shake each morning, mainly I stuck to strawberry and banana, because it's my favorite!
I would normally pair it with some almonds, another half of a banana or 1-2 hard boiled eggs for added energy.
And I would always take my 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements.
For snacks I usually had some fruit like grapes or an orange or strawberries, or some sweet baby peppers.
So much color! I love it :)
For lunches, I would have some sort of wonderful salad with my favorite ingredients of avocado or guacamole, hard boiled eggs and peppers. Or a Mexican bowl from either Chipotle or Qudoba with all the veggie fixin's!
It's such an easy way to eat out and not feel guilty about carbs or calories or sugar! Extremely delicious, convenient and packed with great healthy ingredients!
And don't forget the 2nd round of 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements at lunch ;)
Then for afternoon snacks I normally had some almonds, or some more fruit to tide me over till dinner.
Then for dinner I started adding a lot more lean meat like chicken and shrimp to my salads and dinners.
And of course the last round of 7 SP Cleanse and 3 Gastrofiber supplements!
Then to end the days I had another strawberry and banana shake :)
The main thing I learned from this cleanse is that there are so many wonderful tasting foods out there that are AMAZING for your body and actually FEED it instead of pollute it like so many other choices.
As you have seen through this journal, the foods are bright and colorful, and fresh and easy to prepare!
Salads, fresh fruits, healthy fats such as eggs, nuts and avocados are much better picks than breads, sugary sweets, pastas, potatoes or heavy meal choices.
My digestion has been amazing since I started this program, no bloating after eating, I never get that sick-overfull feeling after I eat anymore. That alone is worth me changing my diet on a more permanent basis.
Overall, I have lost 9lbs on this cleanse and many inches around my waist. That is a very healthy amount of weight loss, at a little more than 3lbs a week.
My energy level is much higher, and I have not been consuming any caffeine or sugar, except for a hot green tea sporadically when it's chilly outside. This was very unexpected to me, but when my body is not weighed down by all the heavy food and extra toxins of processed foods that are not natural and clean, there is just good extra energy for me to use everyday.
I would be happy to answer any questions anyone has on this program or any struggles people think they might have following this program. The point is not to do something too drastic, but to make changes that will enhance your health in an everyday change kind of way.
This program is available at Lanpher Chiropractic Clinic. We have informational pamphlets and DVDs for you to take and look over to see the details of foods recommended and foods to avoid. There is also a toxicity test questionnaire available for you to look over. This is a great way to see if you could benefit from doing a cleanse yourself.
I truly appreciate all of your dedicated attendance in reading this cleanse journal that I have been writing. I really hope you have gained some new ideas of how to clean up your diet.
You can do it! And feel GREAT! ;)
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