If you’ve been following my journey of the Clean Program cleanse plan that I’ve been doing, then you read the results that I began to see even after the first week of cutting out gluten, dairy, coffee alcohol, and a few choice other food items.
I’ve had a lot of people asking about what I have changed, why my skin is glowing so much, and how I have so much energy. I’ve even encouraged a few more people to start the cleanse with me! One of my coworkers started it, and within 3 days began to see changes in the looseness of her clothes and the way she was feeling.
Week 2 Results:
More weight loss, more inches, less bloat
As you know, my boyfriend was doing this cleanse with me. On day 9 he excitedly called me to let me know that he was a few belt loops smaller and was able to wear a shirt that had been hanging in the closet untouched for months!
As for me, I don’t wear belts much, but I noticed that all of my shorts, especially the fitted workout shorts that I wear for yoga and Barre3 classes were really starting to have some excess room. I think a big part of it was cutting out the foods that had previously made us bloats like dairy, wheat and alcohol and beers! The bloating reduced immediately!
Stomach Pains Gone!
If you read my synopsis of the first week on the cleanse plan, I would have told you that I have been suffering from chronic pains in my lower right abdomen for the last two years. Likely something happening in my lower intestine. I can report that I went to the doctors and they found nothing, so I have reason to believe that something that I was eating pre-cleanse was the culprit for this. It is so great going from having unpredictable stomach pains, not knowing when the next spell will hit, to going completely pain-free. An elimination diet is a great way to find out if something that you are eating is harming your body. What you do is eliminate most allergy-inducing foods like dairy, grains, and caffeine from your diet and take note of the changes. Then, week by week, you introduce one new ingredient to the mix until you are able to decipher which item has been causing you grief. I do notice that the pain creeps back slightly when I eat quinoa, so I am beginning to suspect that there is something about eating grains that my body is not in love with.
Cravings for Sugar Gone!
Sugar is an extremely addictive substance. Think Rob Ford crack-cocaine scandal addictive. In most meals, like that low-fat yogurt and cereal you ate for breakfast, you barely even know it’s there, yet it’s contributing to unhealthy blood sugars in your body right under your nose. Pre-cleanse, I would try and minimize my refined sugar intake as best as I could, opting for honey and cane sugar in my morning coffee instead, but when you cut all sugars out of your diet, you begin to notice that they all have a very similar effect to a really addictive substance.
During my first few weeks on the cleanse, I could feel that my craving for sugar was intense. I would try and minimize the cravings by snacking on a couple of dates. After you realize the difference in yourself with and without sugar, you’re happier not to eat it to avoid the dramatic changes in your mood and energy levels.
Mo’ Money No’ Problems
We used to spend 200$ + a week on groceries and that would often not even get us through the week! Not to mention, we are patio addicts so hitting a patio for dinner and a few drinks was not out of the norm. We both used to spend at least 10$ a day on coffee. One in the morning from our favorite coffee shop (which is after the one we had already made at home to drag ourselves out of bed) and then a pick-me-up to help us with the mid-afternoon slump. This second coffee usually came hand in hand with a treat. I would buy take-out lunches (or uber eats) instead of making lunches at home a few times a week. Before you know it, you are out an extra few hundred dollars and you don’t even know where that money went!
With the foods in this diet, my boyfriend and I are able to do a grocery shop for less than 150$ and be confident that it will last us all week. For certain foods, like dried beans and chickpeas, picking up a package of those will last us even longer!
Interested in seeing what’s on my grocery shopping list? Sign up for our newsletter. I’m sending a downloadable grocery list on our next edition to make it easier for you to shop, and get started with our cleanse. This is exclusive to newsletter subscribers.
Wake Up *FLAWLESS*
Clearer Skin
So my skin has always been a bit unpredictable. One week things can be great, and the next, a breakout comes from nowhere. A lot of my issues would happen on my cheeks, and when you look into face mapping, which is correlating parts of your body that are having issues with functioning to their full potential and where your breakouts are occurring, you’ll find that cheek breakouts are directly correlated to poor digestion.
This week, I could not get a zit if I tried. I even slept with my makeup on one night and still woke up glowing!
Some of it I have Lush Cosmetics’ Angels on Bare Skin to thank, but I can tell a lot of is from my insides being happy.
No Dark Circles
I have spent HUNDREDS of dollars on dark circle remover creams, all claiming that they are the miracle cure with little results. If I had known that all I had to do was instead save money and change my diet, I think I would have started this years ago. When I wake up in the morning the dark circles there I feel that have been living under my eyes are drastically reduced. Now my skin in those areas is so much brighter!
Kylie Jenner, Here I come
This last result I have noticed during times where I have upped my water intake to attempt to minimize dehydration is that you start to get a bit of a lip plumping effect. When your body is dehydrated, the first place it begins to take water from is the tissues out of your skin. So, when you are drinking enough pure water to see the benefits of this cleanse, you’ll see the effects in your beauty routine as well. You’ll be fresh-faced and dewy. You’ll be able to get away with wearing no makeup!
ps: Save the rings! When you’re dehydrated, your joints expand, including the ones in your fingers, and when you are hydrated, they shrink. So, if you are increasing your hydration, look out for missing rings, mine started to fall off all over the place as my fingers were decreasing in size!
Real Love Energy
Pre-cleanse, there was nothing in the world that could get me out of bed. I would give myself an ample amount of time to sleep, at least 8 hours, and I would still find myself dragging myself out of bed. When it came time to go to bed, with all of the stimulants of the day such as coffee, tea, sugar and the bright lights from my laptop or iPhone screen, I found it hard to stick to my sleeping schedule and pass out on time.
To pull me out of bed I literally needed my boyfriend to make a coffee and bring it upstairs to me. I would sometimes set my alarm clock on my phone downstairs on top of my espresso machine in an attempt to motivate myself to get out of bed, but all that ended up happening was that I would go downstairs, hit snooze, and bring my phone back upstairs with me as I hopped into my comfy sheets.
I think that this is the biggest most beneficial change since cleansing. I feel REAL energy. I do not have to depend on sugar and deal with the crashes that correlate to it. I wake up feeling rested, I’m able to jump out of bed and start my day as soon as I hear my alarm ring. Since beginning this cleanse, we have even been working out at 6:30 in the morning to make more use of our day!
When you live off of coffee, you don’t realize, but you spend most of your day in this haze. You are not able to think completely straight and your energy levels are all over the map. Imagine feeling like a completely different person, like you are able to make calm collected decisions all day. You do not get anxious or spazzy, you let road ragers affect you at least 50% less. This is the effect that I’ve felt by eliminating inflammation-causing foods and beverages from my diet.
Selectabase
19 September
I simply want to state that this post is very beneficial.
Thank you for taking your time to post this.