As many of you know, I did a personalized holiday cleanse right after Thanksgiving and before our trip to Denver & Aspen. I am currently doing round two after Christmas and New Years but after doing a quick poll, many of you wanted me to share my thoughts about round one of the cleanse first.
Every year, I always get off track during the holidays. My busiest time of the year at work is in September and October so naturally my consistent workout routine goes out the window and my Postmates orders go up LOL. I’m just too busy to even think about working out or making a healthy meal after a 16-18 hour work day. Then busy season is over but the holidays hit. I think the holidays are a triple whammy – it’s a time of indulgence, lots of social events, and it’s COLD! For me, all of these things contribute to me having that extra cookie or reaching for another piece of peppermint bark. #Truth
Anywho, after Thanksgiving I was definitely feeling some holiday bloat so I wanted to do a holiday detox/cleanse. My best friend Christina, who I’ve mentioned before on my blog, is an amazing and knowledgable nutrition consultant! I worked with her to get in shape for my wedding earlier this year. She evaluated my diet and came up with a personalized holiday cleanse for me for two weeks! It’s so sweet because Daniel was really supportive and actually did the cleanse with me too 🙂 It’s always easier going through things with a partner 😉
WHAT THE CLEANSE ENTAILED
Going back to gluten free & diary free – I did this while I was prepping for the wedding so this was pretty easy to get back into. I always feel my healthiest when I cut out gluten and diary in my diet. They contribute to belly bloat a lot so after a gluten or dairy heavy meal I always feel so much discomfort in my stomach.
Intermittent fasting – This was brand new and I was so excited to try this out! Christina has tried this herself in her own daily life and seen great results so she added it to my holiday cleanse. She had me on a 16 hour water fast so only having my 3 meals between 12pm-8pm four times a week. I was allowed to have green tea in the morning and drink water during the 16 hour fast period.
Intermittent fasting is a pattern of eating that is known to contribute to weight loss because it allows your body to get to a fat burning state. This usually doesn’t happen when you’re eating meals from 8am-8pm or 10pm like our usual eating habits entail. If you want to learn more about intermittent fasting, there’s lot of articles you can google that talk about it’s benefits, how to start integrating it into your lifestyle, and what it does for your body. Christina had me only do 4 days a week to ease my body into it.
No coffee! – I’m actually not a huge coffee drinker.. I only started drinking coffee frequently about two years ago but during this time of year I love a good PSL. It was harder than I thought letting go of coffee. I found myself really craving it the first few days.
Adding in fermented foods to promote healthy gut bacteria – I added in Kombucha and sauerkraut to my diet on alternating days. I never eat either but honestly didn’t mind the taste. I’ve tasted some kombucha my friend had before and to be quite honest it was a little off putting so I never got into it. The Health Ade brand that Christina recommended is actually so tasty! They sell it at Whole Foods and lots of grocery stores now. I would drink it even if it wasn’t good for me. We’ve tried the ginger lemon and the pomegranate – both were delish but my fav is the pomegranate.
If you want to see what I typically eat in a day for my three meals while I’m gluten free dairy free, I included it in my wedding diet blog post.
ONE WEEK LATER
The first few days were the hardest. I went through major sugar withdrawals and had crazy cravings for “bad” foods. The intermittent fasting was also so tough but got way easier mid way through the first week. After a while our bodies got used to eating later in the day. I was allowed to have green tea in the morning to jumpstart my body so I started really looking forward to that.
I went to three pure barre classes the first week.
Beginning weight and measurements
Height: 5’2 3/4 | Weight: 118 | Measurements: 34-25-32
One week check in weight and measurements
Height: 5’2 3/4 | Weight: 114.8 | Measurements: 34-24.4-32
TWO WEEKS LATER
The second week flew by – we were in a really good routine and it was getting so easy to fast and eat gluten free/dairy free. My sugary cravings were gone and I was having less of those moments where I felt like I had to have a cookie or cheesy bread.
I tried to bump up my workouts but the holiday social events got the best of me and I was only able to go to three pure barre classes the second week again.
Beginning weight and measurements
Height: 5’2 3/4 | Weight: 118 | Measurements: 34-25-32
One week check in weight and measurements
Height: 5’2 3/4 | Weight: 114.8 | Measurements: 34-24.4-32
Final two week weight and measurements
Height: 5’2 3/4 | Weight: 112.2 | Measurements: 34-24-32
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, I was so happy with the results of the two week cleanse. I lost all of my belly bloat and lost almost 6 lbs! If you go and read my wedding diet blog post you’ll see that it took me almost 5 weeks to see major results so I definitely think adding in intermittent fasting accelerated my results.
To keep it real with all of you, after our vacation and Christmas I was back to 117 from all of the indulgent foods and sweet treats so before starting round 2 I would say I looked pretty similar to my “before” pic above. I forgot to take a photo on January 1st but will take some progress photos throughout round two to update you all later on.
One of my goals this year is to keep a gluten free dairy free lifestyle 85% of the time so I’m hoping that will help me see consistency in my health and fitness. I always fall off during the holidays but through the rest of the year, my weight and fitness is fairly consistent. I work out anywhere from 3-5 times a week and eat pretty healthy. My weight usually stays in the 110-112 range and I can maintain pretty easily just as long as I don’t go buckwild and eat bad food day after day. If I’m in really really good shape and eating super healthy I am below 110.
Holiday cleanses and detoxes are such a great way to hit the refresh button and reset your body after the holidays. I highly recommend working with Christina to get an individualized holiday cleanse and consultation. She also recommends different supplements and other things that she feels will be effective for your own personal nutrition goals. If you mention that I sent you, you can get $25 off the personalized cleanse!
If you have any questions about the cleanse, please feel free to reach out to me via email or DM!
XOXO