Wellness Wednesday: Clean Eating for 3 Days {A Review of Cindy Crawford’s Essentials}

Remember a while back when I mentioned I was doing a food cleanse? Well I’d love to tell you guys more about it!

I’ve done a few juice cleanses before, and my favorite has been the Purify Cleanse by Urban Remedy. When Urban Remedy recently contacted me to review Cindy Crawford’s Essentials, I was incredibly excited! Cindy helped to create the plant-based line for busy lifestyles. They’re made with organic, natural ingredients to last you 3 days, or a week if you’d like to spread it out. Best of all it isn’t all juices; in fact most of it the collection is made up of healthy salads, plant-based snacks and nutritious meals to help you reset your diet and start eating clean.

First of all, I’d like to share my experience of Cindy’s Essentials and explain what it’s like to eat clean for 3 days. This means, no processed foods, no added sugars, no meat or dairy. I opted to choose to do this over 3 days because I wanted to experience what it would be like to really reset my body through food, without deprivation or just doing a juice cleanse.

PRE-BREAKFAST WAKE ME UP: Each morning, I woke up and enjoyed a Cold Brew Light Coffee made with a touch of almond milk. SO delicious you guys. I loved that I was able to have coffee during the three days. It meant I wouldn’t crash from caffeine deprivation.

BREAKFAST: Cindy’s Mint Cacao Chip is loaded with good for you nutrition, healthy fats, and FLAVOR. It tasted exactly like a mint chocolate chip milkshake except it’s made with spinach, mint, cacao, almond milk, banana, cashew, vanilla and stevia. Sometimes I wish I would have saved it and enjoy as a dessert shake, but I couldn’t resist a healthy shake in the morning. I’m a huge breakfast lover and this filled me up usually until lunch time.

SNACK TIME: I usually work out around noon, so after my workout I enjoyed one of the three snacks they offer. The trail mix was by far my favorite; it’s packed with tons of superfoods including goji berries, cacao nibs, cashews, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and inca berries. LOVE. I wish I could eat this trail mix all the time. The sweet potato hummus was also to die for and I loved the amount of veggies they gave me for dipping. I could eat veggies and hummus all day long.

Snack options included:

• sweet potato hummus & veggies
• lemon almonds (not currently on their site)
• superfood trail mix

I also enjoyed their low glycemic juices; there are three to choose from and all are greens based. These definitely weren’t my favorite, so to be honest sometimes I skipped them.

LUNCH: About an hour after my snack, I was hungry again. All of the salads had a dose of healthy fats and were big enough to keep me satisfied. I swear I’m not lying when I tell you that I was full the entire day!

Lunch options included:

• Green Quinoa Salad
• Zen Salad
• Shredded Kale Salad

My favorite lunch was the green quinoa salad made with quinoa (duh) rainbow chard, red peppers, chopped dates and a fabulously zesty lemon dressing. There was something about the dates in the salad that made me go crazy over it. I also added a few of my lemon almonds to the salad. FABULOUS.

DINNER: Sometimes I felt left out when Tony ate dinner and I was sitting there chomping on veggies; overall though it didn’t bother me that much. Cindy’s Essentials offered such wonderful choices for dinner that I didn’t feel too jealous.

Dinner options included:

• Veggie Pad Thai
• Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl
• Raw Soup and Zucchini Pasta

My personal favorite was the Mediterranean quinoa bowl. I added red peppers to mine for a little extra flavor and because I add a few I needed to use up. I never felt guilty about eating extra vegetables during those 3 days. Sometimes at night I enjoyed a banana with almond butter because I was craving something sweet for dessert.

How I felt DURING the cleanse: Mostly great. There were times where I got a little crabby, but I think that’s because I tend to eat more sugar than what was in the cleanse. It felt wonderful to eliminate meat, processed foods and dairy. My skin was GLOWING, energy was up and I actually felt thinner. Surprisingly it felt like I was getting more vitamins and nutrition in during the cleanse then on my normal diet. Also I was still able to workout without a problem.

How I felt AFTER the cleanse: Excellent! Weirdly enough it felt like my stomach shrunk; it didn’t take much to fill me up and I didn’t crave my usual weekly cheat foods like french fries and frozen yogurt.

Because I know you’ll ask if I lost weight: Yes, I did lose weight! About 3 pounds in 3 days. Not bad. But overall that wasn’t my goal of doing Cindy’s Essentials. I did it because I wanted to eat clean for 3 days and reset my body. To be honest, it really did help me. I was focused on eating well throughout the week.

Would I recommend Cindy’s Essentials? Absolutely! I think that if you are in need or a reset but don’t like juice cleanses, this is wonderful for you. Or perhaps if you are really looking to jump start your weight loss, Cindy’s Essentials is great to incorporate into your diet throughout the week. Either way, I don’t think you’ll regret it. Best of all, you won’t leave you starving!

Lastly, Cindy’s Essentials is completely organic and GMO free! You can find all nutrition information on the Urban Remedy website.

Question for you: Do you practice clean eating regularly? Would you ever consider doing Cindy’s Essentials? 

Disclaimer: While I was compensated for my time, Urban Remedy was kind enough to send me this cleanse and of course — all opinions are my own. Thanks for continuing to support Ambitious Kitchen and the brands I work with.