Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to speak to a group of dedicated individuals who are currently finishing up a 3 week vegan cleanse. These vegan cleanses are led by one of the most inspiring people I have met in a long time. Her name is Elle Palmer – if you know her – you know this – She’s bright, spunky, smart and so freakin’ energetic – but most of all she is HILARIOUS. I couldn’t think of someone better to lead people to “3 Weeks to Wellness.”
“3 Weeks to Wellness” is a very straight forward way to clean up and detox your diet. The concepts follow the guidelines of this book “Quantum Wellness: A Practical Guide to Health and Happiness” by Kathy Freston which is founded on a plant based vegan diet. The results are absolutely amazing – you lose weight, sleep better, lower your cholesterol levels, improve your allergies, relieve your aches and pains and more! Elle has so many testimonials on her website – It’s incredible seeing and hearing all of the positive results from something that just takes a commitment of 3 weeks. Check it out HERE.
Every Wednesday, during the cleanse the group meets for a Vegan Pot Luck. Everyone brings a dish without animal products, gluten or refined sugars. These pot lucks foster a huge sense of community – everyone on the same goal and eating the same food.
The options were endless – everything from Luna’s Living Kitchen coconut macaroons, to a huge delicious salad with cashew dressing, lemon garlic white beans, a Moroccan stew, squash soup, quinoa with green beans and cranberries, and lots more! I brought my famous collard wraps with beet sweetened hummus and forever cookies made with cherries….
Before we ate – Julia from No Face Plate & The Ethical Glutton gave us a cooking demo on how to cook tofu and make it nice, firm and crispy – She used a sage garlic sauce that smelled amazing! You really need to check out her new blog design – she’s got some incredible vegan recipes on there and she’s available for hire to cook a vegan or vegetarian smorgasbord any time you like.
This was my plate – I think I went back for not seconds, but thirds 🙂 One of my favorites was the gluten free chocolate cupcake. Divine!
Also – The jackfruit “crabless” crab cakes WERE incredible. It’s really hard to get fresh jackfruit around these parts, I found out you can buy it canned from the Asian Food Market – so cool. Did you know jackfruit was the original fruit that inspired juicy fruit gum?
One really cute girl I sat next to at dinner (who shall remain nameless) said that the meal here was better than the food at her recent family reunion! I can totally see why – all this food here was made with lot of nutritious LOVE – you could taste the good energy!
We ate and then gathered around Elle’s living room for everyone to share their experiences on the cleanse. Hearing what people were struggling with – caffeine withdrawal and sugar cravings made me want to grab my juicer and start making juice for them immediately!
Marley from Ecolicious and her lovely Mother are doing the cleanse together. This inspired me to maybe convince my mom, aunts and cousins to do this in the future! BTW Ecolicious is a shop in Plaza Midwood that sells all cruelty free and eco friendly products! They do all the research, so you don’t have to. I LOVE that.
After everyone had a chance to speak, I gave a talk about dairy and sugar cravings. I spoke for about an hour – totally going over my time limit…Everyone was engaged asking questions and commenting.
My favorite reaction was during the dairy portion where I gave some statistics on what would happen if we stopped eating dairy and beef. If all of us just gave up using cows for food, we would have enough food to feed the entire planet – Solving World Hunger! With the same amount of food it takes to feed a 100 cows, you could feed 2000 humans! I heard a “gasp” in horror from the audience when I shared these facts. It is pretty startling to hear this for the first time to say the least!
At the end of the night, Elle had to kick everyone out. Literally. The participants could have talked to each other the whole entire night – A cleanse slumber party, wouldn’t be a bad idea for the next one! I enjoyed staying late and answering questions and hearing everyone’s experiences!
I went home late, full of wanderlust, energy and love I received from the nourishing food and company. Thank you Elle for inviting me to be a speaker, I’m really looking forward to being part of this awe-inspiring, phenomenal and transformative program again in January.
XOXO,
Food Babe
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love Elle Palmer great hostess and lots of fun. I feel really great for 62 year old after the cleanse. I plan to stay vegan I am loaing weight and inches, learning to like real food. Thanks to you Elle. I hope to see you soon at one of your potlucks with new and improved receipes.
Thank you Carolyn – Elle energy is electric! Excited to hear you plan on staying vegan – Wish you infinite health!
No reason not to stay vegan! With all the convenience and delicious alternative choices these days, why ever contribute to endless torture & suffering, by the millions? Besides, animal protein has been linked to breast cancer, and dairy to both cancer & osteoporosis! I recommend reading The China Study, to anyone still unsure about a plantbased lifestyle. It may save your life, in the end…