Getting CleanER!

During our family vacation over the Christmas holiday one family member became intrigued by an article in Outside Magazine. The article described all the benefits that one man experienced after completing a 21-day "cleanse." By the end of the vacation, most of the siblings were moderately interested and everyone was eager to cheer on everyone else.  Brian (my husband) went out to buy the book Clean by Dr. Alejandro Junger and by the end of our 4 hour journey home from our holiday, we were committed.

Laid out in the most simple way possible, the cleanse basically requires the following elements: Eliminate dairy, gluten, refined sugars and many other things that wreak havoc our systems on a daily basis. Breakfast is a smoothie, lunch is when you feast (or at least enjoy some of the delicious, super nutritious recipes they provide which include meat/rice/veggies), and dinner another smoothie or soup. All the food you consume is to be organic and must be on the acceptable list given, although it is likely that there will need to be mild substitutions here and there. Another significant rule: dinner and breakfast must be 12 hours apart with no consumption in-between.

The benefits (hopefully) include: an amazing amount of energy, great sleep, weight loss, better concentration, better skin, fabulous digestion, etc., etc. The basic thesis is that this cleanse will help to detoxify your life (namely your body, therefore impacting the rest of your life).

These are the main players:

That's me (Jenny) the girl furthest to the right. My husband Brian is standing next to me in the white shirt. We are starting this journey first because of scheduling/traveling reasons. Later in the month, probably close to January 15, Amy and possibly Charlie will begin. Amy is my super cute sister-in-law standing next to me with the yellow belt and Charlie is my oldest brother standing next to her (also Amy's husband). That goofy looking, tall, blonde guy right in the middle of the bunch, that's my brother Dave and his fiance is the lovely lady next to him. They are thinking of beginning mid-January as well. My younger brother, Will, is the anchor of coolness in our family. He has the hot red shirt and tie combo with a black cardigan. Will has a sweet job working in the state capital for a congressman. Sadly his--post-college-making-my-way-through-the-world--budget is not allowing him to do the Clean challenge this time around. Sabrina is next in the photo. Let's just say it like it is, Sabrina is the tall, gorgeous, trendy chic in the bunch. Next to Sabrina is my brother Chris. Sabrina and Chris will also be starting the journey mid-month. I guess I should mention that those two other people sitting down are my fabulous parents. This is the night we all went out to celebrate my Mom's 60th birthday. As far as I know, they think that the rest of us are nuts and will probably spend their mornings eating warm cream cheesy bagels over their strongly caffeinated coffee as they enjoy reading our posts.

And that's it. Tomorrow B and I begin. This blog has been set up for anyone who is curious or simply entertained at the prospect of a Clean Johnson Family Feast. The blog will also act as a space to support, tease, challenge one another as we begin our journey's toward less toxic lifestyles.