I Know What You Ate Last Summer — My Custom Cleanse

by Christopher M. Halleron

So how was your summer? It was all tan beach bodies and fun in the sun, right?

Well that’s just great—but if we’re being honest here, it was also beer, BBQ and a lot of lying around. Something’s gotta give…

With the lazy days of summer behind me, I thought it might be time to assess each rack of ribs, each deep fried oreo, each clam with drawn butter, each gallon of beer that I crammed down my gob this past season. I figure before I head out to a tailgate party or start pumpkin-spicing the hell out of everything, I might want to hit the fitness/nutrition reset button and start fresh.

Last week on hMAG.com, we ran a story about cleanses. Of course if you say the word “cleanse” to your average red-blooded American male, odds are you’ve lost him right away as he visualizes some sort of freaky, invasive colonic-type procedure and goes running out of the room. It doesn’t have to be that way…

Meanwhile, there’s the juice cleanse trend, which quite frankly, doesn’t sound all that realistic. As Sunday Funday brunch has taught me all too often, man cannot live on Bloody Marys alone.

At Complete Nutrition and Wellness (101 Park Ave., Hoboken), nutritionists Inna Topiler and Alyssa Cellini prefer a more pragmatic approach. With an emphasis on “complete,” they focus on a personalized approach to nutrition—identifying the wellness goals of the individual and the underlying conditions or habits that have brought people there in the first place.

Inna and Alyssa put their heads together to develop My Custom Cleanse—a pragmatic, personalized nutritional program.

“Our clients have inspired us to always continue learning to figure out the reasons behind their health concerns,” says Inna. “We use health histories, symptoms, dietary habits, and lifestyle choices, as well as a myriad functional testing to identify the areas that need nutritional support.

While this all this sounds pretty time-consuming, the process has been streamlined for the client’s convenience. “We realized that there are just not enough hours in a day to meet the high demand for custom health programs, straight answers, and clean products,” say Inna and Alyssa. So they they developed My Custom Cleanse—which allows people to get the benefit of a customized plan without necessarily having an appointment, yet still delivers a plan that is right for them

It’s actually remarkably simple. After filling out a brief yet insightful questionnaire, I signed up for My Custom Cleanse 15-day program and received my food plan, plus supplements—delivered straight to my apartment.

Supplements include “Essential Base,” which is a dairy-free/whey-free protein blend that can serve as a meal replacement or a snack. Coming in your choice of chocolate of vanilla, it actually tastes pretty good. I mix mine with almond milk and fresh raspberries. In addition, liver and stomach balancing capsules taken throughout the day per instructions on the meal plan give your body a chance to push out toxins and get back into better working order.
Of course this is achieved through a restrictive, yet reasonable meal plan that calls for certain degree of discipline, but rewards culinary creativity. There are obviously a lot of no-no’s—namely booze (not THAT big a deal), caffeine (even less of a deal for me), dairy (I do like my cheese) and heavy starches (NO BREAD?!?! In THIS town?!?!). But I was pleasantly surprised by the substantial roster of foods that are ok on this journey—fresh seafood, grilled chicken, turkey bacon (I know it’s not REAL bacon, but I’ll take it…), roast turkey breast. Replace sodium with fresh herbs and spices, and you can get some pretty good meals. Fill in the gaps between meals with fresh fruit and vegetables, and it’s smooth sailing…

I think. I hope. We’ll see.

Fact is, I need to drop a few lbs. The side effects of doing it via My Custom Cleanse is that I’m also supposedly cleansing my organs to improve my overall digestion, which in turn should balance my hormones and increase my metabolism, giving me the benefit of more energy and a clear mind.

Sounds pretty damn good to me. Hell, with that much improvement, I could be dangerous.

I’ll keep you posted…

MyCustomCleanse.com