This is a review of the diet based on the two books: The Beauty Detox Solution & The Beauty Detox Foods by Kimberly Snyder.
Between February and April, I decided to follow through with the Beauty Detox. I’ve had the books for almost a year and even though I applied many of the principles I’ve been too busy experimenting with 801010, High Raw/RT4 and Ayurveda to eat accordingly.

”THINK OF THE FIERCE ENERGY CONCENTRATED IN AN ACORN! YOU BURY IT IN THE GROUND, AND IT EXPLODES INTO A GIANT OAK. BURY A SHEEP, AND NOTHING HAPPENS BUT DECAY.”

~ George Bernard Shaw

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IT ALL STARTS WITH FOOD

Well, it doesn’t necessarily have to, but in most cases, it all either starts or lead to a change in your diet to become more connected with yourself, others and the Earth. You’ve probably heard me mention Kimberly Snyder on more occasions than one. I have a slight feeling that I’ve even gone so far that I may have given you the feeling that she is my Mentor of some sort. I wouldn’t even call myself a fan other than her teachings resonates and make very much sense to me. Her book, together with the 80/10/10 Diet is what has shaped my diet into what it is today and impacted my life the most.

They are very similar in their teachings, therefore very easy to blend: both High Carb Low Fat Vegan diets that focus on being Raw or at least High Raw, but with the Beauty detox foods being somewhat less extreme, allowing certain grains, cooked and less fruit with more emphasis on greens. I want to add that I started eating “Raw Till 4” before it even became a pronounced “Diet” thanks to Kimberly’s food combining, showing me there’s a way to enjoy some cooked and still benefit enormously!

THE BEAUTY LADDER

“WHEN WE LEARN TO EAT PROPERLY WE BEGIN TO REBUILD OUR BODIES AND TO FULFILL OUR PURPOSE ON THIS PLANET TO GROW IN HEALTH, CREATIVITY, WISDOM, AND COMPASSION.”

~ Dr. Ann Wigmore

There are three stages in the Beauty Detox:

• Phase 1 – Blossoming Beauty
  If you are a complete beginner, are overweight, suspect you may have Candida, have lots of skin issues, and stomach problems and don’t really want to invest in new kitchen equipment yet, this is where you start. This stage doesn’t allow any fruits, sugary stuff, or oils to balance your body out. You cut down on your meat intake and have it only at the end of the day. And avoid dairy and processed foods completely, and also go gluten-free.
• Phase 2 – Radiant Beauty
  Here you will further reduce your intake of animal products and introduce the Glowing Green Smoothie (GGS). It’s very similar to Blossoming Beauty only now fruit is allowed and we reintroduce some oils and fats. And no cooked foods in the mornings. This phase is where it all will kickstart and most of the benefits will start to show.
• Phase 3 – True Beauty
  In this last stage, you will eliminate land animals completely, leaving only a small portion of fish, eggs and goat’s cheese. You may even want to decide to eliminate all animal products and go completely vegan. You will also stop having cooked grains for breakfast and lunch, only for dinners. Now the Glowing Green Juice (GGJ) will be introduced in the mornings, or you can just stick to the GGS. And fruit can be eaten abundantly. This is a pro-phase and may not suit everyone if you somehow feel deprived and struggling it’s okay to take a step back.

You should stick to every phase at least one month before moving on to the next one. But it’s all a personal choice of what you feel comfortable with, you have the option to stick to any of these for as long as you feel/have to and move between them.

I believe that it’s thanks to these carefully planned phases that makes the beauty detox very easy to follow through. Even though it can seem as big changes, there are a few rules you can apply to experience great benefit. I also believe in gradual changes, which this one perfectly promotes. Often times Detox is associated with being short and extreme, while here we focus on a constant detox, that is both fun and non-restrictive.

I chose to be somewhere in between Radiant and True Beauty because I wasn’t coming directly from a bad diet. There weren’t any signs of Candida anymore, and I couldn’t imagine cutting down on fruit, to be honest. I tried sticking to the suggested menu (which are only guidelines) for you guys, to try out some of the recipes, but it isn’t meant to be followed strictly. I even gave up some of my fruit lunches, I tried waking up earlier but I usually wake up a bit later, therefore, my first meal usually comes around lunch-time.

According to Kimberly, we shouldn’t be eating until noon or at least wait until we get hungry, and then have some GGS or fruit for breakfast in the meantime. This refers to Natural Hygiene, for where it’s believed that the body is detoxing between the hours of 4 AM to 12 PM, and so to not disturb the body’s natural process you shouldn’t kickstart with something heavy.

WHO KNEW EATING LIKE A KING FOR BREAKFAST WOULD MAKE YOU END UP LIKE ONE: FAT, SICK AND DEAD.

I used to be a real big breakfast-person, who believed very much in its importance! But since learning to eat later, I’ve lost my need to nap and I have received so much more energy! It’s gone so far that I feel extremely sick if I eat within 1 hour of waking up, can’t do it anymore! Water and some winding up for 2-3 hours makes me feel amazing.

SUPPLEMENTS TO HELP YOU DETOX

Kimberly suggests taking a couple of supplements to help the detox process:

• Probiotics
  Has many benefits the main is to help and restore your internal balance. Which of course is very important when/if coming from years of internal abuse, or taking medication and antibiotics.
• Digestive Enzymes
  Our body has a reserve that becomes diminished with time, which means the body won’t be able to digest food as well as it could as young. Every raw plant food comes with their own digestive enzymes to help our body not deplete its own reserve, but they are super sensitive to heat, and therefore any food that is cooked will have trouble to digest.
  Kimberly advises taking Digestive Enzymes before eating something cooked.
• Magnesium-Oxygen
  It has laxative properties without being as harsh as one, that may help you detox better without the bloating, gassiness and constipation that can follow when changing your diet. It also enhances the body’s cleansing function, which can assist problems such as acne and other imbalances.
  This one is made to be taken at the start of your journey.

These supplements aren’t cheap, so I ended up only taking Probiotics during this trial.
As I do understand the importance of these supplements I also feel like there’s many doing great without. But of course, had I not been so stubborn with not taking Probiotics at the first place or at least seen their importance, maybe my skin would’ve been super glowing by now!

I too would probably recommend taking a digestive enzyme for people who seem to be having trouble digesting food. But I still can’t agree on taking these on a daily basis after you’re done cleaning house, it just makes it seem like there’s something lacking in the diet – Eating cooked suddenly became very expensive.

It’s all a choice though, Kimberly never says you can’t get great health without these, but she herself is taking both probiotics and DE daily. And if you can afford, why not, but I’m not yet convinced they are truly needed.

PREP LIKE A PRO

People who say they don’t like to cook haven’t learned how to prep. No, but to be honest, I’m glad the menu is only made to be a guideline, because it wasn’t made for someone who’s working full-time.

All I felt during those two months was that I was spending a huge amount of time in the kitchen! I wasn’t used to that much cooking and preparing, when a lunch could be a cut up melon, bananas or a quick smoothie. And I had to plan the menu for at least three days ahead so I knew if there was any soaking of grains to do the night before, or the meal would be ruined. I later learned to make a batch of quinoa or millet for the whole week, but even though with all the savvy prep I learned, it did stress me out to a point where I didn’t feel it was fun any longer. But to remind us yet again, that Kimberly never intended the suggested menu to be followed strictly. Therefore, it can be as much hard work as you want it to be!

In the True Beauty Phase, the lunches are all raw, so there’s not much cooking involved. But I wanted this review to not refer to someone at the top, and therefore I mixed phases. I truly wished I could’ve tested it out from the Blossoming Beauty, but I’ve come so far that cooked in the morning and no sweet fruits, just can’t do, so the test would be inconclusive.
The only positive to all the prep was fever purchases, and at the end of the week, the fridge was completely used and empty!

DOES THE BEAUTY DETOX WORK?

“NOTHING WILL BENEFIT HUMAN HEALTH AND INCREASE CHANCES FOR SURVIVAL OF LIFE ON EARTH AS MUCH AS THE EVOLUTION TO A VEGETARIAN DIET.”

~ Albert Einstein

I love the non-use of the word diet because it isn’t just a diet, it’s how your body is designed to work. Detox isn’t something that you do after New Year’s Eve or once a month, it’s a process that needs to be supported daily. And I feel as if Kimberly gives you the most simple and straightforward rules for you to follow, and explains why in an easy way to understand. I even feel as if this diet is more fail-proof, than the 811, and explains why RT4 is getting a lot of attention. Being fully raw doesn’t suit everyone’s situations, wallets and seasons, even though it would be optimal for your body.

WE ALL NEED SOMETHING TO BEGIN WITH AND STRIVE FOR.

Kimberly takes a lot of her inspiration from The China Study, her own experiences with different cultures and travels. As much as I agree on the importance of greens, I also feel as if she’s neglected the weight of fruit and where we should get our biggest source of carbs. She forgets to explain that humans are a special type of Herbivore, we are Frugivores, we need and desire most of our energy from fruit (about +55%). And while Kimberly states that she eats a lot of fruit, it doesn’t come off in the books or in the menus, more than to eat fruit on an empty stomach – that’s like translated into only one serving of fruit per day!

And of course, this reads as if the books were made for the general and the older public; young people would be able to handle the notion of more fruit much better. I can understand and accept this decision though.
But why I’m jammed up on this is that after my two months of trial and error it wasn’t like I kept going. The Beauty Detox gave me a whole other view and love of vegan food, but I went back to eating more fruit as I did before, and cut down on my grains-intake. The food wasn’t sweet enough for me and the prepping made food feel like a chore.

Nevertheless, the “diet” is a perfect introductory in improving your health, and it is probably exactly what it’s intended to be and therefore I strongly recommend it to beginners or people who want a balanced diet transitioning into veganism.

Can’t say that I don’t follow the Beauty Detox though, I just do it in my own way, just as it should.

The Beauty Principles I Have Applied To My Daily Diet and Lifestyle is:

• Proper Food Combining (Edit: My digestion has improved and I can mix without discomfort)
• Low Fat and Avoiding Oils Using Nut Butters Instead (Edit: I eat around 15-35% fat nowadays)
• Breaking The Fast At Noon
• Glowing Green Smoothie (Not Everyday Though)
• No Cashews and Peanut (Edit: I’ve gone back to eat these occasionally)
• Some Fermented Foods (Edit: I love pickles but don’t really care for Sauerkraut and Kimchi)
• Soaking Nuts, Grains, and Seeds Before Consuming
• Eating Big Salads Before Eating Cooked or Going Out
• Try Having Something Green With Every Meal

Try it now: My #1 Tip to improve your health:

Start with having a later breakfast made up of easy digested fruit or GGS/smoothie without any overt fats and start with something heavier around lunch time for 7 consecutive days. Then on the 8th go back to whatever you used to eat, like oatmeal. I promise, your body will feel the difference!

Thank you for reading my review!
Check out Kimberly’s blog for more inspiration and information, and her Realize Yourself Podcasts!

“IF YOU FEEL BOUND, YOU ARE BOUND. IF YOU FEEL LIBERATED, YOU ARE LIBERATED.
THINGS OUTSIDE NEITHER BOUND NOR LIBERATE YOU; ONLY YOUR ATTITUDE TOWARD THEM DOES THAT.”

~ Sri Swami Satchidananda

(Pictures are taken from the Beauty Detox Foods)

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