It IS All Good
Nowadays we want to know every aspect of celeb's lives until they tell us and then we call them snobs... or at least that's what seemed to happened with Gwyneth Paltrow. I have no idea why people give her such a hard time. Sure, she suggests clothes that cost more than 2 months rent in her "Get" posts and yes, her beloved manuka honey costs like 40 dollars a jar, but at the heart of her brand is finding balance within your own life. My takeaway has always been creating a distinct and wearable style for yourself, eating real food that's healthy AND delicious, finding local and interesting businesses to support, and to just enjoy the good things in life. At least that's my opinion. And hell, if I made millions of dollars I'd be buying Helmut Lang and Stella McCartney everything then I'd smother it in gluten free flour and expensive-ass honey! Perhaps that's untrue... Alas, I love GP and think that her GOOP brand is a super cool site for the hip chick who loves quality and values information. GOOP is where I found out about Dr. Junger, developer of the Clean diet, a detox cleanse of which I'm a big fan! Her newest cookbook It's All Good is a collection of diary, gluten, sugar free recipes that she uses while on the detox. This diet is supposed to make me look and feel good... Challenge accepted! So I decided to eat from her book for 2 whole weeks to see if she could make good on these claims.
During the 2 weeks I was cooking a lot, but I will say that the majority of the recipes were fairly quick and easy to make. Her salads were to die for! Seriously some of the best I've ever made at home. The Mexican chopped salad was so flavorful and satisfying. It's one of my lunch staples now! The white bean and swiss chard soup is now a regular on my weekly menu, I've made it 4 times in the last month! I'm also a huge fan of her French style white beans which I paired with her mushroom and asparagus sauté. HOLY bananas!! Yum. Yum. Yum. Other dishes like the pureed white beans, while really tasty, definitely reminded me of baby food... super yummy baby food. The quinoa was delish albeit very simple, but I suppose that is the whole idea. There are meat dishes in the book which for obvious reasons I didn't try, but they all seemed clean and delish. I don't know about how I looked, but I felt great! As it turns out without gluten I immediately felt lighter, which sucks because my Lord, do I love gluten. I didn't see a huge difference in my weight or skin, but I definitely felt slim and amazingly I was never hungry. I highly recommed this book to anyone looking to clean up their diet and try some fun new recipes, it would also make a great companion to the clean diet detox! In summary: Gwynie is the bomb, buy the book!!