Quantum Wellness Cleanse: The 21-Day Essential Guide to Healing Your Mind, Body and Spirit by Kathy Freston

by Kathy Freston

Kathy Freston's appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show prompted Oprah to commit to the "21-day cleanse" featured in Quantum Wellness, creating an instant bestseller and a national trend. During her 21-day cleanse, Oprah's daily blog provided updates on her progress, intriguing millions of readers and creating a media frenzy.

Now, with The Quantum Wellness Cleanse, Kathy Freston gives readers the tools they need to fully harness the 21-day cleanse and stay motivated. This easy-to-follow guide lays out a comprehensive plan to turn our lives around in each of the areas of body, mind, and spirit. By following an essential day-by-day map of what to eat, how to deal with the complex feelings that arise as we detox, and how to fully redirect our energy so our lives take on a fresh momentum, this indispensable companion offers recipes that can be mixed and matched, and answers all the questions that may arise so that we can forever change the course of our lives.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Self Help, Nutrition

Paperback

First published July 1, 2007

About the author

Kathy Freston is an American author and promoter of plant-based nutrition. Her books include The Lean, Veganist, Quantum Wellness, Clean Protein and 72 Reasons to Be Vegan.

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading this book and taking part in the cleanse. I was not disappointed. I appreciated the structure of the book: a day-by-day guidebook through the cleanse. While it was challenging to give up "the big 5" for 21 days-- caffeine, sugar, gluten, animal products, and alcohol-- I feel like I truly accomplished something by doing so. My favorite part of the book was the daily meditations; I will continue with these. I have made some major changes thanks to this book. My only complaint: Freston is really down on meat. She hit this point a bit too hard for my taste, but I understand where she is coming from. I highly recommend this book if you are looking to make a quantum shift in your own daily living. I definitely feel changed it perceivable ways.

[Kecia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has changed my life. I don't know if it's because I've done every diet out there but this "cleanse" was the easiest "diet" I have ever done. I started this book just wanting to start fresh with my body, something very clean and healthy. But as I found on the 3 week journey it became more than just to lose a few pounds. I truly believe that a vegan diet/lifestyle is the kindest way for MY body and the planet.
Also-There are many recipes in the back of this book. I have not made any of them yet (for the past 3 weeks I have just been eating simple fruits and vegis/soups/salds...ect) but will, and I'll give a review.

***Side note- I read this at the same time I read Skinny Bitch by Freedman and Barnouin. Very much the same teachings. It's a MUST READ!

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have lost five pounds as of 1/23/10 by eating a plant based diet during the cleanse. My abdomen is also not as puffy probably due to not eating foods with gluten. I highly recommend this book.

[Cnelsonquilt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not hard to do and after holiday eating felt really good. Also if certain foods do not agree with you this is a good way to find out which ones they may be. That was my motivation.

[Mo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very do-able cleanse with lots of cheerleading and great recipes. You don't have to fast to detox. I felt GREAT after I did this last year, and not 'cuz Oprah said so, OK?

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've ever toyed with the idea of vegitarianism, this is a helpful book. I did the cleanse: no alcohol, caffine, sugar, meat/dairy, and gluten-free! Sound fun!?! It was an interesting jouney!

[Chanda Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kathy Freston’s "Quantum Wellness Cleanse" is a deeply supportive and enlightening guide for anyone seeking to reset their relationship with food, body, and spirit. More than just a “cleanse,” it’s an invitation into intentional living- a 21-day journey of self-awareness, nourishment, and energetic renewal.

I completed the cleanse myself (with the exception of the animal product portion, though I plan to gradually limit that too), and I found it to be transformative and empowering. There were definitely moments of challenge- cravings, fatigue, emotional releases- but on the other side of those waves was a newfound clarity and strength I didn’t expect.

I was amazed by my own ability to let go of things I once thought I couldn’t live without- caffeine, dairy, sugar, even processed foods- all while being gluten-free already. The sense of accomplishment and lightness that followed was incredible.

I bookmarked so many pages filled with affirmations, meditations, reflective exercises, and recipes. Each section felt like it was written to guide you gently back home to yourself. What I appreciated most was how holistic and compassionate Kathy’s approach is- she reminds us that wellness isn’t about restriction or perfection, but awareness, kindness, and alignment.

If you’re looking for a cleanse that’s not just about the physical but also about healing your relationship with your inner self, this book offers a truly quantum shift in perspective.

Recommended for those seeking a gentle yet powerful reset, spiritually curious souls, wellness explorers, and anyone ready to release old patterns and rediscover what feeling well truly means.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about challenging yourself to think a bit more about what you eat by doing a 21-day cleanse in which you cut alcohol, caffeine, sugar, gluten, and animal products. The author, a vegan herself, does not attempt to hide her opinion that everyone should adopt a vegan lifestyle, but the point of the cleanse is not to necessarily become a vegan (technically, vegan+ since you're giving up more than just animal products). The point is for you to allow your body to detox of all these things which we know have adverse effects and recalibrate.

I have long thought about going vegan for a week here or there, but time and family have stopped me. You need the family's cooperation (at least your partner's) and you need time to do all the food prep involved with vegan recipes. (Admit it, there's a lot more!) Thankfully, my husband and I live in a place with incredible produce and we're walking distance from a Whole Foods, so really, there has never been a better time for us to give this cleanse a try.

I haven't done the cleanse yet, and I'm shooting for 2 weeks instead of the full 3 (although we'll see how well we do), but the husband has finally agreed to it, so it's just a matter of picking our start date.

If you are interested in vegetarianism/veganism, or are interested in just trying to eat only the most natural and wholesome foods you can for a short period of time, check out this book. It is a good blend of anecdotal health science mixed up with some mindfulness and environmental issues.

For more on this topic -- and I highly recommend you learn more than just what Freston has written on this -- check out Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, Eating Animals, everything by Mark Bittman, and the documentaries Vegucated and Food, Inc.

[Melody Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great cleanse - I'm going to try add this to my yearly traditions. The book is set up so that you read a different chapter each day of the cleanse and the author did a great job of explaining some of the issues associated with how each of the big five (sugar, caffeine, alcohol, gluton, and animal products) affect us our bodies and sometimes the environment in negative ways. After reading the book and participating in the cleanse I feel a greater awareness into what I put into my body and how that affects me. I did lose a few pounds along the way - but I was also exercising a lot more than usual. Overall, I feel great and I learned a lot - that's a successful book!

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been having a few health issues and thought that this might help with some of them... while the idea of the cleanse is a good one, and the shopping list and recipes come in handy, the daily discussions detracted from that. As the cleanse goes on the tone becomes more shrill and less helpful; it also concerned me that she relied on doctors studies from Famous Name Doctor with Agenda/Business to Push (like Andrew Weil). Call me cynical, but that bothers me - where are other studies, from those not looking to make big bucks off their research?

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in conjunction with doing a detox / cleanse at my yoga studio. Really interesting and motivating. I am still doing the cleanse although I should call it more of a lifestyle change - Vegan, no gluten, very limited sugar, limited caffeine, and very limited alcohol and more focus on exercise especially yoga. I feel great and have lost 10 stubborn pounds and have 10 more pounds. The recipes in the book have too many ingredients and are not realistic to make if you have a busy life.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm thankful to a dear friend who introduced me to this book! It taught me so much about how various foods affect our bodies and why we should slowly remove them from our diet (meat, dairy, gluten, along with alcohol and nicotine, neither of which were an issue for me) . Kathy Freston includes some recipes to help you with this new, and to some, drastic changes.

[Peggy]

I read this book while my mom was dying it was phenomenol and a real blessing. The book really puts things in perspective

[Mandy Skinner · Rating 4 out of 5]

1st day is today
Well made it about 1 1/2 weeks and I felt wonderful even temper, light, anything could roll off my back. This is very easy to follow and read

[Mary Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like her philosophy on "leaning in" and can apply it in so many other areas as well.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book- convinced me to give up meat. Still working on some of the other suggestions. This is one that is going to take rereading

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was great. Very intuitive advice, but a good reminder about all of the key elements to being a healthy, happy person.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good step-by-step guide to cleansing and moving into or at least towards a vegan diet. An easy read--not a lot of new information but easy to understand and some good recipes/food ideas/

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

No: caffeine, alcohol, gluten, animal products, sugar
Yes: grains, beans, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables

...for 21 days

[Jenny Matthews]

This is the best cleanse I have ever been on. It makes you really think of what you eat and how it effects you and the world around you. This will change my eating habits for the rest of my life.

[Terri Palermo · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I prefer the Daniel Fast as a cleanse, this book is a wonderfully thoughtful and gentle guide to making huge strides in improving your health and well-being.

[Tyra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I agree with others that the author seems to have no credentials to write about all of this and I almost closed the book after reading her thank yous but she had some good points.

Like others I didn’t go over the vegan stuff. Also much of it is kind of common sense though I guess a lot of self help is.

Basically try hard to be healthy in all the ways.

Still some refreshing ideas.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first started reading this book, I thought it was more of a "spiritual" journey than an actual cleanse guide. If you're like me, you want the complete hand holding of what to do, how to do it and how to succeed at doing it. Cleanses are hard - especially if you're not already of the vegetarian / vegan persuasion. Even as a veggo, I still find cleanses hard as I have a natural affinity for all things dairy, caffeinated and sweet. So to commit to a 21-day journey is challenging for anyone and I'd prefer a good tutor on how to do it right. I probably picked this book up about 3 times before I actually started reading it.

The author makes the rules of the cleanse pretty straightforward. Avoid the big 5's: Caffeine, Alcohol, Gluten, Animal Products and Sugar. The foundation is set in the introduction to the book - not even the first chapter. This is basically the cleanse. Avoid these five things for 21 days. Recipes in the back of the book give the reader guidance on various meals... but essentially that's it. Which is perhaps why I had a hard time getting past the introduction - everything was already said.

When I finally did continue through, I found that the author cleverly uses the bulk of the book to help you understand why these five No's are essential to the repairing of your body. There's a lot of science behind the Big 5 and health risks... and I think the more I read about cleanse programs, not much will differ from what we should eat versus what we shouldn't. Along with the chapters that go into more detail about the science behind the Big 5, the author takes time to address two other factors that are commonly overlooked: mind and spirit. She encourages daily mediation, exercise and thoughtful reflection on the cleanse and the choices we make regarding our food. At first I didn't appreciate the mediation tips - it seemed too 'spiritual', something I have a natural antithesis towards. Yet as I kept reading - those tips stuck in my head. I found myself stretching in the morning as recommended and those little mantras continued to run through my head as I biked into town - and I'm not even doing the cleanse. I guess what I'm getting at is that the author recognizes that the body is inherently connected to the mind and spirit - you have to convince all three that you are going to complete this cleanse or else you're sunk. You might be doing well cleansing, but if you can't combat your brain from thinking you really want that darn cookie - well, the battle's already lost. A cleanse is a process and one that merits reflection - on why you're cleansing and what personal food battles you're coming up against. By the end of the book, I did appreciate the author's approach to guiding you through the cleanse. The food part is easy - it's the mental roadblocks you need to prepare yourself for.

[Robert Beveridge]

Kathy Freston, The Quantum Wellness Cleanse: The 21-Day Essential Guide to Healing Your Body, Mind, and Spirit (Weinstein Books, 2009)
 
You've heard all this before, though not necessarily in the same place. Go vegan. Give up alcohol. Give up caffeine. Etc. And you will be a better person. All well and good, and Freston tries to market this as being as spiritually approachable as possible. And if you're just thinking from a religion standpoint, I guess it is, though I know a few orthodox religious folks that consider any sort of meditation a gateway into the world of the Satanic. (Ah, if only that were true!) But look deeper and Freston's oh-so-open spirituality has a core of unwavering beliefs; if you don't agree with them, you're going to sour on this book pretty fast, and that's exactly what happened with me. From the idea that using any animal product, whether the animal is harmed in its harvesting or not, is cruel to her crass dismissal of a mountain of scientific evidence that moderate alcohol use is good for the heart, I found myself disagreeing with pretty much every philosophical underpinning found in this book. Thus, I ditched it after fifty (actually, fifty-one; I finished the chapter) pages. When your dislike of something is for a reason that fundamental, there's no chance of it getting any better, is there?
 
There are those who will find this book incredibly helpful, and more power to them. I'm not one. (zero)

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love the idea of the cleanse and giving up the "Big 5". In general, doing that is always a good thing and promotes health. I think the mediations are good but not well though through. Would have liked more discussion on visualizations for the mediatation. The book, however, is really just propaganda for animal rights and having a vegan lifestyle. Kathy Freston brings up a few scientists and their findings but I thought it was irresponsible to not have any notation or footnotes. I had to search on web more completely to really find out about these studies and the scientists motivations. Needless to say, that made the book lose credibility with me. Recipes in back look really yummy but very time consuming.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think Oprah led us astray with this one! I consider myself very open minded and proactive when it comes to healthy eating/organic food, but I am not 100% organic, vegetarian, or vegan. I do however, subscribe to almost all of Michael Pollan's teachings and look for ways to be more conscious of where my food comes from.
Freston was WAY too far out and unrealistic for me to even try 90% of her suggestions. Sure there were some good ideas but if you want them I'll mail you my highlighted version so you don't waste your time.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a little skeptical of the healthfulness of a vegan diet, but I have no doubt that it is more humane. I am going to try the 21-day cleanse which involves giving up the big five: alcohol, caffeine, gluten, sugar, and animal products. I will do the best that I can and see if it really makes a difference in how I feel (not that I feel so bad now, mind you). This promises weight loss, increased energy, and fewer gastro-intestinal issues...we'll see.

[Betty]

I plan to do this, but got discouraged when I skipped to the back and saw the recipes. They look much too complicated and unusual. I have many other books that have recipes that will fit the guidelines of this 21 day cleanse. Looking through them now to develop my plan to begin tomorrow.

[Marla]

Life is too short to give up sugar, gluten, caffeine, alcohol, meat, fish, dairy all at the same time. Been there, done that on the "wacko diet" 12 years ago.

[Ericka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too new-agey