Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

Jo Schaalman and Jules Peláez are co-authors of two books The Conscious Cleanse: Lose Weight, Heal Your Body and Transform Your Life in 14 Days, a best-selling, step-by-step guide to help you live your most vibrant life and their brand new The Conscious Cleanse Cookbook! Together they’ve led thousands of people through their online supported cleanse through their accessible and light-hearted approach. They’ve been dubbed “the real deal” by founder and chief creative director Bobbi Brown, of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, beauty editor of the TODAY show. Daily Back Pain Relief with Kristin Gibowicz

This matzo is grain-free, gluten-free, and paleo-friendly! Year after year, Jo has reluctantly bought gluten free matzo (unfortunately also filled with additives and sugar) because matzo plays such an important role in the Passover Seder. But recently she found, Jennifer Robbins’ Paleo Grain-Free Matzo and was converted. For more amazing Jewish recipes, check out Jennifer Robbins’ The New Yiddish Kitchen. We hope you enjoy Jennifer’s recipe as much as we do. Don’t forget to grab your copy of The New Yiddish Kitchen cookbook here. Happy Passover, Jo & Jules

One of our favorite simple healthy meals is a vibrancy bowl! Vibrancy bowls are easy, quick, and make great leftovers. They combine a grain base, roasted and/or fresh veggies, and a dressing of choice. You can also add a protein of your choice for an even heartier meal! We’ve got a great how-to guide to make your own vibrancy bowl in our new cookbook, The Conscious Cleanse Cookbook. This recipe makes a hearty vegan meal that we think you’re going to love. Our Rainbow Vibrancy Bowl is a simple, (almost) one-tray meal full of good-for-you ingredients that’s perfect for dinner or lunch. It also contains beets, which means it’s a great way to check up on how efficiently your digestion is working (for more info about this, check out our blog about the Beetroot Test).

These little brownie bites are simple, sweet, salty, and totally delicious – perfect for a Valentine’s Day dessert. Plus, they contain a secret superfood ingredient: CBD oil! CBD is one of the hottest health supplements right now. If you're interested in learning more about CBD and its benefits, check out our interview with Plant People Founder Gabe Kennedy, on our website, here!

We’re entering mid-winter here in Colorado, and if you’re like us, the cold weather and extended time inside might be starting to get you down. To counter those wintertime blues, we like to cozy up at home and make healthy comfort food – like today’s recipe: Herbed Turkey Stuffed Squash! This is a recipe that I (Jo) and my husband, Adam developed together for our family. Cooking is one of our favorite things to do together – we’ve developed several recipes from our new cookbook, Conscious Cleanse Cookbook together, including the Squashie Pancakes and Curry Chicken Salad. Cooking nourishing, healthy, delicious meals for ourselves and for our 6-year-old and 8-month-old kiddos brings us connection as a family and a lot of joy, and we want to share some of that joy with you today with this recipe. This is one of our go-to healthy comfort meals – it’s warming and filling, perfect for a cozy meal by the fire.

Have you ever had the thought “I don’t have time to do a cleanse because it takes too much time to prepare healthy food”? If so, please read on! I’m a big fan of easy when it comes to food prep. Mostly because I have two small children, work full time running a business, health coaching and teaching yoga, and try to maintain some resemblance of balance when it comes to practicing what I preach. I admit it does take extra time and some planning ahead (I could do better here) to eat healthy and feed my family nourishing meals, but to me, it’s totally worth it! And, it doesn’t have to take nearly as much time as we think it does with a few tips and tricks. Below is one of my secret weapons.

Hanukkah is just around the corner and today we wanted to share one of our favorite Hanukkah recipes with all of you – Root Vegetable Latkes with Apple Pear Sauce! These latkes are a tasty and festive way to get some extra veggies in, and pair deliciously with our homemade apple pear sauce. The perfect addition to your family’s Hanukkah traditions! This recipe is one of the many delicious healthy holiday recipes you’ll find in the extra special bonus Holiday eCookbook we’ve put together this year as a FREE instant download when you purchase our new cookbook. We’ve included all our personal faves that we love to cook up for our families during the holiday season. We hope you love them as much as we do!

Enjoy and let us know what you think in the comment section below. Have a personal favorite fall recipe? Tell us about it. With love and orange smiles, Curried Carrot Soup Yield: 8 bowls Ingredients: 3 TB. coconut oil 2 tsp. curry powder 8 medium carrots, peeled and sliced thin 4 medium stalks celery, chopped 1 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped 5 cups vegetable broth 1 TB. freshly squeezed lemon juice 2 tsp. sea salt Freshly ground black pepper

Years ago, I’d do anything for a box of Junior Mints or Peppermint Patties. I’d fallen prey, like many of us, into the low calorie, nonfat mindset of the 90’s where Snackwells and Fig Newton’s were all the rage. ​As I’ve transitioned into a healthy lifestyle and new way of eating, I’ve found myself looking for healthy sweet treats. I’ve realized that the packaged so-called “health foods” just fed my sugar demons, leaving me with an artificial sense of healthy and a sugar hangover to boot. Instead of going cold turkey, I started looking for other options to satisfy my sweet tooth, something delicious and decadent that could replace, if not outperform my old guilty pleasures. Below is one of my favorite new recipes. It’s so rich and creamy you’ll hardly believe it’s actually good for you!

One of the core tenets of the Conscious Cleanse is removing common inflammatory foods from our eating rotation for 2 weeks to allow our systems to detox and find underlying food sensitivities. Tomatoes fall under the category of nightshades, so during our 14-day cleanse, we keep them off our plates because they can cause inflammation. Just like many people are sensitive to gluten, dairy, soy, and other common allergens, some people have a reaction from eating nightshades, including tomatoes.

We often get asked for tips to help with meal prep and sticking to your clean-eating goals, so we decided to start a series of blogs with tips to help you thrive in your new clean-eating life! Today we’re focusing on how optimal refrigerator organization can simplify your meal prep. One of the most common things we hear from people all the time is, “I don’t have enough time to make healthy food.” We totally understand! Many of us have this idea that grabbing food from a restaurant or salad bar will be quicker than eating at home.

It’s peach season here in Colorado, and it wouldn’t be summertime in Colorado without some fresh peaches from our local farmer’s market. In honor of one of our favorite stone fruits, we thought we’d share a recipe today that is just ‘peachy!’ Nothing says summer more than biting into a fresh, juicy peach, and this green smoothie recipe is the perfect way to use all those perfectly ripe peaches that start popping up in local farmer’s markets this time of year. Peaches are a relatively low-sugar fruit, so they won’t spike your blood sugar and leave you crashing in a few hours. Peaches are also high in dietary fiber to help keep you regular, and a great source of immune-boosting Vitamin C.

One of the staples of the Conscious Cleanse eating plan are great big meal-sized salads! When the weather heats up, standing over a hot stove to cook a meal is not ideal. So we wanted to share some of our favorite summertime salad recipes with you today! We love salads, but it’s easy to get tired of the same old salad day in and day out. The best way to keep coming back for more greens is to get creative with the salad dressing and toppings! All these salads use flavorful dressings plus unique and tasty toppings to upgrade your summer salad experience. This brand new recipe that’s exclusive to our online cleanse program. That’s right – if you become a Conscious Cleanse On Demand member, you’ll get access to recipes that are available just to YOU!

Summertime weekends are our favorite times to dedicate to family – we love gathering together with our families for a big hearty breakfast or brunch before embarking on all those warm-weather outdoor adventures. That’s where this recipe comes in! Jo’s daughter Ilse LOVES these pancakes – they’re the perfect special weekend brunch treat. They’re super easy to make and take less than 15 minutes of prep and cook time. A great recipe to whip up for a weekend breakfast in bed or laid-back stay-at-home brunch.

In the heat of mid-summer here in Colorado, no one wants to be spending time in a hot kitchen! So we’ve been looking for more ways to add cooking-free recipes to our meal planning rotation. That’s where today’s recipe comes in. This delicious spicy slaw is the perfect hot weather recipe that features one of our new favorite veggies – Kohlrabi! Kohlrabi is a funky looking veggie but don’t let that deter you – it’s super tasty and easy to eat! It has a sweet-peppery flavor similar to a cross between an apple and a radish and its texture is comparable to broccoli stems. It also has great nutritional value – Kohlrabi is high in fiber, essential vitamins and nutrients, and it can help aid in weight loss, support healthy digestion, and help regulate blood pressure. All in all, this unique veggie makes a great addition to your regular rotation.

The summer is upon us here in Colorado. We’re looking forward to relaxing at home with small (socially distant) gatherings of friends and family. Summers are notorious for being filled with food and fun (sometimes too much!). It can be tempting to over-indulge in less healthy foods and drinks until you wake up the next day inflamed, hungover, and hurting.

Summer is here in Colorado, and as we’re heading into week 1 of our June Group Cleanse, we’re looking for quick, veggie-based meals that don’t heat up the house. When the temperature rises, we reach for refreshing, water-rich summer veggies like cucumbers, and this is the perfect recipe! This soup is the ideal meal for a hot summer day. The avocado adds a creamy texture and the cucumber, lemon, and dill make the flavor light and refreshing. Pair it with a massaged kale salad and grilled chicken or salmon, top with hemp seeds or pumpkin seeds to make it a meal – or just enjoy it as is as a snack or a lighter lunch/dinner!

When embarking on a new fitness regimen (like our upcoming June 3 Group Cleanse plus Daily Workouts), you may look for a way to supplement your protein intake. Though we generally believe that most of our nutrients should come from the whole foods we eat, we understand that when you’re exercising more frequently, you might need to find ways to add more protein to your diet. When paired with regular exercise, a protein supplement can help reduce soreness after working out and aid in quicker muscle recovery.

Happy Mother’s Day from the Conscious Cleanse! Since many of us are still staying at home, we may not all be able to celebrate in person with our moms so we wanted to share an easy recipe that makes the perfect Mother’s Day gift. As a mom of three boys (Jules) and a mom to a girl and one on the way (Jo), Mother’s Day is a very special day for us. This year we are especially introspective about what this day means to us. As the world has been turned upside down, we’re more grateful than ever for our families. We realize that health is not something we can guarantee and that the simple, everyday moments are the times we will look back on most fondly as our children grow up.

We’re in 80:20 mode! Who’s ready for a refreshing and delicious drink?! Be sure to check out La Paloma Rosa recipe below. Known as one of Mexico’s most popular cocktails, La Paloma is a perfect combination of sweet and tart with grapefruit, lime, and a pinch of salt. We’ve given this a Conscious Cleanse 80:20 spin by adding one of our favorite sugar-free sweeteners, Lakanto, plus a touch of mint.

We’ve been seeing lots of people using this time at home to bake, so we knew it would be the perfect time to share this awesome recipe from one of our amazing cleanse community members – Susan of Nourish & Charm! Susan is a long-time cleanser and also one of our good friends! She runs an amazing blog where she posts healthy recipes and entertaining tips (she is a fabulous host!). So when (eventually!) you’ll be able to entertain friends and family again, make sure to check out her tips for hosting on her blog. These muffins are the perfect, easy home-baking project. They’re free from most common allergens, plus they’ll make your house smell like cinnamon spice and everything nice.

Clean eating is a super hot topic in the world of health and wellness – but what exactly does “eating clean” mean? Here at the Conscious Cleanse, when we talk about eating clean, we mean eating whole foods in their natural form, while avoiding highly processed, packaged foods. Focus on foods that are minimally processed, chemical-free, and very close to the way they appear in nature. Basically, if there’s an ingredient you can’t pronounce, don’t eat it. We’re talking dark leafy greens, herbs, sprouts, non-gluten grains like brown rice and quinoa, legumes, nuts, seeds, organic lean meats and wild fish.

During these cold, wintery months, it can be hard to get excited to eat a cold salad. That’s where this recipe comes in! Developed with award-winning chef Gabe Kennedy, our Warm Shiitake and Pine Nut Salad is the cure for your winter blues. This salad is the perfect cold-weather salad – it’s warming, delicious, and hearty enough to keep you feeling fuller longer. The nutritional stars of this recipe are the shiitake mushrooms – these unassuming fungi are packed with superfood properties. They’re high in B vitamins and contain all 8 essential amino acids. They also help support immune function, can aid in weight loss, and contain phytonutrients that support cardiovascular health. The other stars of this salad are the amazing flavors! The balsamic vinegar provides a lovely sweetness, the pine nuts add the perfect amount of crunch, and the arugula adds a sour tanginess – all combining to create a flavor profile that is earthy, grounding, and comforting.

We’re just wrapping up our January Group Cleanse and as we transition into our 80:20 eating, we know we’re not the only ones looking forward to reintroducing a warming caffeinated beverage into our morning routines. Our morning cup of coffee is one of the hardest things for many of us to give up during the 14-day cleanse, so we wanted to create a healthy take on this beloved energizing drink. We’ve come up with the perfect way to up-level your morning cup of joe – Adaptogenic Coffee Creamer! This creamer is packed with superfood properties and adds the perfect amount of creamy goodness to your favorite coffee.

Before you go out and grab a box of conventional chocolates, you’ve got to check out this recipe. Our Vegan Chocolate Truffles are the most decadent, mind-blowing, rich and creamy chocolate truffles we’ve ever tasted! And trust me, we’ve had our share of chocolate. Store-bought chocolates unfortunately come with additives, preservatives, and lots of processed sugar, leaving you with a nasty sugar crash and an upset stomach. These truffles are guilt-free and won’t leave you with a sugar crash, plus a gift of homemade treats always means so much more than those bought from the store.