When the New Year comes ‘round, it seems like everyone and their Grandmothers are doing a juice cleanse or detox protocol. And for good reason: the New Year is the perfect time to reset the mind, body and spirit with mindful, clean foods and recommitting to a healthy lifestyle that serves your individual constitution. Before you tackle doing a cleanse or a detox program, I’ve got some basic tips from my years of doing seasonal cleanses that will guide you toward a more graceful and enjoyable cleansing journey.
Supporting the Natural Cleansing Process
One of the easiest ways to support your body’s natural cleansing process is to drink more filtered water. As the adage goes, “Nature’s solution to pollution is dilution.” This definitely applies to the human body, as it’s composed of 55 to 60 percent water. When initiating any kind of detox protocol, it’s a fundamental cornerstone of the process to drink a lot of clean, filtered water—in particular, warm, filtered water with organic lemon juice—to facilitate toxin elimination.
If you are integrating a more powerful detox method like far-infrared sauna therapy, it’s absolutely imperative to flush out toxins through your excretory system. Natural, organic liquids of all kinds are a great way to cleanse, whether you are doing fresh, raw juices; smoothies; broths; teas; filtered water; or a combination of those options. When you consume mostly liquids, you thereby eliminate a chunk of energy normally required for digestion of fiber and solid foods, which can range from 5 to 15 percent of your total energy. Think of this rest period from solid food as giving your body a much-needed break from the tiring task of digestion and reassigning its energy to detox and elimination duty.
It’s important to note that protein and alcohol require the most energy to digest. This is why all effective detox protocols require you to give up all sources of animal protein and alcoholic beverages.
Please Don’t Punish Yourself
One point about the mental side of cleansing: this is not an opportunity to punish yourself for the bad food choices you’ve made in the past or to unleash your cruel, authoritarian side. I’ve seen so many people become so unkind to themselves during a cleansing period. People are deeply emotionally attached to food, and when they take away what they’re used to (or even depend on for comfort) for just a few days, some peeps start to absolutely freak out. This can start a vicious cycle of frustration and guilt.
My point is this: if you need to consume more liquids or even a bit of gentle, clean, plant-based solid foods to keep yourself sane and balanced, please do. The important thing during your cleanse is to have a clear goal and stick with the protocol. If things are not going as planned, give yourself permission to mindfully and gently adapt the cleansing program so you can finish it with sanity.
Pre-Tox and Post-Tox Periods
Two big aspects of a cleanse program that people tend to overlook are the pre-tox period (how you prepare your body before a cleanse) and the post-tox period (how to come out of a cleanse and go back to eating solid, complex foods). Both of these periods are important. You never want to shock your body into or out of a detox protocol. You want to create a safe, gentle transition in and out of it to maximize the benefits.
Jumping from a Standard American Diet into an organic, raw vegan, 14-day juice fast is not a very wise idea. Crazily enough, I’ve heard of people doing it—and crashing really hard. If you did things that way, your body would likely release a massive amount of toxins in a very short time, causing a “toxic shock” to the body, which can actually do much more harm than good in the long run. The overload of toxins can get reabsorbed quickly if not eliminated properly. What I’m trying to say is: no deep-dish-pizza-and-craft-beer binges leading up to a juice cleanse or detox program, got it? Good.
For both the pre-tox and post-tox periods, I encourage you to start eating more raw, clean, whole, unprocessed, plant-based foods. And by “clean,” I don’t mean foods that you’ve washed in the sink (although I highly encourage washing all fresh fruits, veggies, and herbs!). “Clean eating” is a somewhat liberally defined term for a style of eating that’s become really popular over the past five years thanks to several bestselling diet books.
Eat Clean and Get Lean
I define “clean” foods as those that exist in a whole, minimally processed state, free of all artificial flavors, chemicals, additives, or unpronounceable ingredients. They are low in fat and calories and contain little to no oils, processed sugars, or refined salts. Clean foods require very little energy to digest and assimilate while allowing your body to process the nutrients with ease, grace, and efficiency. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Examples of clean food recipes that I recommend for cleansing are: blended vegetable soups, fresh fruit salads, green smoothies, chia pudding, gluten-free grain bowls, and mineral-rich broths. Clean recipes are often easy and affordable and require little time to prepare and enjoy. I like to think about it this way: if the recipe has a ton of ingredients and takes a long time to prepare, you can bet your body is going to take a longer amount of time digesting it. This is not necessarily the approach you want when it comes to cleansing. Just keep your meals simple and easy to digest.
Now, there’s no real rule of thumb for how long the pre-tox and post-tox periods should last. It’s honestly an intuitive thing, mixed with some expert guidance from a trained professional whose advice you trust. Once you feel your body has adjusted to the cleaner foods, you can think about transitioning into a more expansive menu of blended foods and/or liquids exclusively.
