This past summer in June I did the Arbonne cleanse. It was a great experience and not only am I glad I did it, I’m looking forward to doing it again when I’m back in the States. A couple years before that I did an Adovcare cleanse. Also a great experience. But I feel like recently cleanses have been getting a bad rap. I think people think it’s this thing that if you do it you’ll drop 20 pounds and look and feel great. I want to talk about a true cleanse, why I think it’s good, and why it’s not a craze like juicing for 3 days straight or something.

Here is what a good cleanse is not:

• a quick fix
• a way to drop weight fast
• a cure all

Here’s what a good cleanse is:

• a chance to regroup
• a chance to learn how to eat healthy
• a process
• a lifestyle change

I am going to share with you my tips on

How to make a cleanse work for you

Start with a Good Plan

A good cleanse is not drinking only juice for a couple days. In my opinion, a good cleanse is a chance to reboot your system and teach yourself healthy eating habits. It’s not starving yourself. Sure, if you do a juice cleanse you might drop a lot of initial weight, but are you really teaching yourself healthy eating habits? No. When you start eating normal again the weight usually comes right back on.

During the Arbonne cleanse I did there were definitely some food restrictions but they were good restrictions. You can’t have white flour/rice/tortillas etc. Any processed foods are out of the question. Most of these restrictions are good because you don’t want those foods in your life in the first place. There were some, like no honey or peanut butter for example, that are restricting foods not necessarily bad for you. They do this to eliminate potential allergen foods from your body because a lot of people might be slightly allergic to some foods that they don’t even know about. That way, when you slowly reintroduce these things into your diet, you will be able to tell if you’re having a reaction to them.

The point of a cleanse is to cleanse your body of toxins. This would be no GMO’s, no processed foods, no sodas or alcohol (see more details on my original post). But you can still eat. You can still have salads, dinners, chicken, turkey, grass fed beef, etc. They all just need to be cooked healthy within the cleanses’ standards. I think a good cleanse operates this way because it’s more than just dropping 5 pounds in one week. It is training you to eat differently and be aware of what you’re putting in your body.

Don’t go at it alone!

This is a HUGE one. If you’re married, see if you’ll husband will join you. If you’re single, grab some friends that would be willing to join. A group of friends is stronger than going at it alone! That way you can have some accountability to stay strong, people to share recipes with and a cheer squad for when it’s hard. If the people living in your house don’t want to cleanse (i.e. my husband) just get them on board to eat the healthy things you’re preparing and eat the junk they want when they’re out of your sight.

Don’t set weight goals

Doing a cleanse isn’t about losing weight! It’s about making lifestyle changes and learning how to treat your body. Yes, losing weight might be an end goal, but if that’s the only reason you’re doing it, you might be disappointed. However, if you really commit to a good cleanse and eating healthy and learn to change your lifestyle, you will not only see the difference in your body, but also the way you feel and the energy you have. If you continue on the same route, you will continue to see changes and feel great.

My cousin (also my Arbonne cleanse coach) first did the cleanse a year ago. She wasn’t ever fat but since she has not only slimmed down but changed the entire lifestyle for her family. It’s been over a year and she’s still fit, looks great, and going strong!

Get a good Coach

This is key. The coaches for these cleanses have not only been through it before, most likely more than once, they’ve also helped quite a few others complete their cleanses as well. Not seeing results? Contact your coach and talk to them about it. They might be able to see where you can do things differently to see some changes. Need encouragement not to go to the donut shop? (me…) Text your coach for a pick me up. They usually also put together Facebook groups so that the people starting the cleanse at the same time can jump in and encourage each other, trouble shoot, and even share some amazing recipes!

Keep busy

I think it’s important to not make food your life. Don’t let it rule you. Try not to plan your days around your meals. Try to start your cleanse knowing that you’ll have other things to do. It’s hard to do if you’re always thinking about food or obsessing about weight. Just get on with normal life because hopefully, eating healthy, unprocessed foods will become your normal life!

Be Prepared!

I can’t stress this enough. If you’re hungry and want to snack and you walk to your pantry to find chocolates and junk, what are you going to eat? Chocolates and junk. But if you prep your house/kitchen/pantry with whole foods, yummy snacks, and healthy items, what are you going to eat? Healthy things! It’s so important to get rid of, as much as you can, the things that will hold you down. Instead, stock up on the things that you enjoy that will help you push through.

Press on

At the beginning it might be hard. A couple days into mine I had a headache and was pretty much out of service. Because I think naturally we eat a lot unhealthier than we think. Or at least I know that was true for me. So my body was going through withdrawals for not having sugar or coffee or snacks. It’s important to press on during those times, they WILL get better if you stick with it!

Also remember, the more unhealthy you were before the cleanse the longer it might take to snap out of it. If you’ve been eating a lot of processed foods for a while, a month of change isn’t going to work miracles. It will help, sure, but you need to stay on the path to change your lifestyle and truly see the best results.

I thought it was fitting with the new year and probably a lot of people starting a journey to a healthier life to write this post. I hope it has encouraged you a bit! If you’re looking for a cleanse to start, I can personally recommend the Arbonne cleanse and the Advocare cleanse. The Advocare cleanse is shorter and more intense, so I tend to prefer the Arbonne, but they are both great and they will both be what you make it.

This is not a sponsored post. I don’t work for either of these companies I mentioned. I really believe that while cleanses aren’t the end-all, they can be an amazing way to kickstart a healthier way of life. And I think being healthy — as opposed to being skinny — is important. I like that they are 28 days because it is forcing you to make better choices for a longer period of time and you get to really see these choices start to work. Of course, these are all my opinions and experiences, you’ll have to give it a shot to see if it works for you!

If you’re looking for a consultant, you can contact Jessica Thomas for Arbonne at [email protected] and check out some more Advocare information here.

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Natalia Owner & Author
Natalia is a mom to two crazy boys and wife to one handsome dude. She lives in France part of the year where her husband plays professional basketball, but she hails from Southern California. The hubs was born & raised in Nassau, Bahamas, which makes them an intercultural, interracial family traveling the globe together since 2007. She loves to cook (but mostly eat), hang with her fam, be adventurous, & find ways to stay girlie in a house full of men. On her site you can find loads of hair tutorials, makeup ideas, & fashion tips for the everyday woman. She believes that beauty and fashion don't have to be intimidating and that every woman should learn to embrace her own beauty. TwitterFacebookGoogle LinkedIn

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