While New Year's resolutions have always been mostly health oriented, I've noticed a rising trend in detox cleanses every year. Naturopathic doctor, Dr. Linda Page, claims, ‘It's a way to recharge, rejuvenate, and renew’. The process of a detox cleanse involves avoiding processed foods and substances that contribute to stress and toxin build up, while consuming unprocessed whole foods and taking supplements and probiotics to enhance the body's natural detoxification. This is year, I've decided to join the trend.

This seems like a simple and pretty straight forward concept, but if you've been spending most of your time eating out of a bag or at a restaurant, it's going to be a significant change. One upside to cleanses is that they don't have to last that long. It's easy to find a cleanse for just the weekend, but it's also just as easy to find a 10 day or even 30 day cleanse. With kits available at places like natural food stores, GNC, and online, a detox is pretty easy to do. If you want to be even more hands on, do a simple internet search, find a plan online and shop for the ingredients yourself. Regardless of which route you take, the goal is the same. Simplify what you're putting into your body help cleanse out some of the nastier elements that can accumulate with eating a diet high in processed foods.

A couple years ago I did a three day detox cleanse with some friends and I loved it! I felt more grounded, had a little spring in my step, and felt a lot lighter (as you might expect from three days of large nutrient-dense smoothies!). We did the cleanse to remove any toxins that had accumulated from poor living and eating habits. At the time, I was working at a family style restaurant where we had the BEST mashed potatoes and fried chicken in town… needless to say, that was the heaviest point of my post college life. It was a good kick start to a new year of healthier eating and living habits, which have improved since then!

_It's worth noting that there is a bit of a difference between a detox cleanse and a detox diet. The point of the cleanse is what I've mentioned above – a way to cleanse the body and to act as the start to healthier eating and living habits. It's a start, a beginning, and not necessarily the only means to the goal of eating better and living healthier. On the other hand, a detox diet is, well, a diet. The goal of any diet is to lose weight or shed inches, and while a detox diet can help you lose weight, you almost always gain every ounce of it back. When eating habits return, so do the pounds.

Fried food and fast food aren't the only processed foods to avoid: canned food, diary (all but raw milk), juices, cereals and breads, deli meat, frozen/pre-made meals, and any food with additives and preservatives, all fall under the ‘processed food umbrella’. That seems to be about every other thing in the grocery store! But you can find whole foods if you look hard enough and/or refer to the maps of the grocery, often hung next to the shopping carts.

So this month my friend and I are going to start a cleanse together and kick off the new year with a new energy! As of now, we are still looking for the right cleanse, one that suits our lifestyles, work schedules, and overall taste (hopefully avoiding another tough-to-swallow detox smoothie made with celery stalks, green apples and lemon juice).

I will be keeping you updated on our cleanse, what we are drinking and eating, and if it works out. Who knows, maybe it'll be a monthly occurrence! Only time will tell how consistent we can make this resolution, and turn it into a lifestyle change.

Author: R. Power