January is about “Clean Living.” Will you CLEANSE?

I have.  Cleansed that is.  I did the Blue Print Cleanse  and loved it – but only as a great way to lose some extra pounds in a hurry.  I guess for some lucky few, it kick starts a whole new dietary lifestyle, or launches them into a body & diet transformation.  Not me though.

Like most people who cleanse, it provides me a short term fix.  It’s perfect if you need a totally controlled, 3-5 day prescription for moderate weight loss.  But since those daily 6 bottles of liquid “food” don’t cause me to create and manage a more healthy, dietetic approach to grocery-ing, cooking or eating, the cleanse will forever be only a quick fix for me.  Not complaining, just being realistic.  Note that not everyone loves the BPC as much as I….read this very funny feature from the New York Times, where the author finds the BPC green juice “was like drinking everything bad that ever happened (sic) in high school.”

I just recently tried the more cost-efficient “detox” cleanse from More Magazine and Lyn Genet Recitas.  My friend Mary Kay loved it, lost 5 lbs in a week and felt and looked great.  I liked it ok and lost a couple of pounds (not as much as the prepared juice cleanse from Blue Print though).  The More Mag / Recitas diet is a change in your approach to eating.  It requires a commitment to shopping and preparing meals with a strict selection of foods known for their anti-inflammatory properties.  It strikes me as healthy and mindful, and I am trying to incorporate more of these foods into my diet going forward.

I found a Q&A on the pros/cons of cleansing & detoxing on  the fashion blog Fashionista.    You can read that here, but in a nutshell it’s pretty much what we all already know – no real health benefits, but maybe not a bad way to kick off a new diet or nutritional focus.  I also reached out to my friend Sharon, a nutrition counselor who just started her own blog.  Here’s her excellent advice on the subject of The Cleanse:

Cleansing can indeed have both benefits and negative effects. I counsel my clients that the most important factor in any cleanse should be moderation. Be gentle to yourself. Any diet or cleanse that causes deprivation will inevitably swing back to excess. A very strict cleanse also can strip your body of nutrients, your colon of healthy flora or dehydrate you. Better to choose a cleanse that focuses on healthy, naturally detoxifying foods that you can incorporate into your diet long-term.  Any small changes that you make to permanently improve your diet will add up and most likely give you far greater impact than a short-term cleanse.

You can read more about this on her website, www.nourish-your-health.com, (including a link to some handy “detox foods”) and sign up for her free monthly newsletter with tips, etc.

Finally, I got an email from my girl Gwyneth’s GOOP about this same topic – tis the season and all – plugging the GOOP CLEAN cleanse from her diet guru Dr. Alejandro Junger.  This will not do for me.  I am pretty sure I would starve.  At least I would after a day or so.  Same with the famous and infamous Master Cleanse.    A day or two, sure.  A week or two?  With those side affects?  No thanks.  But maybe you love it – maybe you do one every year or every month – do tell!

PS – I mean it when I say I love the BPC and highly recommend it.  They are not paying me a dime for this reco – not even giving me a discount.  And I asked.  Oh well, I love the taste of each and every bottle of juice.  If I could afford to do this once a month, I totally would.  So what if I’m shallow and lazy.  I write a shopping blog for pete’s sake.