All Things Holistic Blog

My cousin recently asked me a great question regarding cleansing (and doing the whole food cleanse specifically) with Cleanse With Friends. Thought the question, and answer, were worthy of a post here. Thanks, Jenny!

Q: Hey Tammy, how are you? I love getting your posts on all your cleansing events. I wish I lived closer so I could check them out. I am really curious about trying it [the whole food cleanse] but can't picture jumping in with both feet. Is there a way to do it in smaller steps? Do you have any book recommendations or websites that I might want to check out?

A: A cleanse can be daunting, and yes there are definitely ways to ease into it. I recommend that you simply begin to notice the percentage of whole foods to processed/packaged foods that you eat at each meal or snack. These can be tracked on a pad of paper or in a journal--just noticing brings awareness to what your habits really are. No judgments--it's about building awareness. Or, you could notice the number of servings of veggies and fruit you eat each day, and make a "tic" mark in your journal. Then, simply set a goal to increase the percentage of whole foods or increase the number of fruits and/or veggies that you eat each day. Set a doable goal--even if it's just adding one more per day, or increasing the percentage by 10 or 20%.

One of my favorite websites for recipes and nutritional info is www.whfoods.org. Most of the recipes are simple AND delicious, and contain the nutritional info for that recipe. It isn't about counting calories as much as it is about increasing the micronutrients in the diet--vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals, enzymes, etc.

He also has a top 100 food list--this is a great list to print out and keep handy when you're looking for ideas on what you might add to the diet. And, I believe if you click on an individual food like 'Avocados" there's a ton of nutritional info as well as links to all the recipes he has that include this food.

Hope that helps! Would love to have you join a cleanse with us sometime--I'm offering them "online" via webinar so you can connect with us from right where you are. :-)

Best,

Tamara