Four Tips for a Perfect Juice Cleanse

Most of us have been stuffing our faces and beating up our livers for the past month or so. These facts combined with the pressure to choose a New Year's resolution make this time of year a particularly busy one for the body detox industry.

There are all sorts of capsules, bottled concoctions, and powders you can buy that promise to help you shed the pounds that have crept up on you over the holiday season. But in my opinion, the best cleanse is one that is done with water, plant foods, and raw organic juices, which you can make fresh in your juicer at home or purchase at a juice bar. (No, Tropicana and Welch's are not juice-cleanse approved!) The energy you get from these sources is pure, organic, and powerful, in contrast to the strange bottles of "detox" sludge that often contain a host of chemical preservatives, fillers, and artificial colors and flavors.

When you drink raw organic juice in lieu of solid food, you save your body the energy it normally expends during digestion. Your body can then redirect this surplus of energy toward healing and improved organ function. The raw vegan juices also supply a highly-concentrated dose of phytonutrients and immune-boosting antioxidants. This is why many people who suffer from auto-immune diseases, cancer, and other maladies are able to heal without drugs when they make juice fasting part of their therapy. This is why I think of juice cleansing as a gift to the health of your internal organs, where the loss of impacted food weight and excess fat is a welcome side effect.

See also:
- Detox Cleansing Without Cravings or Fat Rebound.

But juice fasting and cleansing, like any other detox process, can be difficult. Yesterday, I shared some guidance on transitioning into and out of a juice cleanse from Alina Zhukovskaya, the Detox Specialist and Raw Food Guru at OnJuice, a Boca-based juice delivery service. Their program caters to people who have wanted to do a juice cleanse but thought the juice preparation process too time-consuming or messy. They deliver to your door on a daily basis all the fruit and vegetable juices you need for each day of your fast, in inventive and functional flavor combinations with names like "Pina Kale Lotta." And because of the mega-sophisticated hydraulic press juicer and airtight bottling system they use, OnJuice juices maintain their nutrient content for up to six days, whereas juice you make at home will often rancify within an hour.) Today, I'm going to share Zhukovskaya's insight on how to weather the most detoxifying -- and often the most trying -- days of your juice cleanse.

1. Make a list of reasons why you're doing this.
The decision to start a cleanse is usually made for good reason. Maybe you've been feeling sluggish and want to give your system a chance to reboot after the abuse of excessive holiday food and drink. Maybe you want to clear up your complexion; Zhukovskaya explains that your skin, your "most detoxifying organ," can be cleared of acne and other conditions with a thorough cleanse. Maybe your reasons are more spiritual; many find that abstaining from solid food and instead consuming pure and natural juices from plants gives them mental clarity and a feeling of gratitude for what they have. Some use juice cleansing to wean off of caffeine or to reset sleep patterns (I've personally found juicing very useful as a remedy for insomnia).

Whatever your reasons are, write them down so that you can refer to your list when your resolve gets weak. "We are always bombarded by influences from outside. Your friends may go, 'Come on, let's live a little! Don't you want to have a good time! And you're like, 'Uh, yeah, I do want to have a good time!' Or a commercial comes on and it's like, 'Hey, eat this burger and you're going to be happy and smiling like this girl in the commercial.' And you go, 'Yeah, I want to be happy!' It's all about our wants-wants-wants," Zhukovskaya said. "So when you have a list that actually shows you in your own handwriting, 'Hey, this is what I actually want: I want to have a slender body, I want to have energy to play with my kids, I want to get rid of disease,' you see the reasons you've been thinking about for a very long time and they are much stronger than anything that might overpower you if you didn't have that list."