Before Your Cleanse

One of the first things I get asked by people, and a question I had my self, is “what do I do before I start my cleanse?”  There is no set answer for everyone. I started my first cleanse the day after I got my products.  It has been suggested by some to prep for a couple days before starting to help get your body ready for what is to come.  Here are a couple of my suggestions based on what I did and didn’t do that can be helpful to you before you start.

Decide Why You Are Doing This

I know that may sound odd because if you are prepping for this it means that you have already purchased the products and have ‘decided’ to do it.  What I have learned is that whatever your end goal is that is where you will focus your energy. For me at first it was simply weight loss, which is not a bad thing.  What I found though, was I would start weighing my self more often to check in and see if I was being successful.  When the weight didn’t come off as fast as I wanted or expected (especially in the first 3 days or so), I felt as though I was failing and wasn’t going to be successful. It wasn’t until I had a personal inventory of how I was feeling and trying to find my other successes that my end goal had changed.  I realized the weight loss was going to be a natural result of doing this cleanse.  So I focused my goals on bettering my health, finding out how I could enjoy this 10 day transformation better and giving myself a break from my own expectations.  Sometimes we see success as a straight line, but in reality it looks more like a spaghetti noodle someone threw on the floor.  Once we realize this and temper our own expectations, we can enjoy the success that will come.

Plan

You’ve heard the old adage: “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”.  How true that is, especially with something like this transformation. I would highly suggest taking some time, whether it is a couple hours or a couple days and plan out your meals and food.  Taking the time to do this can help you psychologically as much as physically. There were days I didn’t plan so well  and didn’t have enough food and so instead of simply battling the physical part I now had to battle the temptation to cheat and eat something else that was easy and convenient to get, but not part of my cleansing diet.  The other side to this is realizing that it is only 10 days, so plan on what environments you will put yourself in for those 10 days.  I know people that tortured themselves by being around others who ate their favorite foods, or went to parties where it was hard to resist the temptation of what was there to eat. Now you are bringing into play the whole ‘will power’ effect; one of the biggest reasons other diet plans don’t work.  You are fighting two battles, the physical and mental.  Now I’m not saying to be a hermit, but again by setting yourself up for success before you get yourself into those situations can be the key to your accomplishments.  Maybe take time to plan what you will bring on your own, or have a safe word to family and friends when it gets to the point that you are starting to cave.  Planning can make all the difference in the world for your next 10 days. Make it count

Use Your Resources

Finally, make sure to know what resources are available to you and don’t be afraid to use them. Whether it is telling your friends and family you are doing this and ask for their help and support, or simply getting more information from those who have walked this path before. By getting more information and answering your questions it will provide more confidence to you and we all know that knowledge is power.  Realize you are not in this alone and use those who introduced this to you or those who have done this before to help better your understanding of the little things that can add up to the big results you are hoping to achieve.