Cleanses, Detoxing, and Building habits
Most of us have noticed the recent trend of companies pushing us as consumers to ‘cleanse’ or ‘detox’ ourselves of toxins to feel better to lose weight. There have been numerous financially motivated companies over the past several years not only pushing these products, but setting up multi level marketing schemes to get our friends and family members to sell these products as well. At best they use deceptive marketing; at worst they straight up scam people with the bold claims they make. I always tell people as a rule of thumb, if something sounds too good to be true, there’s a very high probability it’s too good to be true.
How many times have we seen this work out for someone selling supplements?
I see the same market cycles over and over with these products and I can see the people that they target. I’ve even been involved in a few multi level marketing companies myself when I was younger and more naive, so I have a very good idea of how these people work: they focus on desperate people and they do this in a few particular ways. The salespeople are trained to seek out people who are looking to lose weight, earn extra “streams of revenue” with their income, or simply to discover some kind of quick fix answer to all their woes.
This is hardly a new issue, but I think it’s important to address some genuine methods to counter the bullshit ‘solutions’ that these sales teams and marketing “gurus” are offering. What I’d like to do is point out the logical gaps in the claims being pushed as well as provide tactics that should be applied well before trying any extreme measure or spending a bunch of extra cash on something that may just leave you running to the bathroom every 15 minutes.
Let’s start with the Google definition of Cleanse:
- make (something, especially the skin) thoroughly clean.
- rid (a person, place, or thing) of something seen as unpleasant, unwanted, or defiling.
- free (someone) from sin or guilt.
So what about an organic juice cleanse?…
It’s not actually cleansing in any sense of the definition above. True, drinking juice might add nutrients to your diet, some of which you are already probably getting enough of if you’re eating a variety of foods on a regular basis. Using organic juices, which likely contain fructose sugars, to “cleanse” the body is absurd. There are probably 5 or more other habits I can harp on that have far more impact in regards to feeling healthier or less lethargic, including:
- Weekly 24 hour fasting
- Drinking enough water
- Getting enough sleep
- Exercising properly and regularly
- Paying attention to proper nutrient intake overall
All of these things will have “cleansing” effects if you have not been taking care of yourself. If you feel you need a reset, make sure you can honestly check all those boxes first before considering some money-wasting fad nonsense.
Should I choose the “weight loss” juice or the juice fruit juice?
If you are in need of a “reset,” you will be doing yourself a much bigger favor by first assessing your personality to figure out your eating patterns. You may want to consider seeing a dietician or getting a custom meal plan to help you figure out how you should be eating within the parameters of your lifestyle choices and priorities and behavior patterns. My advice would be to stay away from extreme diets you can’t adhere to and that will lead to binges or other traps. That’s part of the reason you have to know your behaviour traits and personality before spending money. With the help of a professional, knowing your weaknesses and patterns may be the real key to success to feeling healthy.
So many people want a quick 3 day or 30 day program that will change their lives and make it easy. You want to know the secret to make life a lot easier? Do you? Well for just $19.95 you can have it all!…(I’m kidding.) This advice is simple and free: you have to get used to building your habits. People try to change too many habits all at once. They fail over and over while wondering what went wrong. I guarantee everyone reading this has built at least 1 good habit in their life at some point. Whether it’s brushing your teeth daily, making your bed, or drinking more water daily, we have all built up habits over time.
These patterns create who we are. Most people can’t change who they are overnight and I wouldn’t recommend being so drastic in most cases anyway. Start small…I could give a million examples and I work on habit build
Because you certainly don’t need to…seriously. Don’t waste your energy and money.
ing with my clients. You have to start with easy stuff and build on that foundation of success. If you do this you will grow. If you do this you will be able to start to build the person you imagine you can be.
Stop letting people take your money. Stop letting people convince you everything will be better immediately. Stop letting people screw with your self confidence. Stop believing the nonsense that seems too good to be true. Build yourself and you won’t have to feel so all over the place, especially when it comes to your health. The people I know with the best health, myself included, know that the positive rituals they build are what keep them growing as well as healthy.
I can tell you one thing. If you get in the best shape of your life while doing all the right things, you’ll never feel the temptation to be conned again. You’ll never want cleanses, crash diets, secret supplements, or easy answers to problems that take away the effort.
Three months of training properly while treating your mind and body properly can do wonders for your life. Twelve months will do even more. Five years and you’ll be baffled that you ever thought otherwise.
Get on it, warriors. It starts with one new habit daily. What’s yours going to be?
