Cleansing Basics - Your personal path to a happy, healthy and delicious life

A cleanse is more than just following a set of dietary instructions for a few weeks. To be successful, a cleanse must involve education, learning, and self-discovery—or you’ll go right back to your old habits. The cleanse plan I teach my clients is rooted in consuming whole foods, so you can learn how to feed yourself well and get proper nutrition during the cleanse. My goal is to open your eyes to how certain foods and food groups may be affecting your overall health.


Cleansing according to my plan allows your body to adjust to new foods gradually, as you slowly add them in. After your cleanse you’ll be able to discover which inflammatory foods are affecting you negatively as you add them back into your diet.

The Duration of the Cleanse

For most of my clients, I recommend a two-week cleanse, preceded by a week to ease into it, and followed by a week to ease out. I call this the 1-2-1 schedule because you need to keep in mind that the weeks before and after cleansing are just as important as the two weeks spent on it. This 1-2-1 schedule will provide the healthiest, most gentle, and most effective cleanse, with results that last.
A two-week main cleanse is ideal for detoxification. Two weeks is about right for allowing your body rest and recovery time as it detoxifies. If you can’t go this long, still allow a chance to ease off your cleanse—ideally take up to a week so that your body can adjust.

I ask my clients to remove the inflammatory foods listed in the chart on page 65 for the two weeks of the cleanse period. In the week before you begin the cleanse, gradually cut back on these foods. Most people take about three to five days to adjust to the cleanse, but if you prepare your body the week prior and begin to remove or cut down on some of these foods, you’ll have an easier time once you begin. If you want to return any of these foods to your diet after the cleanse, ease them back in—and if possible, cut back permanently on them.

Cravings while Cleansing

Dairy, sugar, coffee, and processed foods, including bread and pasta, can be addictive. Your body wasn’t designed to eat any of these foods as frequently as most people today do. Food manufacturers knowingly add ingredients like sugar in various forms to a lot of packaged and prepared foods to make them more flavorful—and addictive. Be prepared as you enter your cleanse. The cravings may kick in big time once you’ve removed some of your favorite foods.

Cravings should not be ignored or resisted. A cleanse is a great time to get in touch with your cravings and to realize how addicted you are. Some people will have a hard time not having a candy bar every day or a tall, foamy latte each morning. Your body reacts to these foods in the same way it responds to opiate drugs, triggering the brain to release “feel good” endorphins or the hormone dopamine.

Don’t think of the cleanse as starving or self-denial. Remember the dangerous liaisons and how those Bad Boys lure you in. Use your cravings to find out what you want. For example, craving dairy could have an emotional component—the craving may indicate you need more affection and hugs. Or on the physical level, your body might need more calcium, so it’s looking for dairy. On the cleanse, you’ll discover better ways to get calcium your body can use through kale, chard, and other leafy green sources.

Switch your thinking to a sense of abundance and adding in. Add healthy substitutes before you lose out to your cravings, and learn what your body actually needs in the process.
If you follow the week, prep tips listed below you’ll be ready to handle those pesky cravings. Having healthy alternative foods on hand will help you quash cravings before they hit. (See the Easy Substitutions chart below.)

Greens, like a smoothie, green juice, or a salad are a fantastic food to balance out your body’s nutrition and diminish cravings. Adding in greens, in whatever way you like, will help gradually to erase the need for processed, salty, sweet, or creamy foods.