Cleanse Warning
Here's the thing about elimination diets, cleanses, and wellness plans: If you have a history of calorie restriction and disordered eating, make sure you have recovered before signing up.
How will you know if you’re far enough along in your recovery process? If you have a therapist, discuss it with them first. I also encourage you to think about these questions.
Will the program help you think less about food, your weight, and body size?
Are you looking to expand the types of foods in your diet?
If you want to eat foods not on the cleanse, can you trust that voice and know it’s taking care of you?
I hope you answered “yes” to these questions. If not, trust your inner guide that a cleanse is not going to serve you at this moment.
Diet culture pervades our society and often our own families. Did you grow up with fatphobia? Did a parent ever “gently” body shame you at the dinner table or when shopping for clothes? Did the media’s focus on obesity as a “disease” influence your own attitudes toward larger bodies?
Here’s a fact: Some people are born into larger-sized bodies and others are born into smaller ones. Our bodies have a weight set point which is why 95% of diets may take off weight initially but cause weight gain over time, and often at a higher set point.
Our bodies have a built-in protection plan. They say, “Don’t starve me. I want to take care of you.” So when we restrict calories, our metabolism slows down to conserve energy and our minds start thinking about food, a lot.
Check in: If being on a cleanse causes you to obsess over food, take a break.
As a nutrition educator and intuitive eating coach, I recommend that clients give their bodies mostly unprocessed, nourishing foods, but for someone who is still healing from disordered eating, a cleanse may take them down the default path of restrictiveness.
For others, if you sign up for on a cleanse or wellness plan, here’s my recommendation: Pay attention to the foods you eat and how they make you feel. Let that guide your food choices and the amounts you eat. Isn’t that the goal, to feel good in our bodies and to enjoy life more without obsessing about what we eat?
