What to Cleanse this Year Instead of Your Gut!

Gone are the days where you shame you body!

Let’s Begin

A long, long time ago, I can still remember…. the shots of “cleanse” nutrition juice I used to take at home, only to be chained to my bathroom for a few days. Yep, we’re getting honest with each other real quick! But even though I knew it wasn’t exactly helping, I was still longing for that quick fix to help me feel BETTER! I used to love swimming for exercises and bike riding, but then I moved to Chicago for a few years… and it is COLD there y’all. So I got out of that habit and picked up running. But then I started forming plantar fasciitis on both feet, so I just started dieting.

As you can imagine, dieting didn’t help. There was so much more with my health going on and with my mental health, that I didn’t realize how little my self esteem had become. I decided to stop dieting all together, find new doctors, and start loving myself the way I helped my clients love their own selves in and outside my office

Overtime I found that removing pieces of pain, judgement, shame, and insecurities from my life rather than just trying a new juice detox actually helped my body image far more than a shot of wheat grass ever did. So here you go!

What I cleansed from my life

1. I started with my closet! Yep, I jumped right in. I tried on everything I could in my closet. Some pieces were obvious and barely fit over my butt, so in the donate box they went. There were some clothes I knew I would be heartbroken to part with if I could fit in them again. So I put them in the back of the closet and turned the hanger around. I gave myself a deadline for those items, a few are gone, but a few remain. Then after the closet was done I moved on to my bathing suits, bras, and underwear.

HERE’S THE CHALLENGE: Do not look in the mirror during this process. Clothes are not meant to control you, they are only there for you to wear. If you put something on and you don’t like it, set it aside. Don’t look in the mirror and begin the process of self shaming. Your task today is only to start the process, not step back into a shame spiral.

2. Home Feed! I picked up a few tactics to help my home feed and some I learned from a friend, (you know who you are). Here’s the painful truth of what my “friends” list looked like. I stayed friends with people who were mean to me, just because we graduated high school together. I stayed friends with past coworkers from a semester job and we never talked. I stayed friends with people who only wanted to add me to their girlboss teams. In various ways there were many people who made me feel less, without them even trying.

But that was now up to me to change, and it will always be up to me to maintain.

HERE’S THE CHALLENGE: Scroll through your groups first! Gain the confidence and notice the feeling of release when you cleanse something that doesn’t serve you. This isn’t you feeling shameful, this isn’t you talking down to yourself… no. This is you doing something that is going to have a positive effect on your life.

3. Self Care products! I started with little changes. I bought my first product from Beauty Counter when I was in graduate school! I bought this charcoal bar that literally made my skin feel squeaky clean. Over the course of a year, maybe more, I made better decisions about the products I bought to put in my body. That has helped my healthy thoughts and my slowly sizzling anxiety about climate crisis.

HERE’S THE CHALLENGE: Walk into your bathroom where you keep all your products at and start to ask yourself do I ever use this. Do I like this product? Do I like this company? Recycle, donate, or toss what you don’t want.

4. Regular habits… I think this one took the most effort, simply because it was weeks of just paying attention to my everyday life. Do you know that meme, “Procrastinators unite! Tomorrow…”, that was me. I noticed I would check the mail only a few times a week because it meant more time sitting on my phone. I would gather everything I may need for hours just so I could stay on the same spot of the couch.

Once I noticed a regular habit seemed to be avoiding work or effort of some kind, I changed it. Effort isn’t a bad thing, and really avoiding tasks was just trying to protect me. I started to feel better about myself the more that I did!

HERE’S THE CHALLENGE: What holds your time the most throughout your day? I want you pay attention to what you do before and after what you answered. Those are the things you likely need to focus on or enhance. For many of us it will be attached to our phones, tablets, or computers. Once you see this I want you to ask yourself what you were doing before and what you need to do after. Those things you are likely rushing through.

Down below I have these steps plus questions to help you figure out what will be best for you. If you want to download it right now and leave the blog (no hard feelings) then click below!

Grab the Quick Guide! You’ll be able to download it right away.

5. Body Image Judgements. This one is hard to type today because I can hardly recall what I judged and how often. I know for most of my life I have judged my body, and yes I still fall into that struggle today, but I used to pick my body apart and judge it.

I have a research and evidence based tactic that is really helpful! You can watch the video here.

6. ~ Inner Critic ~ I saved this one for last because I knew my inner critics and all I had to do was start telling them no. This is going to be the same for you. We all have inner critics who are not us, it sounds like our voice, but the original critic is someone else. My introduction to an inner critic was kindergarten. Someone told my friend I couldn’t play them because I wasn’t cool enough. I can remember what I was wearing, what she was wearing and my friend telling me she would meet me at the swing set. Fast forward to the first time I was in a two piece at summer camp and everyone was talking about certain girls in their 2 piece. I concluded that if everyone thought they looked good then I must look bad - because I did not look like them.

Saying no to inner critics is hard but it also the most rewarding detox I’ve done thus far. Now, when I think I’m being left I check in with myself and then join the conversation again. The friends I have today are fierce and want me involved in their lives. Anytime I see someone walking with the confidence I wish I had, I look for a few seconds longer and wonder how they make themselves feel good. It takes my thought away from me being less and focuses on them striving for more, just like what I want. Now that I have said no to the inner critic thoughts, I can then move on to walking a little taller with the confidence I already have.

YOU DESERVE CALM

So many women in my life struggle to feel truly good about themselves. I think the older we get, maybe the more mouths we have to feed, or are responsible for then the harder it can be to take time for yourself! I imagine as you’ve read this you’ve had thoughts in your head about what you want to detox. Everyone is going to be a little difference and that’s why I’ve got questions below.

When you begin, I encourage you to start in one place you know will be significant for you. That’s why my first place was my closet. I knew I had 3-5 shirts, 1 pair of jeans, and 3 regular leggings that I loved. But everything else just sat there. I discovered “new” old piece and started buying clothes that were actually my style, not just cloth to cover my body.

I share this because I want you to make these changes. You can still diet, you can still exercise - I sure do! But if there are places and spaces in your life that make you feel less, then they need to go.

What you should detox

Look at parts of your day: Morning, Lunch, Dinner. Which one do you dislike the most?

Morning? Is it getting dressed, taking a shower, waking up late, eating breakfast, getting to work?

Lunch? Is it the people you meet for lunch, what you eat or don’t eat for lunch, are you working through lunch, are you scrolling through lunch?

Dinner/Evening? When you get home do you rip off your work clothes in angst? When you’re scrolling do you see people you compare yourself to? When you shower do you look at yourself with sadness or avoid the mirror altogether?

Start answering these questions to start determining what should be a place you detox in your life!

DO NOT give up

You got this friend, you got this sister, you got this girl, you got this ma’am, you got this momma. Do not give up, keep going and use the tools I’ve given you! Share with friends, share with family members, and spread the energy of detoxing what doesn’t serve you rather than your gut where you can!

High Fives all around,

Becca!