How To Create A Fall Cleanse: Reset Your Body And Mind
This week is the autumnal equinox aka the beginning of fall, in the northern hemisphere. I am so excited, fall is one of my favourite seasons. I really see fall as such a joyous time of year. The bright red and yellow leaves, orange pumpkins, cozy sweaters, and holidays i.e. Thanksgiving and Halloween, make me so happy.
In some ways, fall has always sort of seemed like the beginning of a new year to me.
As summer ends, kids start going back to school, and companies get ready for their biggest campaigns of the year (back to school, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Black Friday, Christmas, Box Day, and New Years).
The long afternoons tanning in the summer sun are replaced with putting on oversized sweaters and drinking chai lattes.
It almost feels like we “snap” out of vacation mode and get back to our “regular” lifestyle.
Summer slowly turns into a memory and we are gifted with another new beginning filled with everything pumpkin spice.
This year more then ever, I feel like I really need to embrace the new beginning that this new season brings.
The first 9 months of 2020 have been wild. There have been so many changes, both good and not so great, in my life and the world this year and I feel like I need to take a moment to process the changes so I can find ways to move forward with my life this fall.
So, I decided that for the first week of fall, I am going to do a fall 5-day body, mind and soul cleanse.
For my hello autumn glow up aka my fall cleanse I am going to be committing to a 5-day juice and tea cleanse as well as committing to some mindfulness activities.
The main goals of my fall cleanse are to reset my digestive system, support my mental and emotional health and head into the colder months feeling grounded and nourished. At the end of the 7 days, I want to feel good and get myself back on track with my goals for the rest of the year.
If you are feeling a little stuck, or overwhelmed with all the changes that have taken placed this year, and are in need of a new beginning, why not use my cleanse as a reference point and create your own fall cleanse? Keep scrolling to discover all the details of my 7-day cleanse and some tips so you can create your own.
Disclaimer: In this blog post I talk about doing a 5-day juice cleanse. While I do believe that a juice cleanse is a good idea for me, I am in no way a doctor, and can not recommend it for every person. If you have never done a juice cleanse before, or have a history of eating disorders or have any medical conditions please consult a doctor before trying.
My FUll Fall Cleanse
Body Cleanse
The first part of my fall cleanse is to clean my body. For five days I am going to be on a juice and tea cleanse. For five days, I will be eliminating all sugar, alcohol, wheat, meat, and dairy, I will only be intaking juice and tea, however, I will be monitoring my body and I am fully prepared to listen to my body, and if I need to I will be adding whole fruits and veggies, as well as steamed rice to my diet. I will also be adding some movement, breathwork and sleep into my daily routine.
Juice + Drinks
Juice cleanse are great ways to help support your mental and physical health by resetting your digestive system. According to Glory Juice Co a fall cleanse can help you to:
- Strengthen your immune system; become more resistant to illness.
- Reduce summer’s accumulated heat to lessen inflammation.
- Rejuvenate the liver to optimize the body’s metabolic processes.
- Support sound sleep.
- Promote regular elimination.
- Prepares the tissues for deep nourishment and rejuvenation.
- Reestablish one’s natural state of balance.
For this cleanse I will be drinking a mix of homemade green juice and other veggie and fruit juices, that aim to cleanse the body’s organs such as the colon, liver and kidneys. I will also be drinking different green and herbal teas throughout the day as well as all the water I can handle.
Movement
Along with doing my juice cleanse, I am going to be adding certain movements to my daily schedule. Because I will not be consuming all of the standard amounts of fats, proteins and carbs that the human body needs, I will not be pushing my body through intense workouts this week. Instead, I will be going for walks outside each day and enjoy peaceful yoga sessions.
Breathwork
I will also be doing 20 mins of breathwork each morning. If you do not know breathwork is just doing certain breathing exercises to help promote health throughout the body. It has been around for years and is an amazing way for the body to relax.
Sleep
The last way that I am going to cleanse my body this week is by making sure that I am getting 8 – 10 hours of sleep a night. Sleep is one of the easiest ways to take care of our bodies and minds. If you aren’t sleeping for at least 8 hours a night, you should please consider changing your routine.
Mind Cleanse
Along with my body cleanse activities, I am going to be adding some mindfulness activities to my next 5 days. I will be enjoying daily meditation, reading more, eliminating tv and social media, cleaning my space and decluttering my work life.
Reading > TV And Social Media
During my cleanse I am going to be motoring how much screen time I am getting. I will not be watching TV throughout my cleanse and I will only be using social media for work. Instead of TV and social media, I am going to be reading before bed and enjoy creative activities in my spare time, like learning to play the guitar.
Daily Meditation
I am a big fan of meditation, it totally helps to make me feel less stress and helps me to manage my anxiety. Which is why I am adding it to my cleanse.
Clean House – Fall Decorations
On the weekend before I start my fall cleanse, I took the time to clean my space and put up fall decorations. I think this is an important task to do before the cleanse begins because it helps to create a positive vibe in your home and can help improve your mental health. Do a serious fall clean and make your home feel good. If fall decorations make you happy, put some up.
Work Declutter
The last part of the mind cleanse section of my fall cleanse is to declutter my work life and create more of a work-life balance. I work from home right now, so as I was cleaning my space I made sure to declutter my office space. I also cleared out my email, which was a hot mess. To help with work-life balance I am enforcing a no work after 8 PM rule, which is a big deal for me because I often work till 11 PM.
Letting Go
The final section of my fall cleanse is to let go. Just as the leaves fall to the ground, I am going to focus my energy on letting go of anything that is no longer serving me and that is not helping me to reach my goals. It might be past events that I am holding on to, fears, past relationships, habits etc. To do this I am going to be journaling every day. Journaling has always been a great way for me to understand what I am feeling, and process my emotions. Every night I’ll be answering these three questions in my journal:
- What am I grateful for today?
- How am I feeling today?
- What do I need to let go of from my past, so that I can move forward in a positive direction?
Once I discover anything that I need to let go of I will write it on a piece of paper and rip it up, as a sign of letting it go.
Tips For Creating Your Own Fall Cleanse
- Do what works for you. My seven day cleanse is pretty hardcore – I have done this before, so I know what works for me. I know what my body can handle, and I know that I can trust myself to make changes if I feel weak or anxious. If you really want to do a fall cleanse, it is important to make it work for you. Maybe doing a short cleanse would make you feel best, so instead of 5 days, you can shorten it to 3 days. Maybe having so many things to do each day will make you feel overwhelmed, so instead of doing all of the things I mentioned pick 1 -3, and stick to them thought-out the whole cleanse. Have fun with it and do what is best for you.
- Believe in yourself. If you think you can, you will be able to make it through the cleanse and come out on the other side feeling great, ready to tackle the fall season.
- Make a plan. Before you start your cleanse make sure that you create a plan for yourself. Have your juice recipes ready, go out to the store and buy your veggies and teas, find guided meditations that you are going to do etc. Doing this will help you to feel less stressed and make the cleanse as smooth as possible.
I am excited for the next 5 days, I can’t wait to see what magic happens for me this week. I will post a blog after my 5-day journey, so you can see how it went. Are you ready to start your fall cleanse? If so let me know in the comments – I would love to support you and cheer you on.
Wishing you a happy first week of fall,
