Drink a salad: a quick guide to juice cleansing

What do you put in your mouth?

Have you ever stopped to think about what life was like before there were factories, preservatives and technology to enhance food?  Before taking a bite, do you ever consider how your food was prepared, how the meat is slaughtered, where the produce was grown, who planted the seeds?  Are you eating a lot of sugar? Drinking caffeine? Asking these questions may open a can of worms, but can also give you helpful insight into your eating habits and what and how you might want to change.

Does your body need an overhaul?

Today there are many programs and products on the market devised to “gently cleanse and heal your body” through 100% raw organic vegetables and fruits.  Why cleanse?  Juice cleanse companies including Ritual Cleanse and Pressed Juicery say their programs give your body a break from processed foods, pesticides, additives, chemicals, meats, caffeine and alcohol, while replenishing the digestive system, bloodstream, and overall body with vitamins, minerals, enzymes, antioxidants and phyto-nutrients from raw fruit and vegetables.

“The ideal technique for successful fasting is the use of fresh, raw fruit and vegetable juices. On such a diet, the full spectrum of nutrients is supplied in an easily assimilated form, so the digestive tract is able to remain essentially at rest. It is only through the combined use of both cleansing processes, and a very good diet, that one will be able to reach her or his maximal level of physical health and an unclouded consciousness.”  Rudolph Ballentine, M.D. “Diet & Nutrition“; established holistic medical clinics in Chicago, New York, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and Honesdale, PA, and authored “Radical Healing: Integrating The World’s Great Therapeutic Traditions To Create A New Transformative Medicine“

By the end of these juice cleansing plans, you may experience:

• better digestion
• a decreased desire for salt and sugar
• glowing skin
• more restful sleep
• abundance of energy
• weight loss
• increased sex drive (really?)

The Ritual Cleanse juice program is designed for everyone from elite athletes to couch potatoes, raw foodies to fast foodies.  The juices flood the cells with vitamins and minerals that gently cleanse and heal your body without the harsh “detox” symptoms associated with other cleanses.  Whatever category you fall into, whether you are an avid cleanser or a first timer looking for something to kick-start a healthier lifestyle, Ritual Cleanse has you covered.

Drink a salad.

Ritual Cleanse suggests starting with a 3-day cleanse. Opt for the “Seasonal Reset”, which consists of 6 freshly pressed juices that you drink every two hours or so throughout the day.  One of the six features a specially formulated blend capturing the best seasonal produce.  In honor of summer Ritual Cleanse introduces its new seasonal juice which is a tropical blend of mango, pineapple, green apple and young coconut water.  Grab a straw, take it outside while you relax and soak up the summer rays.

Looking to refuel your body after a run through Santa Monica or a hike up Mandeville Canyon, check out Pressed Juicery in Brentwood.  These guys offer a full menu of juices, and cleanse programs, too. Their signature juices include Roots 1 which is 16oz drink packed with minerals and enzymes aimed at cleansing the blood and strengthening the body on a cellular level.  Featuring beets, carrots, kale, spinach, romaine parsley, cucumber and celery, the healing qualities are endless.

The juice diet won’t do much good if you aren’t already taking care of your body.

Nancy Deville as LA’s real-food advocate and bestselling health author of HEALTHY, SEXY, HAPPY on sale now, says, “Rather than detoxing occasionally it’s optimal to live a detox lifestyle: Eat a balanced diet of real, whole living food every day, avoid toxic exposure whenever possible, drink purified water, quit coffee, drink alcohol moderately, exercise regularly to sweat out toxins, and drink veggie juice every day.”

Before starting any type of cleanse or diet, set up an appointment with your general physician to discuss your plan!

Another fantastic post on Harvard Business Review!

Shawn Achor

 

Shawn Achor is the founder of Good Think, Inc. and the author of The Happiness Advantage. In 2006, he was Head Teaching Fellow for “Positive Psychology,” the most popular course at Harvard at the time. He holds a Masters from Harvard Divinity School and has spoken in 45 countries to a wide variety of audiences, including bankers on Wall Street, students in Dubai, and CEOs in Zimbabwe.

The Happiness Dividend

by Shawn Anchor

 

Nearly every company in the world gives lip service to the idea that “our people are our greatest asset.” Yet when the Conference Board Survey came out earlier this year, employees were the unhappiest they have been in their 22 years of tracking job satisfaction rates. Around the same time, CNNMoney reported a survey that indicated 84% of Americans are unhappy with their current job. And earlier this month, Mercer’s “What’s Working” survey found that one in three US employees are serious about leaving their current jobs.

Why is this lack of happiness at work important? Job satisfaction is not only the key predictor of turnover rates, in The Happiness Advantage, I make the research case for the fact that the single greatest advantage in the modern economy is a happy and engaged workforce. A decade of research proves that happiness raises nearly every business and educational outcome: raising sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, and accuracy on tasks by 19%, as well as a myriad of health and quality of life improvements. Yet even those companies that do take leadership training seriously still ignore the role that happiness plays in leadership effectiveness.

Given the unprecedented level of unhappiness at companies and the direct link between the employees’ happiness and business outcomes, the question is NOT whether happiness should matter to companies. Given this research, it clearly should. The real question is: Can a company do anything to raise the happiness level of an employee?

To test the ROI of investing in happiness, I wanted to find a company in the midst of high challenge. In 2009, I chose the auditing and tax accounting firm KPMG, as they were about to be hit with perhaps the most stressful tax season in decades after the banking crisis in 2008.

January to April is the most stressful time for the managers at KPMG, so in December, half of the managers in the study at the New Jersey and New York offices were provided a three-hour introduction to positive psychology research and how to apply those principles at work. The employees were then evaluated three times — before the training, a week after the training, and four months later in April — using a battery of standard metrics including life satisfaction measures, perceived stress, social support, perceived effectiveness at work and work optimism.

Every single positive metric improved significantly for the trained group between Time 1 (before the training) and Time 2 (a week after the training). This indicated that the training was an initial success, but the real question is whether the training would hold. There is often a “honeymoon effect” after trainings in which respondents feel totally changed, then immediately return back to their previous state as soon as they see their inbox.

Yet in this case, the effect held for the entire four months. Most significantly, the life satisfaction scores, which indicate personal and professional happiness, were significantly higher four months later as compared to how the managers were before the training, and also as compared to the managers in the control group. A brief three-hour training and a non-mandatory invitation to create a positive habit for 21 days created a high ROI not only in the short-term, but in the longer term as well.

Individuals can begin to do two things on their own. First, recognize that happiness is an advantage at work. This will encourage you to seek happiness in the present instead of waiting for a future success. As a result, your brain will have more resources necessary to accomplish your work. Second, you can literally train your brain for higher levels of happiness at work by creating habits shown to increase job satisfaction. In the training with KPMG, we suggested five:

• Write down three new things you are grateful for each day;
• Write for 2 minutes a day describing one positive experience you had over the past 24 hours;
• Exercise for 10 minutes a day;
• Meditate for 2 minutes, focusing on your breath going in and out;
• Write one, quick email first thing in the morning thanking or praising a member on your team.

Gratitude, focusing on positive experiences, exercise, meditating, and random acts of kindness are all ways to change the pattern through which your brain views work. And if you have other tips you’ve tried on your job, please share them in the comments! This research is only the beginning of understanding how to create and sustain a positive and engaged workforce. These findings clearly indicate that not only can a company influence the happiness of its employees with a short intervention and low investment of resources, but the effects are sustained even in times of great challenge.

In other words, investing in happiness pays great dividends.

LCO in OK Magazine!

Great news … LCO made OK magazine!  We were mentioned in a column that included Brad Pitt, Lisa Rinna and Sheryl Crow.  Nice!

http://www.okmagazine.com/2011/05/spotted-155/