9 Tips for Helping Friends and Family Transition to Beauty Detox

When we’re just beginning and passionate about learning all about Beauty Detox, it’s only natural to want to share it with others — or even to encourage friends and family to join us.

The only challenge with this approach is that people often resist change when someone else is pushing them to make the change. They may feel pressured or that you’re suggesting they are “wrong” if you tell them to eat differently.

So how do you help others you know would benefit from this information and way of living?

The single best way is to first lead by example. This is actually easier than it sounds, because as you make progress with the Beauty Detox lifestyle, others will begin to take notice. It could be your leaner, more slender body… or your clear, glowing skin… your increased energy levels… or any number of the health benefits we’ve all experienced.

The point is, the more you change and become truly happy and enthusiastic about life — and the more your health transforms — the more other people in your life will want to know what it is you’re doing. That desire for them to know and experience what you have is absolutely essential to you being able to truly help them, without any sense of pressure.

Once they do notice your results and desire similar change, there are many practical ways you can help them take the Beauty Detox journey and support them as a good friend or family member. This post will review those tips and help you address some of the challenges that might arise during this process.

Transition Tip #1: Give the Gift of This Blog, or the Beauty Detox Books

So, assuming your friend or family member has expressed interest in this way of eating and lifestyle, one of the easiest and yet most effective ways to support them is to show them this blog. Currently, we have hundreds of articles, dozens of podcasts, videos and more — all filled with very practical and supportive information that can aid their transition. And the best part is, it’s all free — both for you and for them.

Another option, to give them a more complete background and philosophy overview, to help them see the reasoning behind your eating choices, is to give them one or both of the Beauty Detox books. This is one of the most powerful things you can do- present knowledge. Both The Beauty Detox Solution and The Beauty Detox Foods help outline the core principles, provide science and nutritional explanations, and offer many food and recipe ideas. I’ve long felt that good books (in general) are among the best value on earth — after all, where else can you get so much information, beautifully presented, for just $10-$20 or so?

This is one reason I’m so passionate about writing to this very day.  I know how much they help people, because over the years, I’ve had countless people write me and tell me that someone they knew gave them the book — and it totally changed their life. That is all the reason I need!

(And yes, I am editing Beauty Detox book #3 now!! My whole soul is being poured into it and it’s coming right out of my heart and through my hands onto the page. I am perhaps the most passionate about this book!)

Transition Tip #2: Help Them Create a Healthy Kitchen

Now, let’s assume your friend or family member has started to learn about the lifestyle and is open to even more help and support. What’s next?

One possibility is to go over to their home and gently help them remove some of the unhealthier or tempting junk foods from their kitchen or cupboard. No, I’m not suggesting you forcefully make them throw out everything but fruits and vegetables — but instead, make it fun and educational.

Walk them through their fridge or pantry and point out the different additives or refined sugars present in seemingly normal foods. If they are open to it, you can help them remove things like dairy, deli meats, soda, sugar, table salt, canned vegetables — even dusty old spices. As a general guideline, you want to remove anything containing artificial preservatives, agave, artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup.

It’s more complicated if this friend or family member has a husband or kids who eat these non-Beauty Detox friendly foods — and so I’m not suggesting you just blindly suggesting you make them through everything out. Because even if they don’t remove a single item, as I mentioned a moment ago, this process can be fun and highly educational. Presenting it in the light of “A good alternative is X”, versus “You are a very bad food shopper!” will be better received by all!

Transition Tip #3: Take Them Grocery Shopping!

The most positive way to help someone reach their goals is by showing them how to shop the Beauty Detox way. Show them how important it is to shop around the sides of the grocery store, particularly in the produce section, rather than in the middle where the processed/packaged foods are. Throughout, you can show them how to pick kale — and its many nutritional benefits — or how to select nearly ripe avocados. Make their mouth water about the idea of a big beautiful salad filled with colors and tastes!

Another thing you can do is help them find healthy substitutes. Because there are so many things that we all shop for, which can be purchased in a healthier form. Instead of iodized table salt, try out a high-quality sea salt such as Celtic or Himalayan. And instead of Splenda or sugar, try xylitol or stevia. Help them understand the difference between alkaline foods (greens, ripe fruits, veggies) and minimize acidic foods (caffeine, processed foods, dairy).

Aside from fresh fruits and green vegetables, be sure to also stock up on starchy vegetables (sweet potatoes, yams), quinoa, seeds like chia, some nuts and perhaps some legumes like lentils and gluten-free bread. I recommend coconut oil for cooking, so you may want to pick that up as well. I provide a grocery list in my books, The Beauty Detox Solution and The Beauty Detox Foods.

Transition Tip #4: Hydrate to Assist Energy and Cleansing

One of the biggest keys to success with Beauty Detox is proper hydration. This, of course, means cutting out the soda (yes, even diet varieties). We all know has absolutely no nutritional value and is loaded with empty calories. Additionally, soda is extremely acidic and will therefore contribute to premature aging, acne and dark under-eye circles. Make sure your friend or family member understands it will deplete his or her body of precious essential minerals that are important for our vitality.

Communicate that our bodies are made up of 70% water! Water helps improve blood flow, promotes the metabolism and activates the bacterial enzymes and flora in the intestine, which helps promote the excretion of toxins and waste. This is especially important as your friend or family member begins to cleanse and eliminate more — plenty of water is simply not optional.

I would also encourage this individual to start each day with hot water with lemon. This will help jump-start his or her body in the morning and contribute to more energy throughout the day. Try not to drink too much liquid (including water) during meals because it dilutes and slows the digestion process. This is especially true of cold drinks, which are unfortunately always served at restaurants. If your friend must drink during his or her meals, have them sip hot tea — which can actually be helpful to digestion.

Transition Tip #5: Show Them the Beauty of Greens

Yes, I’m talking about kale, collars, chard, lettuces, spinach, herbs and all the green leafy veggies you’d find in your local market. If necessary, help your friend or family member learn to prepare beautiful, appetizing salads so that he or she can develop a taste for this Beauty Detox staple.

There are many people out there that insist they don’t like greens. I have encountered more than a few, and I have had clients that were not into greens either- at least at first. Though people may think they don’t like greens, they may be pleasantly surprised at the delicious taste of the GGS. You can add a little more water and fruit if they really haven’t eaten many greens for a long time, and need to eased in. Don’t worry! I’ve seen so many people shift over time. Be patient and loving.

Another helpful way to get variety with your greens is to go to the farmer’s market. Encourage this friend or family member to experiment with many different green veggies and see what he or she likes best. Add veggies, avocado, and switch up the type of lettuce and kale to keep the textures fun and enticing, and to ensure a wide variety of mineral absorption. For delicious and creative salad dressing, have them try one of my personal favorites, Kim’s Classic Dressing.

Or you can teach them how to make Dharma’s Kale Salad, just as I do in this video:

Transition Tip #6: Help Them Have More Energy By Eating Lighter During the Day

As you’ve probably heard me say in the books and on this blog, it’s not just what we eat that matters, but the order in which we eat our food. We want to understand the nutrients and absorption qualities of the foods we are consuming so that we can minimize gas, bloating and fermentation. This is one reason why I often suggest to eat lighter during the day, then have your heartier meals at night.

For example, you can show your friend or family member how to start the day with the Glowing Green Smoothie and perhaps some fruit later in the morning. For lunch, encourage them to try eating a full green salad with lots of veggies and maybe a wrap or veggies and dip, if they are still hungry after the salad. For dinner, that’s when he or she can have a proper sit-down meal at least 3 (preferably 4) hours before you go to bed. This is the last meal before our bodies have 12+ hours plus to digest and move it through our bodies — so this is the time to add cooked food, animal protein and a wide variety of veggies. This is the best way to maximize the digestive potential of the average person in the Western world who works and is active during the day, and the end of the day is for relaxing and socializing.

If you can, you may even want to spend a couple days or a weekend with this person, showing him or her how to prepare the meals, and even eating together. It will take the mystery and sense of solitude out of the process, and I’m sure they will feel incredibly supported. This can also be an amazing way to connect and bond.

Bonus tip: You can also introduce someone to Beauty Detox — even if they don’t know about it or haven’t expressed interest yet — simply by spending time with them, and leading the meal preparation. If you do this in a fun, friendly, non-threatening way, many people will be open to trying out the GGS, or the salad, or other dishes you could make. And then, once they see how delicious the foods can be, it feels like less of a sacrifice to eat this way on a daily basis.

Transition Tip #7: Help Them Master the Basics, First

Once you help this person get these basics down, they will have a strong foundation on which to continue their detox and healthy choices. It is very important that you realize that they don’t have to immediately adopt all of the recommendations that I make in the books or on this blog, all at once. When someone make drastic switches in your diet very quickly, your body is vulnerable to unpleasant side effects from irresponsible cleansing.

Helping someone transition into this lifestyle more slowly, so it sticks. Most important of all, be gentle and supportive, especially because there will most likely be a detoxification phase they will have to pass through before the changes they make are permanent. This could be just starting by eliminating artificial sweeteners and all products that contain them, and have them start eating larger salads as part of dinner every night.

Transition Tip #8: Support Them Through Their Detox Phase

When I began eating more in alignment with the Beauty Detox principles, the first month, maybe two months I felt awesome! I got very lean, my energy was high, and I was so excited about my newfound diet. Then…I started getting a little more sluggish. My skin broke out a bit, and I started craving old foods again! Sounds familiar?

Well, this is what is REALLY going on — and it’s really important you communicate this to your friend or family member while the process is happening:

When you shift into eating more vegetarian, vegan, or a diet with much more raw/living foods — your body automatically goes into ongoing detox mode. This is because previously we were constantly eating foods that were full of congestive elements (pesticides, dairy, gluten, flour, processed sugar, toxic food combinations, acidic animal products with hormones, etc.), that it really was too much for our bodies to handle on its own.

So what happens? It ends up being stored. Yes, accumulating in our bowels and in our cell tissue! It doesn’t matter if you go to the bathroom 3 times a day! Trust me, waste and toxins, which are baking in the body at our temperature of 98 degrees, become lodged in our cells, and over time lead to diseases and other signs of NOT optimal health—low energy, difficulty in losing weight, etc. Our bodies become more and more acidic over time with these levels of toxins.

So when you stop eating so much toxic food, or toxic food combinations, your body can take a rest from having piles and piles of “new” toxins to deal with, and starts detoxing the surface stuff. Plus you’re eating tons of alkaline foods. That’s in the first month or two! That’s when you feel light as a feather, and your feel that you’ve finally figured out the best food plan for you amongst the mind-boggling plethora of food diets and confusing information.

Note: If your goal is to help someone transition to Beauty Detox, it’s really important that you don’t go into all this before they get started. It will only scare this person, and create resistance to them even getting started. Instead, you can use the explanation I just offered to help support them if they ever feel “low” during the detoxification phase.

Keep Moving Forward!

It’s also important that you encourage them to keep going and not abandon the process. Because without your support, chances are they might go to someone else they know — or maybe even a standard doctor who will tell them that they are low in protein, or a vital nutrient or mineral like iron and calcium, that it’s not really healthy to be vegetarian, and they better start eating lots of dairy and animal products again!

But you and I know it’s just a temporary phase, and as we dislodge new toxins because our new, much cleaner eating habits, we “wake” up those toxins and they start to recirculate in the blood and body. Before, they were just lodged in there—weighing us down in many ways, but not making us sick…yet. With a cleaner, more enzyme-rich diet — we are start to dislodge toxins from the colon wall. As those toxins hit the bloodstream, we may feel those symptoms again – headaches, skin break outs, weakness, irritation, moodiness, etc. etc.- and the toxins must be eliminated from the body so they don’t become reabsorbed back into the bloodstream.

Remember This Is Just a Phase

Nowadays, I’ve gotten to the point where my energy is consistent and my skin rarely breaks out. My hair is the healthiest it has ever been (more on that next week). I feel amazing virtually every single day. My cravings are minimal or non-existent, (beyond the emotional longing for chocolate that we all have!) and I have so much natural joy and vitality that springs from within, that this highly nutritious, non-congestive way of eating and living supports.

Just recognize that getting to this point is a process. Much like the caterpillar must shed layers and transform, in order to become the butterfly, we must all go through that process of eliminating the “old” from our bodies — so that we can make way for the new. Having gone through this process yourself will give you the understanding, confidence and conviction to help support others in moving through this process as well. And this is important, because it’s so crucial that you do not panic and trust during this powerful part of the transformation.

Transition Tip #9: Detox Is Not Just Physical — It’s Emotional, Too!

Another thing to keep in mind about detoxification — it’s not just physical. Often, we have certain emotions that are held beneath the surface, or trapped in our cells, and have been buried for many years. Because unhealthy food and chemicals can often “numb” our sensitivity to these feelings, we don’t even realize they are there!

Yet, as we start to clean out and our energy lightens, these buried emotions can rise to the surface. Let’s just say that they are not always pleasant — it could be fear, or anger, or sadness or any number of feelings that wasn’t given proper expression in the past — suddenly rising to the surface.

It takes great poise and understanding to go through this, and to support others through this process of letting go. And it’s absolutely essential to the overall healing process. Because as these old, often stuck emotions pass through you and get released, you will feel extraordinary. Perhaps not during the eye of the storm, but certainly afterward — you may feel as though a huge weight has been lifted from your shoulders. Both your cells and emotions and inner being will feel so much lighter and more free.

I bring this up because it can be incredibly valuable to have a friend, or someone you trust, close to you during this process. It’s wise to assume that your friend or family member who transitions to Beauty Detox will go through at least some detoxification, and emotional clearing — and could really use your support. By being there for this person, you’ll make an incredible difference in his or her success — you could very well change the course of this person’s life.

Final Words

I hope this post has been helpful. One of the things I really want to drive home again is that you should never preach or push this lifestyle on anyone — that is the surest way to create resistance.

Instead, let your results and happiness do the talking for you. When friends or family members see how great you look, how light and joyful you are, and how much energy you have — they’ll naturally want to know what you are doing. Even then, I would not be too aggressive about trying to educate them or help them change… it’s better to wait and let them get serious first. If they continue to ask you about it or express a desire to learn or make a shift, that’s your sign that it may be time to share more.

At this point, you can begin to share the blog or get them the books — and start using some of the tips I’ve outlined in this post, whether it’s cleaning out unhealthy foods, going grocery shopping, making meals together, or any of the others.

And if they do embark on this journey, remember again just how valuable the gift of your support is —especially during the process of detoxification and emotional transformation that inevitably takes place.

You can make such a difference. Believe in how powerful you truly are.

Love,

Kimberly