Get Juiced

by Tara Quealy, April 25, 2008

Eating healthy can be downright inconvenient. It’s much easier to get food by yelling out the car window at the drive-through than to take the time to prepare and eat nutritious fare. However fast its consumed, food—and other wastes—slowly build up in our body over time. The accretion of these wastes over time can cause detrimental health effects.

For thousands of years people have been using detoxification to cleanse their bodies of accumulated toxins and waste matter trapped inside the body. It gives the body a rest from foods and substances that are hard on metabolism like bread, caffeine, and alcohol. Enhancing circulation, providing nutrients to support the liver, and clear the colon, detoxification rejuvenates mind, body, and spirit.

Holistic health educator, life coach, and minister Alison Shore Gaines has developed an organic juice purification retreat that revitalizes and offers a nurturing, user-friendly approach to detoxing and dieting. Unlike other detox diets that consist solely of juice and water, Gaines believes that there is an effective way to cleanse without giving up food entirely. Her retreats include a small portion of organic grains and a broth made from root vegetables as well as apple cucumber kale juice and carrot beet parsley juice.

Gaines has been taking groups of 20 to 40 people on retreats to the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the Berkshires since 1985. The center offers more than 750 educational programs and spiritual retreats including the juice purification retreat. “Being out of your home environment is really big,” says Gaines. “It’s really hard to leave your habits when they are staring you in the face.” Together the group participates in yoga, Pilates, and mindfulness practices to better understand what is going on inside the body during detox while focusing on how to make changes in your everyday life to eat and live healthier.

Allison Shore Gaines will be offering two upcoming retreats at Kripalu, in Lenox, Massachusetts: The Tune Up for Summer Retreat, May 30 through June 2 and the Summer Detox Retreat, July 6 through July 11. For more information visit www.kripalu.org; (866) 200-5203.