2. Make a plan for one week, one month, or for the entire year to make key changes to your lifestyle and health. What will it take to achieve your goals? What habits undermine your health? What do you really want to change? What has control of you? It helps to read and make notes for your plan so that you can refer back to it often. Don't be afraid to explore your own thoughts and feelings as you think about cleaning up your life. It is so important to health and healthy aging. Good choices in what we feed our brains and hearts are as necessary as good food. Reading the right stuff can provide you the know-how and give the inspiration and motivation needed to do this process in a way that works for you.

3. Let's first look at the substances you use - the SNAACs, that is Sugar, Nicotine, Alcohol, Caffeine, and Chemicals. What are your issues and questions? Identifying and releasing your habits is a primary step in your purification. Read about each of these common substances more completely in my book, The Detox Diet. It's typically not as hard as we think to let go of our coffee or sugar habit, for example, to see how we really feel without these artificial stimulants. That's the only way to truly assess how these substances affect us on a daily basis. Take a break. This does not mean that we should never drink coffee or eat sugar again; we just want to find the right and healthy relationship with each item we consume, or over-consume. Don't we want a healthy relationship with everything and everyone in our life?

4. Follow The Detox Diet (see web article or book) to help you undo these habits. Following the diet of fruit and whole grain each morning, with steamed vegetables at lunch and dinner will help you feel and look lighter physically and emotionally, and be clearer mentally. Chew your food thoroughly and take time to nourish yourself. This will lay the groundwork for healthier eating habits. You will be taking a break from your substance habits, which most everyone has, and be getting away from processed and junky foods and chemicals. Your body will feel relief, as thousands of people have experienced. You will have the option after your cleansing process to add items back into your life, but once you realize their effects more clearly, you not want to have them back.

5. Many SUPPLEMENTS and HERBS help support the body in this healing process. During detoxification, it is helpful to use antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, the carotenes, selenium, and zinc. B-complex vitamins with extra vitamin C can help the body deal with the stress of change. Calcium/magnesium combinations are useful to calm the body, and at night, to sleep more soundly. Emergen-C packets are easy to carry and mix with water, which you should always have with you. I also use some fresh-water algae such as spirulina, chlorella, or blue-green for some extra amino acids and the physical and mental support I experience. Many herbs can help in the cleansing process. Keeping the bowels moving is crucial to healthy detoxification; herbs can help here. It's important for the bowels to move two to three times daily to feel good during this process called life. There are many herbal detox programs and mild laxative products, as teas and tablets, available in the stores. Use them all cautiously and start slowly, as everyone's experience is unique. If you pay attention, you will learn to apply the right products and processes to your body and life.