By Naima Karp
International model, Anne-Marie Van Dijk can empathize with those starting out in the industry. After years of hard work, she learned of the innumerable challenges a model faces through their career, and the toll it takes, mentally and physically. After working with high-profile clients like Chanel, Vogue, and Harper’s Bazaar, Van Dijk is lending her hand to a more meaningful cause, founding the initiative, Cleanse: One Body, One Planet.
Van Dijk has enlisted a team of pre-screened, top rated professionals, including personal trainers, health coaches, therapists, and registered dieticians. They offer expert counseling to help models achieve their goals – healthily, and sustainably. Cleanse is supported by industry insiders, as well as many prestigious models and agencies.
The Cleanse team not only aims to keep models healthy, but also to preserve the health of the planet. They’re kind of health life coaches, in a way. Working with models and their agencies closely, with plentiful resources, Cleanse is paving the way to creating health and harmony between people and the planet.
Before Cleanse came along, finding a healthy way to guide and counsel models (both mentally and physically) was a huge gap in the industry.
The stereotypical model is seen as focused solely on the physical- and whatever it takes to get to a magic number, or goal, regardless of all the connectors along the way that also need to be tended to. But now, healthy is the new beautiful.
The word ‘cleanse’ has often been associated with unhealthy diets – like the notorious cayenne pepper-maple syrup-lemon concoctions – but Van Dijk and her team simply see it as a shorthand for their mission: “Cleanse: One Body, One Planet”. They emphasize a relationship just as important as the one between our minds and our bodies: the connection between our own bodies and with the earth. They are here to redefine the word ‘cleanse,’ outside of the box of deprivation that it was created in.
Rather than another unrealistic juicing schedule, Cleanse does not promote these kinds of regiments. Instead, they create a solid, holistic foundation of nutrition and fitness, customized for each model’s needs and wants. It has less to do with shrinking sizes through drastic means, and more to do with adapting to a holistic mentality and keeping awareness of the body in tune. They want to veer away from, and transcend the size-zero mentality that has dominated the industry for so long.
Cleanse are partners with Blink, one of the best and most affordable gyms in NYC, bringing a refreshingly sanitary setting to what are usually dank and dismal workout dens within the various boroughs, for those who can’t afford Equinox.
In Fall 2012, Cleanse hosted their exclusive soft launch with guests like the Victoria’s Secret Angels, and US Vogue director of photography, Ivan Shaw.
They’re launching another event in 2015, along with a big announcement.
Help spread the word about Cleanse on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Facebook: Cleanse NYC
Twitter: CleanseNYC
Check out a recipe on Vimeo, here.
