Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Diary of a 7.5 Day Detox


I have completed another semester for the year, which gives me approximately 5 months break until we start back in 2012.  

I am beyond happy.  

I have a few projects in mind for the break, but the first one will be a quick 3 and a half weeks in Thailand. 

Yep - nothing much has changed: another year over, another summer in Thailand... 

But like last year, this time I'm here to specifically stay at a health resort where I intend to embark on the second of what is to become my annual 7.5 day detox fast.  That's right - seven and a half days of consuming only water, vegetable broth, coconut water, herbal tea, bentonite clay and thrice daily herbal supplements ...and twice daily colemas.  Colemas are somewhere in between a colonic and an enema.  

It takes 7 days of fasting to cleanse the entire bloodstream of toxins and 7 days to thoroughly cleanse the lymphatic system. After 24 hours of not consuming any food, the body switches from digestion mode to detoxification mode resulting in the rapid removal of parasites, toxins and potentially cancerous cells.  This waste is dumped into the bloodstream for excretion through the liver, colon, lungs and skin, hence, the colemas, liver detox drinks and herbal steams.

From what I can recall from last time, days 3 and 4 are the worst.  The hunger and weakness is almost too overwhelming: the theory is that the reason you feel so tired, weak and headachey is because your body is rapidly detoxifing, and not because you are hungry... but I don't know, like I said, I did the program last year, and as a generally hungry person, I'm not sure I agree 100% with that.

I do remember that by about mid-way through day 4 last time, I turned a corner and felt that I could carry on with the fast for much longer.  In addition to that, the face I saw looking back at me in the mirror each morning was getting progressively clearer, as was the rest of my skin, and my eyes had a distinct twinkle in them.  

And so after approximately 12 hours in transit, I finally arrived in Bangkok on Sunday night where I met up with my brother, and despite chaos of the impending floods, we managed to get an overnight train down to Surat Thani in the South of Thailand on Monday night, followed by a bus and a ferry to Koh Pan Ngan yesterday morning.

We checked into Ananda Wellness Resort a little after midday and were shown to our rooms.  A large double room each with a separate attached bathroom and space for hanging clothes.  I was delighted to see a hammock swaying gently in the breeze on each of the bungalow patios.  This coupled with the soporific sound of a trickling water feature makes one feel that they have just checked into Rancho Relaxo.

At 7.30pm, we met for a briefing of the following 7 days with the manager of the resort, a petite Greek yogi who appeared to be lost behind her enormous desk, and who seemed to take herself very seriously.  After filling out the requisite forms, we were given the schedule that is to govern us for the next week.  It looks a little something like this:

7.30am - Shake (psyllium husk & bentonite clay)
9.00 - Herbs
9.15 - Massage
10.30 - Shake (psyllium husk & bentonite clay)
10.45 - Colema
12.00pm - Carrot juice and herbs
1.30 - Shake (psyllium husk & bentonite clay)
3.00 - Herbs and herbal sauna
4.30 - Shake (psyllium husk & bentonite clay)
6.00 - Herbs
7.30 - Shake (psyllium husk & bentonite clay)
7.45 - Colema
9.00 - Herbs and pro-biotic

She also weighed us, and much to my horror I weighed in at 72.2 kilos - 3 kilos more than when I left Australia!

'There must be some mistake!' I claimed, although I think my humour was somewhat lost on her. In any case, I blamed the excess food I took with me on the flight over.  Rather than eat plane food, I thought it wise to BYO food however, I packed too much for one, and ate the lot out of pure boredom.  Next time, I will know better...

Nevertheless, it will be fascinating to see how much I weigh on the seventh day of the fasting and elimination program.  Like most women I know would've been, I was secretly getting excited about the prospect of rapid weightloss and wondered for how long I could keep it off post-program!  Last December when I did a similar program, I dropped about 5 kilos, but somehow managed to put it all back on by around February - too much Christmas cheer!

4 comments:

  1. I hope you enjoyed your BYO food. x

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  2. Yes, I did. It was delicious, and more so because I had to eat it on the sly. Unfortunately the slice didn't make it to Bangkok... YUM

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