Dear Readers,
Inspired by some of my favorite podcast, I have decided to repost some earlier work. This is about my first experience fasting and detoxing. It was also my second trip to thailand, I have since visited Thailand 6 more times, but never again for a detox...I love Thai food way too much to be tortured like that again!
October 12, 2012 (original post date)
I arrived in Koh Samui on Thursday evening to a beautiful sunset. I took a short taxi ride to Lamai Beach where I stayed at The Spa Retreat. After dropping off my stuff in my small rustic A frame bungalow, I did the only logical thing one would do when they knew that they were starting a detox fast the next day...I went and had a few beers! That's gotta be on the "pre-fast" diet...right???
I wandered around the main shopping/restaurant street smiling politely as the go-go girls and landyboys yelled out their cat calls to me and the other single men. If you've never been to Thailand, the nightlife can sound seedy and it certainly can be overwhelming, but once you've been a few times you get use to that, and the landyboys. People are people, I don't judge, if you do, then don't go.
In fact, on different trip to Thailand, my son, my wife and I played connect four with a "bar girl" for the better part of an hour. She was one of the lovest people we met on that trip.
Anyway, I stopped and played a dice game with a few of the girls to pass the time, while I drank a couple of detox beers. After finally winning a game, I decided to head back for a good night sleep, only to find that I had forgotten how poorly I sleep in a new place...even on a surprisingly comfortable mattress.
Detox Rookie...
The next morning my day started with a 7am detox drink. This drink, taken 5 times a day, is mostly made up of juice, and they add their own concoction of powered supplements. If you have ever tried to add powder to a cold liquid then you know it doesn't work out very well. So you have to drink it fast, and even then hope that you don't gag on the clump that quickly forms just beyond your lips, until the very last drop, when the sludge slides down your throat.
Luckily am adept at opening my throat and guzzling! Must be something I picked up in college. This came in handy for the 6 capsules I had to take 5 times a day as well.
After the 7am detox drink, I had 90 minutes to kill, so I went and meditated (or tried) with a few other guests and a buddhist monk. Picture a buddhist monk, keep the 18 inch chin hair, now make him white, Australian, and over 6 feet tall...that's my guy!
What's in the bucket?
After getting completely centered...I wish...but at least I didn't fall asleep, which was an accomplishment since I hardly slept 5 minutes the night before, I went down and collected my colema bucket.
This is a 5 gallon bucket that has a 5 foot hose strapped to the inside and feeds down into 2 inches of brown liquid (coffee grounds and water) at the bottom. I went back to my room put the bucket on the large metal hook that hangs above the toilet filled the bucket with water, and set up my colema board the way I had been instructed. I got undressed, laid down on my board and...the rest of the process will remain between me and the fly on the wall.
I will say my first colema took about 45 minutes, which is about double the amount of time it typically takes. During my colema instruction, I happened to be in a group with a nurse from Australia. As well as being a borderline germaphobe, she also made a big deal about the collection basket, "there was NO WAY I will use that", which is optional.
I had not planned on using the collection basket (basically a plastic strainer), but after all of her antics, by day two curiosity got the better of me. Well...let's just say she was right. I almost puked, and have been trying to drive the vision from brain ever since.
I guess it's not surprising, but your large intestine has a whole lotta stuff that doesn't look as though it should be in there. I probably lost about 8 to 10 pounds during that week, and my guess is half of it was the crap that was pumped out of my large intestine.
For the record, most of this stuff is just mucus that naturally forms and is naturally eliminated. The colema faithful believe that the process also removes parasites and toxins, but there isn't any science to back them up. In fact, it seems that scientific community is neutral on the whole idea.
From my own experience, I would say that you definitely feel cleaned out and lighter. I was also reminded by my new friend, and annual Spa visitor, that there was a study that concluded that men over the age of 45 can have as much as 5 pounds of undigested meat in their intestine...lovely.
After the colema, I went for "breakfast". As a part of the detox they allow you have what they call a "broth soup", which is just vegetable broth. When you haven't had anything to eat it works pretty well as an appetite suppressant. The broth is optional and towards the end of the week I was eating it once a day or not at all.
You can also have one carrot juice and one coconut water (served in the coconut) every day, if you are so inclined. I drank a carrot juice just about every day, but rarely drank the coconut juice, just to reduce the sugar in my system. Between the detox juice, broth, and carrot juice I rarely thought about food, and generally was glad I didn't have to figure out what and where to eat 3+ times a day.
Scheduling is crucial in all of this, as your detox juice, capsules, and colema can only be done at certain times. And the detox and capsules must be separated by at least an hour. On top of that, you have optional meditation, yoga, ampuku massage, and a steam room. I planned on doing it all every day! I found out quickly that it's not possible. Between what's required, and the set times for yoga and meditation, I was forced to make a choice. That turned out to be okay, because the yoga kicked my ass, and in my energy depleted state, I wasn't able to do it every day anyway.
My toughest day was sunday or day 3. I started out moving through my morning schedule with the ease of a veteran, went to yoga, showered, picked up a "to-go detox juice" for my 1 o'clock, and walked about a half mile into town. When I left I saw that dark clouds were rolling in and I thought I would probably get caught in a refreshing tropical rain storm on my way back. That didn't happen.
It got hotter, and hotter. And after shopping and walking around for about 3 hours, I found that the yoga, the heat, and 3 days without food were taking their toll. After literally almost passing out in this guys shop while buying a t-shirt, I decided it was a good idea to head back.
From where I ended up in the market, it was only about a mile back to the hotel, so I walked. I probably should have taken a cab, since the last 1/4 mile I felt as though my head was floating above my body, but I did make it back without further incident. I laid in bed until my 4 o'clock detox drink.
People are what makes life interesting...
I also spent some of my time in Lamai talking with three different men I met at different times during the week. These 3 are Dhia, Charles, and Paul, or as I reflect back on them, a possible past, present, future self in a different dimension.
Dhia is Lebanese, and has been living in Japan for 20+ years. He has been going to The Spa Retreat annually since 2005, so he offered a lot of helpful insights. Dhia was a possible past.
When I started at ASU my plan was to be an international business major with an emphasis in Japanese culture. I planned to then attend Thunderbird Business School and move to Japan. Well, it didn't work out that way for me, but, with the exception of attending ASU, it did for Dhia.
Dhia is probably in his mid 50's, divorced, an estranged father, and at this point in his career a self employed day trader. He seemed to be successful financially, and quite a ladies man. He also bears an uncanny resemblance a past boss of mine. Dhia and I had great conversations about business concepts, investments, etc. His best advice was to invest in yourself before you invest in the market.
I met Charley on my second to last night. Charley is English, and has been backpacking around, mostly Asia, for the last couple of years. Charles was a possible present.
Probably the main reason I'm currently living in China is my fierce desire to live abroad. I had hoped to experience many more cultures at this point in my life, and to satisfy my deep curiosity about about how differently people perceive the world.
Charley spent most of his travels in Nepal and India studying with buddhist monks, and living with your average everyday people in their environment. Charley and I met at a "talk" on Astrology. We were the only two that attended, and it was the first time the speaker had given the talk to a male only audience.
This was also somewhat strange place to meet, as Charley and I are both highly skeptical of Astrology. Charley turns 40 in a couple of weeks, and then is headed back to England where he is going to start a physical therapy business. He is trained in, and has worked as a physical therapist in the past, but felt something was missing. I think he found that something in his travels.
Paul is an Englishman from the tough streets of Liverpool, and has been living in Thailand for 14+ years. Paul was my possible future.
I came to Thailand prepared with books and other ways to pass the time, so when I walked by the sign for Paul's bookstore the first time I had no intention of going in. As it happened, I was Skyping with my son and wife while they were at dinner at a friend's house. In the course of that conversation our friend got on briefly to ask if I could look for a used version of "Lonely Planet: Myanmar".
The next day I found myself in Island Books. Paul helped me find the travel section, and the one Lonely Planet book he had happened to be Myanmar. The transaction for this book took nearly three hours.
I have always had a dream that I would end up running a small business in "paradise" towards the end of my life. So I spent this time with Paul picking his brain about his last 14 years. Paul has built this used bookstore into a mini Powell's (Portland), a name he was familiar with.
He has over 14,000 titles registered in his computer, and he says at least that many books waiting to be entered. He said that, "the Thai people don't read", so all his business is from tourist and online.
Paul lost his "Thai wife" to cancer a little over a year ago, but "stuck by her and paid for her treatment" during her more than two year battle. According to Paul, the Thai people don't think much of foreigners in general, and certainly don't expect them to stick around when things get tough. This, along with his many years in Thailand, has given him a respect (he stopped sort of acceptance) among his "Thai family" he lives with, and his step children. Our conversation allowed me to see a unique, albeit opinionated, view of Thailand.
The Talks...
As I mentioned, I met Charley at a "talk". The Spa had scheduled talks every night. I was a little slow to catch on to this, and didn't attend my first until Monday night which was "Spiritual Awakening".
The speaker is a psychic. At least 3 people, out of our 6 person group, seemed to be really searching for information about their past lives and they carried the conversation, so I just sat and practiced my active listening skills. I did find myself wondering what the psychic's "guides" were telling him about me?
I was a little late for the hypnotherapy talk on Tuesday, and decided that it would be a major distraction to the hypnotised and audience to enter the talk at that point. Plus, I had caught that act before, so no real lose there.
On Wednesday, I met Charley at Astrology, and stayed up half the night researching astrological signs.
On Thursday, Charley, Andy (an 80+ year old englishman), and I waited for a talk called "What the Bleep Do We Know". We eventually found out that what we didn't know was that the talk was canceled.
We carried on in a conversation that lasted longer than the talk would have, and were briefly joined by Dhia, as he waited for his lady friend, and at the end, Andy's son.
Reentry...
All and all, I had a great week and met some really interesting people. I learned stuff that challenged my beliefs, and most importantly got a little clearer about my own current reality. It was tough, and at times the week seem to drag, but in the end it was well worth the time and money.
I have been home for 2 nights now, and have been able to fight off the urge to eat pasta, pizza, and eggs and bacon, sticking to a mostly raw foods, the exception being yogurt in my smoothies. Last night, I was inspired to make vegetarian Thai Spring Rolls.
Everyday, while I stood at the juice counter waiting for my carrot juice, I would look at the pictures of the dishes they served on their "raw food menu", and every day I would crave the spring rolls pictured there, so it seemed a fitting "feast" for my first meal.
