Detox Sucks

After my interesting venture to the emergency room Tuesday for anaphylaxis, I have been faced with enduring a few truly challenging days.  It is hard to feel lousy here because there are so many possibilities to explore throughout the day, none of which I wish to miss.  The morning (Tuesday) that I had the reaction, I awoke refreshed, vibrant and ready to take on the day and perhaps, the rest of my life. That changed in an instant but what it made me realize is this:  I now remember what it feels like to feel ALIVE, full of energy and balanced.  I have not felt that way since, due to a shock to my system and intense DETOX.  Detox sucks.  There is no other or more glamourous way to put it.  For three days, I have cycled between feeling barely ok to feeling incredibly badly.  At my best I am somewhat coherent and attentive to the various lectures and conversations around me.  At my worst, I am sitting in a ball on a couch or lying down with abdominal cramps, headache, body aches and downright confusion.  As I stated in a previous blog, they keep you busy here.  My schedule is both written down and printed out for me and yet, I missed three scheduled appointments yesterday, simply because my brain checked out.  Thankfully, they are accustomed to people losing their faculties during detox and the appointments had already been rescheduled for me for this morning, once again speaking to the amazing support and service here.  Today was spent focusing on feeling better.  I attended no lectures but rather 3 rounds of oxygen therapy, lymphatic drainage therapy, soft laser therapy and had an amazing facial.  Worked like a charm!  I feel alive again and ready to take on the world.  This is good as I have been invited by two of my lovely, shiny, new playmates to go into town and dine at Christopher's, a 4 star living foods restaurant in West Palm Beach.  This is my first venture off campus, other than the emergency room which was a bit of a blur.  This atmosphere is so safe, nurturing and healing that it would be easy to go the entire 3 weeks without leaving.  Fridays through Sundays are slow.  There are a few therapies but largely there are few people on campus and many leave on schedule field trips such as Sunday to the beach.

Here are a couple of interesting tidbits that I picked up from lectures yesterday ...

Use sea kelp, instead of salt ...  it has the same effect on open up taste buds to taste the essence of the food without the sodium.  Additionally, it is very healthy and full of vitamins and minerals. Check out
Maine Coast Sea Vegetables also, their Dulse is great and is a great substitute for potato chips if dipped in hummus or salad dressing.
Also, Frontier Spices has an amazing pizza blend that is a bit part of many Hippocrates dishes.
Jaffe Brothers - Organics is a great site to buy nuts, seeds and fruits in bulk.

And my final thought for the day ... when eating nuts, do not eat peanuts an cashews as they are TOXIC. Cashews are like poison ivy to the system unless properly roasted and peanuts are susceptible to molds and fungal invasions. Of particular concern is aflatoxin, a poison produced by a fungus called Aspergillus Flavus. Substitute macadamia nuts, brazil nuts or pine nuts for richness in sauces in recipes that call for cashews or peanuts, as many raw food recipes do.

More to follow ...

Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.
Hippocrates