Day 4 - Counselling, Consult, Clay & Cooking

Well, the title today says it all.  Ok, ok, I'll elaborate...  : )

This morning began with Tammy’s usual breakfast protein shake and then we headed down to the main health centre for Tammy’s third group counselling (called “Empowerment”) session.  After getting her settled in there at 7:30, I went to the gym for a quick run on the treadmill before making it back to the kitchen for another poached egg & veggies breakfast.  I then met Tammy at 9am after her counselling session and we moved right into a consult with our Naturopath, Toby.  Here is a picture of Toby and Tammy at the end of this morning's visit:

Tammy and Toby

During our hour with Toby we reviewed some results from blood work we’d done back in Canada at Toby’s request: vitamin D and beta-2-metaglobulin.  Sparing everyone the details, I will say that interpreting these kinds of test results is definitely not as straightforward as saying “that’s low” or “this is high”.

After the consult, Tammy bounced around on a cellerciser – basically a small trampoline with a handle.  We saw a brief DVD presentation this morning at 7am that pointed out the health benefits of this bouncing around technique.  Seemed legit enough, and Toby had already recommended to Tammy to use the one in the gym here for 5 minutes a day to help use her leg muscles.  Then Tammy and I spent 10 minutes using a "Chi machine" – basically leg shakers that are supposed to help with lymph drainage and other health benefits.  I still haven’t wrapped my mind around that technique – seems a bit dodgier to me… but at least harmless.  Jury’s out for now…  here's a video describing the 'original' Chi massager.

Tammy, basking in clay... 

At noon Tammy had her first clay wrap treatment.  Angela, the therapist, applied green clay to most of Tammy’s body and then white (gentler) clay to her face, then wrapped her up in a sheet and blanket.  The idea is to have the pores open due to perspiration (the room was tropically hot & humid!) and then the clay adsorbs and even draws out toxins through the skin.  The treatment lasts almost an hour including a shower before & after.  No immediately noticeable health benefits with this treatment either, but we’ll have a couple more in our next 10 day session.

That was our day before 1:30!  Though it was a lot to do, at no point have we felt in any way rushed here, maybe in part because everything is quite well organized and the staff are always prepared for everything that happens next.  

1:30pm today was a very special and cherished time for most of the guests.  Why?  Because we had salad for lunch!  And that was special because most guests have been doing a juice fast detox since after lunch on Sunday.  Personally, I don't see the big deal; I mean, the salads were good and all, but... oh, right, I haven't missed a meal since Sunday : )  Ok, so the salads were a big deal.  Actually, the quality and tastes of the salads and other fixings was excellent.  Easily the best meal I've had here and very nutritious, too.  The picture of course doesn't do the meal justice, but suffice it to say that the guests were happy by the end of it! 

Minutes before the stampede - salads never looked so good!

After the meal, the kitchen head "Nita" did a few demonstrations using a couple of juicers, including the Champion, to make macademia butter and then fruit & coconut ice cream - yum!

The nightly lecture was given by Toby and dealt with pH in the body - very interesting presentation on how pH works in the body, how our bodies deal with acid forming foods (which are bad) and how we can work to shift body pH back toward neutral levels.

Apparently Living Valley video recorded the entire lecture series just a couple of weeks ago, so we hope to get a set of the DVD's so we can review, evaluate, share with others and better decide what impact, if any, what we've learned here will have on our diet and lifestyle going forward...