intensive detox retreat at Tao of Wellness

Many experts stress the importance of detoxification for shrinking fibroids, and indeed that is the key theme of Fibroid Miracle which I like.  But I have some concerns about juice-only or water-only fasts, as am concerned that they will be hard on the system. I had been thinking about going to a juice fasting spa, but it just sounded like too much and I imagined myself miserable and starving.  Not to mention that extreme fasting can be bad for your eggs  So am very glad that I found this Chinese medicine based detox retreat, that focuses on nourishing while detoxing.

I receive the newsletter from Tao of Wellness, the Chinese medicine clinic in Santa Monica where Dr. Ni author of Tao of Fertility practices. There was an ad for this session and it sounded so good I decided to sign up.  Evidently they have them quarterly so you can contact them if you are interested.

Wow, what a fantastic program!  Extremely well-conceived and well executed. All the staff was so professional, and the other people attending were really nice too, so it was a great environment.

It was 2.5 days, starting on Friday.  Friday am was a healthy breakfast and starting to take special herbs, followed by a lecture on toxins all around us, similar stuff to what is in this blog but it would have been nice to have learned about it in an organized way a long time ago.  Then an hour of Chi Gong instruction.  Then a yummy lunch.  Afternoon was for appointments -- we each got acupuncture, a bodywork session including dry brushing and cupping (including on the abdomen, perfect for fibroids), and 20 minutes in the far infrared sauna.  Then food to take home for dinner.  Same thing on Saturday except morning lecture was on emotional detox. Then on Sunday it was just treatments, with an extra one -- InfiniChi, a form of energy healing, thrown in.

They gave us enough detox herbs for another week, and instructions on a detox diet.  Not too different from what I do except it's lower in fat.  They use a lot of beans and grains though, since I went Paleo I had been avoiding those and boy was my tummy unhappy when I had some, so I won't be doing more of that!  Mainly I'll be eating fruits, veggies, some rice and some buckwheat cereal and a little lean chicken or fish or turkey.  Plus some seaweed.  They got me in the habit of sprinkling dulse flakes on things, want to try doing more of that in general as it's a good way to get that seaweed into the diet.

I'm on my way to San Diego to spend a week with my parents, so it's good to have this diet restriction as it will prevent me from overindulging on restaurant food.  I plan to get a couple of detox treatments, like more infrared sauna and perhaps a mudwrap or lymphatic drainage massage, while I'm down there.  Also I am headed over to Pressed Juicery to pick up a bunch of juices, so I am adding a juice element to this as well.

Interesting thing I learned was the value of walnut oil for detox, evidently it stimulates your liver and helps get the bile to flow.  We were encouraged to put it liberally over our food.  Certainly made the detox feel less spartan!

Since I live in N. California, I needed a place to stay, and on Airbnb (which I HIGHLY recommend) I found an apartment in Santa Monica to stay in that was just down the street from Tao of Wellness, how cool is that?

I was so impressed with Tao of Wellness, all the staff, and wish that I had gone to such a good clinic earlier in my fibroids and fertility journey.  If you are in LA, be sure to check them out, it is totally worth the trouble. They also have a great line of supplements and teas.  I ended up buying a whole bunch of them.  Long story I will talk about later, I got my own Zyto and I keyed them into my Zyto and they are coming up as being really helpful, this is good quality stuff.  More on that later.

I highly recommend this retreat, and am hoping it will kick my detox up a notch and help me get rid of these damn fibroids!