A Well-Being Trip to Bodrum, Turkey- and why everyone should detox

If you’ve been following my blog for some time, you may remember a post I wrote back in October about a trip to Phuket, Thailand where my friend Jennifer and I had our first detox retreat experience.  If you haven’t read it, here’s the link, Detoxing in Thailand.  Well as my last trip for the summer vacation, I went back to The LifeCo and took my husband along with me.  However this time, we went to the Bodrum, Turkey location. 

Bodrum is a port city, that sits on the southern Aegean coast of Turkey.  I’d never been to Turkey before and I felt like I needed to restart this engine especially after all the good food I ate and beer I drank during summer vacation.  Also, my husband had never detoxed before and I figured we’d be good support for one another. 

The Bodrum LifeCo is a bigger facility with more to offer than the one in Thailand.  They actually have two sights in Bodrum within 5 minutes walking distance from each other.  One is at the beach.  We opted to stay at the other since that is where all the services and treatments are.  If you stay at the beach resort, you have to walk to the sister resort every day for treatments.  From my experience, during detoxing, your body has a lot of weak moments and you can spend a significant amount of time in your room so it’s best to be close to services.  The Bodrum facility has a fitness center and two yoga studios.  Phuket only had 1 yoga studio which also served as the gym.  Besides that, the Bodrum facility also has more equipment and the kitchen eating area for those whom are eating food is separate from the other areas where guest that are doing juice and water cleanses don’t have to see the food.  Also, two yoga sessions a day are offered for guest, as well as other classes like Bootcamp fitness and Chi-Gong.  There is a biophoton machine that you are encouraged to use daily along with Luminette Light Therapy and Oxygen Therapy.  The other services are the same, daily sauna and steam room usage, pool, Angel of Water, etc…  The Thailand facility does have two pools, is lakeside and the rooms are bigger but it is not as well maintained as this one.

Darryl and I went for 7 days.  We pre-detoxed for 3 days prior.  They say pre-detox makes the transition smoother and I have to agree now that I’ve done both detoxing without pre-detox and with.   For those 3 days we had a raw juice drink in the morning, raw green salad at 12:30, another raw drink in between as well as vegetable soup broth, another salad at 6:30 and more soup broth if we felt the need and nothing else. Within those 3 days, my weight dropped by 5 lbs and Darryl’s dropped by 8lbs.  Of course, men lose so much faster than women.  We flew direct to Bodrum from Qatar on Qatar Airways.  The flight was a short 3.5 hours. 

Upon arrival we met with our program manager and selected our program.  She then gave us a tour, our salad, and our schedule.  We chose to do one more day of green salad and then switch to master detox program.  The Green Salad program is very similar to what we had done at home but with added supplements.  On the master detox you get a shake at 8:00am that is mostly water with some fruit or vegetables in it with Bentonite clay and Psyllium Husk.  Bentonite clay sucks toxins like a sponge and puts it in your colon.  Psyllium husk is the fiber to brush out the colon and helps curb hunger somewhat.  At home I use Psyllium husk for a good bowel movement alone with Cascara Sagrada.  Both are really good herbs that my mom taught me about years ago.  At 9:30am you get herbs, a Wheat grass shot and lemon water shot.  You get another shake at 11:00 and it rotates every 1.5 hours, shake then herbs wheat grass and lemon water shot or Himalayan sea salt and water shot.  You get your last shake at 8:00pm with 2 probiotics to take at 9:30pm.  In between you must drink lots of room temperature water.  At the facility the water is pH 10 antioxidant alkalized and ionized.  In between you are also encouraged to drink 3-4 cups of the broth/soup which is basically made up of red cabbage, red onion, celery and some other stuff.  No chunks no frills, not good but you are allowed to add seasonings like red pepper, cumin, sumac, oregano, salt and pepper.   It’s supposed to keep electrolytes in your system and help with hunger.  We did the master detox program for 5 full days and on the 7^th day, we switched back to the green salad program to get us ready to go home.  We also purchased a raw vegan box to go which included breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner, 800 calories.

On the morning of our flight home, we weighed in again.  I lost 3.5 kgs or about 7 lbs and Darryl lost 6 kgs or about 13 lbs.  But what we gained was more important: relaxed bodies, more flexibility, cleansed colons, peace of mind, a sense of accomplishment, flatter bellies, a reboot to a healthy lifestyle and probably a few more years added to our lives- at least health wise. 

I’m not going to lie and say it’s easy because it is not, so why detox at all…

1. Boost your healing process.  By ridding your body of toxins and giving your digestive system a break, it can have time to do other things like heal you from within, boost your immune system and help you feel better.
2. Regenerate.  Flush your system so that it can restart.  If you’ve hit a plateau with your ability to lose weight, detox can give you that needed push.  Detoxing helps regenerate our biggest organ, our skin.  Your skin will look better after a detox.
3. Clear your mind.  At a detox retreat, you are only required to relax, follow your program and listen to your body.  This way you can think clearer and return home with a sound mind and clear head space. Studies have shown that stress takes years off of your life, so take back those years.
4. Learn.  You can learn a lot about yourself when there aren’t distractions.  At a retreat you can also learn a lot about health through lectures and demonstrations.
5. Because you deserve a break.  We all need a break mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Our bodies need one too.  Take some time to slow down and appreciate your body, food and LIFE. 

Whether you choose to go to a retreat or not, you should detox at least twice a year, at the beginning of each season is ideal.  There is no set amount of days you have to detox, but 1 is better than 0 and 5 is better than 2.  So what are you waiting for because your body is your temple, if you take care of it, it will take care of you!

GO DETOX, WE DID!