Bula Fiji ! (Part 3) - The Cleanse

Alright folks, I know I let the ball drop and built a teaser for this next post cause I said I'd write it a few days ago... So here it is, the rest of my stay in Fiji in a nutshell:

   

As mentioned previously, I was there participating in a detoxifying cleanse of the body; an event called Life Mastery hosted by Anthony Robbins Companies. It was the most intense cleansing experience I've ever had to date and yes, it was difficult at times but despite all that, yes I would certainly do it again (and probably will in about a year or so). In fact, they let us leave with all the recipes of the liquid diet and instructions on exactly how to do that cleanse so next time I choose to do so, I wont' necessarily need to go to Fiji (although if I can, I will and there's no doubt that this was not my last visit there hahaha).  Actually since I've been back and have been doing some homework, I've come to realize that this cleanse or at least cleanses like this are quite popular.

So a typical day during the Life Mastery cleanse went something like this:

• 6AM Wake up -   You have to remember that Fiji is on the other side of the world for me, so to say that my biological clock was way off during this trip would be an understatement... truth be told however I felt the jet lag more after returning home than I did while I was there.. strange how that works. Anyway, I had no problems being out of bed by 6am even though the seminar stuff usually didn't begin until after 9am. If I were home, my usual routine is to work out in the mornings, however here they specifically asked us not to work out, as this was an opportunity for our bodies to rest and heal (I'll get into the negatives of that in a few moments).  So I would get up and roam around, do some stretching, maybe go for a long walk on the beach to visit some local Fijians who we met who had a house on the beach, or not too far from the property we were staying on, there was a beautiful walking trail which led to a waterfall.
  
  
  
  Laugh at me all you want but one of the best things about being in Fiji was the fact that there was no need for makeup, doing my hair etc... It was all about just relaxing and being myself. Hell I'm sure some people didn't even bother to shower if they were spending the morning swimming at the waterfall or on the beach. LOL  AAhhh paradise.There were other things you could have been doing in the mornings before the seminar began as well such as a morning massage at the spa or a morning cruise (which I will get into in a moment). 

• 8AM Breakfast - Now comes the exciting part... For a few days, breakfast for us consisted of one thing and one thing only... a shot of Wheat-grass... MMMmmm MMmmm Good. LOL  So you might think that we were crazy for having that and only that for breakfast and that we were starving ourselves etc... but in fact the opposite is true. We learned so much about wheat-grass and the positive effects it can have on our bodies while we were there that I recommend you do your homework before you jump to any conclusions. At first, there were some folks who had arrived and upon checking their body's PH balance (yes, this was a regular requirement as well) came to find that their bodies were super acidic. The unfortunate side effect of that is that while your body is acidic, your taste-buds are effected as a result and so that made the wheat-grass taste absolutely disgusting for them. Thank goodness for some of them that over the course of a few days, as their bodies became more alkalized, they found their taste buds changing, causing the wheat-grass to be more tolerable, and even sweet after a while in most cases. I was one of the lucky ones. I didn't mind the taste of wheat-grass at all; in fact there were some mornings where I was asking for seconds. :)

• 9AM Seminar begins - For anyone familiar with Anthony Robbins seminars, you know that naturally we would have to start the day with a bang. For example, they would refuse to open the doors to us if we weren't being loud and obnoxious enough. LOL  We all had to gather around the main doors and start yelling "WE WANT IN", while banging on the doors, jumping up and down or doing whatever we could to get their attention - the louder the better. Once the doors opened it was a
  
  
  
  mad-dash to the Rebounding area. This was an area set up in the back of the room which had about 1 rebounder (small trampoline) for each person, all grouped together. Here we were encouraged to bounce up and down, play with beach balls and just be kids again for about 15mins to get our Lymphatic system flowing. Yes folks, there are health reasons behind starting our days bouncing around like a bunch of children and if you're curious about this you can find more info here.  So after a few minutes of partying and bouncing with music blaring and everyone smiling, we'd either take our seats or gather in a circle to share some of the experiences we were going through and observations that were being made or discuss what topics were going to be covered that day. 

• 11AM(ish) First Juice of the Day - So let me be very clear, we were not being starved at all during this process. In fact a lot of the content and material we were covering while we were cleansing was material about what to expect during the cleanse, how it works and what precise effects it was having on our bodies at a very cellular (scientific) level. So after a few hours of "active" learning, they would start to pass around glasses of juice of some kind. Usually they were vegetable juices or vegetable broths (and in my opinion, usually they were quite gross haha), but occasionally we were surprised with a fruit juice or avocado and almond blend (which was my favorite). As I mentioned before, they gave us all the recipes and there are some I'm playing with at home now and some I'm choosing to stay away from. LOL Not long after our first juice, we were usually offered a shot of Udo's Oil. Although the Udo's oil doesn't always agree with me (especially on an empty stomach), I've since purchased some at home and make sure to have a few tablespoons a day. I've been getting compliments on my hair and skin lately so I'm certainly not going to stop now! For this cleanse tho, it was very effective at curving our appetites. 

• 2PM Lunch - Usually around this time each day we were let out for a few hours to do as we pleased. We were told that lunch was waiting for us whenever we were ready but we all knew that lunch was  always nothing more than another shot of Wheatgrass and/or Udo's oil. LOL  This is usually where I would either take a nap, sit and talk with someone or lounge around by the pool with a book. There were a few days however when something interesting was going on during our lunch hours. For example, once they set up a small market just outside of where we were staying, giving the Fijians a chance to display some of their artesian crafts and jewelry etc...  And in case you're wondering, Yes I brought myself a ton of jewelry LOL. There were also times where some of the kids would set up a volleyball net and want to play with us or some of the local adults were teaching us how to do things like make coconut milk by hand (which was very cool).This was our
  
  
  chance to take some time off from being indoors learning to experience Fiji and learn more about their beautiful culture. 

• 4 or 5PM Seminar Continues - Back indoors, back to yelling, singing, dancing, bouncing, you name it; these are certainly not your average seminars and course material. We are all about learning in a Peak State meaning channeling our minds and our bodies to act as one and to actively put our thoughts and what we learn into our bodies. I believe I speak for all 75+ attendees when I say that the material and information that I believe every one of us took home from this experience really is priceless and I for one am a different person today than who I was when I first arrived to jump on those poles.
   
• 10PM Seminar Closes for the day - We wrap up any questions we had about what we learned that day, we keep ourselves in a peak state, clean up the room and head out to enjoy our evening probiotic pill and cup of vegetable broth (Take a pot of hot water, boil a bunch of veggies in it and then strain out the veggies and feed us the water), which actually was my tummy and taste buds best part of the day. LOL  It was so welcoming to have something tasty and warm going down for once as opposed to all the cold veggie and green drinks we were having throughout the day.  From there it was off to bed to start all over the next day.

A few more things that I need to make note of during this time of our Life Mastery cleanse which I feel is important not to leave out if you want a full appreciation of what exactly we went through: 

• Water and Hydration - If you're reading this, you know who you are. Thank you SO MUCH for taking on the roll of water-boy. LOL  Seriously, I wish I had someone yelling at me constantly throughout the day to drink more water. ;)  I'm doing much better with super-saturating my body than ever before because of the habits I created for myself in Fiji.  The organization of the water facilities were fantastic, offering us numerous options of water to choose from depending on what our individual bodies were telling us. For example, they had regular water, salt water and electrolyte water stations, all equipped with chopped up limes and Energy Greens to keep us content and hydrated throughout the day, which really helps us on our cleanse.
•  "Cruises" - known to the professional world as colon hydrotherapy; we were encouraged to participate in daily colonics during our cleanse (hence the importance of that pro-biotic pill and the electrolyte water). For anyone who has not yet tried this I will use the words of my beautiful roommate to describe how we all feel about it - "it's a humbling experience. You must do it."  You don't know till you try right? I guarantee it will open your eyes.  In fact I personally believe this was a huge contributing factor to the amount of weight that I lost on these few days in Fiji while on the cleanse... amazing.
• Interesting Detox Side Effects - This being a detox/cleanse, it was super interesting to watch how all the people around me were being affected in different ways. For example, some were vomiting, some had headaches, some were breaking out (skin) and some were not bothered in the least. I personally had a very interesting experience with my legs where the muscles in my legs were so unbelievably soar to the point where I had trouble walking up and down stairs. I thought it was so strange since working out and running is a part of my lifestyle now. As it turns out, the staff on hand believes that this was a direct result of my body being so acidic because I work out so much and with such high intensity that I rarely give it an opportunity to heal. Therefor, as a result, the lactic acid buildup in my body was beginning to release and that's probably what caused the soar and stiffness.  As bizarre as it was, it only lasted me 2-3 days.
• Fijians - I just don't know if I can emphasize enough how awesome these people are. Hanging with people like this really did contribute to our level of relaxation and peace during this cleanse. While on our cleanse, we all had the opportunity to experience a small mass at a local church in the village. Some of went more than once because what we experienced there was mesmerizing. I remember sitting there listening to them singing their hymns in their native language and thinking to myself that I didn't need to understand them at all to understand the beautiful music that my ears were picking up. Young, old, male, female - they could all sing... and I'm talking about beautiful 4-part harmonies!
  
  
  
  It just goes to show really the power of limiting beliefs. These people have no limiting beliefs about their voices and as a result - wow do they ever know how to use them.
  
  So that pretty much wraps up the cleansing and detoxifying experience of Life Mastery in Savusavu, Fiji.  If any of you participants have taken the time to read through my recap of events please feel free to leave any comments you wish about my experience or if you think I may have forgotten something important. You know as well as I do that it's hard to put into words all of our experiences but I think this gives a pretty basic idea of what our life was like in this very real world for those few days that went by too fast.  I know we each had our own personal experiences while we were there and some of had our own amazing breakthroughs and I will likely share more of mine at a later date.
  
  Bye for now!
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Bula Fiji ! (Part 2) - Arriving in Savusavu - The Poles

     So I've described (probably in too much detail) all about my journey to get to the beautiful town of Savusavu, Fiji in my last post. Let's now recap the details of my time in this picture perfect paradise. As I mentioned in the previous post, I was there for a cleansing retreat and health/life/wealth self-improvement seminar. If anyone is wondering about what seminar specifically, you can find all the details and more here. It's run by Anthony Robbins Co... and I recommend any of his seminars to anybody interested in self improvement and personal growth. Words can't describe how much these have changed my life. My eyes are open wider than ever before and I am much more self-aware than I have ever been in my past.

DAY 1

     I remember flying into Savusavu (which has an airport the size of my yard back home and a small one bedroom shed for an admin office) and being so relieved to have finally made it after so many hours of traveling, but so anxious and desperate for a shower and a nap. Those are the only 2 things I wanted in life at that moment. Did I get either? No chance... Because I was one of the last to arrive fashionably late and the seminar had technically started a few hours beforehand, I was rushed to registration and wasn't even able to drop off my bags or see my room before I was ushered off to "THE POLES"....

     Aaaahhh the Poles. So anyone who's attended one of Anthony Robbins events knows that his team likes to set up these physical challenges for us to defeat as a metaphor for life. For example, in his Unleash the Power Within (UPW) seminars (which are basically his intro seminars where people go to for the first time to get a sense of what he's all about) he makes us walk across a 14ft bed of hot burning coals barefoot.... that's right, you read that correctly - he turns all 2000+ participants in each seminar into FireWalkers. It sounds insane but it's actually a tonn of fun and I've personally done it many times now. LOL So for Life Mastery, the challenge was to climb up a 60 foot telephone pole that had pegs lined up each side.... climb up all the way to the top while focusing on the mantra "Look Up, What's Next, Breathe - Look Up, What's Next, Breathe...", which when you think about it is a great metaphor for life. Keep your head up, look forward, breath and go... What else is there to do really? LOL  So once you climb all the way to the top at a steady pace (we're all wearing helmets and are attached to a harness for safety with 2 big guys spotting us from below - as if we were wall climbing), you're left squatting in a froggy position at the very top of the pole 60 feet in the air, looking around at the beautiful beaches and palm trees surrounding you, with everyone below you cheering you on. The pole wobbles a bit and you breathe to stay balanced, then you reach up to hang onto the harness above you as you STAND UP, STEP UP so you're at the very top of the pole, arms stretched out like a bird... and then LEAP for your dreams!  It's quite incredible actually to watch all these people doing this exercise, young and old, men and women, doesn't matter - everyone does it!  They have a trapeze type swing at the top a few feet in front of the pole you're on and the idea is to jump out and see if you can catch the swing (not many people were able to successfully do this but everyone tried and did an amazing job). To say it was exhilarating and a push beyond your comfort zone and beyond your fears - well, that's an understatement. I didn't have my camera on me for this event but I am assured that I will get some pictures sent to me by my fellow seminar folks who jumped for their dreams with me and when I do, I will be sure to update this post.(update: got some pics of it!!)

So back to me.  I got off this plane, was ushered to the poles despite my exhaustion and within about 15mins of power moves, cheering others on and trying to get myself into a peak mental state, they were strapping me up before I knew what was going on. LOL  For anyone who knows me, you know that poles and I don't get along in general (aka - my pathetic attempts at pole dancing lessons as the gym didn't go very well hahaha).  The climb up this pole was a bit more physically challenging than I thought (the pegs were spread really far apart for someone short like myself to reach) but I made it to the top and after a bit of hesitation and trying to catch my breath, I wasn't able to stand upright but I jumped. I'm proud of myself either way. :) 

After about 3 hrs in the heat cheering everyone on at the poles, we were finally able to go back to our rooms, settle in, relax (I took a very much needed shower) for a bit before heading back to the main cabin to begin the information sessions of our seminar. That was about all the excitement for day 1 in Savusavu.

Stay tuned as I recap the next few days in my next post, which include an incredible liquid diet and detox plan that most people think I'm crazy for attempting, but man oh man did it work! 

BULA FIJI ! (Part 1) - Getting There and Time in Suva

     Aaaahhhh Fiji, how I love thee.  For those who may not know (although I've been going on and on about it for so long now that if you don't know it's because you seriously pay zero attention to me... and that's OK if you're not my friend...lol) I just got back last week from a PHENOMENAL getaway/seminar/cleaning retreat which took place in SavuSavu on the beautiful island of Vanua Levu.  I was away from April 27 till May 12 although unfortunately I had a few days of the trip shaved off due to an unfortunate incident with American Airlines which I won't go into too my detail about. The basics are simple - I should have left Toronto for LA California by a certain time on the 27th to catch a connecting flight to Fiji that same night... Unfortunately a "delay" (ie, the plane decided not to show up for 5 hrs) caused me to miss that connection. What was even more unfortunate was that the connection flight was not a daily flight and therefor I was forced to blow 2 days of my trip in LA. Anyway I won't go on about what that ended up costing me in total with flight changes etc... and the nasty emails that I've already written American Airlines regarding the incident and how I expect to be compensated. So instead of landing in Fiji on the 29th with a few pre-seminar days to spend relaxing and adjusting to the time difference, I landed where I needed to be on May 1st just as the seminar was starting. I love traveling, I really do but only once I'm at my destination... the getting to aspect of traveling (dealing with airlines, hotels, airports, layovers, baggage etc...) loses its novelty quick.

    On the way in, I had to fly into the city of Nadi (which for some reason the locals pronounce as "NANDI"...so there's an imaginary N), as all international flights do. From there I had to hop on a puddle jumper plane for an hour into the capital city of Suva and then from Suva, yet a smaller plane for another hour to Savusavu. I had a 6hr layover in Suva however so I decided to start my trip then and there. I walked out of the airport (which really wasn't bigger than the house I live in here in Toronto at the moment) and bargained with a taxi driver to take me for a drive into the city of Suva and show me some sights and nice Fijian things to take pictures of. Of course I found out after the fact when I was at the seminar that what I did was considered pretty dangerous and that Suva is a dangerous place with people who will take advantage of foreigners... That was all news to me cause I actually had a fabulous time with this taxi driver. For about $70 Fijian dollars (which is not a lot) the guy drove me around, talked to me about history, showed me some cool places, helped me take some cool pictures and was totally trustworthy with my things while I took a bathroom break now and again. I saw the government buildings, including where their president lives, university buildings, beaches, went into a Fijian museum for a while, stopped for lunch, went into the markets and even watched a rugby game.

A few immediate observations: 

• The Fijian men wear skirts all the time. Skirts on both men and women are part of their culture - as you can see this soldier gentleman guarding the government buildings area is sporting a skirt as part of his uniform. Airport security officials also wore skirts, as did men just hanging around in the streets.
• There is a very very very large population of Indian/Hindi folks in Fiji. In all local schools the children are taught up to 3 languages from a very young age - Fijian, Hindi and English.
• Rugby is the national sport of choice. Soccer would be number 2 in line. It was very cool to see how they made fields of whatever space they could find and they were quite passionate about it. Students who I would have thought should have been in a classroom during the hours I was there were out in teams playing and loving this brutal sport.
• Fijians LOVE tourists. It was very unlike other parts of the world I've visited in the past where I've always had to watch my back and keep an eye out for locals looking to rip me off as a tourist. Here in Fiji, not only did I leave my things with the taxi driver on more than one occasion with no worries but the people were so nice and almost overly friendly - lots of looks but always smiles and waves and more smiles. 

The 6 hours I had to wait in Suva were well spent in my opinion. I took some nice pictures and enjoyed the weather and got to know a very nice, and knowledgable taxi driver man who is a happy husband and father of 8. In tomorrow's post, I'll go from Suva to Savusavu, which is where I spent the majority of my days while in this beautiful part of the world.  Stay tuned!!

Copenhagen, Denmark - Better Late than Never!

Let me start this post by putting it out there straight up, if I had the opportunity to move and relocate  my life to Copenhagen, I totally would. I don't say that about too many places.. I LOVED Copenhagen. Clean, flat, lovely, coastal (close proximity to water), friendly and so on... are all words that come to mind when i remember my time in Copenhagen. I also need to emphasize the word BICYCLE. I couldn't quite believe the ratio of bikes to cars. The infrastructure of this place was more convenient for bikes than it was for cars. Traffic lights, wide streets for bikes and narrow roads for cars. Talk about a government promoting Green living!

So the reason I was in Copenhagen was for yet another conference immediately after the one in Budapest. I remember quite clearly that this conference was in my opinion the best of the two by far. Nothing against Budapest the city, but unfortunately the conference organizers performed quite under par for that one.

Anyway, as I always do at conferences, I schedule a few days extra before or after for  myself to do some sight-seeing in a new city. There was one spot in particular that I had my heart set on as soon as I found out that I was going to Copenhagen. For those of you who know me, you should know (and most of you do) that I am a huge Disney fanatic... Always have been. Both my mother and I still sit together to watch Disney movies when I visit home. LOL They're just such feel-good movies, timeless classics that never die for me. Well low and behold, Copenhagen is home to the original tale of the Little Mermaid.... so of course I had to see her!

From where I was staying, it was quite the walk (a few hrs), but I didn't care - I was on a mission... and just look how beautiful she is! LOL Oh and I even found her father (although he had legs...hhmmm):

So then I continued my walk and came across more breathtaking statues and monuments and important buildings to see etc.... I remember falling in love with the waterfront properties, smiling, healthy looking people on their bikes or walking/jogging, They also had amazing super long pedestrian only streets which served as shopping markets all along the way...loved the hustle and bustle of so many people...I got such a great vibe in that city.

I'm not going to dwell much more on that except to say that I absolutely loved it there, would totally live there and look forward to returning some day!

Budapest Hungary - Better Late than Never!

Alright so in continuing with my tradition of documenting my trips around the world, even though it's been months now since I've been back from this particular trip, I still want to share with you the good, bad and interesting about these places. I'm grouping the two places together (even though they were drastically different experiences) because I visited them both back to back within a 2 week period (without returning to Canada in between) in October 2009.

Let's start with Budapest
I learned a lot about this place as I was there (didn't really have much time for a lot of research before leaving) and was pleasantly surprised by what I found. It's a beautiful place with a LOT of history, split in half by the Danube river - one side being referred to as "Buda" and the other side referred to as "Pest" (pronounced pesht).  In fact one of the funniest memories I have of this trip was of a boat ride that I took with a friend on the Danube.  It was a tourist boat ride complete with a tour guide who was supposed to be detailing the history behind what we were seeing on each side of the river banks. Instead however, about 75% of his content had to do with details about the hotels in the vicinity. For example, "to the right ladies and gentlemen, we have the X hotel... approx,. Y square feet in size, with Z number of floors, it offers blah blah blah...."  I couldn't stop laughing at how funny all of this was to me cause they certainly were not trying to hide the fact that the ride was being sponsored by these hotels. As a tourist however, it was not the hotels that I was interested in... so to say that the tour fell below my expectations is probably an understatement... lol  Oh well, I still took some nice pictures.

Even found some nice graffiti of my name along the river banks :)

The main Government Building there was quite impressive.

This is a picture of their Palace. Unfortunately I wasn't able to tour it.

I was in Budapest for a gaming affiliate conference and of course took some time to myself on a few off-days to walk around and enjoy the sights.

I noticed that there was something about small elephants and Budapest - not sure exactly what that relationship is (if anyone reading knows and wants to fill me in, feel free to leave a comment!) but I found these little guys everywhere, some colored and decorated, some not...

Crossing the bridge at night into Pest from Buda (I think):

Then of course, as is true with any Affiliate conference - there were the parties... Oh the parties! SOOOO fun... TOOOOO fun!  lol   Here are some pics of places where we partied and the nightlife. In fact, one place we found had a group of about 5 bars which were all open 24hrs (at least that's what it seemed when the party was still alive and kickin when I stumbled out into a cab at about 4:30am...LOL)

And yes, these are upside down people hanging from the ceiling at one of the bars we were at... LOL

Ok so to finish about Budapest, here are a few more notes and things that stood out to me:

• The Service - was HORRIBLE. LOL  At restaurants, we practically had to walk over and grab our waiter by the arm to bring him to our table to take our orders. This happened over and over again and still can't seem to understand it. One time I stood at a bar waiting to be served and was staring at the bartender who had looked at me numerous times. After about 20minutes I started waving and saying HELLOOOOO? and she finally looked up at me with a dirty look and said "the bar is closed, you have to go to the other one in the back of the room for a drink.  WTF?? You made me stand there for 20mins and looked at me over and over before saying that?  Woah....
• The People - seemed to be quiet, somber and almost depressing by nature. I don't know enough about the history of this place to really understand why this might be but I remember noticing that it was rare to see a smile in the streets. Thank god for the super great company I was in keeping me smiling and laughing at all times! (Thanks Mike and Steve! You guys are the best!!)
• The Spas - I didn't realize until the day before I arrived there that Budapest was famous for their spas. I was walking around one day and stumbled quite accidentally on a large group of about a hundred naked people (men and women) in the streets in one area and realized that it was an open spa... well THAT was certainly an interesting sight for an unsuspecting Canadian to stumble on... LOL
• The Churches - apparently there is quite a large jewish population in Hungary. I wasn't aware of this until I saw lots and lots of synagogues. Beautiful buildings...  

Overall Budapest was a fantastic city and I had a fantastic time and I would certainly do it again...

Catching Up After a Year

Hey everyone!

It's been a long long time since I decided to make some time to write about my life but I've had a tremendous year and I feel like it will not be fair for me to hold back and not share with you all what's been going on with me.  I've got a few trips to fill you in on, a few life altering decisions which I've recently made and have no regrets about at all and a few announcements to make to get you all back in the loop. I've also developed some new interests and passions in my life and plan on taking this blogging thing to the next level by actually creating a few new blogs because there's just so much to write about each topic. Stay tuned...

I start with a rundown of two of my latest trips to Europe. I always write about my trips so it's about time that I fill in the blanks about these cause they were indeed FANTASTIC trips.. Then I'm going to share with you some life changing decisions I've made about my new career path. Then there are some personal and family updates to share and lastly, I'm going to be asking for feedback from you all as I slowly work to reposition myself as a woman looking for not only success, but fulfillment in my life.

(to be continued...)