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!