The road to wellness is easy. All we have to do is to choose well.
Just when I thought I was fine that day, I was rushed to the hospital due to — again — renal problem. I was passing stones. Though I was in excruciating pain, my doctors told me everything was manageable.
Lady friends who visited me in the hospital only had one advice: “Go to Jeannie Goulbourn and Dale Flores’ detox flush workshop. It will do you good.”
Prior to my confinement, there was a point in my life when I became sickly. Flu, rhinitis, sinusitis — name the most common ailment and chances are, I had it. My friends told me I had imbalance in my system. They advised me to undergo a detox program where I would be fed only with, well, “live” juice. It was the advice that I had been taking for granted for the longest time because I vehemently opposed to such things. Until recently, I gave in to the liver/gallbladder flush. The hardest decision in my life turned out to be the easiest thing to do. The healthiest, too, I must say. This decision changed me forever.
Next thing I knew, I was already on my way to Discovery Suites very early that weekend to attend an overnight wellness program titled “My Self-Discovery to Well-being.”
At the workshop venue, a nurse took my blood pressure and my weight. Before I proceeded to my assigned seat, I stopped first at the buffet table laden with fruits — melon, watermelon, cantaloupe, pomelo, papaya among others. There was an avalanche supply of these fruits the whole day. Lunch was pumpkin soup with a tasty healthy slice of bread. Pitchers of water were also on the table, as if telling the workshop participants to hydrate all the time. Indeed, we all did.
From my pre-detox perspective, I only knew Jeannie as a distinguished fashion designer. I learned more about her when she delivered her lecture “Interior Beauty & Lifestyle,” where she stressed that she has devoted herself to this wellness advocacy after she became lethargic and weak due to unabated fever that lasted for 60 days. She became depressed from the steroids prescribed to her. She searched far and wide to remedy her illness but only found the cure in holistic healing methods that involved detoxification of the body, mind and soul.
We learned more about our body, mind and soul from different guest speakers. Dr. Ricky Soler, founder of Joan Drew and the First Spa, delivered a witty and lively lecture on “A Practical Approach to Healing.” Dr. Madeline Valera, a pharmacologist and vice president of Philhealth, talked on “Mixing & Interactions of Medicines.” Dr. Christine Gonzales and Dr. Jason Peneranda discussed “Women’s and Men’s Wellness & Healthy Libido for All Ages.” Dale Flores, a candidate for MS Holistic Nutrition, made me realize about the cruelty I do to my body with his lecture on “Nutritional Therapy — You Are What You Eat.” Yoga coach Jeannie Javelosa and yoga instructor Bel Lipat taught us “Breathing and Meditation.” And yes, a Mass was said by Fr. Guido Arguelles who later on joined us, too, in the detox program.
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Of course, the detox flush was the highlight of the event. The process was not invasive for it only required each participant to consume five natural and organic drinks that tasted like vegetable-herbal juice. Each cocktail was served with a small slice of apple. No sweat!
Then the “time for harvest” came early morning of the second day. It just felt like a regular bowel movement with plenty liquid coming out with soft stones of varying colors and sizes. My harvest, ehem, consisted of plenty emerald greens and maize yellow with a few black ones as big as garbanzos. (A strainer was provided in case a participant wanted to observe his harvest.) Other participants swore they yielded bigger stones. I must have visited the toilet more than 40 times in a span of three hours. Those were the happiest trips to the baño I made in my life. Every purge was a discovery to my well-being. Just when I thought I would feel lethargic because of too many “harvest seasons” I made that day, I felt all the more energized. Especially so when lunchtime became imminent — a hearty and healthy meal was served.
“Cleansing improves the overall condition of the body organs,” Dale said. He added that the liver/gallbladder flush has helped diabetic and hypertensive patients to experience great relief. It also helps reduce back pains, improves digestion, decreases amount of fatty liver in the body, increases metabolism among other health benefits.
As for me, aside from the healthy benefits I gained from the detox flush, it also declogged me of negative emotion, allowing loving kindness to flow inside me. In fact, right after coming home from the weekend wellness program, I called a former colleague who had caused me hurts and pains before. The 12 years of silence between us was mended by a simple hello. We are now in the stage of rebuilding our friendship. Thanks to the detox flush that was also good for the soul and spirit.
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Yes, thanks to the wellness flush, I have become more aware of so many things that affect my well-being. Here are some nuggets of wisdom I learned overnight.
1. Fast facts on gallstones: 90 percent of people have them; 80 percent of the people don’t know they have gallstones.
2. Too much toxin buildup can disrupt the body’s pH balance, lower the immune system and increase the chances of diseases to set in. The liver/gallbladder flush helps eliminate years of unprocessed fats, particularly gallstones, caused by bad cholesterol.
3. I lost five pounds overnight. From then on, I have become conscious of the things I put in my mouth. “You become what you eat,” as mentioned by Dale, becomes the voice in my head every mealtime.
4. If one has acid reflux or indigestion, it is best to give one an ounce of raw cabbage juice.
5. Muscovado or stevia is the best sugar, especially for diabetic patients. I call it the panutsa of my childhood.
6. Lagundi and banaba herb are tops for urinary tract infection.
7. Eat less meat to lessen the arthritis pain.
8. The best way to lose weight is to take complex carbs, e.g. wheat bread, potato, camote, saba, gabi.
9. What causes hypertension? Consider these: stress, dried fish, table salt or iodized salt. (The first hypertensive attack of my father in 2001 was caused by sautéed bagoong na pula.)
10. Cancer thrives in acidic and sweet environment.
11. It’s not only the lungs and heart that get affected when one smokes. The mouth, gallbladder and liver, too, are at risk.
12. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) contains excitotoxin that lifts your mood while eating then kills your brain cells from over excitation.
13. The methanol in aspartame is grouped in the same class of drugs as cyanide and arsenic.
14. You need 32 glasses of alkaline water to neutralize one can of soda drink. And alkaline water can be very expensive when bought. But don’t worry, Dale assures, it can also be very cheap. “Put three drops of calamansi in clean water and there you have alkaline water.”
15. Cucumber and avocado are alkaline-high. (And you should always have cucumber every time you eat inihaw or grilled food.)
16. What menopause is to women, andropause is to men. Here are some of the symptoms according to Dr. Christine Gonzales and Dr. Jason Peneranda: decrease in sex drive, decrease in bone mass, increase in body fats, erectile dysfunction, low energy, loss of lean muscle, thinning hair.
17. The bangus belly contains one of the best sources of fatty acid. It contains Omega 3 and Omega 6. But those good acids are destroyed once you fry the bangus.
18. The lowly malunggay is tops among vegetables. Malunggay has three times more calcium than milk. It has four times more potassium than banana. It has seven times more Vitamin C than orange. (I wonder why malunggay was not even mentioned in the song Bahay Kubo.)
19. Chances are, the perfect fruits have the most pesticides.
20. Bitter is better when it comes to chocolate.
21. Mongo beans and other legumes are sources of uric acid. To take away the uric acid, soak the beans in cold water for three hours then rinse twice before cooking.
22. I discovered that, aside of course from God, the best healer on earth is “Me.” “Because you are the only one who really knows what you put inside your mouth; who really knows what pains you; who really knows yourself,” says Dale.
As I said earlier, the road to wellness is easy. All we have to do is to choose well.
(The Global Vital Source, the company that does the wellness program, will have detox flush dates on Feb. 2 to 3 and Feb. 16 to 17. Please contact Joyce at 843-2550 or 0917-8236738 or Pia at 0915-6739435.)
(For your new beginnings, please e-mail me at bumbaki@yhoo.com. Have a blessed Sunday.)