A creaky lower back and agonizing bladder woke me at 5:45am. The morning light gleamed through the cracks in the blinds, as I rolled over on the hard bed. A foggy, sluggish haze pulled me back under the covers until I could no longer wait to pee. For the next, 6 days I would be using the bathroom a lot. I was at Optimum Health Institute in San Diego for a weeklong cleanse.
After checking into clean but basic accommodations at the Lemon Grove gated compound, new and old guests had Sunday dinner consisting of salad, raw vegetables, and a self-serve sprouts. Guests have a choice between the hypoglycemic diet and the regular, which includes beets, carrots and fruit. I opted for the hypo diet in case of any candida or parasites that feed on sugar. After, loading up my plate with sprouts, raw salad dressing, and various herbs and spices, I cozied up with some other new guests.
Breakfast the next day started with a bit of the same, though according to the menu, the food was exciting and varied. Our very first class on Monday morning was not for the squeamish; it was on enemas and colonics. We received an enema bucket when we arrived at OHI. It had been awhile since I had kneeled on the bathroom floor with a tube up my butt, but I had never done a wheatgrass enema, this was new. I diligently ran to the wheatgrass room to juice wheatgrass after class and headed to my bathroom. Enemas are easy to do but not as effective as a colonic if you have access to that. I would have my very first colonic the following day.
The days were packed with a full schedule of various classes on health, as well as movement classes. Lymphatic exercise, stretching, food combining, digestion, and elimination were a few, but OHI also had classes in emotional and mental detoxification, self-esteem and validation. They are big believers in the body, mind, spirit connection.
First week guests began the juice cleanse on Tuesday and continue drinking just juice and 4-8 ounces of wheatgrass daily until Thursday night. Feeling weaker than usual on a cleanse, my reward came from the second colonic. My first colonic was a good experience. My colon hydro-therapist Andrea, who’s also a nurse, put me at ease with her friendly demeanor and our insightful conversation. It was fascinating seeing all of the sludge exit my body in the window of the colonic machine. She massaged the belly and hit reflexology points on the feet to move stuck matter. I was amazed to see how much more released two days after just drinking juice. After several rounds of the water flush, wheatgrass is streamed into the colon from a tube. The wheatgrass not only replaces electrolytes and minerals that are lost in the process but it supports liver detox and pulls more matter from the colon. The idea is to hold the wheatgrass for up to 10 minutes, some people will absorb the juice and others will eliminate more toxins. I got off of the table after my last release feeling lighter and clearer than I had all month.
Living in Venice, CA I was experiencing the yearly May grey and June gloom marine fog and it pervaded to my brain. Recent life shifts, asked me to rebalance my schedule and time, but I was feeling blocked. I know how much diet, exercise, and attitude play a major role in overall energy, but I was in a slump. Optimum Health Institute allowed me to reset.
The real testament to all that OHI offers, came by listening to people’s stories. One young man came with Lyme’s disease 14 weeks ago on 13 different prescription medications. He was mostly incapacitated prior to arriving at OHI and after 14 weeks the Lyme is gone from his body and he is down to taking only 2 pharmaceuticals drugs. I met another woman who came to OHI several years ago with stage 4 lung cancer and after 19 weeks on the program, she cleared all cancer from her body and hasn’t had it return. I met another with MS, a western MD, along with many others that had some sort of health complication or as OHI calls it, a “Health Opportunity”.
Leaving at the end of the week, I said goodbye to many wonderful people, many who were staying on. The full program at OHI is 3 weeks, although people with “Health Opportunities” sometimes opt to stay on and work as missionaries. Optimum Health can be ours if we create an alkaline environment, free from toxins, and allow the body to return to homeostasis. Listening to participant’s testimonials on Friday, it was clear, the biggest shifts people had were about their beliefs. Sometimes the biggest detox comes from a shift in perspective.
