Today the true reality of this excursion hit me. They’re serious about this no-eating detox thing. 

I am writing this in the lovely driftwood and shell enhanced lobby of the Ocean Resort, but in spite of the soothing and funky decor, I’ll tell you what really has caught my eye; it’s this little glazed pot with a small ornamental rubber tree.

It’s looking like something a person could chomp on, you know, like chew? Something that isn’t just a blended whirling mixture of healthy sludge. In fact, I’m picturing this little plant, sliced and chopped, tossed in olive oil, a smidge of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper …topped with…a big sizzling rack of pork. Oops.  

Fear not. I am committed to the program. And I do understand that this is good for me. We’ve had some health talks and watched a DVD on eating and the statistics are rather frightening.

It’s not like we don’t all know this stuff, but in this extreme context, I think I’m really getting it. We all eat too much meat. The fatty cholesterol clogs our arteries reducing blood flow to the heart (read ATTACK) the brain (read STROKE) and the tissues (read CANCER). Yet we continue to crave racks of pork (see above).  

The word here at Fresh Start is that a plant-based diet can reverse the damage we’ve created through our poor habits. Hence the liver cleansing smoothies that have been handed out at various points today.  The real crowd pleaser being the sauerkraut, cabbage and carrot blender bonanza. NOT! And then there were the shots of wheatgrass that taste like concentrated lawn clippings and don’t even get me started on the warm saline water that started our day…

However, I’m beginning to think this is the only way I can learn anything.  Several years ago, I went to a ten-day silent retreat that was like no-talking-boot-camp and that extreme experience helped me incorporate a 30-minute meditation into most of my days since. I know I couldn’t have done it any other way. I’m of the ‘Go Big or Go Home’ school of learning.

And now I’m doing the extreme no-chewing-liver cleansing-detox-drink experience and I’ll be able to go home and incorporate a lot of this into my life. I can see through this that I have a huge amount of room for improvement and I’m going to be eating a lot more greens. Not the wheatgrass shots or the aforementioned cabbage swirl, but it would appear that I need to swing the pendulum way, way out to really shake up my approach and pay attention.

And there is the fact that my mother died of liver cancer at 63. There is that. I’m not saying this could have saved her but maybe some extra prevention isn’t a bad thing. We can only try.  

I get that we have to die of something. I just want to do my best at creating a killer immune system. I’m going to try to remember these words tomorrow…when they hand me the next blended bowl of Kermit juice.