A Detox experiment – Healthy or not?

My first detox experience – 7 day in Phuket

An article by: Tom Stenshavn

Her is updates followed by a full evaluation on my Detox in Phuket from 22nd to 30th April 2021.

DETOX CAMP: Day 0 and 1 completed.

Since i didn’t pre-detox before arrival, and also was going to do a hard-core study in Business Coaching for 6 hours a day, they suggested to start easy. So i get some vegetarian food the first day, day 2 i will have fruit shakes, and day 3 will start the real detox with no food and only drinks and supplements.

I`m going to dream about beer, vodka, ice cream, pizza and Argentinian steaks tonight! Is there anything worse to drink than lukewarm water?

DETOX CAMP: Finished day 4 of 7

And coaching certification goes well!

What about the Detox?

I’m dreaming of pizzas, burgers and steaks.

I`m not hungry, but I need something with taste!! Filling the stomach with tasteless Psyllium mixed with water and getting the energy through supplement pills is not giving me any eating pleasure. And when the only drinks are lukewarm water or tea made of strong ginger or apple cider vinegar it makes me even more think about some real food. The only highlight is a coconut water at 3 PM, and a broth soup at 6 PM. But the soup is actually only water with spices, so it has a certain taste, but gives no filling or energy.

Then there is the 2 time a day Colema… Yikes… I almost throw up when I get to my Colema room. I have a private room for that and they clean it after every time, but it smells of garlic and coffee as they use that in the fluid.

I guess this is why they call it detox

Daily massages and other included well being things are nice to try though. Had a lot that I don’t even know the name of. Tried Yoga class… that was a NO. Tried group meditation…NO. Had an electronic zapper lesson… didn’t feel anything, but they say it works. Foot reflexology… Hurt like hell. Thai massage, the same. Oil and foot massage not so much, so I guess I stick with that.

Well, been here, done that I think. 3 more days to go. Lost 4 kg in 4 days, but I think that 4 kg`s was on the inside as I can`t see or feel any difference on the outside.

But overall.. feel good as long as the headaches are gone and I’m happy that I didn’t quit smoking just now. That’s the only thing that can get the mind off the food

Anyway… I’m happy to have tried it, and I was here to do coaching class and get a certificate for business coaching. That went well, so it`s time to get into business.

I had no time to prepare my body for the detox, so therefore I started with something called the “Eat well” program the first day, then the “Juice cleanse” program for 1 day and then 2 days of “ultra-cleanse” before I was to do the last two days in the “Eat Well” program again. Total 6 days of cleanse. Then the last day I spent here, I would start to slowly eat normal again.

This was supposed to be a great experience, cleansing the body and losing some weight.

Well, the people were nice and all, but the program didn`t really work. At least not for me.

Let me explain:

• Eat well program is where you get only some papaya for breakfast, then salad for lunch and dinner, so it is far from Eat well…
• The Juice program is with 3 glasses of pressed juice per day. NO other food.
• The Ultra cleanse is with nothing else than Psyllium and tea. NO food at all.
• All programs have supplement pills and small supplement shots included so you are supposed to get the minerals and vitamins you need every day.

Upon arrival, there was no one in the reception. I could not find anyone anywhere, so I ended up going to the bar on the beach to get checked in. They opened my room and gave me the key, but no info on what is going to happen at all. It was a letter in my room telling me to meet up at 7:30 the next day, so I ordered some soup from the restaurant as I didn’t know what I was allowed to eat that evening.

The next morning, we were handed a program and learned how to mix Psyllium shake. This was going to be our only intake except water for the ultra-cleanse program. And then Apple cider vinegar tea. Water and tea, was allowed to drink as much as we wanted during each day.

The program changed each day, only the Psyllium/tea and supplements was the same. But when the program changed, it was a lot of errors in the programs. There was massage when we were supposed to take supplements, and there was start of an activity at the same time as lunch. The only thing we were told was to postpone the lunch or others…. That made a lot of confusion for many of the clients.

Then there were the activities. Massage was once a day. No info on what kind of massage we could have… in the massage-room, the massage lady asked us “what massage do you want”? How am I supposed to know, when I don’t know what kind you have to offer? Then she told, Thai massage, Oil Massage and Foot massage. Luckily, I have been in Thailand a long time, so I know what it is. But not all people know, so why not explain it a bit?? Thai massage is terrible and hurt like hell, so this needs to be told before someone just chose it because of its name.

The same goes for the other activities. No information at all on what they are.

Yoga – I asked, and was told that it was very light and easy Yoga. How can that be when I could do only 10 minutes of it? This is not for beginners, so why have that for newcomers?

Ultrasonic zapper – They gave this with a video that explained what it was. Very good, but no-one knows if it works as we feel nothing when its on, or after its done. Seemed useless, and only for believers.

Ion cleanse – What is this? Is that where they put the suctions on my back? That was not something I would approve without them telling me up front, so doing this without telling what I went into is far from what I can accept. I asked the lady what she was going to do to me. She had NO answer, just asked me to take my clothes off and lay down. Then this. She also tried to make me order more of her services for 1500 baht without telling me anything about what she was doing… Again, useless!

FAR infrared + ozone – Again, no info about what this is for. I saw some signs on the wall next to it, but without my glasses I can’t read that. And I want the info before I do something, not after. This was just sitting in a warm bag with hot air sweating as hell for 30 minutes. Has no idea what it is supposed to be for? Only felt hot after… again it seemed useless!

Psyllium and bento – In the ultra-cleanse, we need to drink this 5 times a day. But why? And what is it? What is it for? Only explanation we got was that is fills the stomach and helps the colon cleanse….

Supplements – When I am given a lot of supplements to take, I need to know what they are. What is in them, and what are they for. No-one should take supplements without the knowledge of this. We`d got nothing.

Colema – We were to do colema twice a day to clean the colon. This was explained how to do, but not really why we should do it and why so many times. They mentioned something about getting old feces out, so I guess that is it?

Then to the worst!!

At 12 noon on my 6^th and last day of cleanse I started to get sick and had stomach ache. At first, I thought that it was just because my stomach was so empty, so I eat the lunch in the package and after that I got really sick!

I was having horrible stomach cramps and headache so I went to the front desk and talked to the girl there. She just gave me a cup of tea and asked me to relax… I took the tea to my room and drank it, lying in bed and I got even worse. All my body was hurting bad. Muscles and joints were in pain and I were freezing. The cramps got worse and the headache increased. I though that it was something serious, so I decided to call to the front desk as she said I could call anytime. She also said that they were going to check in to see how I felt later, but no-one did. I tried to call many times from 4.30 but no one answers. I was thinking that the best would be to go to the hospital, but then my only option was ambulance, so I didn’t go. Then the fever came. I had so high fever that I saw things that wasn’t real in my room. I had fever fantasies. No equipment to measure the fever.

Luckily this lasted only about 3-4 hours, then the fever came down and I could sleep. I slept on and off that night and was really angry that no-one was available there to take care of the clients when they get sick. Its like no-one cares about the client after they paid the bill.

The next morning, I talked to the front desk again and another girl that did not work the day before. She couldn’t help either. Just asked me to eat salad for the rest of the day and relax. I tried to explain that if their web site is true, that you had more than 1000 clients here, there has to be someone else getting sick as me? And how did you help those clients before?? She couldn’t answer…. Maybe they didn’t have that many clients before. Or maybe they didn’t care if someone got sick before either? Here, have some tea and relax, was their only solution.

When I confronted her that I am not going to eat salad for the rest of my life and that I need to get away from this detox destroying my body, she agreed to give me 2 eggs and some fruit for breakfast. And she agreed that I could eat salmon for lunch and chicken for dinner. Totally different from when she said just a moment ago. The first she said was to eat salad, then soup and for 4-5 days…

For me, this clearly mean lack of professionality, and they don`t really care what the client does, or if they get sick. We have already paid, and its up to us what`s happening after the treatment. WE ARE ON OUR OWN.

My statement will be: If you are running a detox camp, there should certainly be a doctor present as this is serious stuff. If not, and no one is there after 4 pm to take care of the clients, you are not running a professional health resort. And there is no question that here they are all lazy and have no passion for their work. They all go home when the clock strikes, even when they know that they have a sick client that they promised to look after.

Because of my lack of help and treatment the last days, I will never come back and I will not be able to recommend this to others. It is just too dangerous.

On the positive side, it is a very nice place and beach. Mostly the other clients seemed to like the treatments as far as I could hear. As long as you don’t get sick, it is probably ok. But I think this is not for everybody, and I think for me it is better to let the body cleanse itself….

Further down, i will add a post that i wrote after my 4th day there.. that is an immidiate feeling i had that day…..