Sanoviv: Day 4

We were told that the weekends are pretty easygoing. Saturdays (today) hubby will have a few treatments – unclear if there will be any treatments on Sunday.

Today started with lemon/cayenne/hot water, then Energy Medicine, then Meditation. Though it seems like we are doing this every day, apparently it’s Thursday through Saturday. So we’ll see what happens on the other days! It seems likely that they might have some sort of service tomorrow, being Sunday? Not sure.

By the way, by way of update, the Amish family are Amish. (I edited the blog from yesterday where I was trying to decide Amish/Mennonite/old-school Mormon, but I asked today.) I spoke with the wife today. I didn’t get her name, as they don’t wear the nametags. They’re from Ohio, and he has Lyme. He works in a carpentry shop, and it had gotten so bad with the brain fog, aches, etc. that he couldn’t work or put “simple things” together.

I think that different “diseases” sort of seek others out here. She spoke about other folks here that are being treated for Lyme – one is from Australia, one from Ireland, a couple others from the U.S. Because you wind up in the same treatment “area” and with the same meals (many patients have supplemental, or entirely different, food), you do meet folks that are doing what you’re doing. I happened to be reading in the living room in the Mansion, and she came in to work on a puzzle. You really only see this couple in the lobby area, because they take their meals to themselves. His main treatments revolve around the hyperbaric chamber.

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Aaaaaand, back to our morning. In Energy Medicine, we learned two new protocols – the handout is above. They are all from the book that I mentioned yesterday. The first one today was to rid yourself of someone’s energy – in the description it says to “flatten your hands” – what this means is that the hand that is on the “up” arm has palm toward the ceiling, the one on the “down” arm has palm toward the floor. Looks like I didn’t quite photograph the 2nd page correctly, but you get the gist.

As we were doing the Energy Medicine, we watched the pelicans fly by over the ocean. Sanoviv is on a cliff, so you get the ocean breezes and “brine” smell, but you’re not on the beach/on the water. You’re cautioned not to go there (not sure how you would anyway – rappel?) because the beaches and water aren’t the cleanest, and of course, this is all about the Detox.

The pelicans all seem to be flying North – in one “gang” we saw 31 birds! I really love pelicans. I remember when I was young, the DDT was making pelicans’ eggshells too brittle, so that when the mom bird sat on them, she would break the eggs. I was in I want to say third grade when the teacher told us that there “might be no more pelicans” because of the DDT. Right around this time, we also had a huge oil spill on the Bay, and it mired and killed a lot of birds. We have a place just down from our house where they were trying to clean the birds of the oil, but the problem was that this would strip them also of the essential oils that helped them float – something like that (hey, I was in 3d grade). Not a great time for pelicans. Makes me super happy to see them here. Apparently they’re Wentz’s “talismanic” bird, too. When he was going up and down the Mexican coastline to try to buy a property for what would become Sanoviv, he got to this one and a pelican flew down and landed at his feet as he was standing at the front door. He didn’t go any farther, said “Well, this is the place.” So says the tour guide, mind you.

At Meditation, we talked a bit more about the “Why” of meditation. (New psychotherapist led today’s session.) She reiterated that the reason for doing Meditation daily is to be Present. But what does that mean? If you’re feeling an emotion that doesn’t serve you, you’re generally either in the Past, or in the Future. Guilt? Past. Remorse? Past. Fear? Future. Anxiety? Future. So Meditation is geared to keeping you in the Present, at least for those 15 minutes. It “grooves a new neural pathway” for really understanding what being “Present” means. When “monkey brain” tries to take you out of the Present (“Did I lock the door?” (Past)…..”What are we having for Breakfast?” (Future)….) just calmly thank your Brain for sharing, and go back to what you were concentrating on, in that Present moment.

We were to concentrate on the waves today, but one of The Group was out in the tea room, playing the piano. Which wouldn’t have been terrible, if she hadn’t been out there playing the same ~16 notes over and over and over. And over. Finally I just “leaned into it” and made that part of my meditation, too. (Yes, she really did do that, the entirety of the 15 minutes. She must have been pushing hard on the keys too, because you could hear it all the way down to the Meditation room. It wasn’t a scales/finger exercise – it was a tune. Over. And Over. And Over.)

We were also to think about a word and color on breathing in, and a word and color on breathing out. The “in” was to be refreshing, “nutritious for the mind,” the out was to be letting go. So, for example, Gratitude, Anger. I started with a different “in” word (can’t remember it right now) but I wound up with “Soothe” (and a light turquoise color) and “Release” (and a mustardy yellow color).

Between Meditation and Breakfast, we had a Tea workshop. They have a professional kitchen in the Mansion where these workshops are held. We worked on herbal hot and cold water infusions. I happened to have my ThinkSport thermos, which became a Hot Topic. :-) The instructor loved it; she said that the only thermoses she had seen had glass on the inside, which she “seemed to drop and break within the first month.” (The ThinkSport is double-walled steel, so it keeps things cold without sweating, and hot for a very long time. In fact we had tea last night, and this morning the left over tea in the bottle was still warm.)

We had breakfast at 8:30 a.m. Yes, I’m really getting hubby up at 6:15 (when the TV starts playing Mozart) to do his bloodwork, get his supplements, etc. This is generally about two hours after he goes to bed back home! He has his “vitals meeting” on the 2nd floor, cayenne/lemon tea, Energy Medicine, Meditation, Breakfast and such before he would even be awake at home!

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This was my favorite meal so far! Strawberries, and pancakes of “Paleo Bread” (so said the sign) with macerated blackberries for on top, and then nut butter made from putting “whatever nuts were left over – brazil nuts, walnuts, cashews, almonds” (I asked) then “adding just a little bit of coconut oil until it smoothed out – but not too much.” It was delicious. I’ve asked my friend who has been here whether these recipes are in the cookbook that she was given when she visited. As you can see from the photo, the Paleo Bread has cacao in it – and it smelled like chocolate. Nom Nom Nom!

Mostly today, during hubby’s infusions, I have been reading the “How Not To Die” book. It’s written by a doctor, advocating a 100% vegan diet. About 1/3 of the book is just endnotes and medical citations. It was recommended to me by a friend who has had a heart issue, and I just recommended it today to a friend who’s husband dropped from a heart attack this weekend (fittest guy you’ve ever met, etc. – he’s on the mend thanks to quick thinking and a great hospital system. Love you guys A&T!) The Preface, Introduction, and Chapter 1 are all about the heart. I’m not sure that I will go vegan after reading this, but it’s good to know the things that you can do to up your chances. Yes, of course, Cancer is in there too, and a whole host of other disease.

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Wheat grass hour, snack time (housemade coconut yogurt – super sour, not sweet – with blueberries), lunch time with dessert (little squares of a butternut squash dessert), back to the room. Nap. Hubby gave me a “lick” of one of his supplements – phosphatidylcholine.

Imagine the nastiest Brewer’s yeast you can possibly imagine. The taste doesn’t hit you right away, which of course made it far funnier to watch (I’m sure). I was just about to say “Hey, this isn’t so bad,” when it hit me. It does leave a slightly yeasty flavor in your mouth (I mean, unless you gag it out) which isn’t terrible, and hubby says that he’s getting around to liking it. My guess is this is like Vegemite without the salt and spices. The first time you taste Vegemite, you’re like Oh My GOD what is THIS? And then you suddenly are ordering it from Australia because – well – there’s nothing like it :-) Mind you, I think that the salt and spices make Vegemite – if this is the base that he started from, Cyril Percy Callister (“inventor” back in the 20’s) really is a magician-chef.

Next? Green drink time (celery, pineapple, lime, cucumber and chard – pretty tasty for a green drink), and in about 2 minutes hubby starts his procedures again (colon hydrotherapy, another IV infusion). So I’m going to do my workout. Today is cardio day – I will sub stair climbs for the run, instead of the 10 x 30 second sprint at 100% effort with 30 second jog between I will do the jump rope at the same effort level (or climb stairs, haven’t quite decided), then I will do the waiter walks with the EmPack. My “Crossfit wife” Sharon is doing the workouts too – she did the Cardio yesterday, and she warned to start the waiter walks light because there are a lot of them. So my guess is I will load the EmPack up with the bladder that’s about 1/2 full, which should be around 7 pounds. I already tried – the hardback book that’s still in the pocket allows me to hold the bag up without it sagging around my hand. (Such a genius, am I!) I’m to do glute bridges and then a weighted tabata plank – those I can do with the EmPack with the two 1/2-empty bladders and the one full one (which will make it about 30 pounds, give or take). Dinner tonight says that it’s with “Live Music” – Hubby has trepidation. (“Mariachis, I know it…Please, don’t let it be Mariachis….” LOL) Then we have a “Hollywood movie” in the theatre. We’re dead curious to find out what it is – as everything is geared to Detox, believe you me, it’s not going to be John Wick III!

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Opened my second of the “Advent” cards from my friend. I laughed out loud. These are just spectacular cards, and she has such a good sense of humor. Inside, she said that – since I can’t get to Instagram from here – she had printed me out some dog memes because, I mean, what else is there? I really laughed. Just the best. Big Air Kisses, C!

I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite pieces of art from the Mansion. Most of it is what we saw by the 1,000s in Vietnam – assembly-line or you might say “Sausalito tourist art.” But they do have a few pieces that I like – the dancing manatee (or walrus) sculpture is to the “covet” status :-) (You can’t really tell, but it’s pretty tall – I’d say about 1.5 feet. Too hard to pack into my suitcase. ;-) )

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OK – so I lied, I didn’t leave you, I’m baaaa-aaaack . . . To tell you I finished the workout. Today was Cardio. As I mentioned, my “Crossfit wife” told me to be sure to do the waiter’s walks light, so I did them with a +/- 7 lb. EmPack bladder. Still rough! 6 x 50′ each arm (I did all the way from one end of the hallway to the other, then switched). Between the waiter’s walks were 20 glute bridges – so I took the 7 lb. bladder, put it into the EmPack (making about 37 pounds, plus or minus) and did the bridges. At one point the EmPack was wet and I thought “oh crap, one of the bladders is leaking.” I took them all out, didn’t find any leaks . . . then realized it was sweat! (TMI?)

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Instead of the prescribed 10 x 30 sec sprint, 30 sec jog, I did 10 x 30 sec jump rope as fast as I could, 30 sec mini-tramp. A little odd, but it worked :-) Finally, did the tabata plank with the 30 lb. EmPack. That nearly killed me. Just as I finished (lying on the ground panting), point hubby showed up and said he had seen a sign downstairs – dinner had been moved from 6:00 to 5:00 – and it was 5:12, let’s go! Not possible in my then-condition, but after a quick shower, off we went. We sat with a couple I’d met previously – turns out she was a former US Ski Team skier (he had been a skier then moved into selling ski equipment – that’s how they’d met) – and in her off season, she’d rowed at University of Washington. They were so amazing. By what she was saying, I think they were in their 70s – you would never know. Unfortunately they are leaving Monday – I say “unfortunately” because hubby really liked them! (I mean, this is the man that doesn’t know a thing about basketball, baseball, football – but has a subscription to the ski channel! :-)

For fun, here are my printouts (from my watch) of the workout yesterday (“Push”) and the workout today (“Cardio”):

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Might not blog tomorrow – I do have some work to do, and I’ll probably take this “blogging time” to do it. So – likely see you Monday! Thank you again for all the Comments!