What Happens on a Detox Retreat?

Many people are unsure what to expect on a detox retreat, especially if it's the first time you are deciding to come on a health holiday like this. So here is an insight into what actually happens in a typical day and as you progress through the detox programme, and how you will feel at different stages of the detox, detox symptoms and how to minimise them, when you will start feeling great and how much weight you can expect to lose.

Here's a video of what happened at our January Detox in Egypt

Check out the food !! Delicious!

www.retreatsegypt.com has now been replaced by this new site.

Arrival and Orientation

As a guest you arrive bringing with you your worries and cares. You settle into your room, with a light raw supper,  and the programme starts the next morning with an orientation class, explaining the philosophy of how detoxification works, what's in store for you, and what you can expect to experience during the detox programme.

The Programme

The detox starts with a few raw meals, based on fresh fruits, salads and nuts, you will be surprised at how delicious the meals are ! Then several days of fasting on juices only, then back to raw meals again before departure. You receive instruction in colon cleansing with herbs and enemas, the how and why, and you fit that in during the day in your own time.

A Typical Day

The morning starts with Yoga at sunrise outside, by the pool or on the beach then breakfast, or juice, depending on what day of the programme it is. There is a stress release/healing workshop 5 days a week, sometimes morning, sometimes late afternoon, giving you plenty of time during the day to enjoy the sun, to relax, to sleep, swim, or to have one to one therapies, to take your colon cleansing herbs or do an enema. Workshops are optional, so if you just want to rest to enjoy the beach and the sea.... you can, but they are also part of making relationships with other group members, so a good idea for many reasons.

Lunch and dinner are served at the start and end of the detox week, and on juice days you will have at least 4 glasses of juice a day, with top ups, served outside during the day or inside in the evening. Interspersed with your cleansing herbal drinks, you will be satisfied and surprised at how quickly you get used to not needing to feel full.

In the evening, we have a group meditation or relaxation class.

Detox Symptoms

People arrive tired after the journey and full of what’s been going on in their life, often with low energy and vitality. As you go into juice days your body starts to cleanse. As it throws out toxins from the cells your body has to process that until its eliminated (through the colon, kidneys, skin, lungs) This can be uncomfortable, depending on how bad your diet and lifestyle has been prior to arrival. You may experience headaches, low energy, slight nausea and feeling a bit strange. Not everyone has all detox symptoms. Some may just feel a dip in energy.  

Minimising Detox Symptons

Understanding what is happening in the body during the initial detox, we advise you to rest, and ensure that you do colon cleansing, drink plenty of water in between your juices. Washing out the colon with an enema helps the body eliminate the toxins more quickly which means you have an easier detox. Also the techniques we teach in the workshops, EFT and EMO, can be used to release headaches and nauseous feelings that may arise in the first couple of days. The detox symptoms usually only last 1-3 days max, and as the colon cleansing starts to take effect and all the flushing out through the kidneys, the toxic load gets lighter and you start to feel cleaner and clearer, at a cellular level, through your whole body.

Workshop Benefits

During the workshops we teach you simple techniques EFT and EMO to release emotional stress. Unresolved emotional issues often rise to the surface during a fasting period, where we abstain from eating comforting solid foods. This gives an opportunity for healing and real connection with your inner spirit and its needs. You will work in pairs helping each other during the workshops under direction from the workshops leader, usually Sandra Hillawi, or a special guest facilitator. We focus on releasing stress, reconciling relationships and just letting go of the burdens of life that we carry in our bodies.

If you need more in depth help for healing, one to one sessions can be booked with an experienced practitioner.

Feeling Great, High Energy and Vitality

By about day 4-5 you will be starting to feel energy and vitality, cleanness and lightness, energy and strength in the body from your yoga and starting to glow with health. For some, it may need a bit longer, depending on the health background. By day 5-6 when your energy is high, and you feel free of stress and lighter in weight and inches, you may want to use your free time to explore the area and book an excursion or two.

There is a 2 day break in the workshop and classes schedule during the 2-week programme, to allow for departures and arrivals of those staying 1 week and to give you free time to explore and relax at your leisure.

Staying a second Week for More Weight Loss and More Fun

In week 2, workshops, yoga and meditation resume, now exploring other areas of your health and wellbeing and life that you would like to change plus focus on the life you want to create as you go forward from here. The juice detox continues until just before the end, when you return to solid raw meals before departure. Again, classes are optional if you want to relax and use your time to explore over land or under water!

Your energy and vitality will be high, you will be glowing with health, and feeling light, free and you will have lost afew inches in body fat and your clothes will be much looser and you will be feeling truly great!

Exactly how much weight you can expect to lose on your detox retreat, in our experience varies from 5-12 lbs over 1-2 weeks depending on how long you stay and how fully your participate in the programme! More about that here.

We have a celebration meal together before your departure and then we transfer you to the airport for your return home and we hope to see you again next time, as many people come back each year, or afew times a year to detox and lose weight and get their vitality and health back. It's a great way to look after your health