December 22, 2017
Hello friends and family,
My retreat starts in 4 days. Christopher, Penny and I leave to go to his parents house Sunday and on Tuesday I head off to Joseph. I am nervous and excited. I'm so grateful to all of you that made it possible. If that is enough information for you, stop reading here. If you want to know more, see below.
Love love love love,
Andrea
Some FAQs:
Who will you be with?
Just Penny. We'll be staying in a cabin (photo attached). The treatment center is 1 mile away and I will walk there each day for about 2 hours of treatments. The woman who runs the center doesn't put strangers together so it's just me!
What will you eat?
They will bring me food for dinner the night I arrive and fruit/veggies to juice each day after that. I will only be drinking juice for 6 days. It will be about 2000 calories so I shouldn't be hungry. They will also bring me food for breakfast the morning I leave. For most of the month of December I have been avoiding meat, dairy (aside from yogurt) sugar and gluten. It has been rough since the holidays bring many of my favorite things to eat that include all of the above. I have definitely slipped up a couple of times (mostly because Brian making desserts is too hard to resist).
What type of treatments will you be having?
Iwill be doing something a little different each day. Some of the thingsI'll be doing/getting- deep tissue bodywork, acupressure, acupuncture,reflexology, colonics, lymph drainage, UV sauna, sinus drainage,parasite zapper (!!!), and more. Each day I will be doing some sort ofexercise in the cabin (yoga, Pilates), and Epsom salt bath, skinbrushing, Qi machine (!!!!), and a castor oil pack.
Will you be on your screen the whole time since it's your BFF? My plan is to leave my laptop at home and turn my phone on airplane mode so I can use it as a camera, alarm clock, and music player. There is no cell service there but there is wifi which I plan not to use. There is also a landline.
Don't you hate to be alone? Yes, sort of. Having Penny there will really be helpful since I can talk to her. I'm going to bring her sparkly dog collar so we can ring in the new year with some pizazz! I'm bringing books, puzzles, things to draw with/on, yarn and knitting needles, and a journal. I'm most dreading the car ride back to Portland since I really don't like driving and it's about a 5 hour drive. I have plenty of podcasts to keep me entertained during the drive and that will definitely help.
What are you most nervous about?I'm nervous that I won't like the woman running the retreat and that my willpower will fail me when it comes to my phone. And the drive back.
What are you most excited about? Resetting after all the stupid shit that my body has gone through. Being in a cabin in the snowy woods. The parasite zapper!
That concludes this session of stuff you didn't need to know but I'm telling you anyway. Appreciate isn't a big enough word to express my gratitude. I'll be back in Portland the evening of January 2nd.
xoxoxoxo,
Andrea
