Day 125: Cheat

125 bike

Day 124: More of little Hayden

He is adorable!

Day 123: Meet my nephew

I am now an Aunty. My very first nephew was born today ay 4.26pm. Hayden is very cute! I cant wait to meet him.

Day 122: Bircher wholefoods style

More Camp Eden inspired food.

Day 121: Lamb wholefoods style

My attempt at it anyway.

Day 120: Camp Eden Day 6 (semi-integration)

On my final day Qi Gong was not to be held at the usual locale of the lawn outside the Gym. Instead, we were going on an excursion out into the big bad world. Were we ready?

The group got on a mini bus to head into Currumbin Beach. That's right, we did our morning Gi Gong on the sand of Currumbin Beach. And can you believe we had the full sun in front of us and the full moon behind us. Now I'm not feeling insightful enough to say what the means, but it was an awesome sight. Lots of positive chi for us. Besides getting wet with the constantly moving shore line and suffering serious glare, I really enjoyed the change of scenery.



Afterwards, we were greeted with buckwheat pancakes with yogurt, maple syrup and berry coulis. Delicious!

Jen, Summa, Nicolle and I then went for a swim. In late April? Yes! The water temperature was lovely and WARM. Nothing beats an ocean swim.

We then went on a 45 min walk around to the estuary for kayaking. The walk was a little strange. Going past other people, cars, corner stores. We even saw someone eating hot chips and smoking a cigarette - gross! It was all a little unnerving.

We then selected kayaks and went from in side the estuary to the ocean and back again. The estuary was nice but was no Wallis lake (Forster/Tuncurry). I found the kayaking very hard going so was glad when I was back on dry land.



We then travelled back to camp eden and it was time for me to pack my things and say my goodbyes. What a great experience I had had.

When I went back to the airport I truly did feel like I was bouncing on life - just like they told me on day 1!

I hope you enjoyed reading my 6 day review. Should you go to Camp Eden, please let me know! But if you do, forget everything you have read so that you can be "in the now".

Namaste.

Day 119: Camp Eden Day 5 (Power Pole)

So the day before in the Eden program, Barry worked through how powerful the self talk of "I can if I choose to" vs "I cant" can be. With this in mind, I wasn't feeling too stressed when I went to bed the night before about the Power Pole today. After Qi Gong, the bush walk and breaky I was fairly calm with the knowledge I can do it if I choose to. So i wandered down to the Power Pole. I then had all calmness leave me and decided I would just sit and watch. I was really impressed and amazed by those completing the power pole, but thought it is not for me (8 hour pole you clim up, stand on a ledge and then jump for a trapeze). I was asked to sign the form in case I changed my mind - NO thank you, I'm not signing anything unless I actually decide to do it. One of my good Camp Eden friends Jen encouraged me to put the harness and helmet on and just see if I wanted to do it oor not. I decided to go along with this. As soon as this was being put on me I started crying uncontrollably. And the breathing (make that hyperventilating) was back. I was feeling so much fear. But for some reason I decided to take Summa's advice and just climb up the pole and see what I thought. Anyhoo, once you are up you are not sure you want to come down again. I mean it's an 8 metre pole. I was pretty unsure of how I could get from the top of the pole to the ledge - someone how I did this. I was then kinda crouched. You then had to somehow stand up. I didn't want to do this, but after asking if there was anyway out, I stood up. Apparently people say I didn't shake at all. I never would have guessed. Most people before me, even the brave ones, were shaking and the pole was shaking with them. All I can say is my survival instinct was alive and kicking. I could feel it. There was none of the sobbing from before. I was trying to figure out how to get out of this situation as fast as possible. Once up, I did not want to leap for the trapeze as it seemed way too far. I tried to convince them to let me sit down again but they said no. I looked all around me for another way out. I didn't see any other exit points. I then decided I needed to leap. I had a few false starts and then finally jumped (again only because it was my only way out). I caught the trapeze. Yay. Now I didn't want to let go. Most people let go quite quickly but i didn't want to, I was scared of the drop. I was told I must quite a few times, so i did. Surprisingly the drop was quite gentle. I got a great cheer from the crowd (what a supportive bunch they were!). I was glad to get out of that harness and back on solid ground. I was emotionally exhausted but really happy I did it. I couldn't believe I did. It really made me think what we can do, if we just push past ever so slightly that barrier of fear.








After the power pole, Jen, Nicolle & I decided to go to the famed Club Mud. This is a little spot behind some shrubs where they have special clay/mud stuff from NZ. You rub it all over you and then bake in the Sun. It was quite fun but very tough to get off (and very cold in the outdoor shower!). I cant say my skin felt that different... We then went for a sauna and steam. So much detoxing! I decided to take my time and miss Cardiofit. My first missed session ever. I was exhausted. Up until today, I had had lots of energy, but today I felt really flat. Like really flat! I think it just finally caught up with me. Probably the emotion from Power Pole took its toll as well. So yes I just relaxed.

After lunch, there was another cooking demo/talk on food. Normally I'd be all over this with note book in hand but today I was like whatever.... I did pike up a little though when I tried the most amazing ice cream of my life. Wholefoods rocks! I had taste of a smoothie too.

I then dragged myself down to a seminar - wasn't feeling it to be honest. Apparently Martial Groove is the class to take at Camp Eden but I could not do it. Zero energy. I did some reading and sat by the pool. Went for a quick swim too.

I still went to the Eden program and meditation. I was loving that Eden program and this was my last day of it. Felt pretty on top of life. One step off enlightenment (or not) hehe. Such a valuable course. I got lots out of it.

After dinner we gave each other massages which was a nice end to the day and just what I needed.

Oh and very first thing in the morning I had a weigh in. I had lost 1 kg and 6cm off my waist. I was happy with that after 4 days.

Day 118: Camp Eden Day 4 (Bushmen & Glow Worms)

You know sometimes you catch a break in life. I had a naturopathic consult and free time while everyone else was doing the flying fox. Fine with me, I had been stressing the last 3 days on this. Besides missing the flying fox, I did everything else on the program as usual.

After morning tea, we met at the gym for a bush walk with 'the original bushman' Johnny Palmer. He was quite a character. (And was smoking something!) He pulled him self up into a tree and did some acrobatics. He had an axe thing where he hacked down any weeds (sometimes these were trees!) we came across. He kept going off in tangents, so it was quite interesting and amusing to listen to. He was very passionate about conservation. Anyhoo, we went on a BIG walk with him. We encountered a snake. One a little more nasty than the one outside the eden room. We aren't in Kansas anymore kids. We sampled some native berries and leaves - they didn't taste that great, I'm glad we have access to Harris Farm. The trek back down was a little treacherous, I almost fell over more then once. There were leeches galore. I don't think Ive mentioned this yet but on all the rainforest type walks people were getting eaten alive by leeches. Some peoples shoes were COVERED in them. I had one or two and managed to brush them off. However, I felt a sharp sting on my foot but couldn't see anything. When I got back to my room I wondered why there was blood all over the bathroom tiles. I then realised I was bleeding non stop, yep bitten by a leech. I got given a bandaid. Anyway, besides my injury and run in with the snake I enjoyed this walk and it was very interesting to meet Johnny Palmer. We were told he use to live in a tree with his wife and she even gave birth in this tree, he was quite upset when after a few years his wife wanted to rejoin society. Oh and apparently he wasn't smoking anything, he is just crazy on mother earth.

After lunch we had a cooking demo with one of the lovely chefs. She took us through a few recipes and we got to taste test. The session was great. We made cheesecake (which we got to eat), muesli, muesli cookies (for the groups afternoon tea) and a smoothie (which we got to drink).


After cooking it was off to the Eden room down the hill for Tibetan Yoga. Ive never tried Tibetan Yoga before. It was really good. It was run by Barry who takes the Eden Program. So yes his thing is self development + Tibetan Yoga. This is Barry doing one of the poses.


After afternoon tea, it was back to the Eden Program and meditation followed by Dinner. After dinner we all took a walk and went and saw the glow worms. It was nice to take a walk after dinner especially due to having cheesecake (even it was healthy style cheesecake!).

Day 117: Camp Eden Day 3 (Mission Possible)

Day 3 people and still feeling good. I wont go over the things Ive already covered off because I know you want me to keep it fresh. (You can assume I walked up and down that hill many times! ;) )

I did everything on the progrma, but here are some highlights from today:

* Mission Possible. I guess you would consider this the start of the adrenaline activities. The theme track from mission impossible was playing. Everyone was pulling ropes and pulleys in different directions. Someone was in a harness. They would select a ball and have to go down and pick it and not touch the floor (tres mission impossible) then put it through this cylinder thing and then throw it through a hoop. You could then be landed. Some people were in their element with this. Others were nervous but managed and some were scared shitless. I was probably in the latter category. When I was in the harness being lowered to select my ball the supervisor asked if I had given birth before. I said no. She said it sure seems it with that breathing you've got going on. Ive had panic attacks before - i know how to breathe when i am highly stressed. Anyway, I'm glad I did this. But the experience wasn't pleasant, i was trying to do all the elements as quick as possible to get the hell back on the ground!


* Total body workout was fun and involved gym sticks which i couldn't get the hang of and kept get singled out which really annoyed me. I was glad when we moved onto traditional cardio/strength work.

* Rockpool walk - we walked over to the national park that borders Camp Eden and checked out the various rock pools. We saw some naughty tweens swimming when you aren't suppose to. We also saw some teens parking in the car park out the front, probably the same delinquents that jumped over the CE fence and streaked through the lawns out the front of the gym. It seems some queenslanders aren't in school when they should be (or maybe it was school holidays). lol.


* Skincare workshop. We paired up and gave each other a facial using Pevonia products. A lot of us were lured in with the temptation of a mocktail. It was grape juice and soda water, so mock wine I guess. It wasn't bad but hardly the mocktail I was expecting. But I guess it was a change from water or herbal tea.

* Eden Program - day 2. Enlightenment is close.



* Talk after dinner on Energy. We did lots of things to feel energy/chi/life force/you know what i mean. I felt it, probably 50% of us did. We learnt techniques to protect our aura. While I'm perfecting this can every give me a 5 foot radius please.

Feeling good. Still lots of energy. Feeling very very nervous about the largest flying fox in the southern hemisphere.

Day 116: Camp Eden Day 2 (Food for Thought)

I bounded out of bed on Day 2 ready for my first full day of Camp Eden activities. I should note that nothing is compulsory at Camp Eden but most people join in and do everything - and that is what I did. A couple of people did their own thing and just relaxed, ate well and didn't enjoy any contraband. You can only eat what they serve up (wholefoods) and if you are found with any contraband you are out. Trust me, you cant get pandol or a chocolate bar from the boutique unlike normal resorts. So even if you don't make the most of camp eden, you would definitely come away feeling better than when you arrived!

Anyhoo, back to 'the schedule'. The bell is rung very hard at 5.45am and then someone knocks on your door. This is your cue to get up and head down the hill ready for Qi Gong at 6am. Like I said above, you are allowed to ignore the bell and door knock. I didn't. It was pretty cold walking down at this time and heading into the gym we were all quite sleepy eyed. We start with 30 mins of stretching to get us ready for Qi Gong. This certainly wakes you and makes you feel limber. We then headed out to the lawn outside the gym in the freezing cold bare footed (to soak in the Qi/Chi from the Earth/due on the grass - its all very zen you know!) for our Qi Gong exercises that go for about 20-25 mins. You really feel awake and good after this.

Lawn outside the gym

After Qi Gong, they suggest one of the bush walks before heading to breakfast (and yep you guessed it breakfast is back up the hill!). There is lots of wildlife around Camp Eden - so many birds and wallabies (and spiders and snakes!).

Wallaby we saw when out on our morning walk



Breakfast is generally a grain and some fruit. The grain was usually either porridge or bircher. It was pretty yummy!

After breaky it was back down the hill for a cardio class. After our class we had morning tea. Morning tea is always a piece of fruit like a small banana or an apple.

I then headed off to the Eden room for some breathing exercises and more stretching. So much stretching! I think stretching often gets ignored in life with all our focus on cardio or strength work and then we do a measly 10 sec stretch on our muscles afterwards. That isn't really enough to be flexible.

The eden room has a regular visitor - this guy never ventured more than a few metres from the entrance of the Eden room. We were startled at first but then got use to this guy. He was pretty old and moved pretty slow...


Lunch was back up the hill (I can probably stop writing that now lol), and was lots of different salads sans H20. I was like tapping my feet until that 20 mins was up and then headed for some water. The water they have at meals time has all different fruits in it, apparently the enzymes from the fruit aid hydration. I sure hope so as I was pretty damn thirsty by this point.

After lunch, I wandered back down the hill for a massage which was just bliss. (everybody else was making a journal book and discovering their creative side).

I enjoyed some free time whilst the rest of gang worked hard on their journal books.
The ladies then did some aqua aerobics in the pool before relaxing in the steam room. Funnily enough all the men passed on the aqua fun session.

Arvo tea was a wholefoods cookie that we were all a little underwhelmed with but still grateful for. People were still pretty hungry early in the week with all the exercise and rabbit food.

The late afternoon was then filled with 'The Eden Program' which is one of the things that sets Camp Eden apart from the other premier health retreats out there. It's basically a self-development course and I found it really valuable. The course is facilitated by Barry Hogg and I found him really insightful. The eden program finishes with some meditation which I really enjoyed as well. Then it time to stroll up the hill again (although its too steep to stroll ;) )for dinner.

I don't really recall what the dinner was but dinner was basically mainly vegetarian but one night we had chicken, one night we had fish and another night we had lamb. Of course if you are vegetarian they will serve you something else. They also fully cater for those that are gluten or dairy free etc. I must say I really enjoyed all the food and as we got use to eating only wholefoods you realise how filling it is and it becomes hard to finish even know you aren't really eating that much compared to normal.

After dinner we had a session with Blair who is the resident naturopath as well as the head chef. He gave us a run down of the symptoms we may be experiencing due to detoxing - headaches, feeling run down etc. I felt fine actually but maybe because I don't smoke or drink much coffee or have chocolate daily. They basically said to have a cup of herbal tea if you weren't feeling well, since no contraband is allowed to soothe you.

Blair explained that his nutritional philosophy is based on a book called Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. Some of the insights we were given:

- All oils go rancid once they go past a certain temperature except for butter, coconut oil or lard. So basically we were told to cook with butter or coconut oil (like i am going to cook with lard!).
- Olive oil and flaxseed oil should be put on salads (not not cooked with)
- Canola oil is the devil's work and should be avoided like the plague, likewise any form of margarine
- Milk should ideally be raw but this is illegal, so the next best bet is full cream milk. Skim milk is to be avoided.
- Grains need to be soaked/sprouted as do nuts and seeds to be able to get the nutrients out of them - this involves soaking in water or yogurt for about 12 hours. Apparently all the ancient cultures use to soak all their grains, nuts and seeds prior to consuming but modern day society has stopped this.
- Soy milk is also the devil's work. First of all the soya bean is not soaked so no nutritional point of it being in the milk and then they add a whole heap of rubbish to it. I was basically told that this is bad for you, rice milk or almond milk (home made not that from the health food shop) is an alternative if you cant tolerate dairy. Grim news for me since I love the taste of soy milk.
- Flour has a shelf life of 3 days, so all flour out there is rancid. You are basically told to mill your own flour. Interestingly, the original granule has a shelf life of 1000 years.
- Microwaves destroy the nutritional content of food and should be avoided.
- We should eat 70% raw for maximum nutrition.

Anyhoo, this is just some food for thought (literally). My husband does not agree with some of this. He doesn't think we should drink raw milk. He doesn't see any harm with using a microwave. Because of his high cholesterol, he uses that special margarine and does not want to have butter. He thinks flour is not rancid. He thinks I have been semi brain washed (as does my GP). What do you think?

Day 115: Camp Eden Day 1

I woke up very very early on Sunday morning to catch my flight to the Gold Coast. My flight departed at 6.05am. I had set my alarm for about 4.20am so I had plenty of time and planned to leave home around 4.40am (since had to be there no later than 5.35am). Correction, I thought I had set my alarm. I had somehow had set it for weekdays and not any day - bloody iphone! Somehow I woke up thinking hmm why hasn't the alarm gone off, i almost drifted back to sleep but for some reason decided to sit up to think about it. I then realised it was 5.08am. F*ck! Luckily for me I had got almost everything organised the night before, which is not always the case. I moved so quickly and we left home around 5.15am. I was stressed, really stressed but semi kept it together. When I got to the airport I just ran... The jetstar girl saw my alarm and said what flight - i said 6.05am to GC. She then said quick this way and put me through a special line. I got to the counter and burst into tears. Could barely get anything out I was sobbing so hard - so had to hand the license to the lady and hope she could figure it out. She asked me if I was upset because I didn't think I'd make it. I sobbed yes. She said "Well you made it!". Yay. This didn't stop me crying though. It was all very intense.

So at this point I'm thinking great bloody start for a week designed to destress me. LOL. Classic Ellis. I recovered quickly after this (I can go from 0 to 10 and back down to 0 very quickly - just ask my husband!), but did feel drained.

I arrived at 7.25am right on time and met my driver. He was very nice. I was the only one on this transfer. I guess the other guests didn't want to get up at 4-5am like me. He commented at how he really enjoys seeing the difference from the transfer in to the transfer out. This sounded promising but I thought "lets see if they can get through to me like that!". He he - so cynical.

The drive from GC airport through the Currumbin Valley to Camp Eden took about 20-25 mins and was a lovely drive. Everything was so green. When we arrived at Camp Eden I was very impressed with how green it looked and how beautiful it looked.

I said goodbye to my driver who took my bags to my room while I checked into reception. I was given a glass of fresh watermelon juice which was delicious. There were 2 girls checking out (people usually go Sunday to Sunday or Sunday to Friday) and they were literally bouncing on life. They were so excited and were both telling me how I was them 7 days ago and gushing about all the things I should try. Things mentioned included club mud and power pole. I just nodded saying sounds good, thanks for the tips but not really sure what they were telling me to do! And not really sure I would be like them in 5 days time either.

My next step was to meet with a guest coordinator who went through my reasons for coming (destress and get happy and healthy) and also weighed and measured me and did some other health checks. My blood pressure was high but she said that was likely because of my early start (oh yes and loosing it due to arriving with 1 min to spare at the airport). I then went and met with the guest coordinator who put me down for a massage and nutritionist appointment at this stage, saying I could add more later. I was shown to my locker where I found my camp eden bag, name tag and drink bottle and sent on my way with my program and some mixed nuts for morning tea to go and check out my lodgings.

This was when I figured out that a big part of camp eden is 'incidental exercise'. They weren't kidding. The lodgings and dining room were at the top of a very steep hill. Where as most of the activities were at the bottom of the hill. So you ended up going up and down that hill 3-5 times per day and more if you weren't organised. People learned the hard way to leave swimmers and a change of clothes etc in your locker down in the gym.



The Dining hall (at the top of the hill!)


I went to my cabin. I was in a twin cabin, but I didn't have to share. Lucky me. The room was very nice and had lovely essential oils burning and some meditation music playing. I also had a gift from the manager - a sarong. It was great to finally sit down and relax. I had a little rest and also read my book. I decided to skip archery and just go to the first official thing - which was the group intro at 12.30pm.
My cabin





Gift from management


So I headed down the hill at 12.15pm in time for the group intro. We were a group of about 25. Everyone said hello to each other and got the low down on the week ahead. Which was really only the low down for day 1. They said they like to keep us 'in the now' (this was repeated many times over the week). I would have preferred knowing the plan for the whole week - so it seems I was in need of a bit of this 'in the now' stuff. We got an official tour of all the stuff down the bottom of the hill - the gym, the pool, the sauna and spa room, the relaxation room (complete with herbal teas), the tennis and basketball courts, the boutique (for those in need of retail therapy!), the eden room and reception. It was then time to head up the hill for lunch!

Lunch for day 1 was some mountain bread filled with tuna and salads. We were also told to not drink water with our meal, only 20 mins before or after. Apparently water with your meal inteferes with your digestive enzymes... This was to be very challenging for me. I found it very hard to eat a meal with out some H20. (People often hear me say how parched I am!).

After lunch we did a 30 minute bush walk. The bush walks they have are very nice, going through the rainforest. They have a 3km, 4km and 5km one - but they are very steep so quite challenging.

Then it was back down the hill for a stretch class followed by a steam and sauna. Afternoon tea was anzac biscuits wholefoods style - delicious! Everyboday asked all week for this recipe but we never got it :(

Then we headed back up the hill for a mocktail followed by dinner. I can't really recall what we had for dinner but it was vegetarian and pretty good.

(Do you see what I mean about going up and down that hill?)

After dinner we had another orientation talk, by this stage I think I had had enough of orientation. We also got assigned a buddy in case someone went missing on an off the track bush walk or bitten by a snake in their room (someone did have to change rooms due to a snake!). We also got told what was on the agenda for tomorrow (this happened throughout the week - getting told what we are doing the next day after dinner).

Then I went back to my room to crash. A great first day and feeling very excited about the next day but completely exhausted!