balancing wellness

It’s been a couple of weeks – light, healthy feeling weeks – since I did it.  Yup, I got a colonic.  A lot of people get them (they’re really not a big deal), but a lot of people feel weirded out and/or curious about them, so I thought I’d share my experience for anyone who wants to read. 

I have always been the curious type, eager to hear more about it, but it’s not exactly a subject you discuss over dinner (I’ve already made the mistake, trust me). My friend mentioned she was planning on making an appointment during our trip to New York, so I decided to check it out too.  She eats very clean food – vegan and mostly raw – and practices juicing and detoxing regularly. I prepped for the colonic by eating vegan the week before and the week after, which my technician said makes a big difference.

There are people in the wellness community who rave about colonics, aka colon hydrotherapy, and it makes sense to me (there are also many who think colonics are a bunch of quackery – do your research and form your own opinion before getting one). I believe in detoxing and the theory that waste gathers in our colon and builds-up (sometimes for years!), eventually breaking down and re-releasing toxins. Not exactly what you want sitting around inside you, huh? In an ideal world we may not need colonics (and again, many argue that we don’t), but most of us – even those with strictly healthy diets – still have plenty of waste to clean out. And colonics are great for just that: cleaning shit out.

On a rainy New York afternoon, my friend and I arrived an old apartment building in alphabet city. We had a appointments at the same time, with different therapists, and we each checked into our technician’s “office” (which were different apartments in the building) and began. My technician, Kassie, was great. She must’ve been around my age, in her mid to late 20s, wore a tshirt, cutoffs, and cowboy boots and we clicked immediately.

Kassie showed me to the bathroom, just like one you’d expect in a small New York apartment, but instead of a bathtub there was a padded bed and an elevated tank of water.  I used the bathroom, disrobed from the waist down, covered my self with a sheet and waited for her to come in.  Kassie pulled out a folding chair, explained the procedure, and off we went!

There are many different techniques used in colon hydrotherapy – some technicians use herbal water, some pressurized water – but Kassie just used a tank of elevated, clean water that moved into the colon by gravity’s force alone. She alternated warm and cold water, massaged my abdomen, rotated me from my back to my side as needed and we chatted the whole time.  There were moments when it was like I was farting into the tube (which I probably was, a lot of gas gets released with the excrement) and times when it was more like having huge bowel movement. At least twice I feared the tube would fly out and I would make a huge, nasty mess (gross, I know), but the feeling always subsided and I just felt the relaxing sensation of flowing water.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and evidently I was a champ! Kassie made many comments about how the cement-like waste was flying through the tube (for some reason this made me very proud – call me crazy!) and noted that my expression never changed, even when a big one was passing.  We talked NYC, apartments, boyfriends, tv, and of course about the benefits of vegan, raw, and overall whole foods eating. She told me how prepping for a colonic by modifying my diet even for just one week made a huge difference in the amount and type of waste my body released.  (Side note: I did notice increased bowel movements when eating vegan, even before the colonic. My clinical nutrition class has taught me that normal bowel movements ideally happen after each meal. I doubt many of us are going that often, and it’s most likely a result of our diets.)

I felt light and clean afterwards and it motivated me to stay on a clean and green diet (I’ve slipped back into some bad habits, but am working to eat as well as I can!).  I lost 4 pounds too, but it’s not something I recommend for weight loss.  For me getting a colonic was as easy as going to the dentist – at times uncomfortable, but soooo nice and clean when done.  Overall it was a great experience and definitely something I’ll do again!