Gayathri Selvam

by Gayathri.S
(Chennai,TN,India)

When I was seventeen years old, along with my parents and my kid brother, I had travelled to Ootacamund or Ooty as is popularly known, a great hill station town that is thronged by tourists during summer.

We had stayed at a friend's place for a week and had most of meals out. After a week, we returned back to Chennai, my native city and after a week, trouble began.

The first few days, I felt nausea and a loss of appetite. I did not pay much attention to these symptoms and four days later started suffering from constipation. My mother took me to the physician and after briefly examining me, suggested a complete check-up. After the results came, he suggested I undergo a complete detox program in order to get rid of whatever viral infection I must have contracted during our stay in Ooty.

He gave me a list of things to do including a strict diet regimen, an exercise routine and a list of things to avoid. He also suggested all my family members undergo this program to avoid being affected. With my mother's support, I started the program.

Firstly, I started drinking as much water as possible as many times in a day.

A lot of fibrous vegetables were included in my diet and all those fried items, that were my favourite, were completely avoided. I ate a lot of fruits and included almond whenever possible. I started jogging for half an hour everyday and did some floor exercises as advised. I also avoided all kinds of soft drinks, tea and coffee.

At the end of a week's time, I could feel my body starting to feel better and normal. My constipation problem was released and the feeling of nausea had disappeared. Thanks to the detox program, I completely recovered from my illness and from then on, I have been careful in avoiding outside food as far as possible and till date, continue to jog everyday.