Overview

Why Choose Fresh Start?

Smoking Cessation – Quit Smoking Retreat

According to the 2007 edition of Life and Breath, a report that utilizes the most recent available data for the surveillance of chronic respiratory diseases in Canada, over 3 million Canadians cope with one of five serious respiratory diseases:

• Asthma
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Lung cancer
• Tuberculosis (TB)
• Cystic fibrosis.

Long-term smoking may lead to a host of respiratory diseases, such as poorly healing influenza, pneumonia, emphysema, bronchiectasis (damaged bronchial tubes), respiratory distress syndrome and sleep apnea. However, most quit-smoking approaches focus on a psychological component. As a result, the toxins continue staying post-smoking in your liver, lungs and other tissues. This increases the chances of health problems years down the road.

At Fresh Start, quitting smoking is not the only goal we want to achieve. We want to help you live a healthy post-smoking life.

Feeling healthy as you quit is the main reason why Fresh Start guests want to stay smoke-free after they quit. When you feel good, you get a new lease on life.

Why do you need the Fresh Start Program? Because:

You want more from life than just to exist from a puff to a puff.

You want to take a full breath every single time.

#1 Advanced Detox

Nicotine in cigarettes is the main addictive substance in tobacco. Its constant presence in the blood acts as an addictive drug, making a smoker take another cigarette even when he/she decides to quit. Eliminating nicotine and other toxic substances that your cells have accumulated over a long period of smoking can help decrease the chances of developing post-smoking respiratory diseases. Very importantly, it also helps you drastically decrease withdrawal symptoms.

Your withdrawal and physical cravings for nicotine are reduced because you will experience:

• Decrease the toxic load and amounts of stimulant nicotine present in the blood.
• “Clearing” of the taste buds, which means your sense of taste will change. Natural foods start tasting good, and bad substances become more unpleasant.
• Eliminate smoke particles and tars from the lungs. It helps them cleanse and regenerate themselves, as well as to restore cells’ ability to carry oxygen.
• Eliminate smoke-related toxins from different organs of the body, where they would be otherwise stored for months or even years.
• Improve your body metabolism.

#2 Anti-Oxidant Support

When you detox from nicotine and other multiple toxins contained in cigarettes, your body utilizes extremely high amounts of antioxidants. Sometimes, this supply may run out, and when it does, it may lead to unpleasant side effects, such as broken capillaries or bruises on your skin. To supply your body with extra anti-oxidants, we included green smoothies and additional antioxidant supplementation.

#3 Healthy Nutrition 

Counteracting Nutritional Deficiencies and Neutralizing Acidity. Because cigarettes are full of toxins, their use can lead to nutritional deficiencies. For example, one of the side effects of smoking is osteoporosis (leaching of calcium from bones). Calcium is a major buffer that neutralizes body acidity or toxicity. Tobacco has the most acidifying effect on the body, and because of it, your body uses up calcium, potassium, and other minerals at an accelerated speed. Our diet is specially constructed to serve your body’s needs when detoxing. It is organic, highly alkaline and contains large amounts of raw food, rich in minerals, vitamins and other nutrients.

When you eat live, vegan meals consisting primarily of fresh fruits, vegetables, greens, sprouts, seeds, and nuts, you renourish your cells, neutralize body acidity, and increase the level of antioxidants. As mentioned previously, antioxidants are super helpful with the prevention of health issues associated with quitting. Additionally, raw food is rich in fibre, which works as a mop, collecting garbage from your digestive system and other organs, and improves constipation.

Weight Gain Prevention. Our food helps ensure you do not gain weight when you quit smoking (unless you are underweight). Apart from other methods, most people who quit smoking at Fresh Start either maintain their current weight or lose extra weight.

Most people think that weight gain is just about calories. With raw foods, you will not have to think about calories. You won’t gain unwanted weight on it, even if you overeat it.

This is because the fibre in raw food is detached from carbohydrates (starch) and has a different structure than do the fibre and carbs in cooked foods. The starches in raw foods are less bioavailable, which prevents their accumulation in fat tissues. In an experiment, when they fed pigs with raw potatoes, the animals failed to gain weight, in contrast with those who ate cooked potatoes and gained weight.

Address Secondary Health Conditions. Most people who come to us to quit smoking, have a host of health conditions, such as high blood pressure, arthritis, bloating, constipation, unhealthy-looking skin and diabetes. Raw food has highly healing properties because of its high digestive enzyme content. Enzymes contribute to raw foods’ anti-aging properties and strengthen your digestive system.

Cooking at temperatures just slightly higher than body temperature leads to the destruction of virtually ALL enzymes.

According to Dr. Howell, about 40-60% of enzymes necessary for the digestion of every meal should come from foods we eat, and the rest comes from our pancreas. Consumption of raw foods allows for the taking off of a great load from the weakened pancreas (a major organ of enzyme production) and other glands and tissues that produce them, allowing them to rest.

The large amounts of vitamins and minerals in fresh foods undestroyed by heat provide a great source of materials needed to replace unhealthy tissues with healthy ones. This is critical for the healing of various degenerative conditions.

#4 Liver Cleansing and Healing Protocols

Fresh-squeezed Dandelion Juice, used in your custom protocols, is a top-quality liver cleanser that is safe and effective. Juice is liquid food up to 90% of which, according to Dr. Joel Robbins, is absorbed and utilized by the body. Because of this, juices are a great restoration therapy for the body tissues damaged by smoking, food additives, pesticides, parasites, and overgrowth of unhealthy bowel flora.

Dandelion Juice is extremely rich in chlorophyll, which is so amazing and similar in its chemical composition to our blood. So, you can compare drinking the juice with a healthy blood transfusion. Since your circulation may be severely impacted by smoking, green juices play an important anti-inflammatory function.

In addition to dandelion juice, we use Milk Thistle Shots and other herbal supplements to detoxify your liver.

#5 Daily Walks in the Ocean Air constitute a very important part of our stop-smoking program. They are important for general health and help the body oxygenate blood and tissues that are so desperately asking for it. Cancer cannot survive in an oxygen-rich environment. Plus, sunshine, fresh air, and exercise are the greatest antidepressants known.

Several times a week, we will take you for nature excursions, to break the cabin fever and to see amazing beautiful places, such as Elk Falls and Seal Bay Park.

In addition to the nature therapy, to assist you with cough and help your lungs heal, as a part of your Quit Smoking Pack, you’ll receive a hand salt inhaler and an aromatherapy necklace with special aromatherapy oils.

#6 Daily Educational Lectures and Videos are in-depth and inspiring. They will help you to create a healthy foundation for your life as a non-smoker. These are just a few things you will learn:

• Which foods you should avoid to prevent more toxins coming into your body
• How to self-nurture and strengthen your Nervous System
• What do you need to do to help your liver detoxify and be healthy
• How to improve your digestive health
• And much more.

#7 Smoking Cessation Spa Therapies

Upon arrival, we will perform a live blood analysis and then repeat it (the retake is not included in the 7-day program). It is really amazing to see what is happening with your blood as you quit smoking. It motivates you to keep up with the change and realize that you want to continue being healthy.

Lung detoxification and restoration is the #1 priority in the quit smoking program, especially if you, like the majority of our guests, have been smoking for 15+ years. One of the primary therapies we will be using to help your lungs is halotherapy, or a salt cocoon. While you are lying down in a salt cocoon, the halogenerator breaks down salt into fine particles, similar to those located in the ocean air, but much more concentrated. As you inhale the pulverized salt particles, they purify your lungs by osmosis. In addition, salt is anti-bacterial and helps destroy viruses and bacteria.

Within the first week, you will also receive a salt body scrub. Along with steam baths, salt scrubs help your skin detoxify and regain its healthy colour and glow. Salt Scrubs are always followed by a short massage to enhance your circulation and detoxification process.

Other therapies that enhance body detoxification, such as Ionic Foot Detox Baths, Heavy Metal Detox Baths and Infrared Saunas, are also available.

#8 Custom Protocols

Each person comes from a variety of health and life situations. You may be suffering from adrenal fatigue, a dysregulated nervous system, insomnia, an advanced lung condition, or you may be plagued by menopause symptoms.

To support you in healing, we have a number of different supplements and drinks that can help specific body organs and systems in need to cleanse and self-restore more effectively.

After studying your health questionnaire, emotional wellness test, live blood analysis and organ screen, your Program Planner will design for you a special plan of custom supplements and drinks that will focus on your primary areas of concern.

We will review the plan weekly and adjust it as needed based on your improvements and present symptoms.

#9 Discovering Emotional Triggers

Smoking is, first of all, a coping mechanism. This is why 99% of our guests who come to quit smoking need emotional wellness work. Unless there is an indication that you do not need it, you will receive weekly 1-2 sessions with our Emotional Wellness specialist (Counsellor or Life Coach), during which you’ll determine a quit date (if you did not quit prior to coming) and with the practitioner will identify your triggers and the strategies how to cope with them when you go home.

Our Emotional sessions aren’t cookie-cutter. They are individualized to your unique needs, life situations and roadblocks preventing you from being smoke-free.

In addition to 1-on-1 work, you’ll receive a Quit Smoking Journal with special exercises to help you work on your triggers and let go of the “old buddy” you do not want to be with you anymore.

For people who suffer from emotional issues, we may include in their plan some energy treatments. Energy work, which may comprise Craniotherapy, Somatic Therapy, Reiki, or other modalities, is a great tool for releasing old, stuck emotions and relieving anxiety, panic attacks and past traumas that often manifest in physical issues, such as hip pain or whole-body inflammation.

#10 Dealing with Irritability: Fitness, Yoga, Meditation & Magnesium Baths

When quitting smoking, it is normal to experience irritability and anger. These are caused by the toxins passing through your Nervous System. Movement, daily meditation, and yoga classes will help support you through the process and calm down your body and emotions. In addition,  Sleep-enhancing tea served nightly, as well as Magnesium Baths, will help you relax and unwind.

#11 Massage and other Bodywork

It is critical to help all your muscles and joints relax so the body can start letting go of the toxins. This is why a relaxation massage is one of the first therapies you receive upon arrival.  Massages have other great benefits, such as improving mental well-being, enhancing blood flow and assisting the body with lymph drainage. If you suffer from muscular-skeletal issues, we have additional therapies for you, such as acupuncture and laser therapy.

#12 Group and Staff Support

While many people may think: oh, no, I do not want to be a part of a close-knit small group environment, based on the feedback of the majority of our past clients, interaction with other guests has been the most enjoyable and enriching experience that they had while at Fresh Start. When you are surrounded by like-minded people who have their struggles, you realize that you are not alone and start seeing your life situations from a new perspective.

Many guests shared that they learned from other participants as much, if not more, than from the program itself. More than once, we observed amazing synchronicities, where someone provided the answer to an issue another guest had, like a key perfectly fitting to a door.

The Fresh Start staff, from the kitchen to practitioners and instructors, is always here to support you on your journey to wellness.

Your Program Director will check with you daily to ensure that your questions and concerns are answered and to adjust your individual program as needed.

How Do We Guide You through Your Quit Smoking Process?

Though everyone who comes for the Quit Smoking program has the same main goal in mind, the underlying causes and concurrent health conditions may be significantly different. Over the years, we have designed an effective process of laser-focused goal setting, regular progress feedback and results evaluation, which is presented below.

Choosing specific goals does not guarantee that you’ll reach 100% of them, but it helps us design the most effective program, and you narrow down what is the most important aspect for you that if changed, will make the biggest positive impact on your life and well-being. And when that improvement happens, you pay attention to it, value and appreciate your effort.

To Learn More: Individual Healing Path

Included in your program cost each week: about 7-8 therapies and $250 custom supplements (= $1,670).

We 100% believe that you can do it and will support you in your decision

This is your most comprehensive program, helping you quit smoking, cleanse all major body organs and systems, and provide the tools necessary for your successful transition to new life habits and a new level of health.

Program Cost

FAQ

Disclaimer:

We will not be confiscating your cigarettes (or cigarettes of others) forcefully, and we won’t be able to prevent you from jumping into a cab to get some. While we provide as much support as possible with cravings and emotional work, you need to be determined to quit and to take full responsibility for the process and outcome. In other words, we cannot quit for you or without you.

We cannot guarantee that you personally will 100% have no cravings, because all people are different. Nor that you will stay smoke-free forever, because we know that you will come back to the real life and will need to figure it out.

Though majority of the people who thoroughly followed the process quitted successfully, the Fresh Start program is not a “magic bullet” or “bullet-proof” and requires hard work on your side during and after.

If you are ready to take this important step in your life, we’ll show the way.

You are your own best guarantee.