Confinement dos and don'ts

I just had my first session with Val from Nouri Face and Body Concepts, and found out that I’ve been doing so much confinement stuff wrongly.

Such as…

Drinking my red date tea at room temperature (no wonder I haven’t been feeling sweaty after drinking)
Adding tap water into my boiled herbal water for bathing (she said even a drop of unboiled water will render my entire pot of herbal water useless)
Taking tonics and “bu” too early as my body has a lot of wind still, so I should focus on removing wind before taking tonics (for optimal absorption)
Using the fan (she advised air-con is better as the air is stagnant and won’t enter the body)

Sigh. And I thought I was having it easy this round. Val said that if I don’t follow the rules, my entire package would go to waste. (I’m not making her out to be an authoritarian, but she really is serious about wanting me to have a successful confinement, to be stronger and regain my figure too!)

But not all is lost. I still have two weeks to get my act together, and make up for lost time.

Here are the dos and don’ts that I learnt today.

Do:

Use da feng cao boiled water and a micro-fibre cloth to bathe or wipe your body
Boil soups with rice wine and white peppercorn to expel wind from the body. (only when wind is expelled can you start taking tonics.)
Drink tea made with red and black dates in a 1:2 ratio. Must be drunk hot.
Use gloves if you need to do some washing

Don’t:

Consume cold drinks or food (this will cause wind to enter the body and lead to water retention, weak joints, poor constitution)
Venture outdoors in cool or windy weather (if you must, cover up)
Consume anything that is not boiled and not warm
Eat bread (this may sound odd, but she said bread can cause wind)

Will be sharing more about my post-natal slimming treatment in my next post. Wish me well!