Last week, I hopped a train outta Grand Central to Rye Brook, to visit Blum Center for Health and gather lots of groovy, wellness-oriented info to file away for future use.

Of course it isn’t surprising that I’d learn so much on my little field trip. Faithful readers of this blog know that I’ve recently featured the center’s founder – integrative doc Susan Blum – as one of my Mama Gurus.

(If you haven’t already read that piece, in which Dr. Blum chats about her holistic approach to treating chronic illness, do so now. I can wait…)

So in between inhaling a yummy dish of quinoa prepared by Director of Nutrition Marti Wolfson and descending into a deep state of relaxation during a guided meditation with Elizabeth Greig (Director of Mind Body Spirit Programs), I gleaned the following health tidbits:

1. A lot of the cruelty-free fake meats I’ve been trying contain a crummy ingredient that should be avoided like the plague: hydrolyzed protein. According to Elizabeth, who is also a Nurse Practitioner, I need to stick to products that are as natural and veggie-based as possible. And on that note, Dr. Praeger’s is a good bet.

2. Traditional cleansing can starve the liver of the food it needs to do its job of detoxifying our bods. Dr. Blum offers a very different – medically supervised – plan of attack, at three different levels: The 5-day “Bang,” the 10-day “Boost” and the 21-day “Beyond.” It all sounds very smart, slow and safe. Read about it here.

3. Being stuck in a meditation rut is better than not meditating at all. Before she kicked-off our guided session, Elizabeth asked us about our current practice. And immediately, I found myself apologizing for my total addiction to Zen-ing out to ocean meditation CDs. I described how, in my sessions, I “travel” to different settings – the rough, rocky Atlantic, the Carribbean, Malibu, etc. “It’s like a mix of meditation and visualization,” she said, “and it sounds great.”