Issue Date: September 9, 2001

Lisa Ling spends a week in the desert starving

Contributing Editor Lisa Ling's spa vacation was hardly plush. But the unforgiving regimen rid her body -- and mind -- of "all the nasty stuff."

My goal wasn't to lose weight. I was curious about this "cleansing" experience I'd heard about.

Every bite of the Reese's peanut butter and chocolate ice cream bar that I bought at the gas station was followed by a sound that quite literally encompassed the pleasure I derived from consuming it. Eyes closed, I savored the scrumptious treat: I knew it would be the last bit of solid food I'd eat for the six days of my vacation. Yes, I said vacation.

In actuality, I already had broken the rules of the We Care Holistic Health Center by eating a treat at all. A restricted diet solely of water and raw or steamed vegetables is encouraged for the three days prior to arrival.

After a three-hour drive from Los Angeles to Desert Hot Springs, Calif., I found myself deep in the desert. Although the air conditioner was on full blast, I could feel the intense heat penetrating the windows from outside; the temperature gauge read 111 degrees. I finally pulled up to what appeared to be a little ranch-style house -- hardly the luxurious image the word "spa" conjures up, but it was comfy nonetheless.

I was surprised to find four New York-looking executive types in T-shirts and sweats sitting around a coffee table on La-Z-Boys. They were talking longingly about what I soon would discover to be one of two prevalent topics of conversation: food. I knew the week was not going to be easy when I heard one of them ask me if I'd eaten any real food recently, and if I would tell them about it. I could see the envy in their eyes as I recounted my Reese's ice cream experience.

Spas like We Care are becoming favorites of celebrities and top models-of-the-moment, including Giselle and Christy. They come here either before fashion shows to drop a few pounds, says Susy Lombardi, whose mother, Susana, owns We Care, "or after the shows to detox." Why should one detox? According to the Lombardis, detoxing is necessary to cleanse the body of all the nasty stuff that has accumulated inside in the course of our daily lives. We Care puts all of its clients on a liquid diet (teas and powdered drinks), supplemented by an array of capsules that are consumed daily for everything from digestion of the liquids to boosting one's energy, which is guaranteed to fall, especially after a few days into the program. At night, each person is given a cup of vegetable purée soup, and that's it.

Oh! I almost forgot the most memorable part of the detox process: the colonic. For those unfamiliar with the extremely uncomfortable procedure, let me summarize by saying it is yet another form of cleansing. "Some of the garbage in our system has been in our bodies for years," Susana explains. "The liquid diet, in conjunction with colonics, breaks all of it up."

Admittedly, my first day I felt quite uncomfortable and disgusted; my last, however, was thrilling, because I felt incredibly cleansed. It's this experience that keeps the We Care Spa filled to capacity (which is 25 maximum in its 13 rooms, where people pay $1,700 to $2,600 a week), and its waiting list perennially long. The spa doesn't advertise, and according to the Lombardis, 80% of their business is word of mouth.

When it opened in the '80s, the clientele was mostly former hippies and people recovering from drug addiction. Today, it's a younger, trendier crowd -- "professionals, mothers and people in the entertainment industry," Susana says.

Many people spend weeks at We Care with the express purpose of losing weight, despite Susy's insistence that "this is not about weight loss. People usually lose an average of a pound a day, but not always, and we definitely do not promise that."

Are there dangers involved? "Some people have had reactions and thrown up," Susana says. "Out of 200 people, maybe one or two get sick. Mostly, it's people who have used drugs in the past."

Though I never felt sick during my week-long stay, I certainly felt hungry. It was a tough experience, but having 20 others with whom I could fantasize about bacon cheeseburgers and talk about our daily "releases" helped. The days were long, and even though I was famished half the time, somehow, my body told me I was doing something good for it.

The accommodations are hardly plush, so to make the food-deprived days go by more quickly, We Care offers an array of spa and nutritional services. There was a daily schedule of walks, yoga and various classes, and their stone massage was terrific.

I told the staff ahead of time that my objective in visiting was not to lose weight, but to experience the "cleansing" thing I'd been hearing about.

In the end, I felt fantastic. More than the fact that my body felt great, my mind seemed clearer than it had been in a long time. And unintentionally, I walked away having lost 3 pounds.

Lisa Ling is a co-host of "The View" on ABC. She last wrote for USA WEEKEND Magazine about training to run in the Boston Marathon.

Photo by Dan MacMedan for USA WEEKEND