AJ Making It Count

Life is short; Aaron Chin and January So are doing everything in their power to live it to the fullest

- Koyyi Chin.

“I had never been hangrier in my life than when I was at that holistic health retreat in Koh Samui,” January So deadpans. Her husband Aaron Chin, sat by her side and nursing his coffee, can’t help but burst into laughter at her blunt declaration. “When Aaron asked if I wanted to try a ‘cleansing’ trip to ‘detox’ in Thailand, a weeklong fasting retreat while at a holiday resort surrounded by hawker stalls wasn’t what I had in mind at all.”

The process, So tells Tatler, was nothing short of harrowing. For the first half of the week at the retreat, not only was she told that they couldn’t eat, but they had to do the occasional, but thorough, cleansing of the colon via an enema.

Chin winces at the memory, admitting even he found it extreme. “You had to use a bucket to relieve yourself after the detox,” he explains, “because whatever excrement you expel will then be examined by medical experts.”

Working in the entertainment industry, So’s schedule has been dictated by call times; she had grown accustomed to having a scant number of hours to herself, so mealtimes were precious. Breakfast was sacred—to skip the most important meal of the day during the fast was horrifying. “You learn [while filming] that you eat your fill whenever and wherever you could, because with how packed schedules can be, it may be the only meal you … eat,” she says. Regardless of the positive effects she noticed after the retreat—clearer skin and a sense of rejuvenation—So returned from Koh Samui adamantly opposed to the idea of fasting.