Sick Season

Oh, it’s that time of year again. Sick season!

It starts to get cold outside. Everyone in the office or at school is suddenly coughing. Some losing their voices. The person sitting next to you has a stock pile of dirty tissues. You think to yourself, “Yup, it’s that time of year. I’m gonna get sick.”

Well frankly rather than call this sick season, I would prefer to call it, “It’s getting cold, unhealthy, forget-to-take-care-of-yourself season.”

I know, we all think that it’s just inevitable. All we can do is wash our hands as much as possible and stay away from the sick people.

Or is it?

Hardly. Colds and flus can be prevented by simply amping up your immune system. When it gets cold, your body’s immune system is automatically working harder simply to keep your body temperature up. Then to add to that, we have holiday season. This is why I call it the unhealthy, forget-to-take-care-of-yourself season. You’re eating rich meaty, cheesy foods, followed up by holiday cookies and other desserts. You’re just over-eating in general. Everyone has candy on their desk. You’re drinking more coffee and hot chocolate but less water. Your partying with friends, family, and coworkers. Staying up late, waking up early. The holiday season is everything that will suppress your immune system.

Before you reach for the Meds

Remember your body is a freakin’ genius! You are the dumb one wrecking it. (Sorry but it’s true.) Think about it. If you’re sneezing and have a runny nose, you’re body is obviously trying to get rid of something in your body. Same thing goes for coughing, or any other types of ”get rid of process.” When you take medicine to stop the runny nose or suppress the cough, you are actually prolonging your sickness, because now the part of your body trying to get rid of this crap is paralyzed by the medicine and has to find some other way to “fix” you.

Now I understand, taking medicine to stop your runny nose is certainly convenient, but it isn’t fixing the problem. So rather, we should be asking ourselves, “How can I help my body fight this crap off?” One of the first things that comes to most peoples mind is Vitamin C. I agree one hundred percent! BUT, don’t go running for the orange juice. I said DO NOT. Orange juice has wayyy too much sugar in it. Sugar will hurt your immune system more than the little bit of Vitamin C will help. What you need is REAL FOOD packed with Vitamin C… and A… and E… and anti oxidants… and well I could go on and on with other phytochemicals, but I think you get the picture. Basically eat tons of fruits and vegetables people! (IE eat the orange not the fake sugar juice in the store.)

So I actually fell into the Holiday Season, terrible habits, forget to be healthy and take care of yourself trap, and I started getting sick. While I hate admitting this, lucky for you I can share with you what I did to beat that crap in 24 hours.

1. Plain hot water. No honey, no lemon, no tea, jut plain hot water. This sounds so weird, I know. I learned this from John Douillard. It’s an ayurvedic practice. I could try to explain it, but its difficult. Just trust me and John Douillard here. Sip plain hot water as often as possible throughout the day.

2. Fresh Juice. I found everything in my kitchen that was orange, yellow or just really good for me and loaded it into my juicer. I used, 3 handfuls of kale pieces, 2 oranges, 3 carrots, 1 apple, 1/3 of a sweet potato. Then squeeze a lemon wedge into the juice. I drank 2 large glasses of this. One for breakfast. One for dinner. And oh yea, it’s delish!

3. Sweet Potato Pablano Soup. This is Dr.Andrew Weil’s recipe and oh my was it good. I scarfed like 4 bowls down for dinner. It was like my body couldn’t get enough! Get the re cipe here.