So many people lately are feeling under the weather…myself included. I learned today that my housemate’s cold and flu prevention tactics are eating garlic, practicing poor personal hygiene and not taking showers. His reasoning? When people keep their distance from you, their germs are further from your reach as well. Logical, I suppose, but even stinky people get sick once in a while.
Luckily there are some very simple ways to get back on your feet…and some habits that may be sabotaging your best laid plans to get well.
1. Hydrate. Can’t stress this enough…water is the basis for cleansing your body and will help you feel less lethargic even when you are
down and out. Juice 1/2 a lemon and one lime into a glass of water and drink up. These are alkalizing for your system, and will also boost your immune system to peak performance.
2. Dump your Sugar Daddy. Seriously. Consuming sugar when you are sick is like spraying gasoline from a firehose onto a flaming dumpster. Refined sugar greatly impairs your immune system’s functioning and squashes any and all efforts of your body to heal. 
(This is why I got sick in the first place…I splurged on chocolate candies and other goodies like a maniac. Now a few days later I’ve got a head cold as a painful reminder of my stupidity.) Processed sweets, sodas, even your favorite syurp-y latte should be passed up if you are sick. Have a plain coffee if you must, but just say no to your Sugar Daddy until you are symptom-free. He won’t be too lonely…I promise.
3. Dairy. Are you coughing up all kinds of nasty-ness and blowing some out of your nose as well? Say ‘no thanks’ to the dairy food group until you are better. Pasteurized milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream all will contribute to increased levels of phlegm and mucus. It’s not pretty to talk about, but you’ll be thankful that you know this little morsel of information.
4. Vegetables and Fruits. Yes, more please. Load up your plates at every chance you get. These aren’t going out of style anytime soon and will help to reduce symptoms and duration of almost every sickness. As always, raw is best, so get shopping and chopping. And the atomic bomb of produce-consumption? Juice Plus+. Vine-ripened, juiced, low-temperature dried produce in capsules. Genius. Check it out here… www.JPhealthylife.com. Bonus: Elderberries are
one of the most powerful immune builders. Antiviral, antibiotic, and anticarcinogenic. Luckily, you don’t have to find a wild berry bush this time of year. Elderberries are one of the 9 berries and grapes in Juice Plus+ Vineyard Blend. It’s like the Easy button for nutrition.
5. Sleep. When we are passed out and slobbering on our pillows, our bodies are in peak healing-mode. Imagine all kinds of crazy little workers running around cleaning up the big mess that we’ve created in our systems: healing damaged tissues, working on specific organ systems and sprucing up our immune function. Unfortunately these little workers are off the clock the moment we come out of deep sleep. Put on your Superman jammies and hit the sack early to put your little disease-scavengers back to work.
More to come on this topic soon….I love to hear comments, so please leave one!
Great article!!
GREAT article, Kristy! I’m printing off to have Lexi (11 yr old) and Madelynn (6 yr old) read, as they both — even though they faithfully take their JuicePlus — have picked up a couple different bugs in the last 3 weeks. I’m assuming from school, which says they are having a huge number of kids out for flu & other things in the last several weeks — and no one else at home is getting sick. I DID double them up on their JP+ right away, and they were both back bouncing around pretty quickly, and going back to school faster than the teacher’s “normal” return rate, I was told. Hooray! They also have been taking 1000 IU of Vitamin D every day for several weeks now, and there is some definite mood improvement. And I know the value of Vitamin D to a healthy body is important on SO many levels, as well. Especially in this little-sun season. Kristy, you are the BEST for sharing such important info with us all. Thank you!!!!! Jill
Thanks for this post, and ALL the ones before it!! It all makes so much sense, we just have to choose to do that which is best for our bodies. And I was just reading about nitrates and hot dogs the other day in THE CHINA STUDY. Pretty scary stuff!!