Rebalancing during a cold

I am a firm believer that how you eat impacts how often you get sick and how quickly you are able to recover.

If you eat in a balanced way that suits your body you build up your immunity and help to ward off the pathogens and bugs when they come knocking.

Unfortunately we live in a society that praises busyness and doesn't like us to take a pause. It is actively discouraged in a lot of work places. For years I worked in industries that didn’t have sick pay so I just battled through wondering why I was in a continuous cycle of burnout and sinus infections. Millions of pounds is spent each year on drugs that help us to mask the discomforts so we can carry on but not much is spent on educating us on how to live a balanced lifestyle which would lead us living healthier more wholesome lives. However if you do find yourself under the weather here are a few things that you can do to recover quicker.

~ Rest, rest and rest some more. The number one best thing you can do if you feel ill is if you can cancel plans, prospone work events, ask for help and skip the gym. You help to boost your immune system and allow the bodies energy to be used on healing your body instead of fighting against it.

~ Hydration. Stay hydrated, drink warming teas. If you have hot symptoms like head aches, dry cough, sore throat, feeling hot, yellow mucus ~ drink teas with cooling herbs, fresh lemon and citrus fruits, peppermint, thyme, etc. If you have more cold symptoms poor circulation, feeling cold, white mucus, runny nose, aches then opt for more warming spices, fresh ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, garlic.

~ Eat simple warming easy to digest foods. Stay away from extreme flavours, rich foods, processed, salt, raw foods, smoothies (the exception is citrus fruits), sugar, dairy, alcohol and other stimulants. You need to be eating to expel pathogens we do this by eating soups, broths, stews, soaked rice, porridge. Foods that support our body but don’t need much energy to digest. Click here for a rejuvenating soup recipe (if you eat animal products even better use it as a base to your chicken soup when your ill)

~ Stay warm. Wrap up, stay warm and if you do need to go outside make sure to cover your nose and mouth to protect yourself from the wind as it will cause your cold/flu to worsen. By staying warm we also help the body to sweat out the pathogens.

~ Mindfulness. Illness is a message to your body to slow down, it’s a last resort and as frustrating as it can be to slow down honour this time. Maybe you haven’t been making your health a priority recently, be open to messages that your body is trying to communicate to you. Take a breathe ~ breath work can be such a healer when you're ill look into various techniques that support your body during this time. My favourite is simply just to breathe really deeply in and out from my stomach circulating the breathe around my whole body.

I hope these help next time you catch a cold.