Does Change Make You Sick?
Do you get spring colds? How about summer colds, fall colds and a winter cold? Does sick hit as soon as vacation starts?
It seems so unfair, you work like a Trojan and when you stop for vacation. Wham! You’re down with a cold! Your energy is sucked and you’d rather stay in bed and sleep than see the wonders that you’ve just spent loads of cash on to visit. You’ve been looking forward to this vacation and thought you’d get the time to relax, not collapse! Blame it on your immune system. Times of transition is when you are most vulnerable.
Here’s the drill
- Many lifestyle factors weaken our immune system; such as lack of sleep, high stress, & poor nutrition. (Sounds like the pre-holiday frenzy to clear one’s desk!)
- Exposure to different toxins. Change, be it location, routine, or the season will favour different bug populations. And by bugs, I mean bacteria both the good the bad and the ugly.
Imagine your immune system is just barely trucking along, marginally able to hold its own. When a curveball comes in the form of a bug it isn’t familiar with. Your system is suddenly out of balance. Its in overwhelm and its going down until the body’s defences figure out what to do. Hence the cold.
There is a better way!
Do you notice how some people never seem to get sick? They lead the same high-stress life and are juggling as many balls in the air, but they don’t get sick. What’s the scoop?
It's called living proactively and it’s a lifestyle, or as I like to say, it’s a healthstyle. And the cool part about the proactive healthstyle is it feels good!
There’s a bit of a learning curve but seriously, it's pretty easy to figure out if you are committed to living a life of health and vitality.
Here are the guidelines
- Sleep. This is one of those simple things that we sacrifice over and over. But sleep time is when the body goes into repair mode. Get your 7-8 hours per night. You’ll make up in productivity anything you lose in time.
- Water. Water is life yet so many people just skip it and opt for caffeine or sugar-laden drinks. Enough already! Drink water.
- Exercise: There is no magic pill or diet that will take off weight and keep you healthy. Exercise is good for
- the immune system,
- the heart
- the brain.
- relationships
Get out and do something. Get up from your desk on a regular basis. Have fun!
- Nutrition: This is where the learning curve happens. Your body is unique and the type of nutrition that suits you is unique. But one thing I know for sure is that the North American high-carb processed diet is killing us. Find the whole food nutrition that works for you.
- Supplements: We ALL need supplements. It’s a fact. Not only are soils degraded and thereby providing less nutritional uptake to plants, the hybrids we’ve cultivated for yield and flavour are less nutritionally dense than the food we grew traditionally. Doterra’s top-selling supplement pack, Life Long Vitality is amazing. My experience; going from feeling ‘old’ and overwhelmed by any change to taking up mountain biking and travelling all over the place…was remarkable…that was in just 3 months!
- Immune support: Essential oils are remarkable at boosting our immune system. Doterra CPTG Protective Blend supports the immune system in a changing environment to cope with the host of differing bacteria we encounter. My husband is a pilot and prior to using the Protective Blend he would be off sick with a cold about 3 times a year. Now he’s off with a bit of congestion once in 2 years. That’s a huge difference in sick time!
- Boosting Probiotics: Our guts play a huge role in our ability to cope with assaults on our immune system. Taking care of our probiotics population (the good bacteria) is crucial to a healthy functioning immune system.
In summary; sleep, drink lots of water, eat good food and to really support your immune system take supplements, probiotics and essential oils.
Your next vacation will actually be a vacation!
