5 Natural Ways to Stay Healthy Through Cold and Flu Season

Cold and flu season has arrived. With every sneeze, cough and sniffle I hear, I hold my breath, cringe a little, and hope I didn’t breathe in any germs. Then I remind myself that I work hard to remain healthy with several natural health remedies. There are many ways help maintain good health and wellness throughout this season and I thought I’d share my favorites with you here.

Adding these natural elements to stay healthy are best alongside general wellness practices that keep your body and mind in a state of good health and balance. These wellness practices include getting enough rest, exercising, self-care, balanced nutrition and relaxation. Of course, it’s ideal to wash your hands regularly throughout this season too!

When you offer yourself these wellness practices in conjunction with added natural health elements, you can increase your chances of remaining healthy all season long. Keeping your immune system in top notch condition and getting rid of viruses and bacteria that cause the illnesses in the first place will surely help you survive this season! These are all suggestions, listen to your own body and you may choose to talk with your healthcare provider before implementing any of these options.

1. Garlic

Garlic is simple to integrate, inexpensive and can be a game-changer when it comes to staying healthy. It has both antiviral and antibacterial properties along with a host of nutrients to help keep you vital and healthy. Add fresh chopped garlic to soups, stir frys, salsas and guacamoles. You can also add fresh garlic to salad dressings and marinades. It tastes delicious raw and cooked!

If you feel like you may be catching a cold or if you have been exposed to someone who has a cold, you can crush and finely chop a clove of garlic, mix it with a dash of lemon or lime juice and some filtered warm water and drink it down! This will help rid your body of the illness more quickly and fight off any other germy contenders.

2. Amp Up Your Intake of Colorful Fruits and Vegetables

The colors in fruits and vegetables contain amazing nutrients that help keep your body and your mind functioning in optimal condition. If you increase your current vegetable and fruit intake by one to three servings per day, you can increase the likelihood of staying healthy throughout this season. Adding fruits and veggies also helps to increase your energy and improve your digestion.

The next time you go grocery shopping, start in the produce section and aim to get a full load of colorful fruits and veggies in your basket—try to represent the entire rainbow! Be sure to have a plan for how you will use them—you don’t want to waste any! 

3. Zinc Lozenges

I love zinc lozenges. If I have even a slight twinge of a sore throat or sniffle, or if I have been around someone who does, I immediately start pounding the zinc. (My favorites are Quantum Health Zinc Elderberry Lozenges). Studies have shown that taking zinc lozenges at the start of a cold can reduce the duration and lessen the severity of the symptoms. Keep them stocked in your at home farmacy all throughout this season.

4. Essential oils

I love my aromatherapy diffuser. Not only does it help keep my living space all zen and fresh smelling, the essential oils have amazing therapeutic properties. During this season, choose oils that have antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial properties to help reduce the spread of germs in your home while enjoying the pleasant aromas. It’s best to use an aromatherapy diffuser that you use with water and add a few drops of a blend of oils to freshen and cleanse your air.  

The list of essential oils that are known to help keep germs at bay is quite long. Here is a short list: oregano, thyme, frankincense, sweet orange, eucalyptus, rosemary, tea tree, clove, sandalwood and lemongrass—just to name a few! You can create your own blend of those that smell pleasant to you.  

Two of my favorite blends that I think smell amazing and help to keep my air clean and healthy are: 1. rosemary, sandalwood and frankincense and 2. lemongrass, tea tree and clove. Try diffusing essential oils this season for your health and also for your overall wellbeing! You might also enjoy adding essential oils to a bath or steam them and directly breathe them in! Ahhhh….

5. Apple Cider Vinegar

Oh apple cider vinegar, what would I do without you? The list of possible uses for apple cider vinegar is super long—from aiding digestion to reducing nasal congestion—it is an absolute staple in my home farmacy! One of the benefits specific to cold and flu season is that it has powerful healing properties and it can kill off pathogens like bacteria.

You can make an apple cider vinegar drink by diluting 2 tablespoons with about 6 ounces filtered water and about a ½ teaspoon of raw honey. Drink it down to help ease a sore throat or to help prevent catching a bug and to help you stay healthy!  

Another use is a homemade disinfectant made with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with 4 ounces water and a drop or two of an essential oil. Use this mixture to disinfect shared surfaces like countertops and doorknobs if someone else in your home is ill. There are many other beneficial uses for apple cider vinegar, I highly recommend it!

Try these five natural ways to help keep yourself healthy this cold and flu season or to help shorten the duration of an illness if you end up catching one. Even if you choose just one to try along with your general wellness practices, you can impact your health for the better today!

Why Eating Well Is a Form of Self-Respect

Food is tricky. There are so many enticing foods out there. Food is often used as a motivator, a treat, and a reward. So how do we tease out eating well, intuitive eating, and being our best and healthiest versions of ourselves? This is super complicated and that’s what I am going to talk about here, so read on!

When you respect yourself and your body, you consider what you eat a part of the process of respecting yourself. While I DO NOT recommend food restrictions (dieting mindset) or withholding foods that you enjoy. This only causes feeling of deprivation, however, there are some useful guidelines that can help you make the best choice possible in the moment for your mind, your body, and for your future self—when the decision relates to what you are about to eat.

Here are a series of questions that you can ask yourself about the foods you are choosing to eat:

• Before you eat, ask your food: “what do you have to offer me?” Ideally, we want our food to offer nutrients: fiber, vitamins, minerals, protein, health fat, and carbohydrates in order to give our bodies the nourishment it needs to build healthy cells and tissues. Nutrients are the ideal answer to this question!

• Next, ask your food, “are you desirable and enjoyable to eat?” This is super important as well because if your food does not offer some form of pleasure, that may be placing you at risk of feeling unsatisfied. When you are feeling unsatisfied by a meal, you may end up mindlessly grazing other foods in order to feel a sense of pleasure and satisfaction. This contributes to the negative cycle of emotional eating.

• Next, ask yourself, “am I actually hungry for this food?” If the answer is yes, you will most likely eat the food! If the answer is no, you can ask yourself “do I want to eat this food for any reason other than taste and nutrition?” If the answer is yes, ask yourself, “why do I want to eat this food?” This is where it may get interesting. If you want to eat this food for comfort, to avoid feelings, to fill the time or to fill any other void you may be experiencing in your life, this is indicative of emotional eating.

Emotional eating is eating for the purpose of numbing out or disconnecting from uncomfortable emotions. This creates a disconnect between our bodies and our emotions. Here are some common examples of emotional eating:

• Eating when lonely which causes food to become your friend,

• Eating when you are bored which causes food to become something to do to fill your time

• Eating when you are anxious which causes food to become a way to calm yourself down

• Eating when you are tired which causes a sugar rush for energy

• Eating when you are sad which uses food to help escape the discomfort of sadness and to temporarily feel happy

• You can read more about how to heal emotional eating on my post: 6 steps to finding freedom from emotional eating.

These examples of emotional eating are not healthy reasons to eat. When you eat emotionally, you are essentially demonstrating a sense of lack of self-respect or honoring your emotions and your internal experiences.

Offering yourself empowerment when it comes to your food choices allows you to move away from a deprivation mindset. A deprivation mindset is: “I can’t have that” while an empowered, Inner Strength based mindset is: “I choose not to have that because it does not serve my health and wellness goals.” This mindset demonstrates a form of self-respect.

This is how you build your Inner Strength over time and prepare yourself to manage your emotions in another, healthier more empowered manner. You can read about this on my blog post: 5 Stages of Awareness. Emotions offer incredibly valuable information about your experience of the present moment. When you learn to become present with them, food can be just food, and this is where your power lies!

One way to begin practicing healthy eating as a form of self-respect is to go through these questions each time you make a choice surrounding food. Allow yourself to make empowered choices, listen to your intuition and your body and you will feel uplifted by your food choices.

If you are in need of support for your emotional eating, know that you are not alone. I encourage you to reach out. I have a workbook and expressive journal titled Wholistic Food Therapy: A Mindful Approach to Making Peace with Food. It is place to explore your relationship with food, emotional eating patterns, while offering exercises and practices to help heal and create a healthy and peaceful relationship with food. I also created the online course, Freedom from Emotional Eating, which is also designed to help you get to the root of your emotional eating and offers a step-by-step approach to heal your relationship with food as well as yourself.

5 Wellness Practices to Help You Transition Into Fall with Ease

5 Wellness Practices to Help You Transition into Fall with Ease

If you have been following my blog, you may have checked out my post from last week. It was all about how eating with the seasons can help create ease in your body as it transitions to the changing patterns in nature. I heard from several people that they’d like to know other ways to support the changing of the seasons as they are finding the transition into fall rough on their skin and energy as well as disruptive to their daily routines.

There are several wellness practices that can assist your body in this transition and I wanted to share my favorite top 5 here!

1.    Daily Self-Massage with Oil

Self-massage improves circulation, moisturizes your skin, and is warming, grounding and calming in nature. Daily self-massage will help to offset the cooler, drier air and the impact it has on your skin and energy. Choose an oil that is warming in nature such as sesame oil, sweet almond or jojoba oil. Before you shower, massage a small amount of oil into your skin— beginning with your face, neck and shoulders— massaging your entire body all the way down to your toes.

2.    Take a Mindful Moment Everyday

With the increase activities and routines of the fall and the diminishing daylight, you may be feeling more scattered and as though your energy is more quickly depleted. Adding a mindful moment into your day will offer you a major return on your time investment! Choose a time that works for you and practice consistently. Set a timer for 1-5 minutes. During this mindful moment you might simply breathe deeply and attempt to remain connected with the rhythm of your breath. You might set your intention for the day and visualize yourself living this intention throughout the day. You might journal or pray. Whatever you do in this mindful moment, allow it to be centering, calming, grounding and peaceful.

3.    Add A Restorative Yoga Posture to Your Evening Routine

Try this restorative yoga postures before going to bed. It will help calm your mind, body and nervous system to help prepare you for deep sleep.

Reclined bound angle pose: Recline in bed or on the floor, step your feet in towards your hips, allow your knees to open out to the sides and bring the soles of your feet together. Place pillows under your knees for support. Allow your arms to rest comfortably alongside your torso or rest your hands on your abdomen. Breathe deeply and remain in this posture for 2-5 minutes.

4.    Eat Cooked Vegetables

This time of year, your body will most likely prefer warmer foods. All summer you may have been like me and enjoying salads, smoothies and raw fruits and veggies as snacks. As the temperatures begin to dip, my stomach responds to raw food in a completely different way! This is related to our digestive fires and the response our body has to the changing temperatures. In order to keep your digestive fires stoked and happy, add in cooked vegetables. Simply steaming, sautéing or lightly wilting your kale, spinach and arugula rather than having raw greens will make your digestive system oh so happy!

5.    Create a Consistent Daily Routine

The scattered feelings that come with transition and change can be eased by having a regular, consistent routine. Simple practices such as going to bed and waking at the same time each day, regular mealtimes and integrating the other wellness practices listed above into a plan and structure each day will provide the routine. Following your desired routine will offer you a sense of being grounded and calm and will help alleviate scattered energy. Once you create your specific daily routine, challenge yourself to follow it for one week and take notes on the impact. I hope it will help you feel balanced, peaceful and comfortable in mind, body and spirit.

When you begin integrating these five wellness practices into your daily routine, let me know how they impact your life including your energy, mood, body and mind as you continue to transition into the fall season!