I'm on a Quest to Never Be Sick Again

I absolutely detest being sick, which is very unfortunate for me, because in my line of work (elementary school teaching) and with my shoddy immune system I get sick 1-2 times a month. No exaggeration here, ask my friends and they will tell you "that girl is always sick." To be fair often it's just one same cold or sickness that for whatever reason is prolonged in my body. While the average person gets sick 2-4 times a year and the sickness last for 7-14 days. I will get sick 6-9 times a year with my colds persisting for 7-21 days. Last October I got a cold that lasted until thanksgiving. My co-workers thought I was dying and offered to get me antibiotics from Mexico. Unfortunately antibiotics, even ones from Mexico, don't do anything for viruses. I know you may think Coco, go to the freakin Doctor you sickly human being! But trust me I have. I went to the doctor when severe stomach pain had me crouched in the corner of my room for hours on end unable to move. I thought I was dying. The doctor said "get more fiber in your diet." Are you kidding me? So everyone else in the world is consuming more fiber than me and that's why they aren't up till 3 am dying of stomach seizures? I eat oatmeal every damn day. Doctors I find are useless when it comes to solving anything that doesn't involve surgery. And yes I went to the doctor for my persistent colds too. Why? Because the bottle on my cold medicine says "go to a doctor if symptoms persist past 14 days." Well guess what, either the doctor or the bottle is wrong because all the doctor said in that case was to keep getting plenty of liquids, rest and oh more of that medicine that told you to come see me. What? Doctors are a serious waste of my money and time when it comes to common illnesses, even if they persist past normal lengths of time and extremity. I'll save Doctors for when I'm pregnant or need a lung transplant. For everything else I'm going holistic. Not strictly holistic because when I do get sick I gotta have my meds, but I'm going to incorporate everything I've ever learnt about home remedies and live that out. My goal: Never Be Sick Again! Is that even possible? Well maybe not, but if I could even lower my sick ratio by say half , that would be pretty darn miraculous.

*

First step: Find magical natural supplement that cures everything- Enter Moringa. Moringa is like this godly substance I discovered through a friend who said it practically cured her lupus. Apparently it's a tree in South America and Africa, that these countries have been using for years to help with mal-nutrition. They never really thought to share it with U.S. Americans because we are so fat and clearly not mal-nourished . None the less some hippie holistic health nuts discovered its more potent and nutritious than  what they were using and now you can buy it here in the U.S. The tree itself has 46 antioxidants , 90 nutrients  and all essential amino acids so it's pretty amazing as a daily supplement.  Also it has 7 times the vitamin c in oranges, 4 times the calcium in milk, 4 times the vitamin A in carrots, 2 times the protein in milk, 3 times the potassium in bananas and 3 times the iron in spinach! Guess we don't need those things anymore! Just kidding- for some reason you do. Anyway you can  get this plant into your belly in a variety of ways such as making the leaves into a powder to mix into oatmeal or soup, creating a tea from the leaves or eating the bark., but the most modern, and my favorite way, is to order the powder pre-placed into capsules.

So far I've been taking these moringa capsules for 4 months and I love them. Primarily because despite many close calls I haven't gotten sick at all! Four months with no sickness is a world record.  Supposedly these pills also  give you more energy, clear your skin and can help minimize pain from any kind of swelling, but I haven't noticed a big enough difference in these areas. If it's helping the difference, for me at least, is minimal. And just an update- I did end up getting sick after a 4 month streak of no sickness, but I had ran out of my pills and was taking them sporadically at the time. I really feel if I had been taking them every day still I could have avoided my sickness.

If you want to change your health forever and get some moringa capsules make sure you do your research and get them from a reputable source. If they aren't packaged in the U.S. they won't be regulated which means there may be some unidentified substances in the package. For example if a rat happens to fall into the machine while making your supplement, then you may have moringa powder/rat bones powder. Eww. Better to try someone who is strict. I go with moringa4healing.com 


Second Step:
The infamous Neti Pot.

I must admit I was afraid to try this device. I heard about its nasal cavity cleaning wonders and how people who use it weekly or daily never get sick anymore etc., but I found the idea scary. As a child my mom always had me trying new saline solutions in my nose and I hated it, so I assumed this would be worse since water literally goes in one nostril and out the other. Everyone who used it told me it feels like getting water up your nose in the swimming pool, and I hated that feeling too! But today after being sick of being sick, I decided why not and bought one. It wasn't bad at all! It looks like a magic Aladin lamp that you stick up your nose!

 I can see why they compare the water up your nose to the sensation in the pool, but it's not even close to that pain. When you get water up your nose swimming it's sudden and unexpected, but the netti pot is a slow

movement that you control so it's not really painful. I really only found it uncomfortable for a few
seconds towards the end of the pouring. Afterward my nose felt very clean and less congested. I definitely will try this again. Some people claim they use the neti pot daily to prevent colds, but others have said they have had negative affects and just use it when they notice a cold coming on. I'm not sure which is best for me so I'll probably do the latter. You must be careful to use only filtered water and not tip your head back or the water will burn your nose and go down your throat. Also you need to blow to get rid of all the water after, but if you blow too hard after the water will go into your ears and can cause burning there or infection. So it's a delicate balance. Overall seems like a good way to clean your nose naturally.

Third step to never being sick again:

I have been doing this for years and it really helps. Take a q-tip, dip it in hydrogen peroxide and then squeeze a few drops into your ear while holding your head sideways so it doesn't drop out. It will start to bubble, which means it's killing germs. Let it bubble 10 min and then turn your head over, letting it drop into a Kleenex and do the other side. If you do this at the first sign of sickness you can stop the sickness from ever coming about or shorten its duration. None of my friends or my boyfriend believed me that this works until they tried it. They all thought I was weird, to be fair my boyfriend still thinks I'm weird for doing this, but what does he know? He never gets sick, what a jerk! Anyway my friends who tried it have gone from doubters to believers and we like the tingly clean feeling. It's relaxing and really can stop a cold in its tracks if you do it early enough. Some people I read do this every day and claim they haven't gotten a single cold for years! I'm too busy for that commitment, but I will do this anytime I have the slightest cold-like symptom and at key cold-catching times. For example, after being near someone who is sick, being on a plane or long bus ride, after an all-nighter or right before the time of the month when my immune system goes to hell. There have been multiple times I felt I was going to get sick and then because I did this I didn't. It works.




Fourth All the other little things I do to stay healthy: The above three are the main keys that have really made a difference for my health so far as my colds that come every 4 weeks. By the way, that had been happening since 8th grade (At the time of writing this I'm 24). Yeah. There are however, many other tricks I found to help with all areas of health and I wanted to briefly give them mention here.

**

Teas, Herbal Teas and ALWAYS Fresh Loose Leaf: Tea is unbelievably healthy for you and delicious. If you don't find it delicious chances are you've only had tea made from a tea bag which uses the tiniest left over particles from the bottom of the tea barrel which they are shipped in. Loose lead tea  includes the whole leaf or flower and the whole flavor. It tastes so much better and is so much healthier for you. My favorite place for tea is teavana because it's fast and painless and they will let you smell 100 different teas if you want before deciding. Oolong tea helps with your digestion, black tea lowers cholesterol, white tea has a ton of antioxidants and green tea is great for your immune system. Well to be honest all teas black, white , green and oolong share all the same benefits as they come from the same plant, but they are fermented in different ways making certain varieties better for certain things. For example because white is the least fermented and uncooked it has the most antioxidants. I just love tea- it's amazing. Oh and roobios and Mate tea are delicious too, though technically they aren't real teas, they come from a different plant.


Paraben free skin care Products: 

***

If we are going to such great lengths to put healthy things in our mouths, then we also need to be careful what we put on our skin, since it will be absorbed into your body through your epidermis (aka your skin). So I use paraben free shampoo, face wash, deodorant , hand soap, you name it! If it's going on my skin it better have no parabens, which are essentially little preservatives in skin care products that have been linked to causing cancer. The number one villain being parabens in deodorants. They have been found to be the cause of breast cancer in many cases with younger women. So yeah, I'm avoiding those. No chemicals please!

****
Eating slowly until I'm satisfied. This is my secret to staying skinny, besides good genes and jeans ;) If you eat slowly your body had time to realize its full and you enjoy your food more. My tricks are to eat while watching TV (opposite of what everyone tells you to do) or with other people and focus more on the conversations. That way I'm not constantly taking bites, but I'm talking then biting or listening then biting. I also don't place the unfair rule of "you MUST finish all your food." But instead I allow myself to stop even if there is only 1-2 more bites. I will almost always take things home as leftovers. Even if I never finish the leftovers or it's 3 bites left I get it to go, because then I don't feel bad about wasting food and it lets me stop when I'm no longer hungry.  I stop eating when I feel no longer hungry or satisfied, not when my stomach feels bloated, bulging or unable to go another bite. That feeling feels terrible and is bad for your health so I avoid it. If I let myself eat it later I can avoid feeling like I need to finish it now.

*****

******

Organic shampoo and conditioner. Switching from grocery generic SLS, alcohol ridden shampoos and conditioners to paraben free, sodium sulfate and alcohol free hair care has made my hair very happy, healthy and soft. My scalp is also less irritated. My favorite is trader joes Tea Tree Oil Shampoo because it's only $3, but recently using only that and the conditioner has left my hair feeling dry so I'm now incorporating Seacret's Dead Sea Mineral Mud Conditioner which makes it a lot softer.

*******

Oatmeal! This is the best most amazing food ever created. It's so simple and easy to make, stores awesomely and is very versatile. You can use it in cookies or snack bars, even to make crunchy chicken! My favorite is just a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast with fresh berries, brown sugar and soy milk. You can also add peanut butter too for extra protein. I also read last night in a fascinating little book called "Adulting" that apparently you can store oatmeal in a square container, chop it into little squares once it's clumped together and then fry it with eggs! I'm totally going to try that next time I buy eggs. Oatmeal is so healthy and easy, plus it helps me avoid those 3 am dying in pain stomach aches that apparently are just to lack of fiber in my diet- no thank you very much useless doctors-. Oatmeal. Everyone should eat it or die. No seriously you probably will die if you don't eat this stuff because it's so good for you.

So that's it for my healthy never be sick again quest. Obviously the little things like brushing my teeth, showering regularly and drinking lots of water are going to be followed. But with my three secret weapons and the other health things I do I really expect I should never get sick again. It just wouldn't be fair for all the effort I'm giving it.

What do ya'll do to stay healthy and sane?

* picture from 
http://moringaoleiferanursery.weebly.com/moringa-benefits.html

** www.Teavana.com 

***http://erinbrans.com/2012/08

****https://jentrinque.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/

*****http://vimeo.com/m/77631030

******http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2012/07/16/thing-i-like-tea-tree-tingle-conditioner-from-trader-joes/

******* Quinoa oatmeal from Snooze in Hillcrest San Diego