You Don't Have to "Catch" Another Cold!
by Ellen Livingston
Germs only cause colds in bodies that feed them. Clean up your body (from the inside out!), and unwanted germs will go in search of food somewhere else. How do you clean up your body from the inside out? It's simple, really. Eat the foods your body is designed to eat, rest when you are tired, frequently spend time being active outdoors, year-round and in the sunshine, and enjoy and appreciate your life. Okay, so maybe it feels a little more complex for most of us, but you can get started by learning to focus your diet on appropriate foods, and learning to get sufficient rest.
You may be eating foods every day that cause excess mucous build-up in your body, an over-acid environment, and general toxicity. Incompletely digested or unutilized food in your system attracts a proliferation of germs, and you "come down with a cold". The symptoms you call a cold are simply your body's intelligent expressions of elimination of the toxic overload you have burdened it with. If you "treat" these symptoms by suppressing them with medicines, herbs, or other so-called "natural" remedies, you will interfere with your body's preferred (and truly natural) healing mechanisms, and the net result of this interference will be even lower vitality.
Mucous-forming foods include grains, dairy products, meat, eggs, legumes, and fats, including nuts (which can be eaten sparingly on a healthy raw diet). These are also the acid-forming foods. These two conditions, acidosis and excess mucous, set the stage for most disease symptoms, including those of the common cold. With the exception of nuts, all of the above foods require some preparation or processing to render them palatable. Cooking damages the nutrients in food, and when these chemically altered foods enter your body they cannot be properly utilized, and thus contribute to the toxic load in your body.
The human body is designed to get its fuel from fresh, ripe, raw, organic, whole plant foods, and nothing else! Our ideal natural diet is comprised entirely of fruits and tender leafy greens, possibly with small amounts of nuts and seeds on occasion. Anything else creates unnatural and burdensome conditions in the human body, conditions that eventually lead to overtoxicity, organ exhaustion, and disease (the body's extra eliminative work).
Are you ready to embrace your natural diet and eliminate colds forever? I don't imagine I'll ever go back to cooked foods, for this one great benefit alone. I have not experienced a cold in years, and I like it that way. When on occasion I have partaken of some cooked grains or cheese during my transition, I have awoken to unpleasant symptoms of excess mucous the very next morning. It's not worth it. Having a body that's clean on the inside is an incredible, refreshingly wonderful experience!
You can begin to ward off colds this winter by starting each day with a quart of pure water (make it warm in the winter!), followed a bit later by as much fresh juicy fruit as you care for. Eat more fruit for lunch, more again before dinner, and save any cooked or fatty foods for the end of your last meal of the day. You'll consume less of them, and you'll help your body to start cleaning itself on the inside. If you do find yourself with cold symptoms, get as much rest as possible right away, and eat very lightly (water and fresh fruit) until all symptoms are gone. Food gives us fuel, but it is rest that gives us energy. When you are sick, your body needs energy in order to heal, not fuel. Simple diet (or having just water for a few meals) is an effective form of rest, and will speed your healing.
It's important to remember that if your body is coping with a lot of excess toxins, you may feel worse before you feel better, as you free up energy for the body to initiate some housecleaning. So if you get a headache or other symptom at first when you simplify your diet, know that soon it will pass as the toxins are eliminated, and then your body will be cleaner and you will feel better than before. Be sure to give yourself extra rest while this productive housecleaning is taking place.
One of the important ways in which your body eliminates wastes and toxins is via the lymph system. An especially good tool for helping the lymph to flow unobstructed is yoga. Many yoga postures effectively massage the lymph nodes in the body, thereby reducing or eliminating any obstructions. The reversal of gravity effected by inverted poses also encourages the flow of lymph. It is by moving the body that the lymph is able to move and flow, and do its job of eliminating waste. Your heart moves your blood, but you move your lymph, and yoga is a very healthy and enjoyable way to move! When your body's natural eliminative systems are in good working order, and your internal environment is kept clean, germs cannot thrive, and there is no need for your body to express the uncomfortable symptoms we call a cold.
Think of your body as your temple, and learn to take exceptional care of it! I can give you the right tools, and help you successfully navigate the emotions and resistances that typically arise when attempting to make big shifts in dietary and lifestyle habits. Visit www.LivingYogaNow.com to learn about my personal coaching services. Imagine returning to your natural, disease-free state of health. It really is within reach, if you are game for the adventure . . .
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