The bug that's going around seems to have found me. I awoke this morning to a fever and scratchy throat. Ew. Thankfully, I'm still on spring break, so I cancelled the plans that I had and took to resting. Hopefully I can nip this thing in the bud, because come Monday school's back on and I need to be on my game.
So what's a "back-to-basics" gal who eschews cold meds to do?
Simple, really:
# 1: Rest, but don't grow moss. Hopefully this is self-explanatory. A fever is a good sign that my immune system has identified an intruder and is taking it to task. This requires a good deal of energy. In order to maximize the effectiveness of the fever, I want to avoid putting additional stress on my energy stores. Since I feel like poo, that isn't very hard. Sitting on the sofa all day, however, could work against me.
Here's why: The lymphatic system is one of the ways that white blood cells travel around in the body. We want white blood cells to get around because they are integral to fighting infections. The lymphatic system has no pump to move the fluid (lymph) around unlike, say, the cardiovascular system which has the heart to move the blood. The lymphatic system relies on muscular activity to open and close the valves inside the lymph vessels, effectively moving the lymph through the system of nodes, ducts, and vessels. Lymph nodes like the ones in your neck, armpits, and groin are clusters of white blood cell-rich tissue where the bacteria and viruses get filtered out, collected, and killed. You know that your body is working on filtering a lot of stuff when these nodes get swollen (like the ones in my neck are right now).
SO, in order to help my body move lymph (and, therefore, more white blood cells), I need to move around a bit. It doesn't take much. If I were too sick to get out of bed, I could just do some arm movements and ask my sweet hubbie to massage my legs to help push the lymph around. Since I am not that sick, I decided to take a slow, short walk in the fresh air.
Other low-threat activities will include a couple of slow, deliberate Sun Salutations followed by some chest-opening restorative poses like the one shown below. The Sun Salutations will give my whole body some gentle movement and stretching. The chest-opening restoratives will give the opportunity for rest with my body in a position that encourages "roominess" of the armpits, neck and groin - and, therefore, room for internal movement of energy and lymph. In addition, chest-openers particularly support the thymus gland, which is a central player in the immune system. The thymus deserves its own post, though, so I'll leave it for now.
Supported Supta Baddha Konasana
# 2: Stay warm, inside and out. This continues the concept of conserving energy. My body is working hard to increase its temperature in order to kill off infection, and I don't want to make that job any harder. By drinking warm, nourishing beverages - think homemade chicken broth (I like Healing Nettle Chicken Stock and also the broth portion of Healing Chicken Ginger Soup), and herbal teas such as lemon & ginger, or peppermint & licorice.
Herbal teas have a lot going for them. Choose teas that contain "warming" herbs such as ginger, mint, cinnamon, or a chai that has black pepper (though I advise avoiding a dairy-based chai). This way the tea will be warming due to its temperature as well as the effect of the herbs you brew. Aside from the warming quality, the herbs I mention above offer their own health-supporting properties, such as being anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, and even helping balance blood sugar. Note: You must brew herbal teas properly, otherwise you just have a nice-tasting cup of water. Generally speaking, to get the most out of an herbal tea you need to brew it, covered, for about 10 minutes. Try it next time you want some chamomile to help you sleep. The brewing makes a difference!
Where was I? Oh, yes, so it's warm fluids to warm me on the inside, and lots of cozy layers to warm me from the outside. I am a big fan of neckwarmers, probably because I knit them like winter is coming. We lose a lot of body heat from the back of the neck, so do consider wrapping something around your neck. If I have a high fever, I use a hat as well. Today just called for wool socks, wool sweater, and wool neck warmer. Well, that, and a lapful of cats while I watched the season finale of "Downton Abbey" (OMGIdon'twanttospoilitforanyonebutholycowhowCOULDthey?).
# 3: Supportive nutrients. The reason I specifically linked to two chicken broth recipes is that they both offer a great deal of nutrition aside from the basics of chicken and aromatic vegetables.
Nettles are great for liver support and general detoxification, which is another way of saying nettles help your body clean house. Drinking nettle tea (properly brewed, of course) or chicken broth made with nettles is a nice way to support the fever's efforts. I wouldn't suggest going overboard, though, as it can move your body into a full-on "cleanse". This could make you feel a lot worse before you feel better. On the other hand, it's possible it could make you feel better sooner, but the symptoms would be more intense. It's sort of like having a massage when you're coming down with something. It might make you feel worse but then you should be over the ick faster (massage = moving lymph = cleaning house).
Garlic & Ginger are both "warming herbs" that are also anti-microbial. Shitake mushrooms stimulate production of white blood cells. Together, these ingredients create a powerhouse illness fighter and a great tasting broth. I specifically recommend this broth to breastfeeding mothers, as well, as a means of fighting off mastitis (caveat: clearly if a first-line herbal defense doesn't work, antibiotics should be considered).
Nature abounds with resources to support natural healing. I encourage you to find what works for you, what you feel comfortable, and what gives your body the support it needs while fighting infection rather than simply masking symptoms and carrying on with your day.
Resources:
Coad, J. & Dunstall, M. (2011). Anatomy and physiology for midwives. Edinburgh, Scotland:
Churchill Livingstone Elsevier.
Mills, S. & Bone, K. (2005). The essential guide to herbal safety. Edinburgh, Scotland: Churchill
Livingstone Elsevier.
Romm, A. (2002). Natural health after birth. Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press.
Streich, Emily. (2012). Top 10 postparum healing foods. Teaching material from Pharmacology &
Treatments 2, Dept. of Midwifery, Bastyr University.
As I plough through my last week of "the worst quarter of midwifery school", I feel a deep fatigue in all parts of me - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. I am tired. Tired like this guy:
Seriously tired.
This kind of fatigue comes from going full-throttle for too long. In my yoga teaching, I often remind students of the importance of balancing intense mat time with restorative bolster time. Just as with any other type of training or learning, yoga practitioners must learn to incorporate recovery activities, such as a restorative yoga practice, in order to get the most out of what they consider their "regular" practice.
You see, we all have our favorite group of poses. At some point yoga students will figure out what is easiest for them, what makes them feel the strongest/most flexible/most joyful/etc. Often, they put themselves on repeat, doing their favorite poses to the exclusion of others. This does not lead to a balanced practice or a balanced practitioner. We have to find the counterpoint to those favorite poses/sequences and give ourselves the time to create harmony in our bodies through our yoga practices.
A home yoga practice offers a great opportunity to balance out your favorite class activity (usually this is where students push themselves the hardest). The more vigorous or rigorous your class experiences, the more you need your home practice to offer you relaxation and renewal.
A few years ago some colleagues of mine put together a book, called Bolster Your Spirit, designed specifically for an at-home restorative practice. I participated by serving as the model. It was great fun, and I'm really proud of their hard work. It was a small production so I'm not sure it's available in print anymore, but if you have an e-reader you can get the Kindle version. This book gets my recommendation for teaching yoga students how to do restorative yoga at home.
Does your yoga practice need a tune up? Do you feel lost in the flow of your favorite class? Are you wondering if your practice could use some safety checks?
I can help!
Check out my new page (on the side bar, under my photo) for details about how personalized yoga instruction can put your practice back on course.
If Triangle Pose (Utthita Trikonasa) is a pain your butt...literally.
If the promised tranquility of shoulderstand (Salamba Sirsasana) eludes you.
If you feel like one more Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) will be your doom.
I can help.
I recently enthused over Coconut Aminos on my facebook page. One friend wanted to know where to find them, and another simply wanted more information. Well, I enjoy being a font of information, so I'm going to talk at you about coconut aminos today.
You see, since I did my post-surgery elimination diet, I have avoided soy sauce. I learned about my substantial sensitivity to wheat and other gluten-containing grains at that time, and really wanted to stop exposing myself to foods that hurt me (causing inflammation, constipation, bloat, colic, weird skin things, irritability, etc., etc.). Some people don't realize that wheat is an ingredient in soy sauce. Thankfully, soy sauce has a cousin named tamari, which is wheat-free and which I could tolerate fairly well. We only ever used it as a component to R's awesome beef jerky marinade or his delicious sauteed mushrooms. Both R and I knew that we had difficulties with soy itself, but we told ourselves that the little amount we used surely wasn't an issue, and at least it was a wheat-free product.
Here's the thing about food sensitivities - it doesn't matter how much of a thing you eat. If your body doesn't like that thing, the ingestion of any amount can cause it to react negatively. Case in point: I'm allergic to corn. Corn starch is a component of baking powder. If I made gluten-free pancakes with my former brand of baking powder, I would be a congested, gross wreck for a few hours after breakfast. You gotta figure that the amount of actual corn protein to which I was exposed in my pancakes was minuscule, as I only used 3 tsp for the batch and then only ate 3 of 8 pancakes that the recipe could produce. My body didn't care. I might as well have eaten a whole ear of corn all by myself, or a handful of corn chips. Now, it may be that eating more would cause a more severe or longer reaction, but my point here is that even a tiny bit causes some amount of reaction.
And here's the kicker - sometimes the reaction is less obvious that itchy/watery eyes, swollen sinuses, and becoming a red-faced mouth-breather for the rest of the morning. It can be general malaise, depression, or non-specific gut problems. Without doing an elimination diet, it's hard to know for sure how your body is handling certain exposures. Having learned some of my sensitivities, I wasn't willing to knowingly expose myself to problem foods.
So, back to tamari. We knew we were sensitive to soy, but we allowed ourselves to continue eating it because we didn't understand the situation well and because we didn't really know of an alternative. Then we went Primal in August 2012 and beans were crossed off our grocery list, along with all bean-containing products. This had to include tamari, so we stopped eating some of our favorite things because we didn't know what on earth we could use instead of tamari.
Thankfully, I recently started cooking with Coconut Aminos. They live next to the Bragg's Liquid Aminos at PCC and also at Whole Foods. Bragg's, while perhaps preferable to soy sauce, is still soy-based so we have never used it. Coconut aminos, however, are soy- and gluten-free. I don't know a lot about the science, or specifics about the aminos. I just know that it adds a taste that is really not at all like soy sauce/tamari but, in the end, creates a product that is very similar.
Weird, right?
If you taste a little bit from the bottle, it's savory and sweet, with a hint of salty. Stirred into sauces, meat dishes, or vegetable concoctions, it adds that special umami, or savory, taste. I first learned about it from an awesome cookbook I'm eating my way through (literally), Well Fed. You can read about it on my sidebar. The coconut aminos have been a success in our Pad Thai (made with spaghetti squash instead of rice noodles), R's sauteed mushrooms (which graced our steaks last week), and in the meat portion of tonight's Shepherd's Pie (made with mashed cauliflower rather than potatoes for the top). As with soy sauce, a little goes a long way.
If you're trying to get away from soy products but miss the "special something" that a shot of soy sauce or tamari adds to your cooking, I suggest giving coconut aminos a try. Bon apetit!
This poster graced the wall of the weight room I used to visit in San Angelo, TX. That was in 2000, when I was stationed at Goodfellow Air Force Base and sometimes didn't want to work out at the base gym. Also, the gym in town had yoga classes, which was a definite draw. "Namaste y'all".
Anyway, I still find this poster inspiring, and really really hope that it isn't photoshopped, because I adore it.
Having worked with the awesome book, The Female Body Breakthrough, for well over a year, I decided to start a new program this month. It's very similar, since the creator of the workouts is none other than Alwyn Cosgrove.
For the next few weeks I'll be doing a down-n-dirty workout that gets me in and out of the gym in 45 minutes or so. This is ideal considering this quarter is the midwifery school equivalent of Hell Week, except that it lasts 11 weeks. I'm having to pare down all non-academic activities a lot, but some things are simply necessary for my health, well-being, sanity, and yes, academic success.
This workout plan consists of alternating 2 workouts and doing no more than 3 lifting sessions per week. "Off" days, meaning days in which I do not lift heavy objects, consist of regular things like frequent movement, dance class, yoga sessions, foam roller, and other recovery activities. I haven't been very dedicated to the recovery aspect of my fitness plan, and recently suffered the consequences with a nagging knee pain. Let it be known that I am hereby holding myself accountable to actually recovering - and not just resting - on my "off" days.
The workout: Day 1 is squats, push-ups, rows, step-ups and jacknifes (jacknives?). Day 2 is deadlifts, shoulder presses, lat pulldowns, lunges, and swiss-ball crunches. I'll simply add weight/sets/decrease reps as indicated for the next 6 weeks or so. I'm looking forward to the change of activity. I haven't visited the lat pulldown cable station in a good long time.
