Thursday 9 December 2010

Pointing out the obvious

Some things may seem like obviously bad ideas to you and not to others ... like wearing 4 inch stilettos in the snow or sporting long side burns (never a good look).

So apologies in advance if this blog falls into the pointing out the obvious category but with everyone off sick at the moment I feel the need to point out that exercising when you're ill is not a good idea!

I guess a lot of us are slaves to the gym, but when you're ill your body needs rest and not stress, and exercise is stressful. Hundreds of years ago if you got a cold you'd take to your bed and stay there til you were better ... now everyone takes lemsip max, goes to work to spread the germs and then does half an hour on the treadmill for good measure!!

All this does is hamper the immune system prolonging your days off work. What you should be doing is staying at home, doing nothing (no getting chores done whilst you're at home) keeping warm, eating hot nutritious food (soup is always great), taking supplements (vitamin C plus olive leaf and echinacea are my favourites at the moment) and sleeping ... lots! If you do this straight away you may be surprised how quickly you bounce back.

I'm also a big fan of drinking freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice in hot water every day during the cold and flu season. It's a good vitamin C hit, directly onto the tonsils, one of the first points of immune defence.

If you're not totally wiped out it can be good to move a little to get your lymph fluid circulating. This is the fluid in your body that clears toxins and carries your white blood cells around the body - but it relies on muscle contractions to move the fluid through the body. A short walk to get some fresh air or some gentle hatha or sivananda yoga would be sufficient ... if you find yourself eyeing up your running shoes immediately hide them in a cupboard and take to your sofa!
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