How to Manage a Cold with THM Foods

This week, after my partner suffered from a terrible cold, I started to wake up each morning with a hint of a sore throat. "Hmmm, I must be next," I thought each morning...until I had my daily protein-rich skinny chocolate for breakfast and it went away completely! I was grateful for the reprieve as, right now, we are needing to be careful with our finances and I work for myself. Amazingly, as long as I ate S meals, I could keep my cold at bay. However, as the weekend came, I knew I needed to confront it eventually. I switched up my fuel types and let myself get sick.

That's pretty amazing, isn't it, to be able to press "Pause" on a cold! One of the many side bonuses of being a Trim Healthy Mama.

So now that I am sick, what have I discovered about how to heal well as a Trim Healthy Mama? Well, first, I have learned that we are wonderfully made. It is a blessing for me to be forced to rest in God, and be completely reliant on Divine Love to guide me and help me get better. If we never got sick, it would be hard to remember that we are just human. It's easy to think of ourselves as quite the big shots, until we are flat on our backs with some illness or another. Most times I get sick, when I am well again, I am better than ever. That is, God uses my times of illness to work on my heart and help me grow. Thank goodness for the common cold, and especially, for God's wisdom and generous love.

So what is a sneezing, sniffling, hoarse, coughing, sleepy Trim Healthy Mama to live on? Let's start with drinks. 

I have found that the things I enjoy when I am well-- like big jugs of water, flavored with lemon juice, grated ginger and salt-- actually have made me feel worse during this cold. I have found that hot liquids are key to healing quickly and reducing suffering in the meantime. Try to drink just as many fluids as you normally would, just have them hot. Yesterday, I drank 4 quarts of hot herbal tea (one teabag per quart jar; cover to intensify steeping), two quarts of homemade chicken broth with sea salt (I usually only have with a meal, even though FP, but made an exception here) and one quart of homemade mushroom broth. I also made a quart of tea before bed and wrapped it in a wool blanket so I could get up and drink it in the middle of the night, when my congestion is the worst. It was wonderful!

And for food?

I am an unapologetic purist, whole foods THM with some food allergies. So, I always have clean lettuce and homemade broth in my fridge and bite size frozen chicken breast, and beef and turkey meatballs in my freezer. These have helped me out big time! I know that every cold is different, but here are the foods that have really helped relieve my cold symptoms this time around. 

-stir-fry: cabbage, ginger, garlic, mushrooms and ground turkey breast cooked in 1t coconut oil

-salad: huge bowl of lettuce with cilantro, parsley, orange pepper, a can of salmon and lemon juice

-simple chicken soup: chicken breast with mushrooms and garlic cooked in homemade broth

-ragout: zucchini, onion, garlic, a tomato and chicken breast cooked in 1t coconut oil

-another salad: big bowl of lettuce with cilantro, parsley, tomato and a package of water-packed sardines, drizzled with naturally fermented soy sauce and lemon juice

You'll notice that all these meals are Fuel Pull (or, Fun Protein as my partner calls them!). I did this deliberately for a day because really, I need to be sick this weekend, and better by Monday if possible. :) I didn't want to delay the onset any more with S meals, or intensify the illness needlessly with E meals on the worst day of illness. I'm switching to E meals for day two of my cold, once I'm feeling a bit better. 

I hope these suggestions help you have a sweet, healing time with your Creator, and get well soon! 

Update Sunday morning: I'm feeling much better today! My sore throat and the pressure in my head are gone; it really feels like this cold is behind me. I'm grateful to Jesus for hearing my prayers in the night when I was uncomfortable and easing my way. Now, I'm super duper excited for an S day to speedily clear out the remains of my cold. Skinny chocolate, here I come! :)

Many thanks to Serene and Pearl for the versatile, wonderful tool of THM, effectively put to use here to move along my cold speedily! 

Just to review here is the approach I took:

To delay onset of cold: S days only (no more than 3 days)

To bring on cold when ready to deal with it: FP day, hot liquids

To intensify symptoms and work through cold: E day, hot liquids

To clear out remains of cold once better: S day