Last week (and some of the week before) I was hit with a bug that nearly took me out.  It has been a long time since I have been sick and it made me sit down and analyze my diet and sleep patterns to see if there is a “whole in the bucket” somewhere.  While no one can live completely sick free, there are ways to boost your immunity enough that sickness is a rarity.  For the most part, I feel pretty confident about nutrition and sleep because I almost never get sick (honestly cannot remember the last time I was) but knowing that no one is perfect, I brought out my check list to make sure I was covering all my basis.

Fruits and Veggies

If you do not know by now, I am a true advocate for variety in the diet.  Eating the same foods every day assures you that you have only those nutrients covered in your diet while leaving you hopelessly deficient in others.  It goes without saying that you need to get out there in vast landscape of the supermarket called the produce section and move past the apples and berries.  Find some foods that will help you make it through this season like garlic, onion and leeks.  All 3 of those are high in a sulfur-containing compound called allicin which is a no-joke antibacterial and antiviral agent that hugs up on Vitamin C to get the job done.  Not only will it keep you healthy, but it will make your breath so nasty that no one else (who may be sick themselves) will want to get close to you thereby keeping you healthy.

Buy Local and In Season

Right now you may be tempted to add variety to your diet by eating the latest and greatest food that has been shipped in from North Kalamazoo.  While I encourage you to open your diet with new stuff, I want to try and discourage you from eating foods that might have sat on a truck for more than 3 days.  The longer that fruit or veggie has been sitting on a truck, the less nutritious it is.  Try to find your local produce market if you can and buy what they have on display.  I live in MA and we have a store here by the name of Lambert’s.  Their produce comes from local sources so you can be assured that it still has most of its nutrient profile in tact. 

Holy Crap!  Is That Normal?

Another temptation we all have is to buy the biggest or best looking fruit or veggie in the market.  Umm, don’t do that.  I know you are thinking that it looks amazing, but I betcha ten bucks it doesn’t have as many nutrients in it as the small guy next to it.  Big mumbo jumbo perfectly looking fruits and veggies tend to be grown with fertilizers that are higher in nitrogen count.  These fertilizers cause the fruit or veggie to take up more water making them look bigger and better—but they aren’t.  They are just bigger and more water logged.  They still have the same amount of nutrient in them as the small ones do but now they come with more nitrogen—and that can’t be good for you!  Nitrogen can reduce the body’s ability to carry oxygen and as an athlete, there can’t be much worse than that!

Honestly, You Make Me Sick.

Lastly, when you look at your diet and start to switch things around, look for items that may also cause you to have sensitivity to them.  There are some more notorious than others (dairy, eggs, wheat, nuts and shellfish can wreak havoc on your life more than spinach, tomatoes and oranges) but nonetheless, they are harmful to you in that they keep your immune system so busy that little buggies have a chance to sneak in.  Try to be cognizant of how foods make you feel when you put them in your diet.  Since you are not eating the same thing every day (cough, cough), make a note if you become tired, queasy or irritable after eating certain foods.  This info is vital to your success because you could be wearing yourself down day after day with foods that you think are good for you when in fact, they are hurting you little by little.

It was a long 2 weeks for me that I was sick.  It was not a flu, more like a head cold on crack but it took me out regardless.  I will be doing the nutrition overhaul starting today to make sure there was nothing missed because I would rather be dragged down the street by wild horses than go through that again.  Make today a healthy one!