Margaritas, tequila, beer, cookies, cakes, more cookies…for the last couple months, I was not practicing what I preached. I admit it. I indulged and it felt great. "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we all die" was my motto.
No longer was I so vigilant about eating so healthy. Eating for my blood type, eating for metabolic type…I just had to let go temporarily and enjoy life more, guilt-free like the Europeans do.
And now my health has suffered for it.
I have just picked up a nasty sinus infection, my fourth or fifth in the last few years. Surfing cold water with elevated bacterial levels from heavy storm-drain runoff is probably the catalyst that crashed my immune system.
Surfing cold, dirty water normally wouldn’t get me sick.
Combining poor eating with surfing crashed my immune system.
After trying Ayurvedic remedies and homeopathy and over the counters to no avail, I resorted to antibiotic usage.
No natural wellness coach in their right mind would tell one of their clients to take antibiotics, but after getting no relief for several days, I decided to go the allopathic route.
Most people know by now that antibiotics override your immune system and kills not only harmful bacteria and causes of infection, but also beneficial gut flora that’s necessary for a healthy immune system.
I learned that when going to a regular physician or doctor, it’s best to write down a list of questions. I asked my doctor if I could take probiotics in conjunction with antibiotics. I was told I could in fact do that, but it was recommended to take them a few hours apart.
I could just blame this latest sinus infection on the downside of being a surfer. I probably wouldn’t ever get significantly sick if I didn’t surf.
But holistic health tries to find root causes and not just treat symptoms. That’s why I became certified in Functional Diagnostics, which has also taught me that my adrenals probably will be stressed from this sinus infection, hence, taking bio-identical hormone drops of DHEA can help me rebalance my hormone levels.
I’m outright jealous of my surfing friends who not only don’t catch sinus infections, but also have a less-then-optimal healthy lifestyle, smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol on a daily basis.
So why then was I overindulging? I just felt like it. Holidays, vacations, birthday parties …. Sometimes it’s hard, even for me, somebody who usually just says “no”, to not be tempted by the devil.
The devil, for me, is sugar and yeast.
I don’t know why but in the run-up leading to my infection, I had frequent cravings for beer. I was having fun drinking socially and felt great, so why not let the good times continue to roll?
But I’ve learned that my system is very susceptible to crashing if exposed to higher than normal amounts of processed sugar and yeast.
If you need to drink alcohol and want to keep the love handles off, it’s probably better to drink one stiff drink with vodka or tequila than having beer or even wine.
Too often, yoga teachers and other health professionals are placed on a pedestal and expected to be perfect pillars of health.
For once, I have been knocked off, but I’ll climb back on, eating at least two healthy salads a day, taking probiotics, exercising with moderate intensity, ensuring that I don’t stress my system even more and of course, avoiding sugars.
It’s a hard pill to swallow knowing that I can’t eat whatever I want, like I thought I could.
The lesson, of course, is moderation. But when you’re trying to purge and rehabilitate from an infection, the best course of action is to be super strict and avoid any antigen responses from bad food choices until you're completely recovered.
I look forward to living the 85-15 rule again: Eat right for your type 85% of the time, eat whatever you want the other 15 percent.
Off to make a salad I go….
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