Illness during training

With only about 5 weeks to go, I am pressing on each day. At this point, keeping momentum is the key. I always have a rough week at 6 weeks out and usually again at 2 weeks out. I think that is due to the fact this is where I cut out the real cheat meals and the "mommy" juice. (wine, appletinis). My physique is only one part to competing. Booking hotel, photo shoots, hair appointments, getting my formal, learning to walk in my formal lol, getting my t shirts printed, selling my t shirts, posing posing posing. And the list goes on and on. Throw work and now a short little live fitness segment on a local news station every Friday and I am surely on my way to insanity.

In the midst of all this, I got sick and was out for two days. Being sick reminded me about an article I wrote some time ago. I thought I would re-post it. It explains why as competitors we tend to get sick. Remember I wrote the following in 2011.





I feel as if I have spent the last week a bit under the weather or taking care of others who were. Last week's weigh in showed another pound down. That was good considering I missed two days in the gym. This week I have not made it to the gym at all. I did do a workout (pretty intense) on Monday here at home. However, I have been sick since then. So what's going on? You would think that by eating healthy I would be more immune to illnesses. This dilemma actually sparked my attention around Christmas. I got to thinking and realized that anytime I was training for a show, I always ended up with a cold towards the last six weeks of training. This confused me. I happened onto another blog of a competitor who experienced the same thing. After reading what she came up with and doing some research of my own, I think I may have figured out what is going on. First of all, diseases and illnesses cannot exist in an alkaline body. At least, that is the presumption. Most of us, because of our diets, maintain a body which is acidic most of the time. My diet is expecially susceptible to this. Why? Because animal proteins are acidic and what am I eating? Chicken, eggs, and fish. Even my coffee causes me to be acidic. Even if your body is in the "healthy" range regarding pH, (mine was 6.5), it is not alkaline. 6.5 actually leans more to the acidic side. So how can you know what your pH is? Well, you can either buy urine test sticks or saliva sticks. I just happened to have the urine sticks, but saliva sticks would be more accurate I would think, because it tests the activity of the digestive enzymes of the body. If testing your urine, it should be acidic when you first get up in the morning. This represents good kidney function. But, throughout the day you want to see that change.
 How can you keep your body alkaline? First of all you can eat more vegetables and less of the foods I have mentioned above. Then what does that leave? Not much. Apparently, we need to become vegetarians.  You can add fresh lemon juice to your water. Sounds like you would want to avoid this, but that isn't true. Fresh lemon juice can actually help keep your acidity down. There are also supplements to help. There are very knowledgeable  people with an expertise of herbs and supplements that can help. I will continue to do research on this and see what I come up with. I recommend you do the same. Let me know what you find out.


Note: 4/18/13 Today I now know that I should be taking a good Coral Calcium. This will keep your body more alkaline, making you less susceptible to illness. 

Thought I would throw a progress pic in. This is last weekend at 6 weeks out.