Finally, The Sun Is Out!!!

It was cold this morning when I took the boys out for their walk, low 20s but felt like the teens with the wind. However, it was worth it, the Sun Is Shinning!!!!! For those of you unfamiliar with Utah weather, let me explain. It is not because we have had a lot of snow, we barley have any, brown Christmas, sucks, I wish it was snow. We get inversions. These normally do not come until January, February time frame, but we have them this year in December. It is smog, fog, crap, all the nasty stuff. Most of the major cities of Northern Utah sit between two mountain ranges and when we do not have a storm blow through, everything stays. When these inversions are really bad, we have the worst air quality in the nation. It is horrible! It makes driving difficult due to the fact you may not even be able to see the house across the street.

So, this is a health and fitness blog, how does talking about the inversions mean anything for this blog. Glad you asked. If you have allergies or asthma, you can expect them to be horrible. The inversions flare these conditions up. You normally do not think of allergies and asthma this time of year, in Utah we do. For the last several weeks, symptoms of allergies and asthma have been plaguing those who suffer from them. Which makes sense. All the crap is sitting in the air and not moving. It gets worse. When you are outside, you breath in all of the toxins, poisons and allergens. Outside sports are concealed, people are encouraged to stay indoors, not drive if they do not have too, we do not see the sun. These can go on for weeks on end. We do not air out our houses because of the air quality and everyone gets sicker.  

What do we do? Most people are encouraged to go to the ski resorts and the respective cities associated with them!!!!! Now you will know where all the people in Utah are, skiing and snowboarding. The resorts are on the other side of the mountain, which normally does not see the inversions. We take trips to the other side so we can breath fresh air. These smaller sleeping cities become busy little towns.

Other than getting out of the inversion. other things to due nutritional, even if you do not have these types of inversions, are simple. Eat real whole food, like I talk about on this blog. These foods will help to keep your immune high. Giving you the nutrients you need to stay healthy and fight off the bugs. Processed foods should be avoided, as usual. They destroy our immune systems and gut floras.When our gut floras, the good bacteria, our low our allergies and asthma will be even worse. Eating foods which will help the little bugs in our guts thrive will keep us healthier.

Foods to eat are vegetables, some fruit, pineapple can be good for helping allergies, protein and of course my favorite, fat. You also want to bring in more good bacteria, eating yogurts and other fermented foods like Kombucha, a fermented tea, will do the trick. Another great thing to add is whole raw milk. This has all of the protein and fat along with the vitamins, minerals and good bacteria our bodies need to stay healthy. A Vit. D supplement can be a good idea as well. One of the best sources is cod liver oil.

Now, the start praying for snow for a white Christmas....
Peace, Joy and Love,
Jenn