Dispelling myths

I need to ask my mother’s forgiveness. Mom would be ninety-five now if she were still with me, and she definitely had her own ideas of how things worked, based on what she was taught growing up. She was firm in how she believed you got the common cold. You got a cold from running in and out of the house to play in the snow. You could catch cold from going outside in clod weather in your

bare feet and you would catch your death of cold if you went out in the cold with wet hair. I often remember her telling me, “I’m cold, put on your sweater.” I never understood how my putting on a sweater was going to keep her warm. In her book, being cold equaled catching a cold.

I being a modern, scientific daughter I tried my best to explain to her that viruses and viruses alone caused colds. She acknowledged that this was a possibility, but never gave up her original beliefs.

Now I finally realized that we were both wrong – it’s neither going out in the cold with wet hair nor viruses that cause me to catch a cold. What causes me to catch a cold is to make a firm commitment to a healthier lifestyle. Once I make the definite decision to exercise faithfully four to five days a week, once I commit to changing my diet and eating healthier and avoid soft drinks as much as possible, once these decisions are firm – a cold will grab me, slam me to the ground and begin kicking and stomping.

It certainly happened this time. Last Sunday it hit. Breathing is the only exercise I’ve managed and trust me the effort alone has been a full time job. Coming home from school I have just enough strength to make it to my chair and with my last reserve I manage to get my computer to my lap – riding the bike, walking, or playing on the wii has not been possible.

Food? I’m sick – I want comfort food. I do not view carrot sticks and salad as comfort food, I never will. I’ve really done okay on the food front. I haven’t been very hungry and I haven’t overeaten or gone over to junk food with one exception. My soft drinks, specifically Sundrop – I crave it like a crack addict craves that next hit. When I cough it hits suddenly and severely. It seems as thought I’m coughing up a lung and Sundrop is nearly the only thing that controls it. Water makes me cough more, but that burning hit of carbonated citrus – oh my, it cuts the cough off! My weight is up a little from last week. I’m not surprised considering I have at least five pounds of congestion in my head and chest.

I promised Nick and I’m promising all of you out here – the cold has only caused a postponement to my push toward healthier living. I know the cold will let go soon and I’m ready to jump on the healthy bandwagon.

Nick has been very sweet and understanding. He is getting over a cold and may have possibly contributed to my current state. But his sweetness and understanding goes only so far and in an email the other night he told me in no uncertain terms that the cold did not get me out of our ‘Friday covenant’ as he called it. Bless his heart, he’s right. The end he plans to work on is not affected by my cold and I am happy he realized that. I didn’t expect it to cure the cold, but knew I’d feel better.  I’ll tell you about that spanking tomorrow.