I woke up this morning feeling, well…terrible. The first thing I noticed was my extremely painful throat. Last night my throat had felt a little weird and I chalked it up to nothing. I should have seen the signs and started on my oils yesterday night, but alas, no use crying over spilt milk. The second thing I noticed was that everything felt weird. Immediately it was obvious that I was getting sick, which is unfortunate because when I get sick I get very sick. My Beachbody challenge pack arrived yesterday so I decided this morning would be a perfect time to try out the superfood shake, Shakeology. I mixed some up for myself and for the husband and then pulled out the Ningxia Red, a Young Living drink formulated from the crazy healthy goji berry and also God’s eighteenth greatest gift to mankind.

Normally, the serving size for Ningxia Red is one or two ounces so I drank two. I also gave the husband some and we tried our Shakeology for the first time. The verdict? He loved it. I thought the regular chocolate flavor was a little sweet, but I also don’t like sugary things unless it’s something supposed to be filled with sugar, like chocolate chip cookies. Then I’m more than happy to eat sugar for days! From a superfood shake though, I didn’t want sweet. I checked the nutritional information and the shake only has 6 grams of sugar per serving, some of which are naturally occurring–hard to argue with that. I’ve heard the vegan chocolate shake is far less sweet, so I’ll check it out next time. The shake went down well which I didn’t think much about at the time but now I’m realizing was pretty great considering how the rest of my food has gone down today (read: not too great).

My husband is working a 48 hour field operation so in a desperate attempt not to be stuck at home by myself with a child for three days I drove him into work and dropped him off. By the time I got back in bed two hours later, I was so miserable. My head throbbed, my throat burned, and I kept feeling the urge to run to the bathroom and puke. Could this be it? Could I be pregnant again? I wondered anxiously. I just had a baby five months ago. Do I want another one right now? I think I could have another baby. Yes, morning sickness. This is good.

Perhaps I somewhat jumped the gun on that one. I am not, in fact, pregnant again. As far as I know. I do know, however, the morning sickness or any kind of nausea is the opposite of the bomb dot-com, which I suppose would be something like flowers dash net? I don’t know, but I sure was miserable. I considered getting up and going to use my oils, because by this point I was feeling so sick. The problem was that I didn’t want to get out of bed and go into the living room and get my oils. I lay in bed for half an hour fighting the urge to puke, cough, and gouge out my burning throat before finally I gave in. I went and got my oils and this is how I used them.

Thieves spray: It’s antibacterial and numbing. Numbing needs to be accompanied by a disclaimer: numbing after the fire set in the back of your throat is extinguished. Seriously, that stuff burns. But, I know from past experience it works so I went ahead and braved the pain. After a few seconds, my throat went numb.

Thieves oil: Used to make Thieves spray and kills bacteria like nobody’s business. I plopped ten drops in the diffuser and let that bad boy run all day.

R.C.: One of my favorite oils ever. It’s a respiratory oil and every time I feel a cough coming on I rub it in my chest diluted with a little carrier oil. Works like a charm every time–my cough disappeared instantly.

Manuka: I got this strange oil for free because I spent way too much money one month. It’s used to help Shingles, eczema, and apparently sore throats. I rubbed it on the outside of my throat and reapplied every few hours.

Copaiba: They say a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, and this is true with Copaiba too. I am not a fan of the taste, to say the least. It helps boost immune function, though, so I put a drop of a spoonful of honey and tried not to focus on the strange taste.

Eucalyptus Globulus: Another one of those oils used to treat a lot of skin conditions. It is antibacterial and I rubbed it on the outside of my throat, reapplying every few hours.

 

At the end of the day, I feel much, much better. My throat still hurts a little and my headache is coming back but that’s because the best medicine is sleep and it’s getting late. I needed to be able to take care of my son today because his daddy is gone at work and I had to hold down the fort. There were no trips to the doctor’s office, no paying for prescriptions, no long coughing fits and no runny nose. Was I top of my game? No. But this morning I woke up feeling absolutely horrible and after using my oils and drinking my Shakeology I felt nearly back to normal. Moms don’t get sick days. Today could have been miserable but it wasn’t because six months ago I made the decision to switch my family to chemical free living and it’s changed our lives, just as it could change yours.