Cycle Day 4

Today's symptoms: horrible headache since yesterday afternoon, spent last night throwing up several times, uncontrollable night sweats and nauseous.  

Basically I feel like I have the flu.  It is to be expected because I always Feel this way at some point.  This cycle it came a few days earlier than usual.

The answer to surviving the next few weeks is ginger, lots and lots of ginger.  I have tried everything and heard everything to try and I always come back to ginger.  It really helps and its natural to boot, so no additional pills to take, YEAH!  There are all kinds of ways to enjoy ginger.  Below are my favorite ways that seem to help take the nausea away the most.  A helpful trick is to buy a bunch of ginger, peel it, cut it into chunks and store it in the freezer (you can't store it in the fridge, it will turn color and once it does it becomes toxic and inedible).  Then when you need it, it just takes a minute.




Ginger Water - Ryan bought me this pitcher for Christmas and I have used it ever since.  When I am not cycling and I feel fine, the recipes are endless of what you could put in it.  When I feel the way I feel today, I fill the whole fruit compartment with ginger.  Sometimes I add lemon too.  I sit it out and drink it all day.  Once the ginger is in the water, you don't need to keep it refrigerated.  It is much better on your digestion to drink room temp water anyways.  I do stick the pitcher back in the fridge at night and take it back out in the morning.  I keep adding new water to it.  I only replenish the ginger once it starts to look more spongy than like ginger.  This happens around day 4 - 5.



Ginger Tea - I take a few pieces of the frozen or fresh ginger and add boiling water.  I used to add honey to it, but now I am on a low sugar diet so I skip the honey.  Today I tried a regular bag of chamomile tea and added the pieces on ginger to that and it tasted really good.  The ginger pieces can break apart so if you have a loose tea strainer, I would suggest using that.




Ginger chews - Gin Gins are ginger candy.  I can not recommend these enough.  It is delicious and really helps and it helps quickly.  The real major downside is there cane sugar in them so it does not follow my low sugar plan. They are vegan and gluten free though. But when you are feeling this crappy, a little sugar won't kill me or kill my diet.  At this point, anything that takes away the nausea and throwing up takes priority.  I purchase them at Cost Plus World Market because they always have every flavor.  You can also find them at Whole Foods and on Amazon and probably other places, but those are the ones I know for sure.

Thanks for reading,
HEATHER