Apologies if this has been mentioned before but thought I'd put it out there just in case.

I know many of us, me included, have been hit by 'the plague' that is cold and flu season. I made a beeline for the pharmacy to pick up supplies to help mitigate my symptoms - cold and flu meds, throat lozenges, and cough syrup.

I remembered that the latter two contain boatloads of sugar and thought crap! I could get kicked out of keotsis by something as simple (and not at all cheatworthy!) as Halls or Robitussin!

Thankfully there are sugar free alternatives out there, so if you do fall victim to the sickness, look for sugar free options or ones labelled for diabetics. For example, I picked up a sugar free/0 carb Robitussin cough syrup that specifically says is for diabetics. I was so relieved to see the 0 carb part! And Shoppers Drug Mart's Life brand lozenges come in three sugar free varieties so there are some options there as well (this primarily for my Canadian friends but I'm sure those of you in the US can find something comparable).

The labelling on the bottles here does not include nutritional information so it's hard to know what's in there if you're not getting the sugar free kind.

Try to stay healthy, everyone!

Great post!!!! And one trick to use - if you can't find anything at the pharmacy that is clearly sugar free, ask the pharmacist for diabetic friendly cold remedies. They should be able to point you at the safe stuff

I'll add one more thing...when you're sick, you're inflammed. It helps to remember that so you don't panic over some water-weight gain.

When you are better and start to heal, it will drop right off!

Absolutely! Thanks for mentioning that, I forgot to!

I'll add that it is still important to try to keep your food intake up with all your veggies, oil, salt and 5-8 oz protein. It will give your body energy to fight the virus. I wasn't at all hungry and didn't have much energy to cook. Veggie purees or soups made it easier to get in my veggies and I ate smaller amounts every 2 hours instead of my usual 4 hours. On two days I also had 2 IP packets instead of my protein.

And drink lots of fluids: water and herbal teas.

I will say I did use throat lozenges the last 2 weeks (about 2-4 a day) that had sugar in them. The only ones I can stomach (most make me throw up... I mean really throw up) come in sugar free but NO stores in a 20 mile radius had them.

Last week I still lost 5.6 we will see if it effected this week's weigh in... but I couldn't do without them. Lucky for me I am better now.

Just a little tip I think keeps me from having a dreaded cold. I take olive lead extract and cayenne pills daily they seem to keep me from getting sick. Two of my kids, my hubby and fil have all had a few colds between them the last few months and I have managed to stay healthy. When they r sick I also add garlic pills to the mix, only then cause I hate sweating garlic. Yum. Lol

I found one of the great things about being on IP and eating better in general was that it tended to boost my immune system - I got sick a lot less than I usually would last year while on P1. I think all the totally light 4C drinks I drank had something to do with it as each packet contained 100% of your daily vitamin c!!

That's what I did. Headed to the pharmacist for advice. I ended up having a little bit of an argument with him... he was trying to convince me that there wouldn't be enough sugar in most of the cough syrups to *harm* me. I felt no need to explain that I was doing this for dieting reasons - just stated again that I preferred a variety that would be sugar and carb free. Stood firm, and ended up with one that was ok.

I also wanted to boost my Vit C levels naturally while I was sick, and researched which vegetables are naturally high in that vitamin. Found out that jicama, peppers, and broccoli are all powerhouses when it comes to Vit C. I made sure I had a serving of all three daily while I was sick.

Thanks for the vitamin c veggie info too - that's great!