Beat Cold Season
Who has time for a head cold in today’s busy society?! Check out these tried and true health tricks to keep your immune system running top notch and if you find yourself stuck with a head cold… beat it quickly because your schedule is WAAYYY to busy to be stuck at home feeling the blues.
Preventative maintenance is critical! The key here is to realize that just because you don’t feel sick, doesn’t mean that you should stop doing things that will keep you healthy. Too many people believe that when you don’t feel sick, you don’t need to do anything different. True health is about keeping up with the healthy habits even when you don’t think they are doing anything for you. Case in point – how many of us have started to pound the Vitamin C and echinacea as soon as we feel a cold coming on? Does it truly help?! What would it be worth to you to not get sick in the first place?
Tips for not getting sick:
- Exercise regularly – I know those gym machines seem scary with all the germs that might be lurking about but studies show that bacteria are unable to survive in the salt that is prominent in sweat
- Eat good foods – eating foods with high nutritional value will keep your body healthy inside and out
- Get plenty of rest – sleepy time is when our bodies restore and regenerate the cells in our body, getting adequate sleep will keep your body in top-notch condition during the cold fighting season
- Take your vitamins – supplementation is not an excuse for eating a horrible diet, however, it is no longer true that you can eat a good diet and get all the nutrients you need for optimal health (including a kung fu fighting immune system). Consistent supplementation provides your body with EVERYTHING it needs every single day to protect against sickness and disease. My favorites are here.
- Reduce your stress levels – stress increases the cortisol levels in your body, which in turn increases the inflammation in your body and inflammation is the root cause of most sickness and disease
What do you do when sickness has struck – increase healing time of course!
- Get lots of rest in the first 24-48 hours of a full-blown cold – this allows your body to repair all the damaged kung fu fighters
- Drink lots of fluids – increasing your water intake will help your body flush out all the toxins that have set up camp
- Stay positive – optimism helps keep you from feeling stressed and lack of stress keeps the inflammation down… need I say more?
Bottom line – don’t get sick! By sustaining optimal levels of health … exercise, supplementation, water intake, rest and decent eating habits … you’ll be more likely to beat that cold the next time it rears its ugly head.
