You know the time. That dreaded moment when you get a tingle in the back of your throat. Or a sniffle that you know isn’t allergies. The moment when you can tell your stomach isn’t quite right. A sickness is coming on. Whether it’s the common cold or something a little ickier, there are a few ways to prevent it from getting really bad.
1. Get Hydrated & Nourished
Your body can’t function properly if it doesn’t have all the proper vitamins and nutrients. One of my favorite ways to get a power-packed punch of all the good stuff is through fresh-squeezed juice. Get the grossest looking (and probably tasting) thing you possibly can and make sure it has pulp—the fiber is important. Try to get one that has kale, lemon, cilantro, beet, turmeric, ginger, carrot, cucumber, etc.. I’m telling you, whatever fits in a glass, get it.
In addition to the juice, make sure you’re drinking a ton of water. Especially in the heat of summer, it’s easy to get dehydrated. That might even be the source of your sickness right there. Trust me; I’ve dealt with many a 120-degree summers in Arizona. Getting dehydrated is easy. The most commonly recommended amount of water to drink in a day is half your body weight in ounces of water.
2. Sleeeeeeep
Getting caught up in “the grind” makes you feel like you need to cram 18 hours of work into an 8-hour period. When you’re starting to get sick, resist the urge to check everything off your to-do list, help every client, and run all your errands. Instead, rest.
If you can take the day off of work, do it. One day of taking it easy might mean sparing yourself two weeks of feeling shitty as you recover from a cold. At night, do your best to get eight hours of sleep or more. It’s your body’s chance to regenerate cells and fight off whatever bug you’ve got going on.
3. Essential Oils & Other Elixirs
I became an essential oil advocate a few years ago and have been “pimping” them ever since. Nope, not selling, just a huge believer in their healing properties. At one time, I thought they were some hyped-up hippie potion, and I’m glad to be proved wrong. They’ve helped me with countless ailments, not just the common cold.
Whenever my boyfriend, family, friends, or I am getting sick, you better believe I’m busting out Thieves (a YoungLiving blend), Oregano, Sacred Frankincense, and Purification (another YL blend). There are dozens of essential oils out there for specific types of ailments. Just do some Googling to find the best one for what you’re dealing with.
You can also find some homeopathic cold remedies that work wonders for fighting off an oncoming cold. The one we use has a ton of highly-effective (and impossible to pronounce) ingredients like Gelsemium, Hydrastis, Aconitum nap, and Belladonna.
What do you do when you're getting sick?
Do you have any tried and true methods to stop a sickness before it gets bad? Share in the comments below.Stay healthy out there! —@sharingeverybite