Heavy head, brain fog, and zombie-like symptoms. We all know that unwelcomed feeling of a cold knocking on our door. You try to ignore it, you might even talk yourself into stop being such a sissy. But in the end, if your body has caught a virus it will eventually want to heal.
A cold comes in steps. The build up, where you feel the heavy head and brain fog. From here you either recover or go down the rabbit hole where you’ll stumble upon bed rest, fever, to much mucus to handle and feeling sorry for yourself. When we get those pre-cold symptoms, what we should do is slow down to prevent hitting that extreme state. But the majority of us tend to ignore these warning symptoms, going full speed on the gas pedal until we crash, burn and die. Okay, hopefully it’s not a death threat, but a terrible flu virus can almost feel like death (especially for men for some reason…weaklings!)
So what can you do when the sniffles has its claws out? You should load up your gun and shoot back with vitamins, sleep, and tissues. That would be only the type of gun I’d approve of. Tissue shooters. How cute would that be? An army of men running around the city, shooting tissues at people with runny noses? Nose – troopers!
Fluids and liquids
When you’re sick, everything liquid should make itself down your throat! Okay, not everything… but water, juices, tea, shots (made out of ginger obviously) should be sipped regularly during your awaken time. Fluids, particularly water helps to flush out toxins and clear out your sinuses. Water is always important, but when we’re sick it’s even more crucial that we stay hydrated. I know that water might be a bit tasteless when you’re sick, and if your throat is sore, swallowing is the last thing you want to do. But slice up some cucumbers, toss in some berries and put a straw in that glass to pimp up the taste while at the same time, get in a bunch of vitamins and minerals. The straw is more for the feel and aesthetics. Definitely nothing that should be sipped.
Turn to natural over the counters
When we feel the cold symptoms creeping in we love to pop Advil like we’re spending the weekend in Vegas. Avoid over the counter pills to the best of your ability, especially the chemically heavy ones, such as Advil, Tylenol or Ibuprofen. If you do need a little help on the way, chose the more natural options such as Kan Jiang. For enhanced sleep, pop a melatonin pill.
Why should you stay away from over the counters such as Advil and Tylenol? In the long run, these chemically processed pain relievers do more harm than good. When you have to turn to Advil to relieve even the slightest stomach pain or headache, you’ve got your body dependent on these pills. Our bodies are amazing in the way that it has the ability to heal itself, and when you substitute the natural process for fake ones you’ll weaken your immune system and become more prone to infections. The main purpose of these pills it to, sure, temporarily relieve pain, but mainly making the pharmacies wallets go “Katshing!”. (no idea how to spell this sound effect but you know which one I mean).
Avoid processed food
I know, when we have the sniffles we like to treat ourselves to something yummy, which typically aren’t the healthiest choices. Even though ice cream is very delicious to soothe a sore throat, make sure that you get proper nutrients as well. Avoid fast, processed foods, and sugar to the best of your ability! These foods cause inflammation and puts more stress on your already stressed body. Sure, having some ice cream isn’t going to kill you, and we all need to treat ourselves when we’re sick, but don’t stuff yourself with fast food and donuts the whole day not making room for even the tiniest veggie. Not only will this make you sick, due to the poor nutrition (no nutrition!), but it will also prolong the healing process.
Take care of your gut
Our gut is never the center of attention when we’re sick, unless we’re down with a gut bug. Poor gut health is one of the first steps to firing up a cold. Surprised? When you’re sick it’s easier to focus on the runny nose, but you should also focus on healing your gut, since the majority of the immune function starts here. Nourish your gut with the food it likes, drink plenty of water, stress down and if you can try to take a walk to get the system going.
Focus on fruit and veggies, beans, legumes, and fermented foods. Our guts love fiber and fermentation! Make sure to drink plenty of water as well to make that fiber happy and to not get constipated…
Rest
As hard as it can be to admit that you are sick, you do have to take it easy and rest. Stress is one of the most common causes of cold outbreaks. Just turn everything down a notch. Life isn’t in a hurry! Chillax, catch up on some Netflix, read a book, nap and cuddle up in your couch. Take a break from your workout, even though a nice cool walk can be refreshing and even help the healing process.
Enjoy it
Enjoy it? Enjoy being sick? What the actual crap are you taking about? Yes, I want you to enjoy your cold as much as a warm summer day. Alright, reaching that level might be a challenge, but a positive mind does help you recover faster. I’m going to make a generalization here to say that all of us have told ourselves that “I’m always going to appreciate my health! Just make this misery end!”, every time we fall sick. And yet, once we get healthy again we skip around, fall back into the craziness of life and forget to be grateful for our health. Enjoying your sickness makes you appreciate your body and its capabilities to actually heal itself. This itself makes it easier for us to actually rest, which in turn will lead to a faster recovery.
And honestly, how often is it “okay” to be lazy? Enjoy it!! Enjoy not doing anything, sleeping for 12 hours straight, become a human mold of your couch. Before you know it you’ll feel better and become even more grateful for your health.
Watch stand-up comedies.
Okay, there’s no scientific research on this but man don’t you feel better when you have a good laugh!? Watch some good stand-ups back to back, read some dad jokes, and just try to stay positive and have fun!
Colds will come, and colds will go. They’re a part of being human and the most natural healing mechanism we have. We can’t avoid it! With a healthy lifestyle we can avoid the common cold, but some viruses are stronger and the best thing we can do when we fall sick is to understand that this is the process for our immune system to get familiar with this specific bug. Humans are not invincible, even Superman has his kryptonite! Our kryptonite just happens to come in the form of snot and mucus.