Hope you didn’t catch my cold last week and you’re feeling happy and healthy. I’m well and truly over it now and to be honest, I didn’t fall too hard because I did all the things in last week’s newsletter, plus more!
So, let’s go over some more things that helped me feel better while I dealt with the annoying side effects of a cold.
- No caffeine – Every time I came down with a cold I naturally stopped my morning routine of green tea and coffee. My body just didn’t feel like it, so I listened to it! It wasn’t until one day, when I was curious enough to look it up. Turns out you should avoid caffeine when you have a cold as it dehydrates you. It’s not until the later stages of a cold when I start to feel like coffee again, and that’s when I will dink it again. So listen to your bod! And stay hydrated when you’re sick, because you need to flush those toxins a-sap – in fact, stay hydrated all the time regardless. A lot of us don’t drink enough water as it is, we should aim for around 2L a day.
- Shower – This seems silly to mention because we all do it anyway but maybe some of us are in the habit of showering at night or only in the morning. My advice when sick, achy and stuffy is to shower both, morning and night. A shower makes me feel 10x better! The heat helps with the achy muscles and joints, the steam loosens the congestion and being clean is just so much better than feeling dirty when you’re sick! Cleansing your energy and being hygienic is important when you’re ill, so don’t forget the double or triple showers, you’ll feel like a new person each time.
- Shea butter the nose – We’ve all seen that person a mile away with the dry, bright, red nose. They don’t even have to open their mouth to tell you they’re sick. I’d rather not show off how much I’ve been blowing my nose, so I choose to continually hydrate the tip of my nose with the most dense and natural moisturiser I know – Raw Shea Butter. This incredibly hydrating moisturiser is so heling and smells super yummy, I want to put it on my nose after every time I blow, but to be honest, I think a few times a day with this stuff will stop you looking like Rudolph.
- Drink warm water – We’ve touch on the importance of staying hydrated. I usually have my thermos filled with warm water or herbal tea (usually a turmeric, ginger, lemon concoction) and with me at all times, especially next to my bed in case I wake myself up coughing. The heat from the water relaxes the chest muscles, can ease a cough and prevent the coughing fits at night. It’s also a good way to drink fluids when you have a sore throat in the early stages as it will be much more comfortable and soothing to drink than cold or room temperature water.
- Rest – Another obvious one but worth a reminder because so many of us try to be the hero without giving our bodies the right amount of rest and time it needs to heal properly. If you have a cold it probably means your bod was working overtime in the first place, which is why your immune system couldn’t fight off the virus, so please honour your body by giving it some down time – you’ll heal much faster!
Let me know if you have some fav remedies that I haven’t mentioned over the last couple of weeks, I’d love to hear what helps you in these not so fun times.
In the meantime, have a happy and healthy week!