Halloweekend is over, but its aftereffect isn’t. I don’t think I’ve had a single class, meeting, practice, or meal where someone isn’t sniffling, sneezing, or coughing these last couple of weeks. While I’m not immune to these germs floating around, I’ve gotten sick enough to learn some ways to speed up the recovery process or even avoid it altogether. Some of these might be obvious, but others aren’t the first thing you think of.
If you haven’t gotten sick yet, great! Here are some things you can do to keep it that way.
- Drink water! A good balance is to have half your body weight in ounces, not including water you drink while working out. If you can keep that up consistently, you’re already in a good position.
- Get a good night’s sleep. I know it’s tough sometimes with roommates or last-minute homework assignments, but it’s important to prioritize sleep, especially at this time of year.
- Have a balanced diet. As in, keep proteins, vegetables, and healthy fats included in your meals, not just fast food. I need to work on this myself!
- Keep washing your hands and stop touching your face! The number of germs our hands are exposed to is insane, and the last thing we want is to bring those germs closer to our eyes or mouth. It’s also a pretty common explanation for seeing acne break out on our faces, so keep that in mind outside of sick season.
- Work out when you can. The way I like to think of it is to move your body fast enough so the cold can’t catch you.
On the flip side, if you’ve already gotten sick, don’t worry! There are lots of things you can do to get back to 100% faster.
- Keep drinking that water! I know it’s inconvenient, especially having to get up to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes, but I’ve found that drinking extra when I’m sick helps to literally flush out the illness. Maybe I’m delusional on that part, but there are definitely its benefits.
- Drink green tea or ginger tea. This is like drinking water, but even better. Green tea gives you hydration, warmth, and eases up runny noses or sore throats. Ginger tea does similar things, and I know scientifically it doesn’t actually help fight a sickness, but every time I’ve had ginger tea during a cold, I get over it in about three days, so… it must have some benefits. Â
- Rest your body. A day to yourself does wonders, giving your body a chance to slow down and recover instead of keeping yourself afloat. I know resting all day isn’t always an option, so maybe to some of us this just means sleeping in a little longer or going to bed a little earlier after a hot shower. Slowing down now equals getting better faster.
Anyway, being sick is a real inconvenience, so hopefully some of these helped to either avoid it altogether or recover a little faster.