Reminder To Self: How NOT To Get Sick

Last week I was going to write my first blog of this fresh new year on how to stay healthy.  I take pride in the fact that I have managed not to fall ill over the last few years.  I had to much to do, a schedule to keep, and there was not time to lose time on not feeling well.

So why am I just writing this now, one week later?  I got sick.

Have you ever experienced that?  You know you have to get through to a specific goal date.  If I can just get through “x-y-z”, then I can let myself be sick.  And to make it 99% of the way,  only to get walloped with some bug as soon as you reach your target and let your guard down.

Maybe it’s a catching a virus at the tail end of the holidays.  Or getting a pimple the night before your wedding.  Or starting your period the first day of your vacation.  So many variations, but all the same zing.

So rather than write advice on how I managed to stay healthy for these last few years,  instead I am journaling a reminder to myself on how NOT to get sick.

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Dear Self,

I love you for trying your best to do all the right things.  But listen up knuckle-head because you are not perfect.  So try to re-focus back to the basics of how to keep yourself feeling as well as you possibly can.

  • SLEEP

Aim for 8 hours per night.  Maybe it will only be 7, or the dogs will get hungry and you’ll be woken up after 6,  but try for 8.

When you stay up until you fall asleep on the couch,  you’re too tired to let the dogs out one last time before stumbling upstairs to bed, and then one of them may have a tinkle accident in your bed (Meg….) or poop in a corner (Jaisy….). 

Even more importantly, it’s necessary for all of your brain connections to function properly.  Do you want to stay smart?  And emotionally stable?  Then keep to your evening routine no matter how much you want to binge just one more episode of that new netflix series.

  • WATER

Aim for 8  eight ounce glasses per day.  Tea, coffee, Crystal Light, and Mio all still count.   Soda?…. sure but kinda pushing the boundaries here.   The idea is to hydrate your cells and flush out the toxins.  It works best if you spread it out throughout the day.  You’re pushing those boundaries again when you wait until half an hour before bedtime and then try to get down those last 4 glasses all at once.  Think big picture.

  • FOOD

Aim for nutritious and varied.  Don’t get caught up in all-or-nothing mentality.  You don’t have to follow any one specific ideology to the letter or give up all together.  Do your best and forget the rest.  Think of your body as the machine your soul has living here on earth, and the food you put in it is your fuel.  But just because you put it into your mouth, chew it, and swallow it, doesn’t mean it’s successfully fueling you.  Sorry Reeces peanut butter cups. 

Think lots of different colors.  Veggies and fruits cover most of those.  Think creatively about proteins.  Beans & lentils, tempeh  & tofu and even greek yogurt count just as much as chicken, fish or red meat.  Don’t avoid carbs, you need them for energy.  Just pick ones that digest slowly to keep your blood sugar steady.  Think whole grains with lots of fiber instead of just the white stuff.  And don’t be afraid of fat.  Some is actually needed, and will keep you feeling full longer.  Think avocados and walnuts.  None of the food groups are evil, no matter what any fad diet says.

Careful not to get too caught up in depriving yourself.  That just makes you crave the things you avoid, which means you’ll think about it all the time.  Build in a cheat day every week, heck, I build in a cheat weekend every week.  It works because it’s not so bad eating healthy for 5 days when you know you get rewarded at the end of it every time.

  • SUPPLEMENTS

Aim for at least a multi-vitamin.  Depending on what research you believe, supplements are either the key to longevity or expensive tinkle.  Sure we should get most of our nutrients from food, it’s most bio-available that way.  But a little insurance policy never hurts.  Anti-oxidants, like Vitamin C,  help fight the free-radicals that toxins release in our bodies, so why not give ourselves a little boost.  Vitamin D is in short supply on these short dark winter days.  Calcium is important for women’s bones and everyone’s teeth.   And Essential Fatty Acids help with skin, hair, and brain power.  Since you may not cover every angle through your food each day,  don’t forget your morning multi.

  • EXERCISE

Aim for 3 times per week.  And again, don’t get caught up in the all-or-nothing.  Maybe you only do it twice this week.  Maybe it’s all yoga and no cardio.  Maybe it’s not at blah-blah percent of my max heart rate for blah-blah amount of time.  Throw out the rules and just do something.  It’s way too easy to get caught up in not doing anything because you psyche yourself out that it’s not what it’s “supposed to be”.   You only have to answer to yourself.  That being said, you want this machine you’re living in to get you around for a long time  (I’m aiming for 3 digits).  So move it around consistently so it stays functioning the way you want it to all that time.

  • HYGIENE

Wash your hands.  After working 20 years in hospitals you know that’s the number one thing they drill through your head of how to stop the spread of germs.  Ideally soap and water for the duration of singing the happy birthday song twice.  If that’s not available, hand sanitizer is a good substitute.

But also, make it easier on yourself and be conscious of not coming into contact with the germs in the first place.  Don’t touch everything around you just because it’s there.  In fact, assume that germs are laying in wait on most surfaces, and minimize what you touch. 

Since you can’t avoid touching everything in the world, next minimize touching your face.  Germs love mucus membranes.  So stop touching your mouth, nose, and eyes so much.  And keep that hand sanitizer handy.  Clip one on your purse, stash one in your gym bag, and leave one in your car.  Each time you get back into your car from being out and about, sanitize those hands. 

You’d be surprised how infrequently people who work at hospitals, around sick people all the time, get sick – because they follow these guidelines.  Don’t touch and sanitize.

  • STRESS

Aim to minimize it.  You can’t fully control it, and you can’t completely avoid it, but you can try to reduce it.  Emotional stress creates a cascade of physiological changes in our bodies, like a surge of cortisol, that can weaken our immune system if it become chronic.

Think of your body like a cup, it can hold a certain amount of stress, but once it’s full it starts to spill over and make a mess of everything.  Do what you can to reduce the amount of stress getting into your cup by stopping it before it lands there.  Maybe this is by being prepared and organized each day so that you’re ready for what gets thrown at you. 

Or maybe you can’t avoid it getting into the cup, but you can do things to bail some of it out once it’s there, like using a pail to get water out of a flooding boat.  Things like exercise, meditation,  and making time for fun & relaxation all go a long way to balance out stress so that your cup never overflows.

  • FUN

Aim to maximize it.  It doesn’t have to take any specific shape or size.   Laughing sets off a cascade of good chemicals in your body and helps counter-act all those stress chemicals.  Maybe it involves other people or maybe it’s by yourself.  Maybe it’s singing with your favorite CD,  strumming a guitar, or coloring a picture.  Maybe it’s throwing a frisbee for your polka-dot nose dog (Jaisy) or a tennis ball for your clomper-pawed dog (Meg).  If it’s made you laugh or smile,  you’ve done it right. 

  • RELAX

Aim to do a little bit every single day.  Maybe it’s meditating.    Maybe it’s journaling. Maybe it’s snuggling on the couch with your pets. The key is to quiet your mind from all the things you feel you “have to” think about, and all the intrusive “what-ifs” that try to wangle their way in.  Imagine putting up a “stop” sign to stop those unwanted thoughts in their tracks, and then seeing them drift off in a bubble up into the sky. 

Schedule it in if you have to.  It doesn’t have to be a long time, but it needs to be some time.  It’s important, so don’t let it be the thing that slides when things get busy.

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Thanks for taking the time to listen, Self.    I appreciate it.

I may not be an expert, but since this is really just a reminder to me, that’s ok.  And if anyone else happens upon it,  and it helps them a bit too, then bonus!   🙂