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The other day I woke up and felt like total crap. You know the feeling, achy all over, head stuffed up, throat swollen. That first swallow of the morning’s always fun isn’t. Like someone filled your glass of water with razor blades!
What I Do When I’m Feeling Sick
Back in the day when I was young and stupid, I would just go about my business like nothing was wrong until I got so sick I was laid up for a week. I’ve had a 104-degree fever at least 5 times in my adult life. That’s a special kind of misery.
Thankfully I’m older and wiser now! So what did I do this time if I didn’t just soldier on? First, rest is important. I’m not much of a sleeper in all honesty. I work evenings so usually go to bed late and I’ve always been an early riser. But when I feel like this, I try to get to bed as soon as possible.
The other thing I do when I’m really feeling crappy is I don’t eat very much. Digestion is extremely taxing on the system and I’ve found that when I feel sick if I eat much I just feel worse. I also find that I feel better faster when I don’t eat much.
I stick to really light snacks, broth, tea with honey and cayenne, decaf coffee, and smoothies. These are all really easy to digest and keep me from crashing cause I still have too much stuff to do. As much as I love a good beer, alcohol is out just like caffeine.
This forces my body to draw on its own resources and also leaves it less burdened so it can focus on healing. I do like to supplement with some herbs to help. Turmeric tea is great for inflammation. I found a good blend that was turmeric and ginger. You can also make it yourself but I was lazy. I also like astragalus. It’s an adaptogenic herb so it helps stimulate immune function.
And the last thing I like to do is get in a sauna or a hot bath, preferably an Epsom salt bath. These both help to flush the body and relax tension. Saunas are better at flushing the system, especially infrared saunas. But Epsom salt baths have the benefit of supplying quite a lot of magnesium, really handy for those aches.
All-in-all it’s only been a couple days, but I’m almost back to 100%! It took me a while to figure all this out but I’m glad I did.
