My Musings

Around this time of the year, most of my patients ask me how to prepare for the upcoming winter. I am always pleased with this question, because I like it when people put self-care center stage. If we trust all the supplement advertisements, then we believe we need to spend lots of money to keep those flus and colds at bay. Staying healthy seems like an impossible feat, and we often think that big problems need big solutions. I actually see over and over again that small steps of action can have a huge impact. Here are three (small and easy) steps you can take to stay healthy this winter!

Three steps to stay healthy:

Prioritize your sleep

1.Sleep is definitely my number one favorite helper in our self-care arsenal. In our simple way of thinking, we gather that sleep is a loss of time. However, sleep resets our brain and body health, and boosts our immune system like nothing else. So, do indulge yourself with sleep! If you want to know more, I highly recommend reading ‘Why we sleep’ by Matthew Walker. For those of us for whom sleep is a challenge, I promise to write about that too, in the future!

Clean your bottle

2.Get a metal bottle with a screw top and a wide opening for easy cleaning. Please please, dear people, do not use a bottle with a straw or a sipping top – viruses love to get trapped in straws or sipping tops, which can host an arsenal of viruses causing repeated throat aches and canker sores. In addition, you get extra brownie points for cleaning your water bottle daily and filling it with fresh water. Thinking about how you don’t feel like cleaning it usually takes more time than actually doing it -ha ha, I say this from personal experience. Keeping that bottle clean is one of the steps you can take to stay healthy.

Wipe your keyboard

3.Now that we are on a cleaning spree, by all means clean your keyboard (and phone) every now and then, especially if you share it with other people (if you want to gross yourself out by all means, click on this.

I am not a big fan of antibacterial soaps because they can actually impair our immunity and mess with our hormones (for more on this). That is why I put a bit of vinegar on a damp cloth and use it to wipe my keyboard. Likewise, you can try out this recipe, too.