When I was growing up, I rarely got sick. I always thought my immune system was quite tough because I was breastfed. But as I got older and became exposed to bad habits (smoking, drinking alcohol, staying up late), my health also deteriorated. When I became a mom, I dreaded getting sick even with colds and cough because being sick means making three lives miserable (mine, my husband's and our little toddler). Since we co-sleep and we hang out in one room 90% of the time, the spread of virus of a sick person increases. Here are some tips that I think really worked well for us since we hardly ever got sick for the past couple of years:
1. Get enough sleep and make it a point to hit the sack early. The times I get less than 5 ours of sleep are those times that I feel I'm most vulnerable to getting sick. Make sure you get at least an hour of nap at daytime if ever having little sleep could not be prevented.
2. Eat fresh raw fruits and vegetables in large volumes. My son loves tomatoes and he can eat three pieces of sliced tomatoes in one sitting. He also likes to nibble on cucumbers when watching TV. I also make it a point to have bananas readily available to us for quick snacks and baon in the car when we travel. I just love it when mangoes go in season. Yesterday, we had mangoes mixed in oatmeal for breakfast, mangoes for dessert, and mango shake with our dinner. I also buy brocolli and other green leafy vegetables like spinach and parsley and saute them in garlic with a little bit of oyster sauce to pair up with our fish or chicken dish. I use parsley when making egg drop soup, pancit, or salsa.
3. Take multivitamins when you feel you're not getting enough from food alone. We don't take multivitamins everyday but we love our vitamin C chewables so we have that everyday. There are times when I don't feel like cooking so we eat out or order and have food delivered in the house. There aren't many healthy options so we end up eating fast food sometimes. We know how little nutrients these junk foods have to offer so if we prolong eating them, we get sick. That's why we make it a point to take multivitamins whenever we need some boosting of our systems. But I am also against being too dependent on multivitamins because the nutrients from fresh food are better absorbed by the body, hence it's still the best way to keep healthy.
4. Replace household items that get dirty easily. I used to be really strict about wastage but in my 5 years of being married, I got to learn that some things really need to be thrown away. What things do I not regret throwing? 1) Dish sponges. I re-use them for cleaning oven tops, tiles, etc but I replace the ones I use for washing the dishes twice a month. 2) Mop heads. I use to just wash mop heads but this has made me sick a lot of times in the past so I just buy a new one every month. The same goes for rags.
5. Use household cleaning agents with harshful ingredients sparingly. There was a point when I replaced all of our cleaning products at home with environment friendly ones. But it became too heavy for our pockets so I just lessened the use of commercial products drastically and only buy them occasionally. For regular cleaning of the house, I use baking soda, vinegar, or lemon. We also use the Messy Bessy Dishwasher Liquid and Hand Soap.
6. This one tip have been very effective on me. When I have sore throat or feel that I'm about to have one, I sip a teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar. We also make salad dressing out of AC Vinegar and we feel better almost instantly and the sore throat never pushes thru.
7. Exercise. Except for the occasional yoga classes I love to attend, exercise used to be absent in my life. I recently engaged into running and for the past couple of months that I've been doing 2-3k runs, I can say that I feel healthier and stronger.
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