5 Simple Ways to Stay Healthy This Winter
Getting anxious about the upcoming flu season?
Here are 5 simple ways to boost your immunity and get your family eating, breathing and sleeping well all winter long!
If there’s been any time in history that we should be focused on our health, this winter would be it, hands down.
I heard someone say recently that it’s no longer a matter of “if’ we’ll catch the COVID virus, but “when“; If this be the case, then right now is probably the best time to work on getting and staying healthy.
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Staying Healthy Is Simple
The good news is, getting healthy (-ier), isn’t as complicated as many people make it out to be.
In fact, my husband*, the resident health expert in my family, says that our health basically boils down to three key factors. They are:
- How well we breathe
- How well we sleep and
- How well we eat
Anything you do to compromise those three key components of your health and your immune system will become more susceptible to colds, viruses and all sorts of health problems.
On the flip side, if you can optimize your breathing, sleeping and eating, then you’ll be in a far better position to handle whatever health threats that come your way.
The Difficulty of Breathing, Sleeping and Eating well
Now I realize that breathing well, sleeping well and eating well doesn’t come all that easily for most people.
In fact, given the historic rise of respiratory, sleep and obesity problems in this country, doing any of this seems nearly impossible.
But, I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to become a part of this grim statistic if you don’t want to be.
Anyone can boost their immunity and radically change their health for the better if they’re willing to make some simple lifestyle and dietary changes.
This is how, over these last 10 years, my husband and I have become healthier, fitter and wiser about our health that we were when we were blindly following the standard of care.
Ever since we’ve been incorporating these 5 simple strategies that I’ll share with you below into our every day lives, we’ve enjoyed much better health now than we ever have before.
The Benefits of Breathing, sleeping and eating well
My husband* and I, for example, look and feel younger now in our 50’s than we did in our 30’s or 40’s.
Even our kids are healthier (and taller) than most of their peers and hardly see their pediatricians for anything other than wellness visits.
In fact, ever since we optimized our breathing, sleeping and eating, we’ve been able to switch from constantly needing healthcare to enjoying the health that we already have.
*Disclaimer:
I’m not a doctor, but my husband is. In fact, if you want his expert opinion on how you can breathe well, sleep well and live well check out his blog or his podcast.
Also, please consult your doctor before trying any new health regiment even the simple ones I recommend below. You and your doctor will know best if any of these suggestions are right for you.
5 Simple ways to Stay Healthy This Winter
1: Eliminate Household Toxins
There’s nothing that gets in your way of breathing well and therefore sleeping well than the air quality in your home. And there’s nothing that messes up the air quality in your home than toxins in your household cleaning products.
Toxins like VOC’s (volatile organic compounds), phthalates and sulfates that are in everything from air fresheners to our laundry detergent can wreak havoc on your respiratory system.
Oftentimes the underlying cause for a lot of kids’ respiratory problems, like chronic nasal congestion and even asthma, often go away once you eliminate these toxic chemicals out of your home–or at least that’s what happened to us.
Solution for Toxins
I eliminated toxins from our home by switching over to this plant derived, non-toxic all purpose cleaning concentrate from Branch Basics.
Ever since we made the switch over a year ago, we not only do we have a cleaner home, we have one that allows us to breathe easier knowing that we’re not breathing in toxins every time we do so.
Related:
5 Ways Your Home Is Making You Sick (And What To Do About It)
10 Simple Ways To Detox Your Home
2: Get More Vitamin D
Another way to ramp up your sleep quality, as well as to reduce your anxiety and alleviate your stress, is to increase your Vitamin D levels.
Especially now, as the weather gets chillier and we’re spending more time indoors, our exposure to sunlight decreases and therefore our Vitamin D levels will go down.
The other reason why upping your vitamin D levels is important is that Vitamin D (the kind that you get from exposure to sunlight and not milk) is actually a hormone and not a vitamin.
As such, maintaining proper Vitamin D levels, will support your body’s ability to maintain homeostasis to help you sleep, breathe and metabolize what you eat much more efficiently.
Solutions for Vitamin D
As for me, as soon as I found out how low my Vitamin D levels were, I started taking this supplement.
As my Vitamin D levels started to rise, I also found myself sleeping better and feeling more energetic overall.
For more information about Vitamin D and why this is so important for your overall health, listen to this podcast my husband did with Dr. Stasha Gominack, who’s a leading researcher on the effects of Vitamin D.
You’ll be amazed at how such a simple measure as upping your Vitamin D intake, can make such a huge difference in all areas of your health and immunity.
3: Avoid sugar
Besides optimizing my Vitamin D levels, removing sugar from my diet was probably the #1 reason behind why I still weigh the same today as I did 25 years ago.
Although I only learned this recently, sugar, or more specifically fructose that’s found in virtually every processed food in the market these days, converts to fat much more easily than other higher fatty foods like butter or steak.
For more information on why this is, watch this video: Sugar: The Bitter Truth. It’s an eye opening video that will explain how eating sugar is almost the same as taking poison.
Solution on How to Avoid Sugar
One of the best ways I know how to curb my sugar addiction was to switch to eating like a Korean again.
As I explain in my post, How To Lose 5 Pounds in 1 Week With A Korean Diet, the only way I was able to lose the excess weight I’d gained in college, and to stabilize my mood swings, and overcome my thyroid issues was to cook and eat Korean food again.
The main reason why this happened, of course, is that most Korean foods don’t have much sugar that makes you fat, sick and tired.
Related:
5 Korean Foods To Curb Your Sugar Cravings
5 Ways to Use Korean Sweet Potatoes to Lose Weight and Feel Great
4: Exercise
Besides eliminating sugar from my diet, exercising daily has also been a key component in obtaining optimal health for me.
As I explain in this post, 15, 20, 30 Minute Exercises for Moms On the Go, a few simple movements a day can dramatically improve your mood, your waistline and your sleep quality.
My husband goes into much more detail about this in his Amazon bestseller, Sleep, Interrupted. In short, he explains that whatever we can do to keep our weight down will go a long way to preventing many of the health issues that are making so many of us sick and tired.
This is why, you should be exercising daily. Whatever you put in now, will pay dividends for you in all aspects of your health later.
#5: Take Sabbaths
Another vital way to stay healthy is to take regular time outs for rest and relaxation.
Especially since so many of us right now are feeling stressed out and overwhelmed, scheduling in some R&R time to reset and refresh can work wonders for your physical, mental and even spiritual well being.
As I explain in this post, How to Make Time For Self-Care, taking regular time out for yourself to rest is not selfish.
In fact, studies have shown those who sleep 7-8 hours ever night fare better in all aspects of life- healthwise, wealthwise and even in being a good parent.
I, for one, know that if I don’t sleep enough hours, I’m not the only one who suffers—my whole family suffers as well.
Not only do I get less patient, more critical and more lethargic, I’m also less able to fight off colds and viruses and other types of health problems when I don’t get adequate rest.
The best way I found to help me get the rest I need is to follow a strict sleep regiment and to spend time every morning in prayer and reading the bible.
I’ve also found that something as simple as taking a 20 minute walk outside everyday with my dog can have a huge impact on how well I sleep and function throughout the day.
Simplify Your Life By Valuing Your Health
By prioritizing these 5 proven strategies to breathe well, sleep well and eat well in our family, we’ve not only been able to face the challenges of the last 9 months with more resilience, but with more grace and patience than I know we could have otherwise.
In fact, I don’t know where our family would be physically, mentally, and even spiritually if we hadn’t been practicing these 5 immune boosting strategies to keep us fit, healthy and strong.
I’m hoping that you can incorporate some of these strategies into your daily regiment to keep you healthy this winter as well!
