6 Healthy Tips for Spring
Although the sun is now shining and the daffodils are about to appear, the worst season of the year (for sicknesses) may be around the corner. Spring can be tough for allergy sufferers and anyone who may have an aversion to “30-degree temperatures and raining one day and 70-degrees and sunny the next.”
Yes. We shall all be sick.
I think our home survived the Kentucky Flu epidemic fairly well.
I’m sure you probably know about the horrible flu that rampaged the nation this year. It was one of the worst. People were dying from it. Emergency rooms were turning people away and telling them to go home & they would be called when they could be seen. Schools closed.
In the kitchen the other day I was telling the kids the latest information about the flu we have been dealing with. I had seen a report on the local morning news and was giving them a brief overview.
I told them that the reporter said that the ‘Flu Virus Strand A’ had peaked and there was a new ‘Flu Virus Strand B’ that was spreading.
The reporter continued to say that if you had been infected with ‘Flu Strand A’ you were not immune and could be infected with ‘Flu Strand B.’
My oldest son added, “And if you get ‘Flu Strand C’ you turn into a zombie.”
We didn’t actually have the dreaded “flu’ in our home but we did have our share of colds and sinus issues.
I am not invincible. I occasionally get sick. Which I hate.
I’m grateful to have good health for the most part. When I do get sick it is just so irritating. It’s hard to do life when you are fighting a cold.
You know what they say,
“When Mama’s not happy – no one’s happy.”
Being sick makes me grumpy… and useless.
So, I try to avoid being sick.
Cold & Flu season is here and as the stuffy noses descend, I am not going to sit around and let snot take over our homestead. I’m going to fight.
6 Healthy Tips for Cold & Flu Season
Healthy Tip #ONE: TAKE YOUR VITAMINS
I know that there are really smart people who say that taking vitamins is a waste of money and just makes your pee expensive.
They may all be right, but I’m still going to take my vitamins. Especially my vitamin D. In winter, here in Kentucky, the son is rarely present. The dark months of winter do more than send us into a mild state of depression – it can make us sick. Taking a simple vitamin D supplement can go a long way toward good health.
I don’t know anything about vitamins, but I know that all vitamins are not the same. I don’t buy vitamins where I buy food. I usually go to my local apothecary or supplement specialist to get mine.
Healthy Tip #TWO: GET OUT & GET MOVING
I am a huge believer in physical activity and fresh air. Polluted air can cause some major health problems. Some toxic chemicals can live in the air (like benzene and vinyl chloride).
Trees are our friends! Not only are they beautiful, they actually cleanse our air. Trees remove air pollution.
If all of our time is spent indoors in office buildings or in our own houses it can lead to more germ exposure and lowered immune systems.
Getting outside and enjoying nature will not only give you some exercise, it can boost your immune system and give you an energy boost.
Healthy Tip #THREE: DRINK A FRESH JUICE EVERY DAY
I am preaching to myself as much as I am to you guys with this one. I have the most wonderful juicer. DH gave it to me for Christmas 2016 and I love it.
We use it almost daily…… I am not as consistent with it as I would like to be. Some days *I’ll make juice all day long and drink 4 glasses. Other days I never get around to it.
Fresh juice provides something nutritionally that is hard to get in another package.
- First of all, it adds living foods to your diet. Most of the food consumed in America is dead. It is canned, cooked, packaged, or processed in some way. Live foods are fuel for our immune systems.
- Juicing allows you to get the recommended 11 servings of Fruits & Veggies daily- I can consume the nutritional content of 3 cucumbers, 2 apples, 1 lime and 5 stalks of celery in a glass of delicious juice. There’s no way I would ever eat all of that. I’m just not the kind of girl to sit around and eat celery sticks. I don’t have time and I don’t want to.
- Juicing will put more fresh fruits & veggies into your diet -Because I own a juicer I eat many foods that I would not otherwise eat. I don’t normally eat beets, limes, or ginger root but I juice them all the time.
- Juicing consolidates all the vitamins, minerals and living enzymes into a liquid. I can’t imagine blending up 3 carrots, 3 beets, 1 apple and some ginger into a smoothie and drinking it. But I make a juice from this combination all the time – delicious!
More on juicing:
Healthy Tip #FOUR: MAKE AND DRINK BONE BROTH
I love bone broth as much as I love juicing. Bone broth is like medicine. Start with healthy (pastured) animals for the most nutritious broth. Any bones can be used: chicken, beef, rabbit, lamb, duck, etc. Bone broth is made by simmering the bones for a long period of time. Bone broth can be made with or without vegetables and seasonings. As the bones simmer all the nutrients and marrow from the bones are cooked into the broth.
Since my children don’t prefer to eat rabbit I usually use them for bone broth. I will add an entire rabbit (roaster) to a large pot on the stove top with 3 onions (fresh from the garden, unpeeled, chopped in half), 6 stalks celery, 6 cloves garlic (also from the garden, unpeeled and roughly chopped), 4 carrots, salt, pepper and celery salt. Let simmer over medium heat for 8+ hours.
Once the broth is done, strain the liquid into separate containers for future meals. I also pour some of the broth into icecube trays to make bone-broth cubes. These are great to have for those dishes that call for 1/2 cup of broth.
After making this bone broth you will be left with a significant pot of rabbit meat and cooked veggies. We remove the bones & other unwanted portions (like onion peels and garlic papers) and save all the rabbit meat and cooked veggies for soup.
More on Bone broth:
- Chicken bone broth Recipe
- Beef Bone broth Recipe
- 10 Reasons to Make & drink Bone broth
Healthy Tip #FIVE: GET YOUR PROBIOTICS
We all need healthy bacteria in our guts so they can beat up all the bad germs. Probiotics can be purchased from health food stores, found in yogurt and are also found in fresh foods like raw dairy products.
More on the health benefits of raw dairy here.
Healthy Tip #SIX: EAT CLEAN
Looking at the standard American diet doesn’t make me wonder why so many people are sick. It makes me wonder why we are not all dead. LOL
It’s a wonder that we aren’t all sicker than we actually are. Fast food. Convenience foods. Processed foods. Junk foods. Snack foods. It’s all terrible.
I do have one convenient, fast, snack food that I am in love with….. don’t judge me – we all have something right?
My favorite is KIND bars. I am so in love I just can’t stand it. Good grief. I could eat 20 of these things a day. Their tagline is, “ingredients you can pronounce and see.” And I love it. I know they have a little sugar but I don’t think they are the worst thing I could eat.
If they are actually terrible for me – please don’t tell me. I love them and have decided to be an ostrich.
Sticking to a clean diet that isn’t contaminated with preservatives and chemicals is going to help us stay healthy and strong.
For more on health check out this post about natural remedies.
Stay Healthy Everyone!
XO,
CJ
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