These drastic changes in weather that have been occurring are pretty ridiculous. In the middle of October, the temperatures hit the high 90s in my area out of nowhere. Consequently, my body wasn't handling it well, and I ended up with a cold. Colds can hit you out of nowhere and, if you're like me, you don't have time to be sick, especially with the holidays just around the corner. Here's what I do to get over a cold as quickly as possible.
First of all, take a sick day. I know it's challenging to take some unexpected time off, especially when work is busy, but your body needs rest. If you don't rest now, you put your body at risk of getting sicker. The longer you're sick, the more likely you are to spread that sickness to family, coworkers, and friends. And when those around you are sick, you're likely to get sick again. It's just a never-ending cycle. So take that sick day and rest. Get some extra sleep and let your body use that energy to fight off this cold.
Now let's get to the yums (since this is dearfoodiejournal). First, if you live with other people, make sure you separate your bowls, cups, and cutlery from the rest of the dishes/silverware in the house. You want to reduce your roommates' exposure to your germs.
What to drink:
1. PLENTY OF WATER: When you're sick, you need to cough, blow your nose, sweat, sneeze, and other actions to get rid of those germs. Your body can't do this if you run out of fluid. So make sure to get plenty of fluids. I would drink bottles of room temperature water. If you want, you can also heat water and add a tablespoon of honey, which can help soothe a sore throat.
2. Orange Juice: Vitamin C can help reduce the amount of time you're on a cold. My preference is to eat actual oranges, but if you don't have any on hand, most orange juices will do the trick. For an extra burst of vitamin C, try Emergen-C Super Orange. It tastes gross, but that's an extra 1000 mg of vitamin C right there.
3. Ginger Ale: Ginger is an anti-inflammatory. Having a glass of ginger ale can help reduce symptoms like sore throats or upset stomachs.
What to eat:
Soup... Again, you want to get as much fluid in you as possible, so soup is the way to go. Soups are also warm so they can help with decongestion. My go-to's when I'm sick are chicken noodle soup/chicken broth and tomato basil soup. Chicken broth has some magical property that helps with colds. I don't know what it is. I assume because it's more watery, it's better for decongestion. Plus, it's delicious!
Today, I went with the tomato basil. Tomato soups are a great source of vitamin C. Below, I'll show you how I prepared my soup.
First, I minced some garlic. Garlic is a natural antibiotic. So it's not only good for fighting off vampires, it's good at fighting off germs too! You can add just one clove, but since I love garlic, I added three cloves. I set the chopped cloves of garlic aside while I prepared my soup. I poured a can of Progresso Tomato Basil Soup into a small pan at medium heat. After about 3 minutes, I added the garlic. Once the soup reached a simmer, I removed it from heat.
Before serving, I added some crushed saltine crackers and crushed red pepper flakes. The peppers spice up the soup to help with decongestion, and the crackers make the meal more filling. You can do this to the chicken soup/broth as well.
And there you have it, your food and drinks to get you cured in as little time as possible.
TLDR: To get better quickly, you need: plenty of sleep, water/soup/liquids, oranges, garlic, and ginger.
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