Please tell me your healthy tips - exercise, vitamins, everything!

[Cloud44]

For those of you who manage not to catch the lurgy every 5 minutes please can you tell me your secrets! From exercise, to meals, vitamins, anything you do that helps you feel healthy! I’m fed up of the germs and want to do little things to try and help myself.

Walking every day. I try to get out in nature most days.

Vit d and iron

Soups and curries made with chicken on the bone (look at benefits of bone broth)

Lots of veg and protein.

Wash hands as soon as I get in. During covid I gargled with saltwater or listerine regularly as I heard that helps to kill germs and lower viral load! Not sure if there's actual truth in that.

@TheScenicWay thank you, do you do quite well at avoiding colds etc?

Wash your hands regularly, particularly if you use public transport, try not to touch your face/eyes/mouth/nose until you've washed your hands.

I've worked at a preschool for a few years - pretty sure I'm immune to most things now! 😂

I take Vit D and Vit C daily. Plenty of fresh air, and get windows open every day. Food for gut health. And wash you hands after going out, during the day at work etc. and do what you can to lower stress; stress is so bad for the body

Don't have kids or work with lots of people to not get ill, absolute germ factories.

For health, it's the usual; drink lots of water, eat whole foods, be active, get lots of sleep avoid alcohol, get some sun (VitD) but not too much, wear sunscreen in Summer.

I am not great at following this advice but I'm trying to be healthier.

Can I ask which brands do you use?
I've been reading about but health recently, so overwhelmed with information, what's a good probiotic to use?

Yes, I do. Even when I got covid, I just got a 3 day crazy headache and exhaustion.
I get colds sometimes but they tend to last around 24 hrs.
I'm not even that young, fit or slim to be fair.

The other thing I have that might help is have food with garlic in it. I'm fairly generous with the garlic. Curries with ginger, garlic and turmeric too. Although you can make a drink with those things if you're not a fan of curries.

Hardly ever get ill and when I do it doesn’t last long. I also commute via train three times a week.

wash hands after being out
prioritise your sleep, aim for 7/8 hrs
eat a lot of fruit like apples and cut out UPFs.
drinks loads of water
try to walk every day and get a Apple Watch or Fitbit so you know you do enough exercise everyday.
I take a multi vitamin but not sure that does anything, the UPF dr said it didn’t
do mindfulness everyday even 10 mins
have a gratitude list on your phone and read it every day.
be very glad that you don’t live in Haiti, Yemen, Gaza, Ukraine. The UK might be a bit rubbish but there are a 1000 worse places to be.

I don’t often get unwell despite having a pre school age child in nursery.
I suspect a lot of it is just how good your immune system is?
I do exercise regularly, and eat a wide variety of veg, pulses, beans. I’m not great at eating fruit though. I only drink water (and coffee and wine).
recently started consistently taking vitamins including vit c, d and zinc amongst others.

I heard about the benefits of having a cold water shower listening to 'Just One Thing" on Radio 4. I do about a minute cold blast every time I wash my hair (so every other day ish) and I do think I have had fewer sick days since I started doing it. Also seem to suffer less from Reynauds kind of symptoms when my fingers get cold in the winter.

It's a great series for lots of little changes you can make to improve your health and wellbeing

Just One Thing

Like others I wash my hands after being out and before eating.
Vitamin D spray, which also sorted out my joint pains

I eat loads of veg and wash my hands a lot, especially as soon as I get home. I work a mixture of being at home then attending different sites so don't tend to work with the same people day to day. Don't know if that makes a difference. I enjoy exercise and being active too.

Cold water showers in the morning! I have a normal warm one first, then switch it to icy cold. I could only manage 10 seconds at first, but I'm up to a minute now. It feels horrendous for the first 2 seconds, then weird, then Amazing! and you feel like superwoman afterwards! I was able to give up my morning coffee once I reached 30 seconds as it gave me so much energy! highly recommend!

Another vote for hand washing, and I don't touch my face/mouth/eyes unless strictly necessary.

Vegetables help too but I don't take vitamins (or like garlic!)

Do you work in an office op and if so what's the ventilation like?
Open windows even if you open and close them frequently.
Wash hands regularly, don't use the shared manky office sponge and beware of shared points of contamination.

Healthy eating, exercise, minimal alcohol and sugar, as much sleep as possible. And hand washing.

when I do these things, I rarely catch colds etc. When I deviate from them, I do.

The lack of hand hygiene some people show, even post Covid, I find surprising. I watch people walk into the office from the tube, sit straight down at their desks and put their hands on a pastry which they then eat. Why?! I am not particularly germ conscious but it just comes naturally now to wash my hands as soon as I can after being on public transport.

I only wash my hands because I work in a food environment. Otherwise and when I am out of it I cba. This is to do with the fact that the food safety standards I adhere to at work vs what my parents did when I was a kid are so wildy out of sync that food safety regulations feel almost like bizarre rituals to ward off dangerous spirits (I know, I know, they are evidence based and we are just lucky/ possibly immune to salmonella)

Anyway I work more or.less in the open.air (I think outside air and lower temperatures are beneficial) I eat the rainbow and I drink gin, which I am sure is more or less equivalent to salt water gargling. On some sort of gut/ superstition level I really think having the heating on when it's not literally freezing is bad for you. My children and I are all pretty resilient, health wise.

05.45 workout every damn day.

I think I have a balanced diet. Lots of fruit and veg. Loads of protein.

I don't smoke and only drink moderately at the weekend.

I take vitamin D and collagen.

8 hours sleep a night.

Generally positive attitude to health and life. I don't believe that I'll get ill.

DH works with small children and regularly brings home colds but I'm hardly ever ill despite having a health condition that affects my immune system.

The differences between us are that I eat a lot of onions and garlic and a wide range of other vegetables, pulses, seeds and fruit with hardly any ultra processed food. I also sleep better than he does averaging 7.5 - 8 hours a night. He's very physically fit and does way more exercise than me but his diet is a mess and he doesn't sleep well.

Your microbiome is important. I've just read Tim Spector's Food For Life and it was really interesting how much diet affects immunity and health. I'd recommend the book, I read it in 4 days!

Definitely get a decent amount of sleep & improve the quality of that sleep as much as possible eg well ventilated room, not eating too close to bedtime, supportive pillow, no phone an hour before bed, cut down on alcohol or quit.
Try to reduce stress as much as possible
Make more time for yourself
Listen to calming music
Quit smoking
Plenty of fresh air. I’m lucky enough to be able to breathe sea air
Laugh a lot
Eat regular meals - I’m sometimes a bit rubbish at doing that & find it can affect my digestion & definitely my energy levels
Go for walks
Lots of hugs ( preferably with well people!)
Sounds funny but take longer when you go for a poo - it’s made such a difference to my tummy & helped ease my IBS & constipation. Chill out on the loo!
Look at your work/life balance. I work 16 hours a week, with occasional overtime if I choose to take it. Obviously not everyone is able to work part time.
Do crosswords & puzzles to improve your mental health & help ward off dementia.
Cook more from scratch to avoid loads of chemicals in processed foods
Have a daily probiotic

I don't wash my hands after using public transport, I am rarely ill with anything

Wash ya hands after touching trolley at Asda

I thought exposure to germs helped build a strong immune system