Staying Healthy

Right now, staying healthy is at the utmost importance for everyone. Of course, the basics are wear a mask, disinfect, wash hands, and maintain social distance (six feet away!). Here are some tips to go the extra mile for optimum health. As a professional athlete, staying healthy is at a premium.  When I get sick, training is disrupted and races could be missed.  It could have the potential to have a negative effect on the whole season.  Plus, we travel A LOT on the planes, the germ bus in the sky, so I have a lot of tricks to keep me healthy throughout the season.  You can use these to prevent sickness or put yourself in the best situation in case you do get sick. 

·      Sleep: Getting consistent, quality sleep is the most important part of the equation in terms of recovering from workouts and revving up your immune system.  I take Nuun rest tablets at night to wind myself down as well as wear blue light blocking glasses so the artificial light of screens doesn’t mess up my circadian rhythm. I try to go to bed at the same time each night so my body can expect it.  When I can, I sleep with my cell phone in a completely different room. 

·      Nuun Immunity: I take Nuun immunity on the daily to give myself the essential vitamins to combat anything that comes through.  Plus, this keeps me hydrated and flushes out anything potentially bad from your body.

·      Raw garlic or ginger shots: If I’m starting to get a sore throat, I deploy a lot of tactics to nip this in the bud.  Raw garlic is the best natural remedy.  I dice a couple of garlic cloves, drizzle olive oil over it, and a pinch of salt, and dip bread in it.  It’s way more palatable than just taking garlic straight up.  I also get a straight up juiced ginger from a health food store.  This will burn going down, but I feel like it kills anything on its way down.  Plus, it’s an anti-inflammatory so that’s an extra bonus.

·      Netty Pot: I make a saline solution with distilled water and table salt and use a netty pot to flush it through my nose if I feel sickness creeping up or I have nasal congestion.  This helps clear everything out.  Or you can go surfing in the ocean which is nature’s netty pot. That’s the most fun way to netty pot.

·      Zinc: Only in the early days of a cold or sickness, I take zinc tablets (cold eeze or zicam) frequently.  I have heard zinc is not as effective once a cold settles into your body.

·      Rest:  Now is not the time to keep pushing.  Sometimes if we push through a workout with a sore throat, we are just making sure that we get sick.  If we really workout hard during a cold, you are just elongating the time that you are sick.  Your body is trying to tell you something.  You are tired and you need to rest.  Think of it as a recovery period and a time to catch up on those Netflix episodes. A light walk outside or light exercise in the sunshine and fresh air is recommended!

Everyone stay healthy and please do your part to keep our communities at large healthy.  Thank you.