How to Bounce Back Quickly from a Cold
It happens to the best of us.
If you’re like me, daily routines and habits keep me on track with my mental health. Recently, due to seasonal allergies (infamous here in Utah) or whatever, I got a nasty cold. I stopped working out, stopped eating right, went to bed late and got up late. As a result of all of these I became more stressed and less motivated to do anything. I’m literally writing this in my third week of this nasty cold a good 5 lbs heavier and feeling lower than usual.
I thought a lot about this and discovered that basically every time I stopped doing a positive habit in the past it was either because I got sick or traveled. This is frustrating. However, there’s really no way around it. Whether I like it or not, I’m going to get sick again and again and I love traveling so I’m not going to give that up. The only thing to do is to try to minimize how much these things derail me and to figure out how to bounce back quickly enough so I can get back on track.
After some contemplation, here are some thoughts I’d like to share with you:
Most of us tend to slip out of good habits and into bad ones because we don’t feel good and want quick comforts.
Most of us miscalculate what is actually going to be helpful.
So, here’s a step-by-step guide I made for myself on how to bounce back quickly from a cold. Hopefully you’ll find it useful too:
Step 1 - Let yourself have a day. Call off work, reschedule appointments, get a babysitter. Do whatever you have to do so you can just have a day to get all the self-pity, bad habit stuff done in one day. This might include binge-watching Netflix, napping, eating unhealthy snacks, etc. The point here is to not feel guilty about it and get it out of your system quickly rather than stretch it out over a week or two.
Step 2 - Planning. Here you will prioritize everything you “have to” do from high priority to low priority. I recommend that you actually write these down in a planner of some kind. Rank these items P1, P2, or P3. Only do P1 tasks for now and reschedule the others. Do this for about as many days as you typically feel under the weather based on your prior sicknesses - the average is 3-7 days. For me its more like 2 weeks. Doing this will help you feel less overwhelmed and less likely to prolong or worsen your cold due to unnecessary stress on your body. Refer back to this plan every day so you stay on track.
Step 3 - Optimize your sleep. Seep is going to be the most important thing to help you recover quickly and its going to be hard because most people don’t sleep as well when they’re sick. Its ok to temporarily take sleep aids during this time - consult your doctor on this one. Some common over-the-counter options include Tylenol PM, Melatonin, etc.
Step 4 - Optimize your diet. Don’t go for the junk. We already got this all out of our system on day 1 - remember? Teas, honey, and ginger have good evidence to be helpful with coughing, sore throat, etc. Small, healthy meals spread out more frequently will be more tolerable and make you less vulnerable to binge out on comfort food. Remind yourself that you literally are what you eat and eating good things will make you feel better more quickly.
Step 5 - Engage in “realistic” exercise. You’re probably not going to feel up for running or high-intensity exercise when you have a cold, nor should you - even if you do feel up for it. You’ll likely put more stress on your body and make it worse. Instead, do something realistic that you can do no matter how bad you feel every day. A good one is a short, gentle walk 2-3 times/day.
Hopefully this was helpful to you and will help you bounce back quickly next time you’re not feeling well. You can apply the same concepts to travel or any time your habits unexpectedly get out of whack.
Feel free to email me with any questions or schedule an appointment here to get more specific help for your situation.
