Let's Talk WInter

Lately, the talk of the changing season abounds.

I love fall, the sights, the smells, the food

but

then comes

 WINTER.

Aargh.

I like fall.

I love the Christmas season.

But I hate winter.

Trapped in the house for three or four cold months,

yuck.

But, I do take extra precautions to avoid getting sick and they seem to work for me so,

I thought I would share here.

• Hand Sanitizing Gel and Hand Washing. I am pretty fanatic about the whole hand sanitizing gel and hand washing thing. After being in a store the first thing I do when I get in the car is use the hand gel and then when I get home I do wash my hands. Also, I wipe the cart handle off in the grocery store. I take some wipes in my purse although my grocery store provides those now.
• Vitamin C. This is an oldie but a goodie.  I love Emergen-C! A packet makes a yummy fizzy drink that seems to ward off colds. If I feel a little draggy or achey or even sniffly, I drink one of these packets and presto, whatever little germ I have picked up goes away. Last winter, one of our coldest in a long time, I did not even get one cold. I felt a little sniffly a few times but like I said one Emergen-C and I am good to go. I take vitamins all year long anyway and those certainly help boost the immune system. Dr Oz said if we all took one multi-vitamin a day we could avoid one half of all diseases. That is a lot of punch in one little multi-vitamin pill. Shew!
• Sugar - cut it out. As we hear more and more sugar seems to do a number on our bodies in many areas. As I have gotten older I eat sugar less and less. We would all be healthier with a minimum amount of sugar anyway so let's just cut it out. I do believe it weakens our immune system but I am not sure if that is a proven medical fact.
• Saline Nasal Spray, ok nasal spray sounds old-fashioned but it works. I use saline nasal spray in the morning and evening and it kills off a lot of those nasty germs. Hey, it ain't glamorous but it works nonetheless. And I just get the drugstore brand which works just fine.
• Listerine. These folks have been in business since 1895 and they know what they are doing. I gargle with Listerine morning and night and kill more nasty germs (my, aren't we humans germy?) this seems to help with the health process. I know, another granny item but IT WORKS.
• Extra sleep, I know those of you who know me know that I need my sleep. This has always been the case and is probably not going to change now. But, in the winter, the hubs and I go to bed about an hour earlier than usual and it seems to help. Our bodies need way more sleep than we ever give them so lets turn off the computer and go to bed.

Well, consider this little blog post as a talk from you Mom or Grandma, whoever was the
healthiest

and lets make an effort to be
PROACTIVE
  this Winter and not even get the colds in the first place.

I read a lot about cold remedies but with a little extra action in the Winter perhaps we can avoid those nasty little colds altogether.

(Just for the record, I am not normally a germaphobe but I do take extra efforts in the Winter and like I said, they seem to work for me,)

(Also, I am not a Doctor or a Nurse and I don't play one on tv and no one had paid me to endorse their product, but this is just a friend talking to a friend telling you what has seemed to help me )

So, have a great and healthy Winter one and all!